“I was desperate to connect with anyone who could say, ‘I get it,’ instead of the ‘I can’t imagines’ that were being hurled my way. And then I stumbled upon a beauty queen.”
‘I wrote a stranger. ‘Help me. I’m scared. Please. I need to understand my daughter.’ I begged her to give me the secret. ‘Will we be okay?’ Real-life ‘princess’ helps ease mother’s fears over daughter’s autism diagnosis
‘Charlie?! CHARLIE!’ My son wouldn’t look at me anymore. I didn’t even recognize him. My entire world came crashing down. The doctor told me ‘not to worry’. I later learned how wrong she was.’
“It all happened so fast. He stopped speaking altogether. I wasn’t hearing his sweet little voice saying ‘thank you’ after I gave him a cookie. He didn’t like to be touched anymore. He avoided people, even us, his parents. I wasn’t prepared to hear the diagnosis. It hit me hard. My jaw dropped.”
‘The first time my child was made fun of, he was 5 months old. I never excepted them to target a baby.’
“I’ll never forget where we were: the deli line at our local grocery store. I had just ordered a pound of rotisserie smoked turkey and looked over to find a middle-aged woman snickering and pointing at my son. I ran out of the store before the tears came.”
‘One random afternoon, I got a text from my husband. It’s bad. I thought, ‘Will I be a widow?’ I should’ve been at home breastfeeding. Instead, I was meeting with geneticists.’
“I couldn’t leave the kids alone with him. He couldn’t drive. No pick-ups, no drop-offs. Resentment built between us. We were told our children had a 50% chance of getting it too. All we could do was wait, and watch, and worry. It was too much to comprehend.”
‘My Son’s teacher recently friended me on social media. I came upon a picture of her holding a chalkboard sign that read, ‘I said YES!’ She’s already married, so it struck me as odd.’
“Until I read the caption. I couldn’t stop crying.”
‘It’s okay. Get in your car and scream. It’s not going to make everything go away, but you deserve the release. Are the tears coming now? Good, don’t stop them.’
“This feels like the weight of the world because it’s about your entire world: your precious child. Every prenatal screen passed with flying colors. They tell you your child is healthy and whole, and now, they say that very same child has special needs. Here’s how you reclaim your power.”
‘HE’S FINALLY ON THE PLANE! In desperation, we went to another airline desk to beg for help. She even sat on the floor with him. He was so frightened. He was in a wheelchair due to them medicating him.’
“This is my son, Leo. He has severe autism and the mental capacity of a 3-year-old. This airline refused to let him fly home because he was distressed when they wouldn’t let him have his doll. Police were called, which caused his meltdown.”
‘I’m a 34-year-old woman and I only got formally diagnosed 2 DAYS ago. I’m autistic.’
“I seem fine and happy. They may think I’m trying to be like my child. Or that I am faking it. It’s a weird feeling.”
‘No, not again! I can’t handle another child like this!’ I was angry at people who asked, ‘Are you gonna try again for a ‘normal’ child? I sat in the bathroom, crying.’
‘I was in survivor mode. I wouldn’t let myself feel. I couldn’t be weak; I had to keep going. People asked, ‘When will they grow out of it?’ I remember getting to a point where I thought, ‘This is going to kill me. I need to accept it.'”
‘You don’t understand, they will never help your family.’ I was blown away. He was getting worse by the day. ‘I’ve never had an experience like this before,’ the crisis worker apologized.’
“On my way home I received the phone call. It was totally incoherent from all the screaming. I desperately tried to find out what was happening. It was my daughter. ‘It’s Josh,’ I finally heard through the screams.”
