Skip to main content

Mental Health

 "Mental Health is not a destination, but a process. It's about how you drive, not where you're going." -Noam Shpancer, PHD


A friend shared an article titled "Traumatic Stress and Moms Of Children With Autism" and it really got me thinking about how important mental health is. I think mental health is more that just a vacation once a year, or having a stress ball on your desk. It is like "the exhaustion is so real, you feel like you are trying to get over a flu that you never had, but never seems to quite go away." (Article 1).  I have been struggling with my mental health for a few years now and wanted to share my journey. 

My abridged mental health story starts with the birth of my son. I had postpartum depression that I hid very well for awhile. I decided I needed help and reached out to my PCP. We decided that taking medication would be a good place to start. I did very well until a year later my father passed away. I reached out to my PCP again and we upped the dosage. I also attended a grief group. I found it to be very beneficial. After that I felt that the mediation was helping but it made my feelings feel flat. I wasn't experiencing low sad times, but I wasn't having high happy times either. I sought the help of a therapist. She helped a lot and we decided to seek the knowledge of a behavioral health professional to help with medications. I tried quite a few combos before I found the current dosage I am on now. 

After reading the article, I thought could being a special needs mom affect my mental health? In the article it stated that "Hyper-vigilence is an element of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Because “a constant scanning of the environment for threats, exhaustion, and abnormally increased awareness” is traumatic."(Article 1) That is such a true statement, always being ready for the next meltdown. I started researching if there were other articles on this and I found a "study, which included hundreds of parents of children who are on the spectrum, found that 18.6 percent met criteria for PTSD."  "PTSD symptoms are generally grouped into four types: intrusive memories, avoidance, negative changes in thinking and mood, and changes in physical and emotional reactions." (Article 3) Just to keep all perspectives in mind,  I found an article that states"If you don’t consider the research carefully, it would be easy to conclude that having an autistic child is such a terrifying and traumatic experience... what a crock" (article 4)

Just as the opening quote states, mental health is a process. One that you have to continually access and address. All these articles were interesting to read and I encourage you to read them. 





Citations 


Article 1 -  https://differentbydesignlearning.com/traumatic-stress-and-autism-mommas/?fbclid=IwAR0WOTojU14tz8Sm56BJLgCMXTG-WRBwKdtWnOglpaKeeHXI8mHuQhb0qu8


Article 2 - https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2020/03/10/autism-parents-may-be-at-risk-for-ptsd/27951/ 


Article 3 - https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20355967

Article 4 - https://themighty.com/2019/11/study-parenting-autistic-child-ptsd/



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Lone Place

A child's laughter could simply be one of the most beautiful sounds in the world"  -unknown I thought I would write about playgrounds today since we have had a couple of good experiences this week. This week, we visited the play area at Burger King and at a mall and Drew actually made a new friend at each place. But first let me give you a run down of how things normally go at a playground so you know why I was so happy.  Whenever Drew and I go to a playground, I usually have to convince him to use the playground equipment. Sometimes he likes the slide, but almost always he will do everything once and then it is off to wander around the outskirts as far as I will let him. I can't even count the numorous photos I have of him wandering away from the playground. When there are another kids there, I always encourage him to wave Hi and I tell the other kiddos his name. Things usually start out ok, but when other kids start talking too much at Drew, asking him questions ...
1 comment
Read more

“But he looks fine…”

  "[So-called] Mild autism doesn't mean one experiences autism mildly... It means YOU experience their autism mildly. You may not know how hard they've had to work to get to the level they are." -Adan Walton I got the comment the other day basically saying that since Drew was behaving so well, his autism must be less severe. I just smiled politely and said that it has taken a lot of hard work to get where we are, but I'm not sure if they really knew what I meant.   Autism is now diagnosed in 3 levels. I have attached an image below describing the different levels. Drew was diagnosed with level 3, meaning he would require the more support. This has been through y ears of early intervention, (speech, PT, OT, and special instruction), BSC/TSS, outpatient services, early preschool, routines, trial and error, patients, and lots of tears have brought us to where we are. There are still days that I don't want to take Drew certain places because I'm unsure how he ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Daily Struggles

A diagnosis is burden enough without being burdened by secrecy and shame. -Jane Pauley  Sometimes it’s hard to know what is typical of a 2 or 3 year old when it comes to behaviors. You always hear that you shouldn’t compare your child to any others, but then how do you know when there’s a problem? With this post I want to write about our day to day struggles. Are some of them going to be typical 3 year old behaviors, without a doubt, but just consider them on top of other behaviors and you can see why this mama is so tired sometimes.  Since we brought Drew home as a newborn, getting him to sleep has been horrendous! Once asleep, thankfully, he’d sleep all night and still does. It took many, many conversations with an OT and Special Instruction therapist and weeks and weeks of keeping a log of bed time routines to figure out the perfect combo. Before the therapists helped, it could take up to 3 hours to get Drew to sleep. And most of that 3 hours included crying and scr...
2 comments
Read more