Autism and Emotional Support for Parents

Having an autistic child is no ball game. It changes the lives of the whole family. The parents go all out to try and improve the quality of their autistic child's life and become lifelong advocates for their child.

There comes a time when every parent will experience burnout. The emotional lows and depression are a common occurence. When an autistic child becomes self injurious and/or just more difficult to manage the parents are in a precarious position mentally, emotionally and physically.

There is a real need for emotional support for parents and siblings even as their autistic child/sibling goes through his own trials and trauma. Every little support they receive from caring others goes a long way to ameliorate their difficulties.

There is a real need for emotional support for autistic parents in Malaysia.

Autism

What is Autism?

Autism is a brain development disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. Autism affects many parts of the brain; how this occurs is not understood. The prevalence of ASD is about 6 per 1,000 people, with about four times as many males as females. Parents usually notice signs in the first two years of their child's life. Although early behavioral or cognitive intervention can help children gain self-care, social, and communication skills, there is no known cure.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism

An autistic child feels trapped in a body that is not responsive to his intentions and which he is unable to manipulate to function in this world. This is a source of much frustration especially since an autistic child cannot communicate his difficulties to the next person or his caregiver. This leads to Self Injurious Behaviour which onsets, if it hasn't already, in the early teenage years when hormonal changes are taking place. This becomes a very challenging time for his parents and his siblings and caregiving becomes a heavy burden on the family.

When the autistic child rebels out of sheer frustration, fury and fear it is so easy to get caught up in it all, what with the extreme stress on all aspects of life that is being experienced. It is easy to take the autistic child's rebelliousness personally and many a therapist and caregiver would brand it as 'manipulation'. While manipulation is one of the ways an autistic child (and any normal child as well) copes with difficulties and to handle the excessive expectations that parents, caregivers and therapists sometimes place on him, it would be too simplistic to put the child's behaviour down to manipulation and control exclusively. It is really very important to be able to not judge at such times. And if one does, then it is time to let a more objective third party take over. It is very important to get help once a certain critical stage is reached in the child's moods and behaviour.

At all times one has to not get so lost in it all that one blames the child for what is happening. The child is desperately wanting help. He does not understand what is happening, why he is behaving the way he is, and when the parent retaliates he feels even more frantic and unloved - there is no rational understanding of cause and effect even if at other times, during 'normal' times, he seems to understand it. So it is imperative to get help.

Help from who, where...? Sourcing for help and support has to take place before a crisis point is reached. A database of doctors, therapists, homes, institutions, drugs has to be researched and compiled for easy access at the time of need. Support and respite has to be pre-determined and checked out in advance.