April is Autism Awareness Month, but for families affected by autism this is kind of a joke. Because we are aware of autism every second of every day, all year long. And it feels like the world lights in up blue in April and gets all lovey dovey for our kids and then everything goes right back to normal (whatever that is for us) when the month is over.

Blue lights don’t address our kids’ medical issues. They don’t keep them from being bullied. They don’t prevent them from wandering and drowning. They don’t make their lives any better. They don’t pay the medical bills. I wrote about this last year too.

I don’t want to seem negative – I really don’t. I think there are great things about raising awareness…

The Blessings

Awareness Breeds Compassion

There are plenty of positives that go along with featuring individuals with autism on TV and talking about autism in general. For one thing, it helps teach compassion. I believe that if there are conversations about autism, there will be more acceptance. Hopefully this can lead to friends and neighbors, children and teachers rallying around the autism community, offering kindness, support, love and protection. Hopefully this will mean less cruelty, less bullying, less misunderstanding, and less negative judgement.

My Favorite Autism Organization

It also gives me the opportunity to promote Talk About Curing Autism (TACA). This organization offers more direct support to families affected by autism than any other autism organization. From the time of our initial autism diagnosis through today, TACA has helped my family so much. And the outpouring of love and support from our friends and family every year truly warms my heart. This post is not about asking for money, but if you’d like to learn more about our story and how TACA helps families, you can view our video below and our Team Christopher page. I also ask you to direct any families you know who are affected by autism to TACA so that they can get started using TACA’s (almost all FREE) resources right away!

Telling Our Stories

And, like last year I’ll be writing about Autism on this blog. TACA’s theme this year is Autism Unfiltered. This is perfect because it is so important that people understand the realities of autism, even when they aren’t so pretty. I’ll be sharing some of our story, as well as the stories of other fellow autism parents. You’ll hear expert advice (from the real experts – parents who live autism every day) about life with autism. And, most importantly, I’ll be keeping it real and unfiltered.

The Curse

But it’s not all rosy of course. There’s a downside of blue lights everywhere and children and muppets with autism on TV. The most severe forms of autism that many families are living with are rarely portrayed. So, to an extent their struggles are minimized. The public might be left thinking that it’s not so bad, it’s very common, and it’s always been around. Not that big a deal – move along. The problem is that families affected by autism can’t just move along. So, when April ends and the blue lights are off, we are still in the trenches, still struggling.

So, go ahead and plug in a blue light to show support. But please only do that if you are somehow actually showing support. The blue light needs to be a symbol of action – not the action. Because on its own it does nothing.