WELCOME TO JIM'S AUTISM BLOG





Hi everyone and thanks for visiting our blog. My wife and I created this blog to chronicle our experience while raising a son with Asperger's syndrome. Since our son was diagnosed with an ASD at age 5, we've had a lot of questions. Lucky for us we have a great support network in place. And our blog gives us an opportunity to share what we've learned with our readers. We hope you find our blog informative and interesting. Thanks again for visiting.


"It seems that for success in science and art, a dash of autism is essential." Dr Hans Asperger 1906-1980



Sunday 8 July 2012

LONELY WITHOUT ASPERGER'S?

So it's official.  I'm without Jacob and Shannie for 2 whole days.  And it's only been about 15 minutes, but I already don't know what to do with myself.  This will be only the second time in Jacob's life that he's been away from me for a prolonged period of time.  Not that 2 days is prolonged, but when your world revolves around something, or someone, when that centre of your world is not there, you can develop a feeling of emptiness.

On Friday, my wife's sister came down from up north.  She's only about 2 hours away, but in Canada, anyone who lives past Toronto is up north.  Last night the girls had a birthday party to attend, and I didn't arrive at the party until after midnight.  Yet I was somehow able to get a bad hangover from the event.  Which didn't help with the packing of clothes, food and the truck this morning.  As I helped pack up the truck, I couldn't help but feel sad for some reason.  I think it had to do with the 2 most important people in my life leaving without me, but they need a break too.

Of course when I asked Jacob to get ready for the trip back to his aunt's house, he immediately responded with "I don't want to go!"  He still got ready on his own, but he insisted that he leave his DS at home because he wasn't happy.  So I had to gather up his games and console and I snuck it into my wife's bag without him noticing.  I think Jacob's resistance is in part due to the potential ODD diagnosis, but that's a whole other topic of discussion.

It's strange because as a parent of a child with an ASD, I've learned to adapt my parenting style to help Jacob the most.  I've learned to control the way I talk, the things I say and my way of responding to Jacob when we speak.  So now that Jacob's not here, I feel like I'm struggling to keep occupied.  It's hard to believe it, but Asperger's has become such a big part of my life, that I almost need it around me in order to feel like I have purpose.

I don't know if that makes sense to everyone out there, but it makes sense to me.  Even Chico has begun to mope around after searching the house for everyone.  So it looks like I'm not the only one that's effected.  I guess I'll just have to keep busy until Shannie and Jacob get back on Tuesday, when Asperger's will again be front and centre in my life.   

4 comments:

  1. Hang in there, Jim. At least you and Chico have each other to keep one another company. :) Sometimes dogs are better at that than we give them credit for. Everyone needs a break sometimes, and missing someone always makes your relationship that much better. (but I don't have to tell you that). Give Chico a pat for me. :)

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    1. You're right Jewel. Everyone needs a break once in a while. So Chico and I are just gonna go for a walk later when it cools down a bit. And then we'll just wait for everyone to get back.

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  2. I know exactly how you feel. I use to feel the same way when my son went to his dad's every other weekend. We were divorced when my son was 10. I handled it by planning some really long runs and bike rides for Sat and Sun morning's to look forward too and on Friday after he left, I would head to the grocery store and buy every kind of junk food/comfort food I could find. Then I would go home and watch movies and eat the junk food, get up the next morning run/bike, spend the afternoon getting things done that I had been procrastinating on and the evening watching more movies and eating junk food. Worked. Just make sure you work out after eating that junk food!

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    1. That's tough. It must have been difficult for both you and your son all the time. I couldn't imagine not being around my son all the time. It's hard for me to go to work sometimes because I won't see him much that day. But in the end, it just makes the bonds we have stronger.

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