Another Gift of Elizabeth

It all started with some humming, then some louder humming and then, well…a very irritated, overwhelmed and overloaded Elizabeth emerged from her room mid-day last Saturday.

I was kind of surprised by the change in her mood as up until then she was pretty much sailing along.

It had been a big week for her.  She had had a track meet where she ran the 4X100 relay. She had had two track practice as well as her typical afterschool activities.

In fact, the day before she had this meltdown, I was just thinking “Hey, she is really handling all of this stuff so well.”  Then it happened.

And I do not know about your child but when Elizabeth has this happen, she starts to go to her default setting of saying NO to everything….and by everything I do mean everything except perhaps, breathing and eating.

I try very hard to talk to her about her feelings, to offer to her her sensory break, to take away as many of the demands on her as I can and finally to let her be for a bit. It is at times like this, after so much good, that I am always taken aback by just how she shows this overload, by just how much the SPD affects her.  Isn’t that kind of silly of me, as she is 19 years old and I know that the SPD is part of who she is and that is will always be there.

So we rode out the weekend, it was not a banner one but it was not as bad as it could have been or honestly would have been, years ago.

I guess that is where I try to find the good in the situation.

As she was talking to me, I allowed myself to remember when she could not do this.

As she was sharing her feeling about why she was upset, I allowed myself to rejoice that she is so in touch with herself.

When she asked for certain things for her sensory break, I thought back to how used to have to guess what she needed so she did not end up with the wrong item.

As she hugged me, crying that she hates her Dyspraxia, I rejoiced that the hug was given and received happily.

When I am nervous or upset, I clean.  So I did just that last weekend.  I cleaned out some stuff in my closet and would you not guess what I came across?

Old pictures.

Yes, the kind that take you down memory lane, even thought that is SO not where you wish to go.  But I went there anyway.  I thought about the little girl who was so afraid of the world, who cried all day and could not talk.  I thought about how we “found” her through our therapies and hard word.  I think God guided me to this spot last weekend and I found some peace thinking back and this is something I typically do not allow myself to doo to often.  So now I had some peace in my heart and a clean closet.

We put in the weekend. and it was not an easy weekend, I am not going to lie.  I still had to do all the things that the other members of the family wanted or needed.  I am sure everyone understands how that goes.

But with a great deal of talking and support along with a treatment of CranioSacral Therapy(CSN). She seemed calmer and more grounded.

She thanked me for talking and taking her to her therapy and in response I thanked her for telling me what she needed and working hard.

I found the good in a tough time, and I know that even knowing this is possible is yet another gift of Elizabeth.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1427560947494406/1816708111913019/

https://www.facebook.com/notes/sensory-blog-hop/html-for-blog-hop/1601053746811791

https://goo.gl/ZDyieN

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