Channel 5 is seeking families with 2 SN/disabled/ill children..

[JESSnutsRoastinOnAnOpenFire]

I am not sure if I am supposed to do this.. but I have a real bee in my bonnet since yesterdays' Radio 5 show about raising disability awareness in a bid to make things less of a constant battle.. and I found this on a forum I go on re cystic fibrosis. I will c & p rather than link because then it is just like word of mouth isn't it!

TV COMPANY SEEKS INSPIRATIONAL MUMS FOR C5 SCIENCE SERIES
Posted: 14-Dec-05 10:03

Channel 5 are developing a TV documentary idea about amazing families for a series of 1 hour films. Each film will chart a family as they deal with the challenges of bringing up two children or more with the same or different medical conditions. The series will aim to raise the profile of these conditions and explain more about what its like to live with them on a day to day basis.

The producer would like to talk to mums about their family's experiences with a view to filming a short taster tape in the next week. The film will not be broadcast at this stage and will take just a couple of hours of your time.

If you are interested, please call Kate on 0207 7493132 or email [email protected]. All conversations are confidential and there is no commitment at this stage.

So.. half against my better judgement I have emailed her. But I'm sure there are more 'amazing' (!) families than mine 'out there' that could do a far better job. I don't relish being filmed.. far from it (Dh seems keener than me oddly! ) but chances are they probably won't use us anyway. But seeing as I have sort of decided I am willing to contact our local news programme about our ongoing housing problem (for my own 'selfish' reasons) then I thought I ought to have a bash at this which would potentially have a more far reaching effect on the general public and maybe change a few attitudes about disabilty.

So if anyone else in the applicable situation fancies it.. email her!

SJ x

thanks jenk...here's my email.... carnohanfamily(at) blueyonder (dot) co (dot) uk

thanks

will email you later when dd has her afternoon nap

MrsF, what a great post about your life and how your own problems/issues (?) affect things. You mustn't feel that you are missing out on trying lots of things, imo you are often better off without trying them but you need to try to feel relaxed about not trying them. The end result is the same! I don't do lots of extra/alternative things with DS and I stopped giving myself a hard time about it years ago and now think that it was the right decision anyway. I hope they choose you as your situation is so interesting. Who will you choose as your body double?

davros- YOU were so supportive to me in the early days on MN....and i totally believe you understand me and how i cannot cope with all the things 'i could do' ... so thanks...i don't think i will ever stop feeling guilty...and though i find it hard with the boys home in the holidays...as i just told jenk...for me to have them home is never as traumatic as the guilt i feel sending them to school...as when they are home i accept full responsibility (too much i am told) ...and within our 4 walls i LOVE my life...it's when it extends to the 'real world'...when i am out of my goldfish bowl...and i cannot be there to deal with EVERY minor problem.

This is finally being linked to OCD/and my keyworker has commented that she can see AS in me...though cos for years i have self taught the same strategies that i now learn are used for ASD...and that was how i coped as a child etc... etc... so maybe i will eventually get the diagnosis (and with it i will feel a sense of relief..as a diagnosis in itself won't bring any extra support...i 'function too well'!!! But at least i'd get to meet others 'like me'.)

So...if i got selected for this programme... though i am scared to death....mainly incase people look in at our life and think it's 'trivial'.....as i know i am so 'lucky' in many ways....
but i would love 'my side of autism' to be seen....i want people to 'see' the HIDDEN disabilities.... i want people to 'wonder' the next time they see a 'normal' 9 yr old child rolling around...screaming...biting....swearing...and not JUDGE... to just wonder if maybe that child CANNOT help it...and just MAYBE the mum has tried all the usual 'suppernanny' methods....

and then tonight as i look around my HOME (which has been an alien place since we knocked down the wall between the lounge and the dining room...meaning that iu now have nowhere downstairs to hide...my whole life is on view...and i have felt terrible since this was done in FEB)...and i see chaos....card making stuff everywhere...getting no pleasure cos i'm noy=t allowing myself the time to indulge...alex and leigh have gone to bed in their school clothes cos i cannot find pyjamas...THEY LOVED IT....shocked me as i expected leigh to moan....but i 'bribed' him by saying he didn't have to brush his teeth (crap mum)...which was for MY benefit cos i cannot stand the upset teethbrushing cause leigh...which is why i don't do bathtimes or teethbrushing...and cos i'm alone 2nite i am sat here typing my heart out rather than doing my sons teeth.

this is the life i want the tv cameras to see... i want to show what it's like to be a bit ASD a bit ADHD...a bit OCD....and anxious....but not enough of any one thing to be diagnosed with a label....so when people ask me why i don't work...and assume i choose to stay at home....that iu find it so hard to answer... a diagnosis would mean i could say "i have THIS"....and feel valid.

sorry to rant on.... i have kept away for minths...i have tried to keep all this to myself...but am bursting at the seems.

co the eal world sees me as the person who talks alot....is funny...has a 'strange' basic sense of humour...but amuses them constantly with her daily mishaps....and they don't notice the fact that i walk along head bowed - scared to see anyone...cannot even look in car windows....but i do go to town sometimes...but cannot be away from home for morethan 2 hours...and cannot do supermarkets duriung the day....

oh well....enough!!!

MrsF, another wonderful and very moving post. I hope typing it out has helped you. I feel so sad that you feel so "not understood" and that you would avoid MN as it hurts too much It wouldn't be the same without you, we need people like you to tell us in your own funny, honest way what life is like for you. OK, all our lives are different and "disordered" but yours is just so unusual and interesting and touching. xxxxx (I don't do hugs but can managed kisses!)

yes posting that heap of thoughts helped alot... i jst feel so autie at the moment... i feel like i am drowning in my own life...which i keep living day in day out..the way the real world expects me to...yet inside i just want to stop.

yet everytime i try to get this through to the psychiatrist all he does is says i am depressed...need higher anti depressants....yet i have 2 children diagnosed autistic... sure i may have adapted well to this planet.... but for goodness sake....why won't they listen to me that i have felt like this ALL my life.

Would i get a private specialist for a proper assement (where i could show my school reports...photos of me as a kid...proof as far as i am concerned....)for under £1000???
as the way i feel now... i would love to spend the day with someone who is prepared to listen...even if cost that much...i know a diagnosis is not guarenteed...nor will much change...but i am so fed up of leading this double life...yet as soon as i mention that THEY think my latest 'idea' is that i am schizophrenic....and honestly i don't feel that... but the mental health team just don't get it.