When it has come to blogging about Courtney and her autism, I have been an open book for the most part. I also have shared a lot about Alyssa and her struggles with food allergies and anxiety. Recently I have been struggling with how much to share especially as we continue to navigate through this difficult phase with Alyssa and her anxiety, I’ve questioned if maybe I’m too much of an open book? Should I respect their privacy?

Whenever I start to lean towards, maybe I should share less, things get tough and I find I’m missing the one outlet I have found helpful…blogging.

So here’s the situation that’s weighing on my mind and heart. As Alyssa continues to go through some intense struggles at school, she is slowly starting to open up about some of the things that are making school hard. It breaks my heart to hear some of these things and I hope I can find the way to help her through it.

Alyssa has a sensitivity to noises. She has verbally shared with us noises aren’t just annoying, they hurt her ears. I can’t type on a computer next to her, I can’t sing a single note next to her, she gets startled by the slightest noise. The list goes on. This isn’t just a little annoyance. This is a disability. Unfortunately, we spend our days surrounded by different noises. There is no way to protect her from all noises. We will figure it out. Her team that we have been forming at school have been very supportive as we work through this. I just hope we can figure it out before it starts hurting friendships and school work.

We will get to the root of what is going on during this intense phase with Alyssa. I don’t think the noises are all of it. But as I have done and continue to do for Courtney, I will also do for Alyssa. Advocate like hell until she is happy and successful as she deserves to be.