Hearing from the Other Side - The Husband Version with Tarek El Hajj

In this deeply personal and long-awaited episode, I sit down with someone you’ve heard about —but never from: my husband, Tarek. For the first time ever, he shares his side of our journey as parents navigating the unknown. From the early signs of our son Talal’s silence, to the heartbreak and relief of finally getting a diagnosis—Tarek opens up about what it felt like to be a father, a partner, and a man in a moment where everything felt uncertain. We talk about the panic attacks, the misdiagnoses, the grief timelines that didn’t match, and the heavy guilt I carried for not seeing what he saw sooner. We talk about hearing loss, about autism fears, about being “crazy” in the face of denial. And most of all, we talk about what it really means to co-parent a disabled child—when your emotional experiences look nothing alike. This is not a perfect story. It’s a raw one. It’s the story of two people who processed their son’s needs on entirely different timelines—and still found a way to meet in the middle. This is for every parent who has ever felt out of sync with their partner, every father who stays quiet because he thinks he has to, and every family searching for clarity when the world is giving none. It’s also a reminder: Your story matters—even if it doesn’t look like everyone else’s. Head to www.allbrainsgrow.com for support & resources to learn how to best help your neurodivergent child.