Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Autism Travel Anxiety - Everything YOU Need To Know (3 TIPS)
Transcript
- 0:00So today I'm talking about autism and travel anxiety and
- 0:02everything you need to know. Here are three awesome tips
- 0:05coming up. Hey guys, welcome back to the
- 0:13Asbury world. My name is Dan, I have autism,
- 0:15ADHD, OCD, and dyslexia. And I make weekly videos on
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- 0:31Boom Guys, what's going on? Welcome back to the Asbury
- 0:33world, but we think differently daily.
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- 0:59download the book for free, guys, let's get into it.
- 1:03I want to do this video for a long time because basically I've
- 1:06had a bunch of different people reach out to me and ask me about
- 1:10travel anxiety and do I get issues with travelling and I do
- 1:13get issues with travelling and I basically have an issue with
- 1:19travelling. I've travelled all around the
- 1:20world. I do a lot of stuff.
- 1:22I I, you know, I talk at Vidcon, I talk like somewhere in the
- 1:25city. I travel around the UK, travel
- 1:26around the world. I've been to Spain, America,
- 1:28I've been everywhere. Right now this in terms of how
- 1:33does this impact my, you know, how does this impact my ability
- 1:38to create something good for travel and and travel anxiety
- 1:41tips. Basically I've created
- 1:43workarounds. There was a bunch of different
- 1:45things that happened. One of the main things which
- 1:48I've I've written out like 3 main things which I think will
- 1:51help you with reducing travel anxiety.
- 1:53But one of the most interesting things that happened was taking
- 1:56control of the journey. Now, when I first started
- 2:00travelling, I was travelling in like jeans and like, you know,
- 2:02like T-shirts. And I was having all my bags and
- 2:04everything around me. And I was sitting there, just
- 2:05sitting on the plane or in the bus or in the car or whatever,
- 2:07just holding on to my stuff. Just like completely scared
- 2:10because I was. I was dealing with social
- 2:11anxieties and things and the situation was out of my control
- 2:14and I didn't enjoy the situation and it was uncomfortable.
- 2:18You know, nobody wants to sit on a plane for 10 hours in a pair
- 2:20of jeans and a belt, you know, what the heck is that about?
- 2:23So then I decided that I would take a leaf out of Casey
- 2:26Neistat's book. So Casey Neistat is a YouTube if
- 2:28you don't know who he is. And he travelled around the
- 2:29world a lot too. But he was always wearing his
- 2:31like, pajamas and stuff on planes.
- 2:32He'd like get changes in the in the airport and then bought the
- 2:36plane in his pajama. And I was like, dude, that guy
- 2:37looks comfy AF. So I was like, I'm going to do
- 2:40that. So then I got like comfy pants
- 2:44and then comfy hoodies and T-shirts and stuff.
- 2:45And then I changed before going on a plane and it was great
- 2:48because what happens is you're starting to control that
- 2:50environment and that control gives you a sense of ease.
- 2:53That was really, really, really handy for me.
- 2:56So I I really, really did enjoy just changing that around, you
- 3:00know, to to figure that out. But Needless to say, I've
- 3:03actually written down three awesome ways that you can really
- 3:07understand and and help with travelling to really reduce
- 3:10anxiety. So the first one here is
- 3:12buddying up. I love Buddy Systems.
- 3:14So the first thing is that I make sure that I have a travel
- 3:16buddy to go with me to wherever I need to go, right.
- 3:19So if I'm going to travel somewhere, you know, maybe it's
- 3:23like I'm travelling to America or we're potentially travelling
- 3:26to Australia next year. And I think that it's, it's
- 3:29really important to have somebody who's there with you
- 3:31who can actually help you in your workarounds like
- 3:36logistically like how am I getting to the gate in the
- 3:38airport? How am I doing this in the
- 3:39airport? You know, if something goes
- 3:39wrong, it's somebody going to be able to help me.
- 3:41Well, yeah, if you've got, you know, your buddy with you going
- 3:44to be able to help you because you've just literally, you know,
- 3:47you've just rocked it. You know, you just, you said to
- 3:49them, well, hey, can you take care of this for me?
- 3:51And you've you've logistically sorted that out.
