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Autisim & Stress- 5 tips to surviving as the caregiver

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Cars just cause stress- anyone with Autism should know this! "That's just a fucking perfect way to start a fucking Monday morning". OK. So now I'm awake!  Its a little after 6am and I have no idea why I even answered the phone at this un-godly hour. My dreams of floating on cotton candy clouds drifted off as quickly as they arrived. "Whats wrong I said to my Aspie?".  "I'll tell you what's fucking wrong, I'm on the side of the motorway and the fucking car won't go".  "Where exactly are you? "I fucking told you, I'm on the side of the motorway- don't you listen or something?".  I have my boss on the way".  "So where exactly on the motorway are you?" I say again trying to collect my thoughts.  "You just don't fucking listen- I told you just near Silverdale on the motorway"he said. "So whats wrong with the car?" (I can hear him frantically trying to start it in th

Meltdowns- behaving as an adult when your child doesn't

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 Care-giving for a 17 Year old Autistic Kid is easy- right? "Fuck You"! This is a word that signals a potential meltdown in our house. Being raised as a Christian where swearing was forbidden, I find it somewhat amusing to be now living in a house and care-giving for a 17 year old who cannot remove this phrase from his core vocabulary.  I think I do sometimes mutter 'god help me' under my breath when a meltdown is brewing, but I'm fully aware that even 'He' won't be able to stop it. The 17 year old  I care-give for only had his ASD diagnosis just before his 17th birthday.  At this stage he was living at home with his parents.  I had heard the yelling and swearing over the fence from my beach house with him and his family- you'd have to be deaf to miss it!  I never knew that 3 months later, he'd be doing the same thing in my house! Such a brave lad to ask me to help him, and then ask my husband and I if he could come and live with us.  I&