Published on 12, July, 2020
I find airports extremely overwhelming, and I avoid them as much as possible. The last time I used them I was travelling alone and my parents encouraged me to book assistance, so I did, and it was revolutionary. It still sucked, but the support was there to prevent me from having a shut down, and it involved things like a shorter route that didn't go through the 'perfume alley' (I'm extremely sensitive to smells) as well as not standing in overwhelmingly noisy lines which are real melt down risks for me.
I have a trip this December for my degree. It will require travelling by plane. I don't yet know if we're in charge of booking travel or if the department does that (they haven't told us yet) but I'm conflicted on whether to get assistance again.
The department does know that I'm autistic, and for previous trips I've been given loan rooms to accommodate this and prevent social shut downs, but I'm good at managing it. So other than not doing a lot of social things with the rest of the department (i.e. managing it by avoiding unnecessary stressors), it's not always obvious how much of a struggle things are.
There are a few options here:
What do people think? I'm just looking for opinions as I think it would be helpful, but I possibly could do without, it would just be much more unpleasant and risk a meltdown or shutdown in the airport which would really suck. It will be a particularly big risk on the way back, as I'll be socially exhausted from being with loads of people for over a week.
I'd advise booking the help. As you mention, the whole trip will be exhausting, so best to start it off as well as possible as well as that your return trip when tired will be extra hard. I wish I'd known I was autistic when I was at uni, even though I had some accommodations for my physical disability and tiredness, it would have helped.