- 3:53I love that. So buddy system is very, very
- 3:55good. Having something to rely on when
- 3:57you're travelling or dependent on when you're travelling.
- 3:59Amazing. I did this a talk in Boston, MA
- 4:02and I had a heck of a time where somebody stole my medication and
- 4:05it was a whole thing. And then I realized that like,
- 4:09it was going to be like, I don't know what it was.
- 4:13It was something like it was going to be another like four or
- 4:14five hours until like get like into my Hills town room or
- 4:17something like that. Anyway, so my my buddy Alex who
- 4:20travels with me is like my traveling assistant.
- 4:21He managed to sort it out for me and we went to the hospital, got
- 4:24all sorted. It was amazing.
- 4:25So buddy systems do work. OK, so the second thing I'm
- 4:28talking about is noise cancelling.
- 4:30Now I did a video all about different types of headphones
- 4:32and ear defenders for people on the autism spectrum, but noise
- 4:36cancelling headphones and taking them around to view is so
- 4:38important now. I carry these pretty much
- 4:40everywhere I go. Now these are the Apples Airpod
- 4:43Pros, so you can actually put these new ears and there's a
- 4:45noise cancelling feature on it where you just click the feature
- 4:48and it basically sucks out all of the noise around you and
- 4:50keeps it completely quiet. These were kind of plane what
- 4:52kind of train, and these pretty much work anywhere.
- 4:55They're so good, and I highly recommend it because what it's
- 4:57doing is it's taking your mind away from the hustle and bustle.
- 5:00If you think about it, there's so many people in an airport
- 5:02like swishing around, doing all this kind of stuff.
- 5:04And then there's you in the middle, like, ah, getting all
- 5:06this chaotic kind of input. And you don't want you know, you
- 5:08want to, you're already anxious anyway.
- 5:10You want to lower that anxiety. You want to say, control the
- 5:12situation. Noise cancelling is probably one
- 5:15of the best ways to do that. OK, so #3 is super important.
- 5:18This is vital is create a planner.
- 5:20Creating a planner before you travel with like a list of all
- 5:22the emergency numbers you need to go, all the restaurants you
- 5:24can eat at. Because people on the spectrum
- 5:26obviously have issues with where they can eat and what they can
- 5:28eat and stuff like that. Every essential part of your
- 5:30journey must be put into a planner that can be made
- 5:32digitally and physically. So I keep a physical copy in my
- 5:34luggage and I have a digital planner on my Google Drive which
- 5:37you can access to my phone. And I actually download it to my
- 5:39iBooks as well, so it's available on film offline.
- 5:42Now this was amazing. And I used, I had team members
- 5:45that helped me. So Ash, one of the one of my
- 5:47editors and community managers and support officer for the aspy
- 5:50world, actually helped create a lot of like a restaurant list of
- 5:53places we can go and put that into the drive.
- 5:54And then Alex and I came up with the logistical kind of side of
- 5:58it and we made that into the planet.
- 5:59So it was kind of like a team effort, but it was really good.
- 6:01So we had everything we needed when we landed in LA and was
- 6:04just absolutely fantastic. And planning ahead and making a
- 6:07planner, making a visual planner as well is so, so interesting.
- 6:10Now, I used an app called T-Mobile a lot for making visual
- 6:13plans, especially last time I was in the US Now, Timo was a
- 6:15great app designed for people on the Austin Spectrum and with
- 6:18ADHD, and it has visual icon representations of everything
- 6:21that you need to do. So I highly recommend checking
- 6:23out Timo. I'll leave a link for them in
- 6:25the description down below, but definitely check them out
- 6:27because they're just really good and it's a perfect app for this
- 6:30type of thing. So you might have like your
- 6:32logistics all out, but then Timo can actually send the list to
- 6:35your phone and your watch to let you know that hey, I am needing
- 6:38to go here and do this. So definitely check out that app
- 6:40because having an organizational app like that with your daily
- 6:43life is going to save you so much time.
- 6:45Guys, if you have anything to add to this, pop in a comment
- 6:47down below because I love reading every single one of the
- 6:50comments and engaging with you. If you think this can add value
- 6:52to somebody, please share on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
- 6:54It would be awesome. And if you're enjoying this
- 6:57video, put a thumbs up and I'll see you next time.
- 6:59Guys. Peace.