This month you can see, hear and read anything and everything related to autism. Just eleven years ago when my son was diagnosed very few people had heard of autism much less considered giving it its own day or month. Wow how time flies. Eight years ago we just wanted people to understand what autism is and is not. Fast forward to 2009 and we now have upped the anti to demanding, answers, help, options and appropriate care for our loved ones. Autism is everywhere, being discussed and debated in our home town coffee shops, airports, churches and government offices. Saying that autism is pervasive in our lives and society is an understatement.

The pervasiveness of autism reaches far beyond the condition of the individual who is diagnosed. It can become pervasive in each family member's life. It can dictate where you go, what you spend your money on, the people you associate with as well as your political party. I vaguely remember my life before autism. The person I am today is very different from that young mother of three who envisioned that parenting would consist of soccer games and asking my children which friends they played with at school as I helped them finish the days homework. It was as if one day I woke up to find that I no longer was that mother wearing rose colored glasses but a woman who had become an advocate, professional, speaker, nutritionist, and political activist. My life, like many of yours had a cosmic shift that radically transformed the very center of my universe and what my life revolved around. The days activities are no longer decided by what guest will be on Oprah. The transformation process for myself started with the simple Idea that my son could get better and his quality of life could improve. That little mustard seed of hope began to grow with each parent, professional, physician or new therapy I came in contact with. As a parent looking for answers I became a parent who wanted to share answers. I wanted to shout from the roof tops information that I had found that had significantly impacted my child's life so that other families could come to know the options that were available to them.

While society has had a crash course on autism in a relatively short amount of time so have many of you and your immediate families. Many of you have taken courses from the school of hard knocks in law, medicine, therapeutic interventions, sign language, and data collection. You have waged wars with your insurance companies, fought for a "free and appropriate education" with your school district as you explain to family and friends the reasons for special diets, nutritional supplements and why your child works a 20-40 hours a week matching cards. Whether you have gone down the road of one or one hundred and one different paths searching for answers for your child eventually, autism becomes pervasive in all nareas of your life and in ways you would have never imagined. If you feel at times that everything in your life revolves around autism, join me as I blog on the ins and out, ups and downs of autism and the impact it has in politics, biomedical interventions, education, research, children, work and relationships. Don't feel overwhelmed, feel empowered that you are not alone.