I’ve been looking for a couple of years now for a cannabis oil company in Australia who I can legally and medically access. As in, in conjunction with Beth’s doctors as I don’t want to trial something when I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’ve read that there are huge benefits to using it and I love the idea that Beth could wean off of her medication if her anxieties are lessened.
Beth’s anxiety (to me anyway) is the root of her autism. Her behaviours have always stemmed from anxiety. Her fight or flight response, her ‘ruling the house’ behaviour, all of it stems from sensory sound issues and the anxiety of the possibility of hearing a noise or being startled by something that has happened before.
The other issue is that if these things aren’t discovered and stopped right at the beginning then Beth just reacts more and more and the original issue is either forgotten or irrelevant.
Take for example her elephant issue. When she was a toddler she loved Sesame Street. During the show she occasionally would run out of the room for a minute then back in. I really didn’t think that much of it. Over time though these leaving the room incidents got longer and longer. After a while she stopped watching Sesame Street. Then it started happening in ads. This is in the old days where ABC Kids were only on until 10am. This was my time out and she was doing my head in! As we know, the ads are frequent on ABC kids. There might be a 5 minute show, an ad, another 5 minute show and so on. She’d be peaking around the door to see. By the time Bill came along she had basically abandoned watching ABC kids at all. Then all of a sudden she got like it with Channel 10! I realised what the problem was but it stemmed so far back! There was an ad on 10 that had people pressing buttons as if on the screen of the TV. And one of them made an elephant noise. Long story short, Beth was avoiding ABC kids in case there was an ad for Sesame Street, in case Oscar the Grouch was in the ad, in case Oscar’s pet elephant was in the ad, in case Oscar’s pet elephant made the trumpeting elephant sound! OMFG!
I was so pleased that I realised what it was. We took a trip to the zoo, along with ear muffs and ear plugs and visited the elephants. This was a few years after the original issue and Beth actually didn’t have a problem with the noise anymore. So I could talk to her about this, saying how good it was that she was good with the elephant noises because it meant that she could share Sesame Street with Bill and Bridie so they could all enjoy it together. I was careful not to let her know that she was scared of it as I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.
She is still like this with her obsessions. Paul has had a cough for years, we’re really not sure what it is. Beth noticed this not long after Dad died and was really worried about him. This has now developed into an avoidance of Paul in the sense that she wants him to stop making any noises and every night comes out to the lounge to tell him to take his medicine, that she’ll run him a bath, that she’ll get him a drink of water. Often in tears. I suggested that he sees a specialist as it’s continual, and he now has a referral, but of course nothing is open due to lockdown. It’s sweet of her but it’s also really draining as it happens every night.
Anyway, sorry to go on! My point is that I want to do something to lessen her anxieties which of course compound her behaviours and affect her life in so many other ways. Hence the cannabis search. Doctors are loathe to research it at this early stage within Australia, except for in some cases, epilepsy, which it has shown can make such a huge difference. Of course advances in other countries mean that it’s commonly used for individuals with anxiety and autism. I did get some drops which helped a little but I don’t know the correct doses, nor how to transition her from her medication to only the drops.
Recently I’ve started selling for a new company. It’s the type of thing that I can do from home, it’s selling the products and gaining my own reps to then do the same. It’s what they call a side hustle! I have done party plan type selling in the past, because I love a product, but I hated the party side of things, going out at night, doing presentations, all of it really made my own anxieties arise and made me feel quite ill. I decided that I’d try some of the products for myself first, then if they worked I would then promote the actual products while trying new ones, taking it slowly. I didn’t want to be selling something that I didn’t actually know if it worked or not. One is a mask to help my skin and lessen wrinkles which is divine, I absolutely love it! The other is a daily drink to help calm anxieties, stress and mental alertness. I’ve really noticed a huge difference in myself. The things that annoy me so much about people (read husband!) and situations don’t annoy me as much anymore. Don’t get me wrong, they still really shit me, but I just don’t care as much now and certainly don’t react in the same way as I used to. The whole house is calmer as a result. Which got me thinking, I wonder if it would help with Beth? So…. I gave her her first drink yesterday and she really enjoyed it. Hopefully in a few days I’ll notice a difference. If it works with her like it has with me it will be amazing. If not I’ll be so disappointed but at least I’ve tried. There are other products that I would like to try with Beth also, but I’ve always been one to do one thing at a time with her. Otherwise, how will I know which thing has actually helped her!
So… hopefully I will be back on here again in a few days to tell you all about how well she is doing! Have a great weekend everybody! x
