Hello. I am the mom of a 27 year old man with level 2 autism and general anxiety disorder. He is creative, funny, caring and extremely smart and he busies himself with creating art, writing and playing computer games. He had to leave university because it was far too overwhelming and it has taken years of steady support, research, therapy and acceptance to help him feel safe and valued as a human being. He still struggles daily with panic attacks because he is easily overwhelmed by daily living even in the small and safe environment that we have created. Going beyond that environment causes disabling stress and takes days or weeks for him to recover. His father is out of the picture and I work a couple of jobs to be able to provide for my son's future since I cannot be sure that he will be independent. He receives disability funding which we invest for his future. I so often feel guilty, incompetent, and remorseful that I didn't know more about autism when he was younger. I just assumed that he was a quirky, gifted kid and took everything in stride, thinking that maturity would smooth out the anxieties and he would start to show some independence. Everything crashed around me when he was 18 and got his diagnosis and I realized how much I needed to adapt my life to support my son. I spent so much time and energy beating myself up because I didn't know sooner, didn't act sooner, didn't do enough to help him sooner.... you may know the drill :) To all of you working every day to protect your child from the abusive societal norm that bases a person's worth on how well they can get on with 'real life' and make a dollar - hats off to you. We know that our children are valuable and worthy of love and respect. I am tired of the common dismissive comments of 'he just plays video games in his mom's basement' as judgment of failure on the child's and parent's actions. I want to raise a finger to those people who have no idea of the challenges my son and many others like him meet on a daily basis, and of the challenges the parents are experiencing in trying to support complex children the best they can. I get tired and frustrated watching my kid deal with his oversensitivies, his crippling anxieties and depression and having him be dismissed as lazy or spoiled by 'wellmeaning' outsiders. Rant is done. Happy to be part of this group :)

Posted by shellyharms42 at 2022-11-25 19:39:06 UTC