Wednesday, May 14, 2014

You Are Not Alone

Dear Readers,

This summer I will be able to get back to regularly scheduled blogging.

Meanwhile, I have been able only to answer emergency private messages. 

Something struck me about a majority of my answers in these things, and I wanted to say something about it here, because I can write it quickly and give it to the world, even if I am having various difficulties at the moment.  It is this: one of the most important things I can ever say to anyone is that you are not alone, and finding community changed my life.

I want to give you these resources for parents, and also disabled people (largely Autistic, in the case of these resources, because of the audience for this blog) because in them you can find a wealth of like-minded parents and also other Autistic and other disabled adults who are the kind of people who want to reach out to parents in fellowship and share experience, strength and hope.

First, PACLA, which stands for Parenting Autistic Children with Love and Acceptance. This is a Facebook Community group in which you can put up a question and specify if you want it to be answered by only Autistic people for an insider experiential view, or the community at large for the kind of interactional experience or systems understanding or group support that knowing people who have the same things in their lives can bring. From what I see of the people who write to me, most people would love this group and I always send people there privately.

Here, to see what PACLA stands for, is a link to the inaugural magazine they put out: PACLA Magazine, First Issue. I love this magazine. The editors are parents of Autistic kids and Autistic themselves! It is an honor to be part of it. The word 'magazine' doesn't even come anywhere near doing justice to the awesome, and these two claim it is their first time. The only reason I believe them is because I believe them, not because of the evidence. :)

Like what you see? Here is a link to the Facebook Group for PACLA RIGHT HERE. One of the people who started it, Alyssa Hillary, is a fabulous young Autistic activist scholar, a good friend of mine in person. Many parents and autistics are involved, too, in addition to the ones who started it, and the movement is growing.

Next, look at the archives of this blogging collective in which I sometimes participate, and so do many others. It is called We Are Like Your Child and can be found online HERE.. The point of this blog is that we talk about difficult issues within, and how we create workarounds for these things, to make things doable notwithstanding. The disabled people who write here are all people who, like me, care about Autistic and other disabled children and their whole families. All of us are reaching out for a better world. This is another place to find people who will make you notice you are never really alone. They are part of my personal lifeline. May they (we) be the same for you and yours.

Thanks so much for your patience and I will see you in June!

Love,
Ib

11 comments:

  1. "It is this: one of the most important things I can ever say to anyone is that you are not alone, and finding community changed my life"

    I feel this so much. I have stumbled in and out of communities for a very long time looking to find "my people".

    Every single one of them required I change something about myself or hide something in order to "fit", As an autistic person this has been an ongoing theme in my everyday life for such a long time.. It's been exhausting, I was left questioning myself often, I was tired and frustrated often. I felt alone more than I did a part of something.

    However, now I think I have finally found my home, my people, my community... and it has been so amazing. I am so thankful for resources like PACLA and WALYC.

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  2. THIS! Love this... times 1000 to the tenth power - ya... that much!!

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  3. Just found your blog and I am glad it's almost June ;) NO PRESSURE - just, hi, this is great...

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  4. Hahaha. I love you Full Spectrum Mama. I just saw this. What should I write about?

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  5. "It is this: one of the most important things I can ever say to anyone is that you are not alone, and finding community changed my life"

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  6. WOW ALL THANKS TO DR WILLIAMS I HAVE NEVER BELIEVE IN HERBAL REMEDIES.
    my son have been a patient of autism . I had tried a lot of anti viral med prescribed to me by doctors over how many years now but I could not see any improvements in my son symptoms. One day when going through the internet , i got to know about this great Herbal Dr who uses his herbal remedies in curing people from autism,quickly i contacted him and he prepared a herbal medication for my son which i received and he used it as instructed by dr williams. After few weeks the improvement were very visible. the speech delay and the poor eye contact stopped, I would recommend this to all my friends,families,around the globe suffering from autism.you can contact him through his email on drwilliams098675@gmail.com.for advice and for his product THANKS TO YOU ONCE AGAIN ADMIN FOR SUCH AN INFORMATIVE BLOG

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  7. ALL THANKS TO DR WILLIAMS FOR THE GREAT DEED HE HAVE DONE FOR MY DAUGHTER?
    My daughter suffered from autism for more than 2 years which we started experiencing in her when she turned 1 year and 5 months we all thought it will end but got even worse as days went by. We tried all several treatments and therapy prescribed by various doctors we met but to no avail, she lost total concentration and always complain of sensitivity to sound . She usually tells me she haves poor eyes contact. This were steady disorder that disrupted her entire life, even at night she slept less because of this.It was during a casual conversation with a friend that i learned about Dr Williams herbal medicine I was able to contact him on his email address. and give him all the necessary information that he needed,few day later he sent me the herbal portion and his medicine was able to restore her back to normal and she is very okay now without any side effects whatsoever. If you have autism, do not hesitate to contact him on drwilliams098675@gmail.com for advice and for his product. I hope this also helps someone out there  .

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  8. DR WILLIAMS CURED 7 YEARS AUTISM
    I am sharing this testimony for my daughter who suffered autism for 7 years. I am doing this, because I was her mother and caregiver  during her dark days and am very happy to share it so that others can be helped through  DR WILLIAMS HERBAL MEDICINE. It was a tough a battle for her; I was not actually the one who hard autism, but bearing the burden makes me understand what parents whose children and love with autism go through.
    Lesia now 19 and was diagnosed with autism at the age of twelve, for seven years, she fought against her diagnosis. I must admit it was never easy for us as a family; we had to constantly watch her, and answer questions that we couldn’t explain. On several occasions, she asked if she will ever stop having speech delay and get well like her school mates and be the best swimmer she dreamt of becoming. She was a very happy child; and had a ‘normal’ childhood and there was no suggestion that she would later on develop autism. 
    She refused to accept defeat and fought autism. She religiously kept to her medications in spite of their side effects. We all wanted a cure, so that she can chase her dream and live a normal life like every other child. But the more she takes these medications, the more her school grade drop. She couldn’t concentrate and we noticed that her memory was being severely adversely affected. Each time we went back to the hospital, her medicines were changed to a different one. Seems like, each change of drug brings about change in side effects. After about 6 years on   Abilify ,  Geodon  , and other medicines, it seemed the autism started to increase in frequency. I had to make effort to reduce her medicines with plans to eventually stop it all. We found an alternative treatment in homeopathy, which was better than her English drugs. Gradually, I reduced her drugs, and her autism were no longer as frequent as it was as when she was on conventional drugs.
    With our little breakthrough with homeopathy treatment, we made further search for natural cure. Fortunately we saw testimonies about herbal medicines which cure autism. We saw a lot of claims though, contacted them and didn’t get a useful reply. Lucky for us, we finally got a reply from Doctor Williams, he directed us to his blog where we saw a lot of information about his herbal medicine . Without further delay I made a purchase for her, I switched her over to it. We had great breakthrough, that in 3 weeks, her autism reduced. After 1 months as Doctor Williams promised , all autism symptoms stopped. It was like a miracle for us. since all this days now Lesia became autism free. Her story is quite lengthy, I hope it also help someone out there.for more information you can email Dr Williams on drwilliams098675@gmail.com

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