Phab is a success

Last night Ben went to his first Phab meeting (the disabled / physically handicapped club where he's helping out as a volunteer) and had a really great time - which is excellent news when our #1 priority over the current 12 months is to get him out there into the community and help him re-learn all those social skills he used to have before the anorexia hit.


So this week he's done the usual Tuesday morning volunteering as a classroom assistant at his old school, Thursday and Friday mornings in the charity shop and Friday evening at Phab. Plus Thursday evening playing war games at Games Workshop.

And then on Monday we've got our second meeting with the new psychologist to work towards re-entering university next September.

Meanwhile I'm not too sure about Ben's idea about commuting to university next year. Yesterday I did a 'dummy run' because I was meeting a friend in the same city and to be honest I wouldn't want to do that bus + train + tram run every day, especially if I only had one lecture...

A better idea, in my opinion, is to work out some way of Ben living at university with the option to come back home if he needs to, maybe weekends home to begin with. Two of his close friends are starting at the same university in September so there is the possibility that he could get a flat with them which would be a great way to ease him into things.

But, hey, that's a long way off - and things are moving so fast here on the 'everything' front that we can't predict what will happen.

The excellent news is that everything Ben and I agreed when we sat in that little cafe on the second day of university, when Ben pleaded with me to come home, is being done: additional treatment, new social challenges, jobs (albeit voluntary, but who cares) and general independence.

His mood has had some serious dips, but much of this - I think - is because of the length of time it's taken him to fix up voluntary work plus the fact there isn't any paid work out there. He's been round virtually every shop and cafe in our area - and beyond - and there's nothing. And voluntary jobs have taken AGES to get back to him, which is why he's decided to go back to the charity shop, and why I felt that Phab wouldn't be a bad thing to do.

But in general everything is GOOD.