An autistic woman is expected to need therapy for as long as she continues having parents, it has been reported.
Ellie Mulligan, 29, has been going to therapy ever since she learned that other people don’t feel terrible all the time. Although she has made excellent progress since then, each visit to her parents’ house threatens to send her spiralling back to her undiagnosed, misunderstood childhood self.
Mulligan said: “I told my mum I was going to therapy and she said I probably wouldn’t need it if I stopped listening to Evanescence,” continued Mulligan. “I explained that I have a lot of unresolved emotional issues to work on, and then Dad jumped in and told me I couldn’t blame it all on my parents. Funnily enough, he also suggested that I blame Evanescence.”
“Then Mum launched into a heartwarming tale of how she was once depressed like me, until she summoned some special boomer magic to shove it all into the deepest recesses of her psyche and let her emotional baggage lay dormant until she could have some kids to take it out on. Alright, I’m paraphrasing a bit.”
“Just as Dad began to ask whether I was ‘still calling myself autistic’, Mum got out the family photo album to show me all the pictures she’d taken of me crying at birthday parties.”
Mulligan’s therapist, Ryan Wilkins, said: “I’m not sure how much more of this I can take.”
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