Well, it's been over three months since the last post on this blog. Since then, Bug has overcome some big hurdles we were dealing with in regards to attachment and rigidity, and he finished up sessions of feeding therapy and speech therapy, exceeding all the goals we set for him there. He also finished his first year of preschool and we have seen his social growth. But that's not what I want to write about today.
This is a space to talk about autism and about how it affects Bug; but we also want to talk about how it affects the rest of us, because it does every single day in major and minor ways. What I'm writing about has been in some ways intertwined with having autism as part of our lives, and in other ways, not.
I have been diagnosed with depression.
That may not seem like a major event, but it really has been. It was a long time coming and even though there were signs over a year ago, I never got a formal diagnosis and never seriously stuck with treatment. I'm happy to say that now I am finally feeling like me again.
I don't bring this up as an excuse for neglecting this blog a bit, or for sympathy, or for any other reason than I think it needs to be talked about more. More parents, more women, more LDS church members, more families with special needs children need to know that this can happen to them, and that if it does, it's not anyone's fault. If I can help at least one other person going through the pain I went through for so long, this is worth it. I will continue to write about my experiences with depression and how they have helped me with Bug in the future; this is an introductory post on the topic so you have some background for future reference.
(long post, so click through to read the rest)
