Some support group

All right, I'm calm now but I was FUMING earlier. Per my wife's suggestion, I went to this Asperger's/Autism support group meeting. I was actually looking forward to it. Mind you, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I assumed it would be some sort of discussion group where parents could share experiences or discuss some sort of topic or some such thing.

What I got was a lecture. Not only a lecture, but a lecture on how to tell if your child as Autism, history of diagnoses, types of tests used to determime whether or not your child as ADHD, Aspergers, Autism and not something else, and possible causes of the disorders. People, IT WAS A TOTAL FUCKING WASTE OF MY TIME! I had carved 2 hours plus the time to get there and back out of my schedule to be told stuff I already know. I would have preferred to spend that time with my wife and kids. Both boys have already been diagnosed and the last thing I needed to know is how to figure out whether my kids have the things THEY'VE ALREADY BEEN DIAGNOSED AS HAVING!

There were a few people that bailed out of there pretty early. I managed to tough it out for 1.5 hours of the 2 hour alloted time before I couldn't stand it any more. And the survey they passed out at the beginning had questions about whether or not the information provided would help in advocacy to get community services or inform us on community services. That kind of information would have been helpful. I so blasted them on the survey. My wife is going to attend next month to see if this gets better. I'm not hopeful. At the beginning of the lecture, the speaker said he couldn't cover all the material in 2 hours so he would probably finish it up the following month. The guy mostly read from his powerpoint presentation. He was really killing me.

Let me tell you, I left that place with my jaw clenched and my hands practically shaking with anger. I was really worked up. I don't know why I got so spun up about it except for the huge disappointment of the whole thing. I know I have a tough time dealing with the fact that both my boys have difficulties that other children do not face. I also have a tough time dealing with the kids on top of anger issues of my own. I was hoping for something that could help me in the struggle with all of this and baby, THIS WASN'T IT!. Maybe that's why I was so pissed.

I'm going to keep looking for something out there that is perhaps a real support group. You know, something interactive where you can talk to people that understand what you're going through.

Anyway, enough for now. I got spun up on this just talking to my wife about it and I don't need to get all wound up again before going to bed. I'm going to go read and chill out. Good night kiddies and pleasant dreams.

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