This is anxiety in our house

I can always tell when Nathan is starting to experience anxiety.

Things get rearranged over and over in our house.

Objects get lined up or placed in a certain position (like the houses above).

He crawls back and forth, back and forth just observing what he has lined up.

He gets stuck on one thing and you can't break him of it.

Meltdowns begin over every little thing.

With him being non-verbal, we have to decipher what might be going on.

Did something change? Is he sick? Is he hurting? Are his meds off? Is he just plain tired?

Today's anxiety is because his routine changed. We knew it was going to happen. It is inevitable with change.

Today, shortly after he got to school, we got a call from the school to come pick him up early due to a covid diagnosis in his classroom.

It threw his day all off.

He began to get extra upset over his baby sister wanting to touch his houses. He uses his words to tell her to move. He tries to gently move her. He shows us that she's messing with his stuff.

I had him come sit with me for a squeeze. We took 5 deep breaths. We did our words to have him focus on something different. We got a drink and set a timer for the amount of time he has before we go lay down in bed.

He has allowed his sister to play with one of the houses... reluctantly.

We are officially out of school until after the holidays. So he will develop his new routine in a few days to which on January 4th we will experience it all over again.

Anxiety definitely looks different in our house, but trying to manage it is the same as everyone else.

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