Please can anyone help? I am very embarrassed about this situation and for allowing it to go on so long.
To be clear, I am not diagnosed at sixty years old. To all intents and purposes I think I appear as though I function like other people. But I lead a double life. One public and one private. One supposedly competent. The other deeply dependent on my dh.
My teen daughter is going through assessment. I have had sensory issues since childhood and have been a recluse by preference pretty much all of my life. I did hold down a job in a busy organisation at one point when I was younger but it was a job which required being shut quietly in an office quietly on my own so it suited me! My husband drives me everywhere, when I go somewhere which isn’t often. I live in a remote area and am pretty much self sufficient and I am content except when I have to travel which we all do for funerals, family, work sometimes.
Three things that I find particularly difficult:
Large supermarkets which I find too loud, too bright, too many smells, too much visual stimulus. On good days I can manage if I don’t have to queue. Very often though it’s too much for me so I grow my own or have things delivered or rely on farm shops.
Travelling outside of my 10 mile driving zone on my own on public transport and in taxis. I get violently sick on boats, coaches and sometimes in the back of cars. The swaying stays with me all night and sometimes for a few days afterwards and doesn’t wear off. Trains I can just about manage but I very often have panic attacks. Aeroplanes are out of the question although I used to fly occasionally when was young and had more energy to fight the panic.
That’s not giving you the whole picture though because alongside the physical sickness I have deep intense fear of any type of travel. I have no rational explanation for it. Its difficult to describe but I don’t in my core feel safe when doing so. The physical fast movement of being in a fast car or plane disturbs me. And I have a deep fear of the transitions from train to train for example or from motorway service station to the next stop. Basically being temporarily “homeless” and having nowhere as a retreat in case of difficulty.
The fear I feel is equivalent to that faced by someone about to be run down by an enormous ten ton truck. I feel beyond panicky in airports and train stations to the point where I faint or throw up. I can’t seem to follow the signs and get lost and panic. I miss the big overhead signs and misread the small ones. I can’t edit out my route ifyswim or prioritise what I have to do next.
I have no innate sense of direction and despite having a phD in an arts subject I sometimes have difficulty telling the time from a clock face with numbers and can’t do simple mental arithmetic to tell me that the next train will be arriving in 40 minutes for example. All of this makes me sweat and gives me an awful stomach upset which is difficult to manage when travelling from place to place.
I feel deeply embarrassed about all of this because I am otherwise a reasonably intelligent person. I know in order to achieve hard things I need to master my emotions and apply rational thought but in practice I can’t do it. I don’t seem to be able to apply rational sense to any of it.
Third thing is cinemas. Too loud. Too much visual stimulus (to the point of nausea). Too claustrophobic.
The reason I am posting is that I have to attend an important family event in France this summer by Eurostar and then two trains beyond that. I have to and want to go for the sake of my family. But I don’t know how I am going to manage it as my dh can’t come with me on this occasion and I am aware of the need to become more independent of him anyway.
What I want to know is, because I think it will help, is travelling often difficult for adults with autism or am I just truly incompetent and weak?
And if it is a trait of ASD ; btw I know autistic traits are as individual as autistic people themselves, are there any strategies you use to help yourself travel independently?
Sorry this post is so long. Thank you very much.