Groundhog Day: Real Life Edition

I think all of us feel like Phil Connors in Groundhog Day from time to time.  Every day, the clock wakes us up at the same time to start our day.  I've even had the same song wake me up from time to time, like on Friday when they play the ever cheerful, "Working for the Weekend".  I am more of a "Monday Monday" person myself, but I like being unique.  Thank goodness I've never woken up to "Babe, I've Got You Babe" but if I ever do, it'll be the "wake to CD" selection on the alarm clock after that. 

We all crave diversity in our lives.  Boredom, repetition, monotony can become our masters if we allow it.  Some guy named Claudian, in something called The Eutropian said, "Change or Die".  Well, I'm in trouble!  However, in the world of Autism, change isn't always good.  When you enter the world of Autism, you learn about how transitions become the bane of your existence.  People who have Autism, on the norm, do not like change.  There is one part of Rain Man that is very similar to what my son used to deal with.  For example, he became VERY fixated on the morning lineup on our local PBS station.  Every morning he would watch one show that would go right into the next etc.  The predictability was what he craved and even a change in sponsorship could be upsetting.  So, when it came time for the new Fall lineup, when a new show was being introduced and an old one removed, it would become terrible to endure.  He would throw violent tantrums, try to escape from the house, cry and scream for hours.  I know some people looking in from the outside would say, "Well, I never would have let him watch that much TV in the first place".  What you have to understand is that it doesn't matter what the activity is, it's the expectation of repetition that drove him, not the show itself. It didn't matter if I tried to buy a new brand of cereal or if they added the words "New and Improved!" to the box; change was very bad. 

Things have improved slightly over the years and now that A is a new teenager, he is a teeny bit more flexible in allowing things to change.  That's not to say that he doesn't rebel violently against change or completely fall apart if asked to transition from one task to another (most often from sleeping to waking!), but small change is a bit easier. 

You know that child who sometimes prostrates themselves on the ground (example picture in a previous post!) when it's time to go or when they don't want to continue on?  Well, don't be surprised if one day you see an older child doing the same thing, or maybe screaming or thrashing or running away.  The behavior can change on a dime too.  One second you are sitting there, gently telling your child that we need to finish up and get ready to throw our trash away in a few minutes and the next they are throwing trash all over, standing there yelling blood curdling screams of defiance, while you try to figure out the best way to diffuse the situation.  We're trying....BELIEVE ME we're trying.