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HOW do you Cope with/DO/Survive Vacations?

Fuzzyair

As the title says…

My girlfriend (neurotypical but, lovely all the same…) wants to go on vacation and weirdly, it doesn’t make her go all funny in her tummy and build up with intense anxiety at the idea of a 3 and a half hour car journey. Weird right! She’s been wanting to go away for a while and I foolishly gave in and now in a week’s time we’re off to Devon. But now the anxiety is increasing and I know it’s going to be a tiresome anxious filled week ahead.

The ridiculous thing is I DO enjoy vacations…..When I get there. Anxiety takes the edge off things leading up to the event but when I finally get there it all floats away and I enjoy the time away.

My main anxious thought is needing to wee all the time. Anxiety affects me like that, unfortunately, though better that end than t’other TBF! I’m just painfully aware I’m going to be on the road for 3 or so hours on easter weekend so know the motorway will be heaving…. That said, I have at least convinced Lisa for us to set off at 8:00 a.m. so we should beat most of the heavy traffic.

Enough of my woeful ramblings though, how do you prepare and survive these awful things!?! The anxiety is crippling me already and yet it’s only traveling 130 miles. I need to chill out, prepare as best I can and pray to Allah’s cat that I’ll survive the ordeal.

  • in reply to TheCatWoman
    TheCatWoman said:
    I can't be bothered, all that hassle and fuss, the stress and anxiety and horror of horrors airports!

    I have become much more adept with air travel since I found myself being shipped to Latin America by my employer to be their IT person for the whole continent, so ended up travelling around almost every other week to a different country.

    It paid really well and had loads of other perks so was worth learning to tolerate.

    I try to get access to the lounges in airports whenever possible as it is a much more civilised place with free food and drink (often quite decent including wine) which often have showers, clean bathrooms and other facilities that the great unwashed don't get to see.

    I plan ahead in detail how to get to the airport, book a taxi from a reputable company (or Uber in a pinch) and give myself about 5 hours before the flight to leave - typically about an hour for me to get to an airport, check in well ahead of the rest of the passangers and plenty of time to chill in the lounge while enjoying the food and drink (much better than you get on the flights).

    Planning my packing and carrying a portable weighing device avoids anxiety about luggage being overweight and I have the hand luggage down to a fine art.

    The gate is always a bit stressful due to the random lines forming and people stressing everywhere, but being patient is needed - a bit of meditation helps here.

    I'm off in 2 hours for a 6,000 mile flight now and everything is clicking into place. I can't say I'm looking forward to trying to sleep on the overnight flight though - I probably need some wine to help me sleep.

  • I can understand your situation, I have never been a fan of holidays, not really understanding why until recently when I am became aware that I am autistic. I am a little bit like you I struggle with the travelling part a lot, very rarely the journey goes to the plan...and I struggle to deal with it, usually resulting in me losing the plot. Then I like my home comforts and you have very few of these when you are staying away from home. The food is challenging, the accommodation, etc....probably not helping you...sorry. I can sympathise with you. I tend to go on holidays to please the family, there are parts I do enjoy mainly spending time with the family or seeing some new things but I would rather be at home Slight smile

  • in reply to Homebird

    Food is a big problem for when going away, I have so many allergies and intollerances, it's a nightmare, I don't even eat out or have takeaways at home, luckily I enjoy cooking and am good at it.

    I love galleries and museums, but they're always so crowded, I've come to the conclusion I prefer watching stuff about them on tv, you get to see the stuff better and have expert insight into the objects. I can do without seeing a Graeco-Roman temple again, once you've seen one it feels like youv'e seen them all, I went to the Temple of Apollo in Didym and the most interesting thing were all the wild tortoises. It was a bit freaky at first, wondering if I really did see a rock scuttling off, and then I realised it was a tortoise and there were hundreds of them!

  • Apart from planned breaks, I look up places to visit whilst we are away, so I roughly know where we will go. I also look up possible places to eat and where toilets might be located.

    That way I can also count down the number of days till we come home and sometimes find towards the middle I begin to enjoy it more.

  • I live on a beautiful island, although it's cold wet and windy most of the year, I don't really feel the need to go on holiday, I supose for me a holiday would be a city break, but to be honest I can't be bothered, all that hassle and fuss, the stress and anxiety and horror of horrors airports! I can cope with being on a plane but all that faffing around at airports drives me crazy.

  • in reply to DormouseAtRest_25

    That’s a good idea and one I think we may incorporate in to our own travels here on. From what I can see on the map there’s a few places we could stop off for a mini break/sightseeing session, Lisa is interested in quickly visiting Wincanton as Terry Pratchett came from there, so I think this might be something fun for us to do – and an ideal pit stop for me to use the loo, grab a latté and let Biscuit take me for a quick walk.

  • I very rarely go on vacation. 

    If I do plan a vacation travel, like you, I like to leave really early and then have a waypoint of somewhere interesting to pause the journey part way - and have a bit of a walk about / look around somewhere - before a coffee with a light snack ...then onwards to complete the remainder of the journey.