I know I may be viewed as still young but at the moment I just feel like I'm at the top of the hill and all I can see is the way down. Parents getting older, relatives dying, children getting past cute stage and into tricky teenage years, cost of living rising, health problems starting, lives not turning out the way most of us planned, single friends feeling lonely and left out now everyone isn't at the pub all the time, friends struggling with fertility and not having age on their side anymore.
I just feel so tired and stressed and I don't know how to cope when things get so much harder. My dd has autism and already there are so many heartbreaking moments when she is really distressed or senses her own difference. I can only imagine these are going to get more extreme. A friend of mine has a dd with autism who self harms frequently and it is all consuming, the worry that she will actually succeed with hurting herself severely. I see so many similar traits in my DD ( the lack of confidence and sensitivity).
And then there's my son who I worry for, being a man and whether he will end up one of the few good ones. The constant worry that something I am doing now will cause him to go off the rails or resent me. How do people cope?