You go away a week ...!!!
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| Fri, 01-20-2006 - 3:25pm |
Man, oh man, you get too busy with life and what happens? Dr. Phil shanghais one of your favorite online support groups. Ugh. I just have to say that I have never been able to watch that show without kinda gagging in the first place, even Oprah is pretty hit-miss with me. I had heard (a rumor) that Dr. Phil thought autistic spectrum disorder was simply bad parenting in disguise, and although he may not have said that, it wouldn't shock me much if he had!
So clearly, I did not watch that show. It crossed my mind to watch it, but I tend to get all rattled whenever I watch any show like that, no matter what the subject, so when I found that the show time had come and gone and I had forgotten, well, c'est la vie.
I just hate that anyone feels unwelcome or unsupported here in reaction to trite pop-psychologist sound-bite cure-all nonsense, whatever it was that was said on that show. Every child on the spectrum is completely different from every other child ... we all know that! Some rage, some disappear into imaginary worlds, some never really learn to talk, some you can't shut up, some are athletes, some completely physically inept, and on and on to infinity and beyond. Our kids vary as much as all of humanity, really. "Dr. Phil" is a TV show, a mega-corporation, looking for huge ratings, selling products, just slightly more evolved than a bad sit-com or middle-of-night infomercial. We know and live the reality --- we, the moms, "get real" with ASD every minute of our lives.
We do seem to be doomed to live in a narrow-minded, judgemental society which is moving faster and faster, and does not seem to have much room for our children to be who they are and also be successful. Of course there must be huge reactions to a show that you all described, with all different kinds of reactions, because we LIVE the reality of how closed off and difficult the rest of the world can be and yet how we all struggle every day is a silent, unsupported struggle beset on all sides by ill-informed school officials, teachers, parents of NT children, even loved ones and relatives. It just grinds to be so sensationalized, for money, when our need for real help is so great.
I cross my fingers that you don't leave, Renee and Liza, and that there can be room here for all our big emotions and realities without feeling that this site only belongs to parents that feel or experience ASD kids in only one way.
with great respect and affection,
Sara
ilovemalcolm
