A few days ago,  3 to be exact, Elliott started low dose Zoloft,  for anxiety.  He has been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and the low dose Zoloft was put in place to help him with that anxiety. After 3 days on the new medications,  Elliott seems to be having some problems.  Out of nowhere he has become extremely hyper.  He's experiencing rapid mood swings and just can't seem to quit talking. The first thing that pops into both of our minds is that basically,  this is what lead to Gavin being diagnosed with Bipolar disorder.  I don't even want to go there. I don't even want to think about it. Elliott's only on 5mg of Zoloft,  once a day. Is that even enough to have a reaction to? I…

My wife and I were talking the other day and we somehow wandered into the topic of driving.

Gavin is very quickly approaching the age where most kids are thinking about their drivers license or at the very least,  their temps. 

The thought occurred to us,  will Gavin ever be able to drive? Forget will,  should he be allowed to drive? 

I realize that I may offend some by asking this question but that is not my intention,  at all.  I’m very serious.  Should my Autistic son be allowed to drive when he reaches the legal age?

My gut tells me that he will never drive.  The reason I say that is because I don’t think that Gavin has enough control over his own body,  how could he safely control a vehicle?

I’m certainly not trying to say that Autistic persons shouldn’t or can’t drive. 

What I am asking is, how do you know if your Autistic child should be driving?
Are there state laws that address this?  I know that many people with Autism live happy,  productive lives and are more than capable of driving. 

When I look at Gavin,  I see someone that,  at this point in time,  should never be behind the wheel of a car.  Things could change in the next few years but I highly doubt anything could change enough to allow me to feel comfortable enough to let Gavin drive.

He talks about driving and I always just listen to what he has to say.  I haven’t told him he couldn’t drive because I don’t know that to be the case.

However,  as much as I would love for him to be that independent,  I have to also think about the other people on the road.

Gavin can’t push a grocery cart without running into someone. I can’t even imagine what he could do with a 2000 pound car. Does that make sense?

Do any of you have Aspie’s at home that are of the driving age?  How have you handled the whole driving thing? 

I would appreciate any feedback on this.

This discussion is going on right now in the support forums as well. Feel free to hop on over and join in. 

www.lostandtired.com/autismsupport

Posted from WordPress for Android

(more…)

Just a random shot of Gavin and I.. I took this while he and I were out. Posted from WordPress for Android

So you all know we had to get a new van recently.  Well,  part of the deal included the dealership completing a few things,  as well as some minor repairs. There were 3 little paint chips on the hood.  They were supposed to touch these spots up.  I wasn't expecting perfect,  as my main concern was preventing rust. However,  this is what they provided me.  I'm a bit disappointed in not only the quality of the work but that fact that they used the wrong freaking color. Does anyone else agree that this looks like the wrong color? They are going to look into it when it goes back in to have the seat belt fixed. So,  I need your opinion. Does this look like the right color?  Also,  does…

I consider myself a relatively patient guy.  I'm far from perfect but I'm pretty patient. Having said that,  everyone is driving me crazy.  All day I have listened to Elliott whine and Emmett scream. Gavin is doing pretty well but he is repeating himself all the time and doing everything super fast.  Behavioral wise,  he's doing well. Lizze isn't feeling good.  She battling these horrid migraines and her whole body just hurts. When you combine all of the above,  it's a recipe for insanity. My eyes are twitching right now. The boys are about 90% down for the night. Elliott however,  has decided that he has to watch a specific episode of Phineas and Ferb tonight. Once he finds it,  he'll be out like a light. I know it's to…

Today's Victory is brought to you by my youngest minions, Elliott and Emmett. While these two are typically at each other's throats,  mostly because Emmett enjoys picking on Elliott,  they got along really well this morning while Mommy was at the doctor's.  The two of them actually snuggled on the couch and watched TV.  I wish I knew how or why this happened so I could reproduce this on demand but I may never know. Either way,  I'm grateful for the time they did spend together in peace and harmony. I'd certainly call that a victory. Gotta love that cheesy grin :-) Posted from WordPress for Android

Elliott began his anti-anxiety medication this morning.  As much as I hate the idea of medicating my 5 year old,  it's the right thing to do. We kept him home from school so wrong could keep an eye on him.  Even at the low dose it does appear to be producing a sedative effect.  It will take a little while for us to know if it's actually helping to reduce his anxiety or not. Hopefully this will help him to just be a kid and let go of at least some of his worry. Posted from WordPress for Android

Today's Victory is brought to by Mr.  Emmett John. This afternoon,  Emmett and I spent some 1 on 1 time together while Gavin was at therapy and Elliott was at Grandma's house. Emmett and I were looking for a snack,  and, of course,  he found the cookie mix. He just had to make cookies,  so we worked together and baked so double chocolate cookies for after dinner. He did really well and listened to the instructions and very carefully mixed everything together.  At first he didn't want to touch the cookie dough but he gave it a try and found it was really fun. I'm really glad we had this time together today.  We need to do this more often.  :-) Posted from WordPress for Android