Read more about the article It’s simply exhausting
Gavin / My thoughts

It’s simply exhausting

The boys spent the night at Lizze's parents house last night. That left us with only Gavin in to worry about for a little while. In truth, only Gavin to worry about is a bit misleading. Gavin is an amazing kid/adult and we love him to the ends of the Earth and back but he is incredibly stressful to live with. We have to keep a closer eye on him than we do the other boys because Gavin lacks the capacity to self-regulate and completely lacks commonsense. I don't mean these in a disrespectful or degrading way either. He just requires a tremendous amount of time, energy and patience. It's exhausting. That said, we had a few hiccups last night but they weren't anything that pushed me over the edge.…

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April 8, 2018
Read more about the article Confessions of an #Autism Dad: I’m emotionally struggling tonight
Autism Parenting Insight / Confessions / My thoughts

Confessions of an #Autism Dad: I’m emotionally struggling tonight

I've been trying to write all day and I just can string my thoughts together in a way that makes sense outside of my own head. In the spirit of Autism Awareness month and in an attempt to help you better understand what at least this Autism Dad is struggling with, here's what I'm feeling tonight. I'm exhausted. I'm overwhelmed. I'm beyond stressed out. I'm totally emotionally drained. I'm completely physically drained. I'm finding myself in a dark place tonight. I'm feeling seriously demoralized and beaten down. I'm broken hearted for reasons that are too many to explain. I'm conflicted because I know tomorrow's a new day but it seems far away. I'm doing the best I can but I can't fix the many things in our lives that need…

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April 8, 2018
Read more about the article When your goal is to simply survive the day
My thoughts

When your goal is to simply survive the day

I'm not having a good day and it's only 8:30 AM. I'm still not feeling well and I've got a busy day ahead of me. I had to deal with a teacher who clearly is teaching the wrong demographic of children and has no business working with special needs kids. I would address the problem directly with the teacher in question but unfortunately, there ends up being blowback for E while he's in class, in the form of public shaming. E and I met with the principal to let him know what's been going on inside the classroom. He was not happy to hear this and will be dealing with it accordingly. We are not the first to approach him about this situation. Elliott has state testing today and Emmett…

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April 6, 2018
Read more about the article Here’s a massive update on my Facebook stalker
Announcements / My thoughts

Here’s a massive update on my Facebook stalker

What's Been Happening As you may or may not already know, I've been experiencing ongoing issues with Facebook since the beginning of the year. Someone has been reporting all links back to my blog as offensive or malicious. This results in Facebook pulling all posts or blog updates that I've shared with my personal timeline or community page. I only post my blog updates to my own page and timeline. People typically share it from there. Unfortunately, Facebook also bans my blog URL https://www.theautismdad.com from Facebook completely. This means that no one is able to Like or Share anything that originates from The Autism Dad blog. My only recourse is to appeal each and every report, and I do. Facebook will then put human eyes on each report, determine that…

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April 6, 2018
Read more about the article I’ve been off #Paxil for a month and the nausea is still a problem
Depression / My thoughts

I’ve been off #Paxil for a month and the nausea is still a problem

It's been about a month since I took my final dose of Paxil. To say it's been an easy process would be a boldface lie. Frankly, it's been an absolute nightmare. Slowly lowering my dose over 90 days was rough but it didn't truly suck until the Paxil was completely out of my system. Having taken my last dose about 30 days ago, the medication has been out of my system for about the last 25 or 26 days. It's a very short half life and that's one of the reasons it's so hard to come off of. For the first week or two, I was completely overcome by emotion. It was like Paxil had been functioning like a dam and when it was gone, the emotions it had kept…

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April 4, 2018
Read more about the article A MAJOR Victory flew under the radar yesterday
Elliott / My thoughts / School / Today's Victory / Victories

A MAJOR Victory flew under the radar yesterday

Yesterday was a rather challenging day for me personally, but I muddled my way through it. In all the frustration, stress and otherwise chaotic events of yesterday, something didn't get mentioned that should have. For years we've struggled with Elliott and homework. It didn't matter what it was or how much he had, it was a nightmare. There were plenty of times I was hanging on by a thread because the whole homework thing was too much. I don't know what happened or when it actually began but Elliott's attitude towards homework has changed. He does his homework right away and without issue. In fact, lately he's been working on his homework on the way home from school, like you see in the picture above. This deserves to be mentioned…

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April 4, 2018
Read more about the article My kids with #Autism never fell asleep last night
Autism Parenting Struggles / My thoughts

My kids with #Autism never fell asleep last night

It's been the longest night ever, well at least recently anyway. For the second night in a row, Elliott hasn't slept. Monday going into Tuesday, I think he got about two hours and that's it. He did okay at school the following day but last night was really rough. This time however, Emmett was awake to join him. Elliott never went to bed but Emmett woke up from a nightmare and was too afraid to go back to sleep. When 7 AM rolled around this morning, they were both so exhausted that there was no way we could send them to school. They would be setup to fail and that's not the right move. Both boys went to bed and are currently sleeping. Our goal is for them to make…

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April 4, 2018
Read more about the article Life is NOT easy be we have a great deal to be thankful for
My thoughts

Life is NOT easy be we have a great deal to be thankful for

The boys had a pretty good day. They got off to school without much problem. I was pleasantly surprised because Elliott only had a couple hours of sleep. He's been struggling to sleep the last couple nights and we may have to speak with his pediatrician for advice because Melatonin isn't helping. I went back to bed cause I wasn't feeling well, still due to the whole Paxil thing but I felt better when I woke up and was able to get quite a bit accomplished. One of the things I'm really struggling with is taking in enough water, especially since herthis whole Paxil thing. I'm making a concerted effort to fix that but the nausea is pretty rough at times and I don't want to think about eating or…

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April 3, 2018