Raegan's Autism Hug Machine

Meet Raegan.  She is our beautiful, loveable and (at times) very challenging autistic daughter.  Last year we had to make the incredibly difficult decision to move her to a group home designed to better handle some of her most challenging behaviors, in an attempt to keep her and others safe.



This is our wall.  The red is from Raegan's head.  When she is the most stressed, she "bangs" anything she can with full force.  Yes... the red is blood.



This is where she had an behavior on the school bus and nearly bashed the window out.  From hitting her head so many times on anything from walls, tile floors and basically anything she can. 

We have tried helmets, however she removes them and can use it as a weapon.  

We resisted for years going the medicine path and opted for therapy.  When she grew to a size that could start hurting herself and others, we had no choice to take that medicine path.  I can honestly say, it was one of the hardest decisions any parent can make.



As you can see in the above photo, the weight gain from different medicines can be incredibly tough on her body.  Other side effects have been severe eye twitching, lactating, complete stoppage of her menstural cycle among other incredibly difficult things to talk about.



Raegan has a permanent build up on her forehead and on any given day, typically has some scab covering the most recent wound.

Most autistic individuals find it difficult to express what is bothering them at the time and often this manifests itself from extreme (and often violent) behaviors. 

A movie about one of the most famous austic (and accomplished) individuals is Temple Grandin, PhD. shows how these behaviors can be challenging and often unsafe for themselves and others.

The movie shows how Temple found calming for herself by making her way to the cattle chute often used to brand cattle on her aunt's ranch in Arizona.  The pressure from the machine took away the anxiety often brought upon by loud noises and bright lights.

That same principle has been used in therapy for autism and related behaviors.  Items such as weighted vest and blankets are often found in schools and therapy rooms.  

A device found to have been very effective in calming these extreme behaviors was created after something Temple's uncle created for her in college.  It is called a "squeeze machine".



This device allows for the person experiencing uncontrollable anxiety to place themselves into the machine and control the amount of pressure that works for them.

It has been found to be extremely effective in calming the person down to a point where they can "reset" and continue behaving in an appropriate manner.

We are asking for help purchasing this machine for Raegan.  It would be placed in her group home for her and other children that live with her to have something available for them to use to regulate behaviors.

We are not sure what else to try.  Medicines don't work, diversions often are short-lived, side effects are starting to have permanent impact in her life and overall we can no longer sit back and see our daughter hurting like she has most of her life.  

We are asking for anyone who has anything to contribute to consider this gofundme and help us purchase this machine for our daughter.  We would be eternally thankful for anything.

We want to stop seeing this:

and start seeing more of this:

Thank you!