hey all,

i’m graduating from university in december, and afterwards, i will be moving back to my moms house. i start grad school until august, so it isn’t an option for me to get an apartment anywhere.

throughout college, i have lived alone. i thoroughly love it. it does amazing things for my sensory issues. i can control my environment, and there’s nothing unexpected. if i can’t clean or something one day because of executive dysfunction, there’s no one to judge me because i’m the only one there.

my moms house is the exact opposite. she has 5 cats and a dog. this might not be an issue for some people, but my mom is older and physically cannot clean up after them properly. she does not vacuum, and she lets the animals freely urinate/defecate in the basement, since she doesn’t go down there.

ironically, i am allergic to cats, which is an issue. due to my disability i cannot reliably clean up after them twice a day every day, either.

this means, when i stay there, unless i want to be subjected to 6 pets and their dander at once, i have to spend all day in my bedroom. my bedroom is extremely small. there is room for a twin size bed, a dresser, and that’s it. no chairs or desks or shelves. it will be torture for me to have to spend all day in there.

on top of this, my mother has hoarder tendencies. most of the rest of the house is extremely cluttered. it gives me extreme sensory overload to even be around it.

my mother also doesn’t respect boundaries and considers a lot of my autism symptoms to just be overdramatized. i’ve tried to nicely suggest quality of life improvements for myself before and she flat out refuses. she often plays loud music throughout the house and invites her boyfriend over, who stays for days on end.

i don’t know what to do. i came home to visit this weekend and i’ve been here less than 24 hours, and have had 2 panic attacks. this really is hell for me.

does anyone have any suggestions for how i can survive these 8 months and have some control over my environment?

TLDR my house is extremely sensory-unfriendly and i have to live here 8 months. looking for advice to make it more bearable