Fighting for Answers | Category Archives: Autism | Page 29Autism Archives - Page 29 of 84

the phone call

… sounds ominous doesn’t it? I just had the phone call to end all phone calls. Out of the blue, I get a call from the facility where David lives. I am thinking… uh-oh, David got put in a hold or something. Nope. Not even close. It was David calling, “do you have time to talk?” Anytime buddy was my response. We proceeded to talk for 20 minutes. My heart is flowing with happiness. He never calls at random like this. It was so unexpected. Related articles Visited David tonight in Psych Unit. (whynotfathers.com) Tweet #fighting4answrs

a visit with David, in the end a success

Mom and I went to visit David tonight. We gave ourselves an hour. It takes an hour to get to the residence, and an hour to get home. On a school night, we left the other kids at home. We were excited to see him. He is out of the psych ward and back at the residential facility. Since David doesn’t call, and things have been hectic with the other kids, it has been a good month since Mom has seen him. We do call there, but he is usually doing activity when we call. And then he forgets to return the call. Within 5 minutes of arrival David decided he was done. He wanted to go outside and play. Tried to compromise and when that didn’t work, he got mean. He pushed every button he could until he got mom so upset she was in tears. I tried to

Explaining mental illness to the siblings.

How do you explain mental illness to a child with Autism? Are you blunt in your explanations? Should it be explained? In our family, we have a child with severe mental illness. He is currently in the hospital. At home we have his siblings, how do we explain to the siblings the depth of the their brother’s illness? Or do we just not talk about it? In our house, everyone knows that David has needs that can’t be cared for at home. They understand that life at home is better without the constant stress of having David here. They understand lots of things, such as they don’t have to barricade themselves in their rooms. They can leave their stuff unhidden because David isn’t here to steal anything. They know that the animals are healthy because David isn’t here to poison them. Yet. They miss David.