Summertime Blues
Summer has historically been a difficult time for GL. With the longer hours of daylight, he has even more trouble sleeping than usual, and it's often in the summer that his meds become less effective or stop working altogether.
This summer, he has been getting up in the night, usually for an hour or more at a time, and often multiple times in the night. Then he's up by 5:30 am, (some days as early as 4:00) wanting help, attention, or company, and frustrated that we aren't up and ready to start the day. During the day, he has that tired look in his eyes, not to mention dark circles, and is irritable and demanding. By 3:00 pm, he is screaming and pounding on the walls. He continues screaming and pounding on and off until bedtime, and often until his bedtime meds knock him out. Some days, he starts the screaming and pounding at 2:00 pm or noon, and some days, it starts first thing in the morning, and continues all. day. long.
I try to keep it real here, the good and the bad. While he's had plenty of better times, we have also seen much worse. Some people think I should focus on the positive, and if I'm having a bad day / week / month, shut up, I guess. I see both optimism and pessimism as dishonest. If people come here to give or receive moral support, pretending everything is always fun, or even always okay, is not helping. So I feel like I should blog more. I've had things to blog about, good things, bad things, even a remarkable number of funny things have happened. But I'm tired, I have a seemingly never-ending to-do list, and most days, blogging just feels like one more thing.
This summer, he has been getting up in the night, usually for an hour or more at a time, and often multiple times in the night. Then he's up by 5:30 am, (some days as early as 4:00) wanting help, attention, or company, and frustrated that we aren't up and ready to start the day. During the day, he has that tired look in his eyes, not to mention dark circles, and is irritable and demanding. By 3:00 pm, he is screaming and pounding on the walls. He continues screaming and pounding on and off until bedtime, and often until his bedtime meds knock him out. Some days, he starts the screaming and pounding at 2:00 pm or noon, and some days, it starts first thing in the morning, and continues all. day. long.
I try to keep it real here, the good and the bad. While he's had plenty of better times, we have also seen much worse. Some people think I should focus on the positive, and if I'm having a bad day / week / month, shut up, I guess. I see both optimism and pessimism as dishonest. If people come here to give or receive moral support, pretending everything is always fun, or even always okay, is not helping. So I feel like I should blog more. I've had things to blog about, good things, bad things, even a remarkable number of funny things have happened. But I'm tired, I have a seemingly never-ending to-do list, and most days, blogging just feels like one more thing.
Labels: and nothing but the truth, autism, Blogging, coping, Optimism, Pessimism, Something to Offend Everyone
posted by Daniel "Captain" Kirk at
4:16 PM
1 Comments:
"I see both optimism and pessimism as dishonest."
That is one of the more interesting things I've read lately.
For what it's worth (two cents - maybe) I figure I can't be an optimist all the time, but I can't be a pessimist all the time either.
Life has high and low points, and I like it when things are more or less steady, with the highs not too high and the lows not too low. Of course, none of us have as much control of that as we'd like.
Write what you want, it's your blog. I appreciate that you keep it honest.
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