Chapter 37 Chapter 37 [VIP]
Megan’s previous dilemma was that she couldn’t respond because of that barrier——
The stars tried to protect their children, making them unable to hear, see, or answer, unable to perceive or recognize evil, so that they would never be hurt. However, they forgot that when they were plucked from the sky and fell to the earth to become human children, the barriers trapped them instead, making them aliens among the crowd.
Even though they cannot feel evil and will not be hurt by it, they are unable to perceive good emotions and things.
When a solid barrier is erected between the star children and the mortal world, "protection" has transformed into an obstacle, preventing them from truly entering this world and making them immersed in their own world, but there is nothing there and it is too lonely.
But this loneliness is just what people think. Autistic children themselves do not feel lonely because their world is small and empty, and they do not have the rich thoughts that ordinary people have. Their thinking and cognitive abilities are limited, and they don’t even have any associations with many things in the outside world.
For them, the only way to feel safe and comfortable is to stay in their own small world. Instead, they refuse to change and break this barrier. At the same time, they are easily stressed and resist the environment and things they fear. However, because they cannot accurately recognize and express themselves, their fear becomes severe and very painful.
Autism cannot be cured, but through intervention and guidance in children's early years, their thinking, cognition, comprehension and behavior patterns will gradually converge with those of normal people.
That barrier needs help from the outside world to slowly melt away, and sick children cannot get better immediately. This process requires sufficient patience and time.
Megan is similar, except her parents are very different.
The Joker has complete ownership of her. Although he always thinks he is patient and pretends to be gentle and amiable, he is not a really good father after all. He just wants to have fun with Megan, so he manipulates her at will and wants her condition to get better.
That was too simple! He knew the child's problem too well. She was timid and cowardly, and was extremely afraid of the outside world. Once her barriers were shaken, she would suffer the pain brought about by resistance. Of course, there was another small problem in her core, which was her yearning for death.
Escape from pain, escape from fear, escape from this strange and unsettling world...
While the clown was taking care of Megan, he gave her enough time to get familiar with him and deepen her impression and understanding of him, so it was not the child who was completely unaware of the outside world who believed his lies.
As expected, as he expected, after he destroyed the barrier, Megan seemed unable to recognize the perpetrator and placed everything she had on him, trying to get salvation from him and to be recognized by him so that she could exist in this world.
He is her lifeline and the only person she can rely on.
This foolish child was deceived by him, relying on trust and ignorantly believing herself to be his child and to be protected by him. Now sitting in a taxi, she was afraid of the outside world, so she hid herself between his arms and chest, trying to escape and unwilling to face it. She could only rely on him.
The character played by the Joker, Arthur Damon, is a good father. He gently patted Megan's shoulders and soothed her emotions.
"Meghan, I'm so glad you responded to me... Don't be afraid, I'm here." He would always be by her side, bringing her things that were good enough and new to wake her up from her confusion and pain.
Arthur leaned over and kissed the top of Megan's head.
Dick watched them interact in the rearview mirror, and a sincere smile appeared on his handsome young face. He was happy to see the deep affection between the father and daughter, not to mention that his young daughter's condition was improving right before his eyes.
Even after the bungee jumping incident, Megan's problems seemed to be more serious, and she even had somatization symptoms. However, compared to her initial appearance of completely isolating herself and ignoring everything, being able to cry and call out now is actually a huge improvement.
In the car, Arthur whispered his gratitude to Dick several times. Although he was a low-level person in Gotham, he retained an extremely rare simple personality. It was just that he was still a little awkward when dealing with people. It was obvious that in the past, there were few times when he needed to maintain dignity, decency and politeness.
However, when settling the fare, Arthur was quicker than Dick. However, there was a small incident. If Dick had not taken back the money he was about to pay in time, it might have been taken away by the driver who was openly trying to take advantage of the situation.
He did not compete with Arthur who was unwilling to take advantage of him. After all, he knew that the Damon family had received funding from the Special Children's Care Fund established by the Wayne Group. This was achieved in a short period of time after he urged Bruce. Even the personal funding Bruce gave them included some of his pocket money.
But Dick still went with them to the hospital to register Megan, and when they needed to go to the window to pay, he took Arthur's card to run errands for them.
The security in Gotham City is better than usual today, and there has been no crime that requires him to disguise himself to fight, so he has been in the hospital, watching Megan undergo examinations.
But he has actually resigned as Robin and will continue to be active in Gotham... Thinking of these things, Dick couldn't help but reveal a subtle expression. He hasn't reconciled with Bruce yet, and he didn't even tell Bruce when he came back this weekend. Of course, Alfred must know, and they all kept it a secret from Bruce.
While helping Arthur and getting along with him, he noticed Arthur's restraint, but with his superb social skills, he was able to get along well with him.
The good relationship here refers to——
Arthur didn't shy away from letting him see Megan's test results.
Because the waiting time for registration and queuing at the hospital is too long, and doctors do not pay much attention to patients' psychological and mental problems, all examinations and diagnoses are only slightly passable. If you really want to get good treatment, you need to find a professional institution, but the cost is also very different.
And Gotham is not very welcoming to good psychiatrists... When they come to Gotham with a reputation, they are easily criticized, such as being helpless against the crazy people in Gotham and being unable to provide any feasible and effective solutions. Especially the psychiatrists stationed in Arkham Mental Hospital, although their salaries are very high and are at a high level in the industry, the doctors' personal safety is easily threatened.
