We have told our story a thousand times. We have told our story so many times that it’s almost rote now, no emotion, just fact. It sounds cold, it sounds harsh, but after you tell your story so many times and to so many different people, it begins to feel like you are walking through the desert begging for a drink of water.

Sitting in family therapy, telling our story last month, it became different. We had told our story to the therapist many times. We had given her different pieces of the story and we had spent countless hours explaining the “World According to D.”

This day, however, something clicked. It hit me hard, like finally finding that drink of water in the hot desert, only to find out it was a mirage.

SPD did not start one day, D had dealt with it since the very beginning.

The mirage in our life was that we could go somewhere and our son would be happy, well behaved, and enjoy the outing.

Family therapy that day helped me realize that in those very early days when D was shrieking through the store while I was trying to buy groceries, he was not intentionally misbehaving. He was not trying to draw attention to the fact that I had no control over my child and that I was quite possibly the most frazzled Mama in the store.

D was trying to tell me that he could not handle anymore sensory input. He wanted me to know that he had true pain – physical, emotional, mental. The lights, sounds, and smells were causing sensory overload. It was more than his little body could process. …continue reading