anxiety Archives - Page 326 of 497

Why getting my youngest with #Autism to school is so exhausting

Remember last night when I said that I suspected Emmett was going to have a difficult time this morning? That turned out to be the understatement of the year. Emmett was beside himself all morning long. Lizze and I tried forever to help him through whatever emotional hurdle was in his way but we didn't manage to do that. We did however, manage to get him to agree to go with me and talk to his teachers. In order to further redirect his attention away from his anxieties, I picked up donuts while getting gas on our way to school. We ended up being thirty minutes late but we made it. He didn't even need me to walk him in because the redirection was a success.. This is great news…

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March 20, 2017

Gavin / My thoughts

It’s the not knowing that kills me as a parent

It's becoming clear that Gavin's struggling more and more. Unfortunately, there's no way to know if this is another leg of his journey with Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, the result of changes to his medications or just par for the course. His level of functionality is decreasing and doing so in weird areas. Things like self-awareness are slipping. There's never been a great deal of that to begin with, so this change is noticeable. What do I mean by self-awareness? Gavin had an ice cream sandwich this afternoon. About three hours later, I took the boys to the park to hunt Pokémon for short while before picking up their pizza for school tomorrow. I wasn't paying attention to Gavin's face, like I usually do before we leave and I was caught…

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March 20, 2017

Gavin / My thoughts

1 BIG reason I’m worried about Gavin

This is an important update on Gavin's current overall status and one that's a bit concerning, although not entirely unexpected. Gavin's officially off of Lithium for the first time in over a decade. We were a bit caught off guard at the timing because we were supposed to stop this coming Thursday but when his new box of meds was delivered this weekend, it was devoid of Lithium. By the time we would be able to address this, it would be close to the original cutoff date anyway. Frankly, it doesn't matter, aside from finding out why they pulled it in the first place because we never told them to. Anyway, Gavin's off of Lithium for the first time in over ten years, and we're bracing for a major unknown.…

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March 19, 2017

Awards

The Autism Dad blog made #4 on the list of top 50 #Autism Blogs

I wanted to take a minute to thank Feedspot for an amazing honor. They've indexed thousands of Autism related blogs and pulled to top 50 for their list. I've been selected and placed in the #4 spot. This is pretty amazing for me and I know I'm in excellent company. Below is the quote from Feedspot on how they ranked everyone. Thank you Feedspot for this honor. :-) The Best Autism blogs from thousands of top Autism blogs in our index using search and social metrics. Data will be refreshed once a week. These blogs are ranked based on following criteria Google reputation and Google search ranking Influence and popularity on Facebook, twitter, and other social media sites Quality and consistency of posts. Feedspot’s editorial team and expert review …

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February 3, 2017

Lizze / Major Update / My thoughts

MAJOR UPDATE: Here’s what’s going on with my wife

There's a part of me that's still getting used to my wife and I being back together, in regards to my writing anyway. I don't often include her in my writing because I got so used to avoiding any mentions while we were separated for almost two years. This is a problem, and I mean to address that moving forward. Lizze plays a vital role in our daily life, and there are things that should be talked about. For the more personal stuff, I will refer you to her blog, www.themamaspace.com. She shares personal insights about herself and her struggle. I'll be touching on some of the basics, though. I want to get things started by playing a little bit of catch up. You may already know that Lizze struggles…

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January 27, 2017

Elliott / My thoughts / School / Victories

1 MAJOR reason I’m so proud of Elliott today

I'm super proud of Elliott this week for a number of reasons but I'm just going to focus on the one for now. Doing homework hasn't always been a pleasant experience for Elliott or us, as his parents. Recently though, it seems as though we've made some significant progress towards making homework a more manageable experience for all involved. In regards to this week in particular, Elliott has totally kicked ass on his homework. When it's time to work on it, he sits down and for the most part, does it without any problems. This is such a positive change and I'm really proud of him for making the choice to tackle homework, rather than fight against it.

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January 26, 2017

Elliott / My thoughts

My son’s broken heart kept him up last night

It was a rough night and a tough day. Elliott was unable to fall asleep until well after 2 am. He was very preoccupied with something that kept his brain churning throughout the night. The most impactful thing he's stressed out about is the death of my parents dog, Bailey.. That was a couple of months ago now but Elliott's still heartbroken. He won't talk about it and doesn't like to even admit that he's as upset as he is. Last night, he spent a lot of time drawing a pictures, which I'm allowed to share and a beautiful slideshow that he's wanting to remain private. I didn't even know he knew how to make a slideshow but it made me tear up because it was very clear how much…

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January 21, 2017

My thoughts

I don’t even know what day it is

The boys have had a pretty good day so far. They were so quiet that I was able to grab a short nap while they were playing Xbox together. We're on the final day of our four day weekend, and it feels more like a Sunday than a Monday. I have to eventually run out and grab a few things the boys will need for school this week, but aside from that, it's just a lazy day. The week is going to be thrown off because it does feel like a Sunday and that will keep me a day behind throughout the week. It's weird how that works but this kind of weekend always throws off my internal clock. I'm hoping to have a peaceful afternoon and evening. We need to…

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January 16, 2017