If you don't want to be visited by a mentally ill criminal, it's best not to be too professional. This is the most pertinent advice circulating in the Gotham psychology community.
Megan's examination only included the most basic items. Her brain function was obviously abnormal, and the rating scale has certain errors. Different doctors sometimes give different results.
The doctor was hesitant when filling out the questionnaire, but he did not feel guilty when calculating the results. He must have thought that he was only treating an autistic child and had no use for the knowledge taught to him by his senior colleagues in the department.
According to the final examination results, Megan's condition is still autism, and the degree is still quite severe, but it is a good sign that she is no longer isolating herself. She may need to take medication in the near future to control her depression and somatic symptoms. She looks like she has a headache, shortness of breath, tachycardia, chest tightness and palpitations. At least she needs medication to control these obvious symptoms and not make her feel too uncomfortable.
You should know that adults who suffer from anxiety or depression are sometimes affected by somatization and develop hypochondriacal symptoms. If they cannot be suppressed, somatization and negative emotions will affect each other, which will only make the whole situation worse.
The doctor prescribed some medicine for Megan, halving the adult dosage, but asked Arthur to reduce it by half again, starting with a small amount, to avoid the drug having too much impact on the child. Usually, the first dose will cause side effects. The drug can suppress depression, but... it is not necessarily good for the body, and sometimes it will aggravate somatization symptoms.
The medications he prescribed were very restrained, avoiding those with greater side effects.
At the hospital entrance, Dick said goodbye to Damon and his daughter. The young man with black hair and blue eyes was enthusiastic, helpful, and tactful, and did not ask too many questions throughout the whole process.
Perhaps it was because he helped them that the smile on his face was filled with satisfaction. After saying goodbye to Arthur, he squatted down and talked to Megan considerately. He did not ignore the silent child. Seeing that her eyes were no longer empty, he could not help but gave her a brighter smile.
She was completely different from what she looked like when he first found her. At that time, she was sick with a high fever and in physical pain, but she did not express any emotions or feelings, and was waiting for death.
Now Megan looked back at him casually and cautiously. She was resisting communicating with others, so Dick looked at her and did nothing more. After standing up, he said "goodbye" again this time. Even though it was to Arthur, they both knew who this goodbye was for.
After he left, Arthur took Megan back to their 'home' and asked her to take the medicine as prescribed by the doctor, but the side effects of the medicine on Megan were extremely serious.
Palpitations, dizziness, tachycardia, stomach pain and acid reflux, insomnia, auditory hallucinations, vomiting...
Megan was not feeling well at all after being bothered by the side effects for the entire day. The medicines couldn't relieve the pain, and she still wanted to die.
Her headache was so severe that tears welled up on her face. She stood in the corner, banging her head against the wall mechanically like a broken machine.
It was as if an invisible axe had split her head open and was constantly stirring inside. Her scalp and skull ached, and the nerves in her brain were all being torn apart violently like musical strings, making her want to throw her head away.
While she was struggling in pain, the Joker watched her coldly and boredly. However, when Megan wanted to hurt herself further, he took out a pill and said to her with a smile: "Look how pitiful you are..." But how could he have a trace of pity?
With a crazy and twisted smile on his face, he asked her coaxingly, "Want to eat it? But maybe you will die?" Obviously, the latter sentence was an unlikely assumption and there was no humor in it.
The Joker looked at Megan, whose head was still against the wall. She was trying to understand his words, but when choosing whether to believe him or not, she looked at him with tears in her eyes, and the Joker naturally would not give her even the slightest comfort like he did during the day.
He had never concealed his malice, but when Megan looked him in the eye, he responded instinctively, as if without even thinking.
Megan slowly propped herself up, staggering due to dizziness, but walked in front of him without hesitation, tilted her head, waiting for him to feed her the pills in his hand. She was surprisingly obedient and did not intend to break free from his control.
Obviously, in her eyes, there was nothing but the meaningless and ridiculous "love". That was all she had, the only thing she could give to him and the only thing she could express.
The author has something to say:
Some people look like bad dads, but they already have their little pills ready (pointing and pointing)
The description of autism in the article may not be accurate. Although I have looked up some information, I am not a professional and do not have a deep understanding of it.
Regarding the pain Megan felt in the previous chapter (thinking), for example, if it is just a small thing, even if ordinary people resist, they can generally control their emotions, comfort themselves, and help themselves adapt. They will not take extreme actions and will only be annoyed for a while;
But autistic children cannot control themselves. They are born with defects, and the world they can perceive and understand is extremely small. A small thing will be regarded as an unbearable big thing. So when they experience pain due to resistance, it will be more painful than ordinary people.
What the clown did to Megan was to forcibly drag her out from behind the barrier (comfort zone). Adults will resist pain, and autistic children like Megan will only suffer more. Moreover, the clown's method is too rough, and the child must have been stressed and uncomfortable, leading to the problems that follow.
Most antidepressant and anti-anxiety drugs have serious side effects on the body. Sometimes there will be some minor problems when you first start taking the drugs. You may feel more uncomfortable taking the drugs than not taking them. You should also be careful about drug dependence, otherwise the withdrawal reaction after stopping the drugs will also be very painful.
Everyone should be happy, healthy and joyful~
Thanks to the little angels for the moonstones! I received them! (Xiong Er's voice)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
