Families R Built with Love

There are days when living with autism is harder than others.  The past couple days have been that way.  Chet lives and dies by a schedule.  It is carved.in.stone.  Waking up late is an anathema to him. Changing closets seasonally requires days of prep before we can actually do it. Changing things in general  causes anxiety which manifests itself in anger, frustration, loud voices and flapping.  All in all, not pretty.

We do not have heat in our upstairs where the bedrooms are.  We tried putting heat in Chet's room a couple  years ago.  He is most content when he can spend a lot of time in his room so we wanted him to be safe and comfortable.  Unfortunately, he hated the heat.  (well fortunately I guess for billing purposes)  After two years of trying to get him to keep the heat on and having him argue about it, we had the heat disconnected. I don't dare try an electric space heater as an alternative  as he keeps so much paper in his room and is unlikely to notice things being too close to a heat source.

This is fine most of the time.  The exception is when we have sub zero cold snaps like we are experiencing now.  Then it is not safe for him to stay in his room for long periods of time except for sleeping.  He refuses to cover up in a blanket or throw in the daytime, so he tends to sit in one spot and become chilled.

We have had him spend the majority of the day in our living room with the pellet stove where it is, at least for our home, relatively toasty.  He has been agitated by this.  He is fine once he settles in there, but first there is a lot of angst.  Loud, argumentative, angst.  I know his schedule and routine are how he feels he controls a world that often feels out of control to him.  But hypothermia  is not a solution!

Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer.  Thank you goddess!