Autism support thread

[one_step_closer]

I usually try to talk things through with someone. I'm rubbish at reassuring myself. But at the moment it's a bit hard to reach out because I feel like I'm too much or too complicated or I'm wasting peoples time.

[The Worst Witch]

Does writing it down help? I bought one of sugar and sloth’s worry pads after reading about them in your blog (thanks for the recommendation!) and they’re really helpful. I find it hard to reach out to people too, so the worry pads and other tools she has have been really helpful :)

[one_step_closer]

Writing does help a bit, I write every day in a diary but I can get caught up in things and usually need to talk to someone.

I'm glad you have found something helpful. :)

[The Worst Witch]

I don’t know if people still read this thread, but will try posting anyway because I don’t really know any other autistic people apart from here.

I flew to London on Thursday to meet T, my nephew because I had to wait until the holidays as I’m at uni and it’s about to be exam season. Anyway, I don’t know if it was because I was flying from the UK’s 2nd busiest airport, but I totally and completely freaked out. Firstly in security because even though I had a member of staff to come through security with me because in my experience, people in London do not give a **** about bumping into you and not apologising for it and just elbowing you out of the way when you’re in their way. Dude, not cool when you can see I have a lanyard on telling you to give me ****ing space!

I really want to not go and visit him ever again because why the **** should I have to put up with that?! The special assistance person didn’t even say anything. If he’d apologised first or asked me to move I would have, why do people have to be so rude?!

Please someone give me other options. Is there any other airports in London that might be less busy than Gatwick, for example?

[Auror.]

cant comment on airport specifics. but feel free to email and more likely to see/feel up to replying to stuff. you do know us!

[long road]

The further out airports like Stansted or Luton might be quieter, they are definitely smaller but that doesn't always mean less busy just less people (if that makes sense).

With both you would have further to travel to get into central London, although Stansted is easier now elizabeth line has been built.

Sorry to hear you had such a rough experience. Something that could be helpful for planning a future visit is Scotland generally has different summer holidays to England so at least one way airport would likely be quieter.

Or would a really long train journey be any less stressful? I find trains easier than planes but get duration of the trian journey could make it too much

[The Worst Witch]

I have flown to both Stansted and Luton before, they did certainly seem to have less people but on one trip I had my aunt with me and another my uncle, so wouldn’t know what it’d be like in person on my own. Sister did think that it was because it was the holidays and a Saturday I travelled, even here where I live I don’t travel on a Saturday because of how busy it is so that may have been a factor too. Also, because the times I flew before I was with companions (as they’re called), I didn’t need special assistance so I didn’t know what it was like. One of the main things that made me freak out was that I was sat in special assistance by myself and was then suddenly surrounded by hundreds of people - no warning. At least next time if I do fly from Gatwick I know that the special assistance bit is next to the gate where everyone comes through to get on the plane, it’s not at Edinburgh. The gate and the special assistance bit are separate, so you’re not suddenly surrounded by hundreds of people you’re just taken to the gate by a member of staff and get on the plane straight away.

Train would also be a good option - I have taken the train before, the only thing that made me decide to try flying this time was that it took the entire day to get to London what with transfers etc. The actual train from Edinburgh to London though was fine, the bit that took the longest was getting to Edinburgh from where I live and getting to Oxsted from Kings Cross but again, I’ve done it once so would potentially know what to do next time.

ETA: Camden, I’ll email you once my email provider sorts itself out. If I can’t fix it, I may email you from a different email address but I’ll put in the email it’s from me :)

[Lauren93]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Worst Witch

Please someone give me other options. Is there any other airports in London that might be less busy than Gatwick, for example?

Sorry that you had such a bad experience at the airport. I’ve also experienced massive overwhelm at Gatwick Airport a couple of years ago as it was such a busy and overcrowded terminal.

You can fly from Scotland into London City airport, it’s only got 18 gates and I think only does short haul flights so it’s a lot less overwhelming than Gatwick.
I’ve only travelled through London City once but they only have 2 security lines and you can basically go through check in and security within 15 minutes.
There’s a couple of shops and cafes but if you look on the airport map you can see how small the airport is in comparison to the terminals at Gatwick.

It’s also really easy to get into central London from there as you can just get on the DLR straight from the airport. It’s got a connecting walkway and it only takes 20-30ish minutes to get to Zone 1/Zone 2.