I have asked myself this question so many times in what felt like weak moments.

There are parts of this autism motherhood road I have accepted will not get any easier. There is no way to dull the pain you feel while watching your child battle big things, things no child should have to face. The anxiety, rigidity, and emotions they cannot make sense of or verbalize. Their frustration channeled into self-injurious behaviors. 

When your child hurts, you hurt. Try as I may, I cannot come up with the words to describe the feeling of seeing my son hurt himself out of frustration.  When there is nothing left for him to do except scream at the top of his little lungs, the words he needs consistently trapped deep inside of him. I picture our developed brains something like a smoothly running interstate, while my son’s is an entanglement of traffic jams, dead ends, and one-way streets.  A never-ending, exhausting road. 

Admitting the difficult, to yourself or others, is not weak. 

That is where you learn to grow, adapt, and summon up your strength and resilience.

Whatever your struggle is right now, keep at it. Lean on others, talk about it.

You will grow stronger.