Oh my goodness!! Antsmom!!! How wonderful to "see" you again. And I'm so pleased to read about your son. It sounds quite similar to mine, with oppositional defiance disorder, and substance abuse, and all the rest. I remember that our greatest problem from age four and a half to thirteen and a half was the encopresis. And how I at some stage realised that I just had to love him as much as I could, even though things were so complicated. Over the years we have had a complicated relationship because how can a person NOT be damaged emotionally if no one wants to be near him because he simply smells awful. But somehow he and I have remained close, and to this day there is a lot of love being expressed between us. I realise now that I have been his anchor, his "safe place." And amazingly, his relationship with his father, my husband, is not bad now, and even quite good.
I'll have to remember that "Sunlight" is "Antsmom."
Love, Esther
