As a combat veteran and the father of a young child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), I laughed when I read an article about ASD moms experiencing stress levels comparable to soldiers in combat. This isn’t about moms versus dads, many of us are in the trenches together. I laughed at the comparison to stress, because there is none.
At no point in my military career did I feel stress like I do as an ASD dad. There were stressful events, sure, but there were always elements of control at my disposal that provided me with an avenue of establishing dominance.