According to researchers from the University of Washington, parents
of children with disablities such as autism, suffer from high levels of
anxiety, depression, and divorce. Are parents effectively victims of
autism?
An interesting article in today's Seattle P.I. profiles a middle-income family with an autistic son that implies the answer is "yes."
There is no question that parents with kids who are autistic face long waits for diagnosis, insufficient insurance coverage for behavioral treatments, and the extra complications and stressers of caring for a special needs child.
The article provides a sympathetic view of the endless and unenviable tasks many parents who find themselves in this position face each day. To wit:
Children have autism, but parents are often invisible casualties. Their
child's disorder ricochets through their lives, breaking up marriages,
draining bank accounts and robbing them of sleep.
But are parents really victims and invisible casualties of autism? Don't we, as parents, sign up for this when we decide to have children? We deserve sympathy, but do we deserve pity? I'm sure what was intended with this piece was to shed some light on the impact of having an autistic child on parents, but something about the word "victim" rubs me the wrong way.
