Distractions for anxiety when outside.

[Steel Maiden]

I was out with my support worker today. She took me to Bushy Park so that I could get out of the house (can't leave house alone).

When we were at X station (can't reveal which station as it's my local station and don't want to reveal my location) I got really agitated. X station is usually not that busy. But the announcements were so loud I could hear them through my headphones. There were police on the station (I have a phobia of the police due to having negative experiences with them when I have had severe challenging behaviour in public before). And there were some really noisy people there.

I started pacing and shouting. And for some reason I had random outbursts of laughter (??). I kicked the wall hard. My support worker tried to calm me down. The police noticed me but then the train came, and when we sat on the near empty train, I calmed down as I like the new Southwest Trains train stock.

My question: can anyone suggest ways I can distract myself when anxious in public? I'd like to be able to do something that will get me to zone out and not notice my surroundings so much. I'd always have someone with me (due to not being able to go out alone) so I wouldn't become vulnerable by not noticing my surroundings so much.

I have ordered some autism toys (they're toys designed to calm autistics down, usually because they're sensory-type toys), would that help?

Can anyone recommend me some games apps I can download on my phone that I can play to distract myself? I have an Android phone. Nothing too excessively addictive though.

[not_so_insig]

Someone here suggested the samapp. It's meant for anxiety as sam stands for self anxiety management. I have it and although I have yet to use it I think it looks good. However as you are highly intelligent I worry that you may find it a bit basic.

[Steel Maiden]

Thanks. I'll Google it to read up about this app.

[OrchestraSystem]

The stim toys you've ordered should definitely help. We have a Tangle that we take around with us in public so if we get anxious, triggered or dissociated, we can pull it out of our bag and focus on making patterns with it and focus on the colours. There's one with different textures too so those can help loads if you can focus on the textures as well. I don't know if you've ordered one or not but they're very good for a lot of people.

Some people we know will count to distract themselves or they'll do math problems. If it's math that will get you to think then that's better, you'll focus more on solving it than what's going on around you. So doing things like 1+2 = 2, 2+2 = 4, 4+4 = 8 and so on is really useful until you feel relaxed.

We always take headphones out with us so we can put music on our phone if we need to get away from all the noise. Listening to familiar things helps us a lot, we're still highly anxious but it lessens it at least a bit.

Really simple games like Candy Crush and similar games are really useful. Despite how easy they are, you do get drawn into them very easily so they're really good distractions.

You could also download some e-books on your phone/tablet/Kindle if you can, or carry around books with you. Take a break and read if you're able to find a quiet enough spot to keep settled.

Bring out small colouring books and pens, things like that bring down our anxiety an awful lot. If you don't like colouring or prefer drawing then bring out a little sketch book and pencils. Or if you like to write then a note-pad and pens. Doodling and writing is a great distraction from anxiety and it's easy to disconnect from your surroundings and just focus on that to settle you down.

I hope some of this is helpful to you.

Take care, good luck.

Nik.

[Steel Maiden]

Thanks. These are all useful and practical solutions. I will give them a try.

[Bugsy]

Dumb ways to die (and dumb ways to die 2) is a fun android game, it's better on tablet or a phone with a big screen though...it involves trains too, it was made by a train company as a reminder of being safe around trains.

[Albus Dumbledore]

Hi,
I have agoraphobia so can relate to feeling overwhelmed when outside. I tend to focus only on the ground in front of me. I also play the alphabet game, where you pick a topic and then go through the alphabet trying to find a word relating to that topic that begins with each letter of the alphabet. I also play solitaire on my phone.

[Steel Maiden]

Thanks. I'll look for those apps.