Adaptation Series: Part Two, Socialising

One thing that I still am not able to get over is the whole socialising scene. It's so easy for most NT people in the world, I mean come on, we're humans we are made to to be around each other. 

Thanksgiving

Well I realise that I have many readers that are from all over the world and I just want to say happy thanksgiving to all of my american readers.

New Page

Well first things first, as you may have noticed I have created a new page on my blog, pop over and have a look. The page is just a few sensory toys that I think could be helpful to parents with a child on the spectrum. With that being said many people, even adults with autism find various sensory toys fun and engaging.

Another Sleepless Night

Well here I am again not able to sleep, I have to admit that the inability to sleep is my main problem with being on the spectrum, there are many things that could bother me about being autistic, but lack of sleep is one of the work aspects.

Social Acceptability

I’m starting to feel better which is a good thing because I am well and truly sick of being, well, sick.

Welcome

Hello everyone, if you're new welcome to my blog and I hope you'll be sticking around, if not thanks for reading. Recently I haven't been posting much and that's because I'm not well.

Mondays by Mum - Experience

I really don't know what to say, so I'll just wing it. I have no answers, just experience...

Autism is Common

I find it strange that autism is still treated as if it is strange or uncommon, but in fact in the UK autism affects 1.1% of the population. This means that there is more than one autistic person for every one hundred in the country.

ODD

As you may know one of the forms of autism that I have is called ODD, or Oppositional defiant disorder.

Mondays by Mum - Schools

The right school, it can't be said strongly enough how important the right school is.

Success Sundays

Hi, I'm Blaze, I am the mother of an amazing little boy with autism and a rare genetic disorder and a rare disease, my son also has a brilliant sense of humour, the most compassion I've ever seen in a little boy and loads of love. Ben has asked me to write a success story every week for success Sundays. I don't identify myself or my child in my posts because Little D is not old enough to understand to give informed consent, but people who know us will know who we are, he's hard to miss. 

Well, this week was bonfire night. Unlike some children with autism, little D absolutely loves loud noises, what he can't stand, however, is a lot of different noises at once, so if he is in a crowded place and loads of people are talking, there's traffic noise and noises of people going about their fault lives, he tries to listen to every single noise at the same time and it completely overloads his senses. 

Recently I was talking to Ben about little D's super hearing and Ben said that he is the same, he can hear an oven door being opened from two floors above. Little D is like this also, if I try to confiscate something, such as the house keys so he can't escape, he can hear exactly where I put them, no matter how quiet I try to be.

So super hearing definitely has it's benefits for little D. However, it has meant that we have never been able to attend a bonfire and firework display. If little D gets overloaded he bolts, cries, or has a bad seizure, so we've always avoided it. What we have done, however, is given him his own mini fireworks display in the back garden which he absolutely loves. 

Recently, little D has been doing really well with communicating when things are getting too much for him with simple phrases for example "go now" and he now trusts that I will always remove him from the stressful environment so he doesn't have to bolt. 

So, this year, I asked little D if he would like to go to see some fireworks with lots of other people, he obviously agreed because all he heard or understood  was 'fireworks' so I was still very nervous about how he would cope. 

I went through everything with him before hand via social stories, I explained that he'd have to wait for the fireworks outside, that there would be a lot of people, that he would have to stay by mum at all times, where his ear defenders and I went over his get out free phrase "go now". 

Little D was so exited, he wore his ear defenders willingly (they are sometimes a sensory issue in themselves) and we went off to stand in a pub car park in the cold to watch a bonfire, my heart pounding for him all the time. 

He was amazing! He left his ear defenders on, spent the waiting time jumping up and down and pulling faces at me, he tried to blow out the bonfire when it was lit which was very amusing, and he cheered at the fireworks. 

One hour in, he looked at me and said "go now" and we left immediately, and he smiled all the way home! 

Next year I'm thinking of taking him to a professional display because he did so well this year! He works so hard and makes me proud every single day. I won't find writing a weekly success story a challenge at all. 

Blaze. 

Medication - Continued

I'm sorry that I had to cut the post short yesterday but I have something that I needed to deal with otherwise I wouldn't have hesitated in completing this post, with that said I think having time to think about what I'm going to say in the post has helped me decide how I want to structure the post.

Medication

This post has been the child of a full days worth of research, it is unusual that I need to perform research on any of my posts as they tend to be written simply about my life, feeling and experiences. Whereas this post will be about medication.

Reflection On A Rubbish Day

As some of you my know yesterday was a pretty rubbish day for me. It was just one of those days that made me wish I didnt have autism, that I was just NT.

My Appointment

So today I has my doctors appointment with the mental health team and I have to admit that it was not worth the stress I gave it.