VIDEO CONFERENCE: Aggravated?
Are you aggravated far more than you like to be? Does it feel unfair? I mean, after all, your “Aspies” have meltdowns that are full of anger and rage, whether they are simmering in silence, or out-loud yelling at you. Yet if you dare to express even the slightest aggravation about something unbelievable that they are doing, you are accused of “coming unglued.” If this is true for you, you need this video conference to manage the aggravation.
Tell me if you have had similar experiences to those below.
- You and your “Aspie” visit the neighbors, but he fails to see that they have a custom of taking off their shoes at the front door. Instead he wipes his shoes on the little cotton rug inside the door, crumpling the rug in the process. Then he walks in, all smiles, and greets his neighbor by the wrong name. Grrr!
- To save time, you ask your “Aspie” to run into Walgreens and buy one thing, while you herd the children into the grocery store, where you intend to buy several items. You agree to meet back at the car. Back at the car, he is no-where to be found — until you see him wandering around the parking lot in search of the car — because he can never remember where you parked. Grrr!
- Your “Aspie” brings her laptop to your child’s soccer game, because the project is so important it just can’t wait. Then she takes a phone call mid game — and doesn’t excuse herself to make the call — but instead talks loudly on the phone for 20 minutes — disrupting the game and the other families. Grrr!
- Everyone tells you how amazingly wonderful your “Aspie” is because he/she is charming and witty — even though your “Aspie” just let the door slam on you, while you were carrying cupcakes to the soccer awards banquet. Grrr!
Yikes! Even describing these moments makes me aggravated. However, I maintain that anger is a good thing. It is telling you that something important is out of alignment, and it’s time to fix it. Don’t fix them; that’s pointless. But helping to mediate your own anger over this stuff is so important to your mental health. Let’s use this video conference to talk about techniques to keep you going when you want to “strangle ‘em.”
Make sure you have a private place to talk, without interruption. I will send you reminders of this Zoom conference, but if you don’t have your email set to receive the reminders, you may not notice. I would hate to have you miss the call, so make sure you’re able to get my messages.