My Son is Recovering

Yes you heard me right, recovering.  

There is no quick fix for anything, it takes hard work, dedication and patience. Oh how amazing it would be to find that magic something I could give to him, so all his ‘body problems’ wouldn’t be problems anymore and he could live exactly as he wanted, without those restrictions he has. It’s not like that though, there is no one pill to help him, no vaccine to cure his ailments and no one medicine or procedure to ease his struggles.

Oh how some must be shouting ‘she wants to cure autism’ ‘you can’t cure autism, it’s forever’ ‘she’s trying to change her son, his personalitity’ ‘she’s taking away who he is’ But it doesn’t matter, because I am not doing any of those things. When it comes to anything and in particular, most all things autism; a lot of people make assumptions. They’ll read a headline or a single comment and make a conclusion –usually negative- about those with autism or the parents that are raising them; without knowing the whole story.

Cure is not the same as recovery, just as therapy is not the same as treatment. So when people make the assumption that parents who are recovering their children, are trying to cure them –usually by ‘snake oil’ means- they just make themselves seem foolish, especially if they start yelling about things they do not fully understand. Which brings us to another comment often made, about’ taking away our child’s personality’ (if it didn’t tick me off so much, I’d probably laugh myself to death). It has to be in the top ten of the most ridiculous thing pertaining to autism that I’ve ever heard –and I’ve heard a lot of ridiculous stuff people think about; autism, those with autism and parents of children with autism- .

Let’s cut to the chase. Current autism diagnosis is based solely on behaviours, so obviously those with autism do things that are recognizable; like stimming, what most think of as odd behaviour, sensory issues, repetitiveness, sometimes OCD etc. If those go away, our children are still there and their personality is not gone. Who in their right mind would truly believe; that autism IS your child, that without autism, your child is without their personality, that the things causing boundries for your child; make them who they are and when they are gone, so essentially are they.

Really think about it for a second. Put simply; Bye bye autism – bye bye child – hello empty shell. Now doesn’t that sound ridiculous?

From personal experience alone, my son has been able to show more of his personality since we have been doing treatments. He isn’t as bound by his autism and can more freely explore and express who he is. I would never think that by helping him, I am taking away who he is. It just doesn’t work like that. I could assume that those who think opposite are selfish and enjoy their child’s ‘quirks’ so much that they want them to stay-but then I would be just like them and make assumptions without know the whole story.

So back to recovery; it’s freaking hard work, my friends. I’m never off the clock, there are no breaks and the stress is immense, but the gains that you see…… make it all worth it. My son has to work just as hard as I, if not harder because he is the one experiencing autism.  I have to try hard to find ways to help him re-learn to speak and bypass ‘faulty synapses’, but he has to try even harder to actually do those things. He is my little trooper though and he tries so hard to break through this ‘veil’ that is upon him.

See recovery has two sections; Treatment and Therapy. Therapy is there to help him learn, overcome and cope. Treatment is there to repair damage that has been done to his body. Pretty hard to grasp if you think that autism is a psychological condition, it’s even harder when under the impression that autism is solely genetic and untreatable. Yes the brain is affected, but so are many other parts of the body and our body is a living, healing machine.

When you break your arm, your body repairs that break; with a little help from us of course. To think it just ends there is absurd. Our bodies can do things that we have yet to fully understand, one thing we do know is that we are capable of overcoming great damages done to ourselves. I’m not saying those with autism are damaged people, but that their bodies have taken damage. It’s easily seen in brain scans of those with autism; there are specific areas that show damage. Since everyone is different and everyone with autism is affected differently; we see a scatter of other areas in the body that are damaged as well.

Some may argue that this isn’t a part of autism but I protest; if the damage to other areas of the body, causes the damage to the brain, that results in autism or if the damage to other areas causes the autism behaviour, than doesn’t that mean it is part of autism……. a big part of autism in fact

Autism isn’t a psychological based condition, it is a biological one.

Treating those biological issues have given my son his voice back; he can ask for things, sing songs and make his action figures have super fast conversations. It has allowed him to use his imagination and be able to explore things instead of ‘getting stuck’ on one tiny part of something. My son went from rocking in the corner, flapping his hands and seemingly ‘out of this world’ to a boy who gets to interact with other children, play games, draw, explore and live life. He went from hating being touched, to requesting hugs, kisses and wanting to snuggle up close. He doesn’t spin wheels for hours on end any more and he looks me in the eye.

He looks me in the eye.