I don’t often post about this because I like to highlight the positives of our journey.
Meltdowns are just a part of this journey.
Sometimes life just gets too overwhelming… and it seems like there are too many plugs into the same socket.
Jonah had a meltdown the other day. He’s not had one in some time and I am truly grateful.
But we are currently potty training and I am desperate to find incentives to get him to use the toilet.
He hadn’t gone #2 in a week… he’s been just “holding it.”
He doesn’t quite understand why our current “arrangement” isn’t good enough anymore and why I was trying to change the “routine.”
I introduced some positive reinforcements to use the potty, and he doesn’t understand why he doesn’t get them all “now.”
It caused anxiety that his routine was changed. And he doesn’t understand what is going on. Life became complicated, when it was previously simple.
So… meltdown.
He slapped me. Multiple times.
Right in the face. And I took it.
I understood his frustration. I felt it too.
He screamed. He cried. I am grateful that he didn’t throw anything this time.
I am grateful that it lasted less than an hour.
But he calmed down after a while and just sat in my lap as I lay collapsed, exhausted on the kitchen floor.
And after a while, and a few deep breaths, he got back up, ready to face the world.
Sometimes we celebrate victories, but sometimes, autism is just… hard.