Princess is one tired young lady tonight. She went horseriding today and yesterday went to the gym. The horseriding is amazing - it is with an association called Riding for the Disabled and Princess's horse is called Forest. The gym is a modified gym session just for people with disabilities. Like anyone, Princess functions so much better when she is eating well and exercising. When she isn't being looked after in this essential way, her equilibrium is really out of whack and her frustrations can cause her to self-harm. This can take the form of poking herself in her eye, hitting herself in the head, or biting the back of her hand. This is accompanied by guttural screaming. How absolutely powerless I feel when Princess is hurting herself!! It is the worst thing ever to witness your child wanting to do damage to themselves. It is always frustration that causes Princess to do this, but the frustration can come from a shadow on the wall disturbing Princess, the wrong sounds, the wrong temperature in a room, the wrong feel of her clothes against her skin or a hundred other unknown "things that are wrong". And as powerless as Princess feels in her world to understand our "normal" world, we feel just as powerless in trying to work out what it is in her world that so upsets her and then how to soothe and settle her.
Water is a great soother - a bath is ideal. If a DVD is on, take it off and put some music on. Physically remove Princess from the environment she is in and get her out into the fresh air. This is easier said than done, as she is as strong as an ox and stubborn, as well as being way taller than me, her 156cm Mum. But we can usually soothe her and bring some order back into her world - and in so doing, back into our world too.
More later.
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