I remember Anna's earlier threads very well. Shortly before her speech patterns had changed, she'd expressed concerns about power of attorney, about her family's attitude towards her and her condition, about possibly being committed against her will.. So I wondered if she was in some terrible institution that had given her the wrong meds, or if she'd had a bad reaction to electroshock therapy, had destructive epileptic seizures (not uncommon among the autistic and Anna has referred to having had seizures), had a traumatic brain injury, or some combination thereof.

But with Anna's apparently more limited vocabulary and sentence structuring I didn't want to make her feel badly by pushing her to attempt to communicate about these more complicated situations I perceived could be happening. I felt helpless but wanted to be supportive.

I hope you know, Anna, or will realize, that your own personality would have garnered you as much attention on this site, and perhaps even more quality attention. Many of us struggle just to keep our spirits up, and anyone being here with a good word and a sense of optimism brings us joy. I try to apply myself in helping people in the best ways I know how to do, and it's not as much as many more generous people than myself on here, but I've felt many times the appreciation of others, as I've expressed to others my appreciation of them. I don't think there's better attention than that, and it's available to everyone on here.

Also, regarding your last post.. I think you can tell people what you're looking for; one sees that happening all the time on here. People will say "I just need support right now" "I just need hugs right now" "this is what I can handle", and people tend to be pretty respectful of those requests if they've understood them.

On the one hand, I'm quite glad to hear that you lied in that it means that you haven't sustained the types of injury and damage I'd worried you had. On the other hand it's a lot to adjust to, stirs feelings in people about other times they've been lied to, felt duped, etc. I hope we can all find growth and opportunity in working through the various feelings it has brought up, so that it can become something positive.