Ep. 47 Watching Your Autistic, PDA Child Suffer: The Grief, Guilt, and Helplessness Parents Carry
The Regulated ParentShow Notes
Watching your PDA, autistic, or high-needs child suffer can feel heartbreaking, helpless, and deeply overwhelming.
If you're carrying the grief nobody names, start with my free Meaning guide — and finding your way back to yourself: https://www.illuminateu.ca/meaning-guide-podcast
In this episode, I talk openly about the hidden grief parents carry when watching their child struggle with things like fear, shutdown, social isolation, self-harm, burnout, survival mode, and nervous system dysregulation.
I explore:
• why watching your child suffer feels so unbearable • what gets triggered in parents emotionally and neurologically • ambiguous grief and the grief no one talks about • enmeshment, guilt, helplessness, and fear about the future • how grief impacts the nervous system and body • and how to work with this grief without losing yourself inside it
This episode is both deeply personal and deeply validating for parents of PDA, autistic, ADHD, and high-needs children.
→ Click here for the BLOG VERSION
→ FREE RESOURCE: EBOOK + VIDEO SERIES: 7 Steps to Regulated & Resilient Parenting with your hypersensitive, PDA, autistic, ADHD, high-needs child
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