Hey! Hey you! Yeah, you! Welcome! Oh, you're lost and don't know why you're here or how you got here? That doesn't matter, I'm glad you're here anyway. Grab a cuppa, pull up a chair, and make yourself at home. And let me tell you a bit about myself.
I'm a 30-something year old single mama bear to a 12-year-old boy. With the exception of our cat, it's been just me and The Boy since he was 8 months old. Long story short, I knew it wasn't going to work out, so I saved myself the cost of a wedding and divorce by coming to my senses and throwing the ring back at his sperm donor. It hasn't always been easy, but it is what it is.
My life can pretty much be summed up in five words: coffee, music, and special needs. Coffee = liquid gold, and I really and truly believe there is a song lyric for every situation. My tastes vary so greatly that even my best friends are amazed at my playlists. A friend of mine once told me, "Um, Mama Bear? You realize that in the last 20 minutes, we've listened to the Beatles, Enya, Beethoven, Eminem, and native flutes, right?" I guess ADD really does touch every aspect of life, lol. Special needs? Sigh...yeah. I've got ADD (which I'm sure will be apparent in some of my posts), and The Boy ..well, he's The Boy He was diagnosed with speech apraxia between 18 months and 2 and received early intervention until he was 3. He started at a preschool for kids with special needs and kids at risk for educational difficulties just before his third birthday (thank you, early intervention speech therapist for pulling some strings and getting him in early!). Three and a half years ago, we went through the testing for ADHD (family history on his dad's side, plus my own ADD). Because life likes to throw curveballs, I've been noticing more and more Asperger type symptoms in The Boy over the last 6 months to a year, so between that and some family medical history I've recently found out, The Boy started seeing a therapist last week. Therapist's initial gut reaction is it isn't ADHD at all, but more of an Autism spectrum disorder. So we'll be starting the testing for that in the next few weeks. Good times, ya'll.
So that medical history I recently found out? I am an adult adoptee who recently searched for and found my biological mother and her family. Good news is, we're all pretty physically healthy. Not so good news, we're all nuts. Some walnuts, some pecans, some cashews, but most of us have some kind of mental health issue going on, including addiction, anxiety disorders, chronic depression, suicide attempts (including an uncle who took his own life), bipolar disorder, and mental retardation (which I know isn't technically a mental health issue, but it does bring a bunch of issues along for the ride). I've struggled with mental health issues most of my life - some genetically based, some not necessarily hereditary but that carry a genetic predisposition, and some relating to being adopted (hello, abandonment issues!). I guess you can say I come by my crazy naturally. :-) Not sure if there's a correlation or not, but I'm immensely interested in mental health issues and was planning on entering the mental health field until I found myself a single mom in my very early 20's. Then, paying the bills was more important than finishing my education.
Since this is getting a bit longer than originally anticipated, let's see if I can give you me in a nutshell. I'm stubborn and use sarcasm and snark as coping methods, I'd rather laugh than cry (and laugh at myself and my life quite often), music is life, and my blood type is coffee. While I'm no expert, I'm going to be touching on special needs and mental health A LOT, and if there's anything you want to know, dear reader, ask away! For now, though, I'm going to crawl into bed and get a few hours sleep before The Boy's therapy appointment.
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