Okay…so I watched Autism Every Day on Friday. You can watch it by going here: http://www.autismspeaks.org/sponsoredevents/autism_every_day.php
Here are my thoughts…although I’m glad people are finally giving autism the attention it deserves and it’s my understanding that the point of this film is to raise research money… great. I also think it’s beneficial for the world to understand autism so they can stop staring at us like we’re bad parents. But I also think this film is one of the biggest downers I’ve ever seen. Had I seen this film 3 years ago, I would have curled up on the floor and wanted to die.
Fortunately, my Friday AM started with my son’s behaviorist spending a good 15 minutes talking about how he’s a different child from when she started as his school shadow in September. How he now shows a full range of emotions, a sense of humor, seeks out other kids socially..etc, etc. It was a good day in the land of autism.
Thank God, because if I had watched this film on a bad day…it would’ve floored me. It has the potential to take the wind out from beneath your wings.
Autism Every Day never mentions anything about hope…nothing about the things you can do to turn the tables on autism. Yes, having a child on the spectrum is really, really tough and yes…Jake used to bang his head and twist his hands like the one little boy in the film and yes…he used to run away full speed and scare the crap out of me until I was afraid to go anywhere, and yes my marriage fell apart and I’ve spent all my $ on treatments, but guess what…he’s getting better. A lot better. And I know he’s going to go to college and have a career and get married. I wasn’t sure 3 years ago and I really don’t want to relive those feelings. It broke my heart into a thousand peices and I’m still scared, but not anywhere near hopeless. Quite the contrary actually. I have a child I interact with every single day. He has a crush on a girl. He speaks in full, interesting, amusing sentences and paragraphs.
Sure, he still punches his own head when he gets really mad and sure he likes to give things a good spin every once in a while, but I’d be happy to show a documentary filmmaker some of the old footage of Jake at his worst and then have him interview us now. Now that’s a movie we parents need to see.
So instead of wallowing in hopelessness, I’ll be attending the Autism One conference in Chicago this weekend. Where, I’ll be filming a lot of the footage for the Reverse Autism Starter Kit and learning as much as I can about the latest cutting edge treatments.
Autism Every Day is important, it’s critical that the world at large understands what we go through every day, but what’s more important is understanding there are things you can do to reverse the symptoms. It’s not hopeless…take as much time as you need to feel sorry for yourself (hey, I do it too!), then shake it off and press on. Don’t settle…fight it!
:)
Elynn