Autism: Two Mothers Perspective
Please note, neither one of us have any studies to back this up, we just have common links with our children. This was just our conversation, but we decided to be brave, and I decided I would be the one to write it.
I was talking to a friend last night, ( I think you earned that title) and we had a very interesting conversation about the things we have in common, Autism, Mental Illness, and the desire to be a voice. Pretty heavy stuff, since I had just randomly sent her a message and asked her about her views on what causes Autism.
See we are two moms, in the same small state. We only know each through Facebook, although meeting in real life wouldn't be that hard, except for you know we both have children with special needs, multiple kids, are stay at home moms, and it's summer. Honestly, we don't people well unless we need to. We save our patience for our kids. We save our energy for our kids, and errands with said kids. We hear many things from professionals. We are the voice for our children when they have none.
Our kids vary greatly in age, and the level on the spectrum. Her daughter is for the larger part non verbal, but is making great strides, and I love to hear of her new skills she is learning. My son, technically stepson, is on the higher end of the spectrum, and much older than her daughter.
So when I saw the anti-vaccine tags I had to ask her. I had to. I think we were both suprised with how the conversation ended. I am glad we had that conversation, I am ever happier we agreed. We didn't have to though, I respect her position as a parent, as a caregiver, and that's where it would have been left.
This is our conversation:
We want you to take away from this a few things, don't tag people in things unless you understand their beliefs. Don't placate us with these tags of "oh have you seen this" (especially if it is an older, highly publicized, controversial post), just don't. We live in the house with the child, we go on the appointments, we talk to the doctors, we do therapies, and clean up the destruction from meltdowns. We have formed our own thoughts, based on our interactions with real life experience, and if you haven't experienced this, it might not come off well.
Secondly, we wanted to throw this out there, our theory, that Autism, well maybe it has nothing to do with vaccines, and maybe it is genetics. Environmental influence might play a part, but when you live in the experience, you wonder, and you come up with opinions based on your experiences.
So as a reminder, we have nothing but our experience to back these claims. Just two moms, discussing life in our houses. I call this mom therapy.
I was talking to a friend last night, ( I think you earned that title) and we had a very interesting conversation about the things we have in common, Autism, Mental Illness, and the desire to be a voice. Pretty heavy stuff, since I had just randomly sent her a message and asked her about her views on what causes Autism.
See we are two moms, in the same small state. We only know each through Facebook, although meeting in real life wouldn't be that hard, except for you know we both have children with special needs, multiple kids, are stay at home moms, and it's summer. Honestly, we don't people well unless we need to. We save our patience for our kids. We save our energy for our kids, and errands with said kids. We hear many things from professionals. We are the voice for our children when they have none.
Our kids vary greatly in age, and the level on the spectrum. Her daughter is for the larger part non verbal, but is making great strides, and I love to hear of her new skills she is learning. My son, technically stepson, is on the higher end of the spectrum, and much older than her daughter.
So when I saw the anti-vaccine tags I had to ask her. I had to. I think we were both suprised with how the conversation ended. I am glad we had that conversation, I am ever happier we agreed. We didn't have to though, I respect her position as a parent, as a caregiver, and that's where it would have been left.
This is our conversation:
Secondly, we wanted to throw this out there, our theory, that Autism, well maybe it has nothing to do with vaccines, and maybe it is genetics. Environmental influence might play a part, but when you live in the experience, you wonder, and you come up with opinions based on your experiences.
So as a reminder, we have nothing but our experience to back these claims. Just two moms, discussing life in our houses. I call this mom therapy.
I love this! Mom therapy (well technically I'm a grandma caring for a non verbal grandson on the spectrum). I agree mental illness plays a role, just not exactly sure how or why. My daughter, his mother, in my best opinion as a mom believes she has undiagnosed Aspergers and she suffers from social anxiety and mental illness. You are both right when you say that mental illness needs to be talked about, without a stigma attached. So many more people would be willing to seek out treatments if they knew they could do so without judgment. Thank your for writing this! God Bless you!
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