My son is in an autism support program at his University and a few portions of the program were not working for him. He had become very rigid about some things he had to do. He called me and was irate. Well that kind of phone call wakes up some dormant emotions. After trying to help calm him down, I was thrown into my mom fight or flight mode. I calmed myself down and started to problem solve. Here is how it went.....
I went home and started to compose an email to the director of the program. I wanted to share my son's perspective but acknowledging his rigidity and asking some questions. My husband encouraged me to seek to understand, very good advice. I edited my email several times before sending it. The tone and words needed to be controlled toward the situation while advocating for the things my son couldn't get across in a way that helped the leadership understand from his perspective.
I got a return email from the director the next morning and heard the leadership's perspective. We also had a phone conversation and came up with a short term solution and if it works well, a potential long term solution.
During these hours, from my son's phone call to the phone call with his program's director, I had a roller coaster of emotions. Can anyone relate? I thought the event was over but those emotions linger and tend to reappear hours a days afterward. I don't have any understanding of why this happens. I just know that it does! I can only guess that it takes some time for my emotions to settle back into "normal mode" after they have thrown into havoc like a white river rapids or roller coast ride.
I have had these roller coaster emotions many times in my years as the mom of a child with a diagnosed disability. I should expect the slow "back to normal" with my emotions but I seem to forget every time and it catches me by surprise. While it's still fresh in my mind, I thought I'd share my recent experience as a help to others.
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Location:Handling Roller Coaster Emotions
