The Quiet Crisis Next Door

Tag: Autism

  • So Many Questions…

    This is a post that is- and yet isn’t- about me. As I contemplated how I wanted to approach writing a bit more about our holidays this year, I knew that what would feel most joyful for some to read would be focused on the superficial aspects. A diorama of Christmas trappings and traditions as…

  • Catching Up With NMT

    Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) has had an important role in our son’s progress, helping him to acquire skills he was not able to gain with the other therapy modalities. Tony has been receiving services at NMTSA since July of 2015. In that time, he’s worked with 5 therapists, many of whom moved on to higher…

  • A Year of Gifts

    So much of the gift giving in our communities is concentrated and condensed into days of prescribed celebration. But some of the best presents have trickled in bit by bit this past year, oft ill-wrapped by other circumstances and generally unannounced by fanfare, tags, or cards. Perhaps they are small compared to what some would…

  • December Gratitude & Some Reading

    A few notes for little moments with big impacts I do not really know any of the three individuals my gratitude notes are dedicated to this month, though I do pass by a couple of them regularly when we are out doing public therapy. Each of them has shined kindness on our circumstances over the…

  • Serving Up a Thanksgiving Gathering Success

    As I begin to write this, some of you are still laughing together, enjoying the gathering Tony and I left behind. He and I were only there an hour, but for a holiday celebration that brought together so many people from our family that is still a remarkable achievement for our little man. Perhaps some…

  • When a Full Day Off Isn’t One of Your Options…

    So, what happens in families such as ours when one of the parents gets sick? I’m going to quote part of an email I sent out April 23, 2017 to a group of friends: “Hello my sweet friends, I hope all of you are doing well! I’m slowly getting back to feeling normal. My cold…

  • Picturing Community Safety

    At the meeting place of Tony’s growth rate, his sensory differences, the profundity of his Autism, his intense impulsivity, and his heavily delayed risk assessment beats the heart of some of my deepest fears for our son’s future. We remain racing against time, have been engaged in every strategy we can think of for years…

  • When a Woman Goes Vesuvius

    I’m going to start with a mash up of me quoting myself from my very first blog post once again quoting myself from an e-mail I sent to some friends about the situation which I am discussing today: “I am not here to judge anyone…” but this is something I felt was important to talk…

  • No Such Thing as Medication Salvation

    This week, our story drops through the words of two songs of the same title, spliced and stitched together to help me animate the remaining fragments of my scattered thoughts. My moments this past week have been filled and stretched to the point where my own artistry just may not be enough to bring this…

  • 365 Days a Year of Things to Fear

    When I was young, our family often watched reruns of The Twilight Zone. Black and white memories of commonplace scenes twisting through sometimes terrifying deviations floating through the time warp of a 43 year old mind- faces and images frozen in grief or compounding horror. We are taught to think there is a firm line…