My daughter was born with Down syndrome and has a co-diagnosis of autism. It has always been a challenge to find “the village” of people I needed to support me and her as she grew and had a variety of health needs. Finding practitioners who believe in “safe, gentle, natural” modalities of care is not always easy.
The main thing is to find the right resources. There are plenty of mediocre and bad ones out there. I’ve found that social media is an excellent start for talking with similarly minded parents, like on Facebook.
There were a multitude of groups that included down syndrome as there were autism and even one that included both as a dual diagnosis site. Many friends have found comfort in numbers who share similar challenges.
Online groups, such as a Yahoo group, is another fantastic resource for posting questions. A large audience can often solve difficult problems. When our daughter had infantile Spasms, I didn’t know what I was looking at. I belonged to a healthy babies group and one suggestion was to go to YouTube and search for seizures and review what types there were. Bingo! It took me awhile, but I did and then I was empowered to make some calls. One of those calls was to a referral who shared with me, “Don’t come in to our office. Go to the emergency room and tell them she is having seizures. If you do, you’ll skip the entire process of trying to make a neurology appointment and lose valuable time getting her treated. Every seizure is a seizure that could cause brain damage.”
With every new medical adventure we faced, we looked for faster ways to find better resources and the internet was a great start. Back then, I don’t believe Yelp was around, and I knew my daughter needed a new set of eyes on her that was five star. I reached out to so many people by email and phone, I finally felt like I knew the “Who’s Who” in San Diego County. It wasn’t long before doctors, alternative medicine folks and other healer-types were calling me for referrals for patients and clients. I had met and worked with such a variety of people, I had my top-five go to people and was very happy.
It takes a conscious community to pull together resources for people who approach their health and well-being with a philosophy of being limitless rather than projecting the common standards of care on people without thought or care for their unique situation. There are many high frequency people in the medical and health and healing world and you can find them.
Reach out to likeminded people. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you are just starting your journey looking for that “something different” start with an intention: “I open to finding the right and perfect people for me now.” Trust that the right people will cross your path and others will share with you. Let go of the ideas you may have about how that might happen. Follow every lead. You never know what wonderful piece of info you will discover and where it may lead you. If you ever have a doubt, do go without.
Warmest wishes on your journey to finding the best resources for you.
