Still Anxiety
Travel was always easy for our family. We started early and made it a point to teach our daughter how to appropriate navigate airports, planes and the endless travel modalities that come with it. Of course during COVID all that changed. We were unable to travel and quickly realized that our daughter still struggles with significant anxiety.
Unfortunately our first flight post COVID was a bit rough. The turbulence traumatized our daughter and well- now it is back to square one. This week we she had to make a choice- Do I stay or Do I go??
Ultimately she decided to go.
Viewing travel through our daughter’s eyes awakens the senses. You become keenly aware of sounds you would otherwise filter out, expressions you would generally ignore and smells that we as Neuro-typical persons learn to live with. BUT someone with ASD cannot dismiss their senses. Thankfully we have had positive experiences with staff from various airlines. A few suggestions for what it is worth.
1- Explain the exact route from parking, to ticketing, security to entering and exiting the plane.
2-make friends with airport personnel. Let them know up front that you are traveling with a loved one with ASD and may need additional support.
3- Encourage independence if your loved one is capable and old enough. Give them the airline app; teach them to read for navigation and tell them the importance of self advocacy.
4-Bring favorite books, electronics and activities and the headphones and BACK-up ones!
5-Exercise extreme patience.
You cannot erase Anxiety but you can certainly create strategies to ease it. Preparation creates peace
