Hi there

Hi everyone,

Agh- it's always a struggle to know what to write on things like this. 

 Here goes...

I'm mum to a quirky, Super Mario Bros fanatic (8 yrs old and firmly plonked on the autism spectrum). I also support pre-school children on the spectrum and their families in my work.

I struggle with anxiety and social interactions. 

My son, the children I work with, are utter heroes in my eyes. The world can be a scary place for my boy and lately his controlling behaviours, anxieties and compulsive thinking have increased greatly. 

I have near-permanent guilt over fears that I am not helping him as much as I can. I am feeling really lost at sea at moment with a whole array of new anxiety-based and kind of OCD kind of behaviours springing from him. 

We have started a worry-diary for him to try and externalize his anxieties and perhaps feel more in control of them. He is finding solutions to many situations himself which is wonderful (ear defenders for the noise of birds singing outside/flicking a hand-held switch to control the urge to turn off/on a light after somebody else has done it first). I think if I am really honest, I am struggling with the solutions he is finding. I am wondering if I am actually still coming to terms with the diagnosis despite receiving it five years ago.

My partner thinks I should just tell him to 'cut it out' when he is scratching his face and crying about the birds' tweeting outside(or the bees, or the thoughts in his head he can't get rid of) as I run myself ragged at times trying to support his needs and our son, J, plays on it! I am definitely too soft at times! He does focus his attention on to me when he does the scratchy face thing so I sense that it is something he's seen and is copying for effect. 

Well, turns out once I start typing I know just what to say... It's hard to stop now! This was just meant to be brief intro. Glad to be here with you all.

Em