Siobhan Wilcox, in a YouTube vlog, recounts her experience parenting a special-needs child and a severe stress/burnout episode in her mid-20s. She describes the physical, emotional, and spiritual impact, the long recovery process, and the self-care practices (mindfulness, positive affirmations, improved diet, reduced stimulants) that helped her rebuild. She plans to compile these strategies into a book and a health system, invites community connection, and provides contact/website information.
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Siobhan@autismexpertsalliance.com
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Hey everybody, Siobhan Wilcox here. And thank you so much for taking the time to join me this morning. You know, I know how challenging at times parenting a special needs child can be. That's why I started this blog, Parenting Autism Random ra. I really wanted to offer inspiration because I've realized in my own life how important inspiration is. You know, we consider our daily life, we look at it, maybe we don't look at it very often from afar, but I have encouraged myself to observe my own life. Frequently by doing this, I always seem to discover the patterns that I'm running that are no longer serving me, or the ways that I am running that are no longer serving me. And it really serves. You know, in the past I mentioned another video. I suffered from stress burnout in my 24, 25, so long ago I've forgotten the exact date. But I don't forget the symptoms. I haven't forgotten what led up to it. I ran myself as if I was on a hamster wheel. I wouldn't stop. I put everybody's needs before my own needs. I didn't consider myself worthwhile enough to say no to anything very damaging. And eventually it was like I was slammed into a wall with a huge stop sign on it going stooop. Because my body physically would not go on anymore. Emotionally, I became so exhausted I couldn't stop crying. And spiritually I felt detached, isolated, alone. My relationships had suffered greatly because I had really disassociated myself with my friends so that I could try and survive because I only had a limited amount of energy. And I really was plowing that into my work. And I found that it had affected me on all levels. The hardest part for me at that time was to recover the physical. My friendships and relationships were easy enough to recover and pull everybody back in and really apologize and go out and play again. When I stopped, eventually I stopped crying because the crying was because I was so exhausted, so disassociated from my own self needs that it was just this exhausted weeping. I think I cried for 18 hours on the day that I chose to stop or my body chose for me to stop. Stop. But the physical body did not repair as fast as every other part of my life. And it took me many, many, many months and even a couple of years to fully recover it. And I was in my early mid-20s, so I was physically strong. I. I had been very into sport in high school. I still had that energy somewhere in there, that stamina, but I had depleted it to such a level that it was so challenging to rebuild myself. I always felt like the bionic woman. We have the technology, we have the capability. I felt like I needed that bionic team to come in and rebuild me in that time. It was challenging. It was really challenging. I had shot my adrenal glands completely. I had made really poor choices with my diet. Really poor choices. I was smoking and drinking heavily and drinking like seven cups of coffee a day just to keep my energy levels up. But I wasn't keeping my energy levels up at all. I was depleting my energy. I was depleting my adrenal glands. I didn't understand the body, I didn't understand how it worked. And I learned the very hard way. And if I look at photographs of me then, I look younger now. Wasn't hard. I was so exhausted. But I look back at that and I think to myself, how blessed was I? No, I didn't feel that at the time, believe me. But hindsight is wonderful. I look back now and I think I learned so much from that experience. That was such an opportunity for growth. It was such an opportunity to learn new skills, new strategies, to develop my own self worth, to develop life skills that have never left me. And although it was very dramatic financially, very challenging at the time because I needed to literally move back in with my parents. And I had no way of funding myself other than social welfare. It was a wonderful growth opportunity. And now I look back at it as one of the best things that had ever happened to me. I'm healthier than ever. I'm filled with vitality. I no longer run on a hamster wheel. I do like to have a decaf coffee maybe once a day. That's about the height of it. Twice if it's my birthday. It's like woohoo. I've cleaned up my diet, I cleaned up my mind. Most importantly, I repaired my relationships. I am so deeply connected now to God and spirit. And I have a plan. I have strategies to help myself. You know, I have a routine that helps me. Mindfulness meditation that I can do when I'm cooking the breakfast, washing the dishes. I have positive affirmations and self talk that I nurture myself with. I realize that how I am in the world affects everybody else around me because really we're all interconnected. So if I'm a grumpy monkey, well then I'm not helping anybody else around me. Not that I'm not grumpy at times because trust me, I can be still grumpy. But it doesn't stay. It shifts it moves, it filters through fast. It's a much richer living experience than I've ever had before that time. And if I hadn't have had that experience, I think I wouldn't be having this full life rich experience now. And so I've just chosen now to put this into a book. These self care skills to help others. I'm also gathering other people's self care skills too. I'm putting all that in the book too. But I'm really excited in these series of videos to share some of these self care skills with you, to shift consciousness, to show you that even in the midst of a challenge, there is an opportunity for growth. And sometimes you are not aware of it till 10 years later, three months later, whatever it is. But at that time, if you have some skills, some tools in your toolbox to use, you can make a massive difference to your own energy levels, to your own vitality levels, to your own perception of the experience. Which has honestly been my greatest, greatest gifts that I have received along this journey path. So I would love to connect deeper with you. I'd love to know what it is that are your challenges, your opportunities for growth. And if you want to email me, please do. It's Siobhan S I O B H a n@autism expertsalliance.com as always, you can come register at autismexpertsalliance.com I'm in the process of setting up a whole health system which will really bring and unite together a lot of these tools and techniques. And I really think it's going to make a huge difference to people and it's going to be aligned with my book I'm writing. I'm very excited about it and I'm looking forward to introducing you to that as well. So come on, let's get connected, let's talk, let's share because we can inspire each other, we can assist each other, we can help each other together as a community, we can change each other's lives and those around us. So have a wonderful and blessed day. Thank you. Bye bye.
