Tags
Anxiety, Asperger's Syndrome, Community, Depression, family, friends, gofundme, growing up, life, Pregnancy, Support
This is Cathia and if you were to meet her, you would say she is just like any other girl you may have met. Well to a degree, yes she is just like any other girl, she looks just like you would expect a young girl of twenty to look. However unlike like most girls Cathia has Asperger’s. So how does that make her any different? Well for Cathia the world doesn’t occur the same as it does for you and me. For Cathia some of the filters that we have that control our thoughts, emotions, feelings and bodily sensations are not there. Therefore most of the times she is not able to put a block on all the stimulus her mind and body is receiving from the world around her. Social situations that most people find enjoyable, Cathia finds overwhelming and chaotic.
Cathia was diagnosed with Asperger’s when she was about nine and from that time she has lived her life like any other young girl would, but for Cathia she knew the world was not quite the same for her as other girls her age. And the older she got the scarier the world became and the less we saw of her youthful free spirit.
Challenges she has had to face in life have been numerous. These include things like learning to live in the world and not use Asperger’s as an excuse. Not knowing how to explain to her friends what she is feeling and thinking and also not seem like a drama queen. Dealing with being a teenager and the emotional roller coaster ride that is, whilst coping with all the added pressure of completing 12 years of education and confronts of teachers, friends and work colleagues not understanding what it is like to feel and experience the world the way someone with Asperger’s does.
Now another new and exciting chapter of life has now begun for Cathia. She is pregnant with her first child and with that she is not only experiencing the unpredictability of her Asperger’s but she is also experiencing the new found world of baby hormones as the ups and downs associated with having a child growing inside her. Being pregnant and having a baby, especially for a first time
mum, can be a turbulent time, let alone feeling that no one understands you. So to support Cathia and her partner Mitch, a Facebook Community group “Operation Baby Drop” has be established to give them the reassurance that they is not alone and that they has the support of family and friends around them. As a community “Operation Baby Drop” is raising funds and organising everything they need move into a place of their own before their baby is born.
Today I am telling only a small part of Cathia’s story, however there are many young women just like her who have their own story, young women who are struggling to live with depression, anxiety or any of the number of other social disorders. We never know to look at someone what his or her story is, however as human beings we can be very quick to judge others and unless we intimately know another human being we cannot profess to know what it is like to be that person. “Operation Baby Drop” is not only the opportunity to assist Cathia and her partner but there is a greater opportunity to provide support for others young girls and couples dealing with pregnancy and a social disorder, anxiety or depression to feel supported and not to feel they have to do it on their own and to know there is somewhere they can get the support they need from the community.
Further to this I invite you to be generous with the people in your life, take the time to get to know them, connect with them, discover them all over again like you were only just meeting them for the very first time. Time is far too short and life is way too precious to live any other way.
JJ