About The Blog

Why Unearthing Sunshine? Sam is struggling. In 2018, at the age of 20 Sam was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Since Sam was diagnosed as an adult, we have not been able to find much support. In the summer of 2021 she was diagnosed with an eating disorder and her doctors recommended inpatient treatment. A year later, she is now at the top of the waitlist at UHN for their inpatient program with no other options for treatment due to her low weight and difficulties with communication. Finding support through the public health care system has been difficult to say the least. Now we are attempting to begin the path to recovery on our own. So far, we find listening to and reading about the experiences of individuals going through similar experiences extremely helpful and would like to pay it forward by contributing our own experiences. On this blog we will be writing about our experiences from both an affected individuals point of view and a caregiver’s point of view. We are not professionals, but hope that our stories will help you and others experiencing similar struggles.

Unearthing. We know Sam has Autism but nothing more. It’s time we discover how Sam is affected by Autism and what can be done to make her life better. It’s also time to explore her mental illnesses. What is causing her anxiety, depression and anorexia, and what can be done to heal from that. We are beginning the path to recovery and will be unearthing all that is Sam from the burden of her mental illnesses.

Sunshine. Sam is full of pain, fear, and self-doubt but underneath all that she is a wonderful human being. It’s time to build Sam’s confidence and self-acceptance so she can break free of her mental illnesses and contribute to the world. We will be working on helping Sam become her best self so that she can shine with radiance like the sun and bring light to the lives of others.

About us

Hi, I’m Sam!
I’m an only child from Canada living with my wonderful parents and my beautiful cat Sparkly. As a teen I suffered from social anxiety and selective mutism. After not making many gains in therapy, at the age of 20, I was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (mild/moderate severity). More recently, I gradually lost a significant amount of weight and developed Anorexia Nervosa. Now that I have hit rock bottom, It’s time to start recovery and learn more about who I am. I hope sharing my story will help others who are themselves, or know someone who is, dealing with similar experiences.

Besides being a growing collection of labels, I am an undergraduate university student taking a major in animal biology with a minor in neuroscience. I also ride horses and have an amazing job where I get to work with them everyday. Some other things I love include animals, nature, fantasy novels, art, fruit, and dark chocolate. People often describe my personality as shy, calm, introverted, perfectionistic, sensitive, and eager to please. I enjoy helping others and making people happy but sometimes my anxiety gets in the way. Hopefully, this blog helps me gain confidence and accomplish those goals.

Hi I am Wendy.

I was born and raised in Sault Ste Marie Ontario where I played Soccer, curled and enjoyed art. I decided at a young age that I wanted to be a graphic artist. I went to Humber College, got my degree and stayed in the Toronto area to start my career. I am married to a wonderful guy named Bob and we have one child, Sam. We now live in a rural area north of Toronto where I ran my own business for about 25 years. My business wound down close to the time I was needed as a caregiver for my dad. As work and time demands changed I took a part time job at a retail store where I now work full time.

As for my traits, I like challenges and change, hate doing things twice, the third time is super annoying. I start many tasks at the same time, hop around back and forth from one to the other leaving many unfinished. I am horrible at time management and often misplace things like my keys, coffee and glasses.. I love pockets in my clothes, what is weird is how I use them. If I take something out of a pocket, when I put it back, it never goes into the same pocket. So, I even lose things in my own pockets - LOL. I am not a planner or scheduler, my daughter is good at that. I enjoy the outdoors, gardening, crafts, gaming, and when I have time, reading. There are all sorts of other things that I have enjoyed in the past and hope one day to get back to them. One of my biggest joys in life has been raising my daughter. We have faced many challenges together. From her social anxiety and selective mutism to her autism diagnosis and now we face a new challenge with her eating disorder. We have had a hard time navigating our public health system to get the help we need therefore from time to time, we've reached out to private therapies and the internet for help along the way. Other people's stories have been very inspiring and helpful to us and that is why we have decided to share our own story.