Published on 12, July, 2020
Aged 7, I was on a coach on a school trip. Returning from a day out, there was no toilet on board, so went to the front of the coach and asked a teacher if they would stop because I needed to pee.
Instead of stopping, they forced me to pee into a bucket in front of the other kids.
This single event amplified into issues I already had travelling on public transport.
Today, after 10 years of London living and since moving to the coast, I still struggle to even step on to a bus. Trains offer a similarly difficult proposition.
I was wondering what issues you found with travel and if you had ways of overcoming them that I may learn from?
I do. That was really the reason I was able to do it for so long.
The issue really is the length of time. I can usually handle maybe 30mins fine, but in total it can be 4 hours a day, 6 if there are delays. If it's busy then I have had to jump off before and hire a taxi, which isn't much easier tbh.
I've not been back into London for 18 months now. Generally I feel better for not forcing myself to. But I'm missing out on a lot of opportunities and work. This is the part of high-functioning autism that goes unnoticed
Great job getting it done anyway!
I know it's not an option for every autistic person, but do you wear headphones on the train? Obviously it's not perfect, but having music on in noise cancelling headphones cuts out the vast majority of sounds for me on the tube, even if I don't have the music turned up that loud. I'm music obsessed though so I get that isn't necessarily the solution for everyone.
Thanks for the response. I have since managed to travel into London and back (2hrs) but it's pretty much agony unless I managed to time it right and get a quiet service.
They should offer carriages that are for silent travel. Those quiet coaches full up so quick it's pointless as the mass of people is worse than the noise
My issues weren't caused by such an obviously traumatic incident. I'm so sorry it happened to you. Idk how possible it is to totally overcome something like that without therapy or something.
But after I had kinda a total breakdown I had to start over from the point where even getting on a bus for one stop was something really difficult. My main strategies were to repeat small steps as often as you find doable and build from that, relaxing music (ideally something you can also focus on, following one instrument and keeping your mind on that) and I found distracting myself with video games helped a lot. I don't know how helpful this will be to you :/
I don't enjoy travel because of the other people but also because of motion sickness.
I was constantly sick during and after journeys in the car as a child, but am also a poor traveller as an adult.
As a driver, I don't become unwell though, presumably because a lot of the sickness is caused by vision and one sees differently as a driver.
My favourite travel is by train but my ideal would be the train travel of the 20s and 30s, with plently of money, a dining car, and preferably on the Orient Express .
Before I learnt to drive in my 40s I had a moped and that was a good escape from public transport until I had quite a serious accident.
Before that it was a push bike.
I would always far rather travel independently than on public transport because of the noise, smells, overcrowding, heat etc.
Coaches with their lack of opening windows are the spawn of the devil.