I have mentioned that we try to give Anthony latitude in regard to choosing what to wear.  But that continues to present challenges for us.  For instance, he has come out of his room several times ready for the day wearing some pajamas we recently put in his drawer.  They are nice, even stylish, pajamas, but they aren't something that Anthony can wear to school.  Of course, Anthony doesn't understand that, and he can get upset when we make him change into something else.

Speaking of something else, since Anthony has a tendency to rip his T-shirts when upset, we have built up quite a varied collection of them through thrift store purchases and donations of used ones from extended family.  But rather than choose T-shirts randomly from his drawer, we have noticed Anthony quite often chooses from the two or three shirts related to the college our family roots for, even rummaging through his drawer to get to them.  I'm not exactly sure what to make of that.  They are all different in design and don't feature the school's logo prominently.  The colors are all the same, but he does have other shirts with the same color.  So, does he understand the writing on them?  Does he, unbeknownst to us, enjoy watching the football games with us?  I have no idea.  

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Another clothing issue has surfaced recently: I discovered Anthony is taking off his socks and putting them back in his drawer rather than in the laundry.  Surely enough, when I checked his drawer, it was apparent that none of them were clean.  

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I also wrote recently that Anthony had ripped off a toilet seat in one of his rages, so I replaced it with another.  I was actually happy to do that, because the previous one had not been the same color as the toilet itself, and always looked out of place.  Well, I attached a new seat that nicely matched the toilet, but I came home the other day and found it cracked.  That of course is due to Anthony yet again, being upset and bouncing up and down on it.  It's uncomfortable for all involved--including Anthony--but it still works.  I guess we will bear with it until he damages it further and renders it unusable.  

Anthony has hit his bedroom door enough that the upper hinge pulled out.  I tried a couple of times to just re-tighten the screws, but it became clear that would not be sufficient.  So, I unscrewed the hinge and have filled the holes with wood filler.  I have done this before on another door in the house--that was also due to Anthony being angry--and know I have to wait a while before I re-attach the hinge to the door frame, so I haven't done that yet with Anthony's door.  However, Anthony for some reason will not go to sleep without his door being at least mostly closed, so I had to lift up his door last night to try to place it in a manner that it did not appear to be "open".

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I wrote previously in an at-wits'-end manner about Anthony being possessed.  As time goes on, I actually think there is something to that--not that he is "possessed" by another entity, of course, but it is almost as though he might have dissociative identity disorder (which I understand is now what used to be called "multiple personality disorder").  When he gets upset, he can get a look on his face that is distinctly unlike any other.  When he does get that look, he is solely and rather fiercely intent on hurting those around him.  Nothing can dissuade him from that purpose.  I have tried talking to him in such instances to see if I can "reason" with him--which I am aware might be a ludicrous idea from the start--but there is no stopping his single-minded focus until either a certain amount of time has passed or someone has broken that focus by causing him considerable discomfort. 

I certainly wish I understood more about him.  When dealing with Anthony, it is all too often like being in a parallel dimension where the rules that work in the world I am accustomed to don't apply.  I am constantly left wondering if I am doing things the right way with regard to him.