My Support System

I don’t have any immediate family, my parents and brothers died thirty years ago, and I can say without exaggeration that I have gotten zero support until I moved to a new state. I have retroactive self-pity when I think about it. I lost friends because of Cody’s behavior and our world became so narrow. He wouldn’t leave the house, he would beat up kids constantly, and he had no friends ever. So, we ended up having a relationship that was much too close because I had to meet his needs for friendship since he had no friends. Nobody helped me when I had to take him out of school because he tried to kill himself, not one of his classmates parents’ called me to see how he was. My suggestion is that you seek out another parent of a child with special needs, parent group, or therapist to find others with similar experiences and insight. The minute you start talking to other parents who have kids with the same issues you realize that you are somewhat normal and that it’s not your fault and that you have someone to relate to. That’s really helped me tremendously.