Harri Broke my Brain. Then Fixed it Again

You know the saying, you dont know what you got til it's gone? Well sometimes you don't know what you had til you get it back.

The first two years of Harri's life were so difficult I lived in survival mode, as I have blogged about previously. The main reading materials were parenting books, parenting web sites and google as I desperately searched for answers to explain why my young child seemed so unhappy. (Incidentally the closest thing I found to reassurance was a book by Dr Sears on raising High Needs babies. Who knew a couple of years later his name would put a shudder up my spine? But that's another issue)

Anyway the days of using my brain for idle and professional intellectual pursuits were essentially over. And that didn't tend to bother me at the time. It appears I was oblivious to the gradual ebb of my thinking skills. That was until over recent months, post Harri's diagnosis, when I started to read lots of blogs and sites by very clever people, who had lots of other smart people commenting.  Trying to follow the analytical arguments on the threads, and the re-iterations really pushed my mind further than it had been in a while. And it's only been recently since the spiderwebs have been cast off and the mental cogs have slowly started turning again that I can see how the use it or lose it slogan is quite true.

So even though Harri's Autism diagnosis sent me spinning off on a trajectory unplanned, it has also led me to find an amazing community of smarty pants on the interwebs who are assisting me to get my intellectual mojo back. Thankyou one and all. The list of authors is too long and I would hate to inadvertently leave anyone out for recognition. Obviously the blog list (see right) contains some of my fave bloggers, and I really hope to send some traffic their way with the expectation others will benefit from them as I have.

Essentially what I am saying is that although Harri has challenges ahead, and consequently as someone who loves him madly, so do I, I'm thankful to the amazing community of bloggers and their thought provoking, often challenging posts. I know I'm never going to be the cleverest kid on the blogger block but I do appreciate the mental gymnastics others provide. And in the long run what I am learning will make me a better mother and advocate for my son. And hopefully down the track other children and families living with Autism as well.