Neurodivergent Travel

I had an ADHD moment and impulsively agreed that my husband and I would go on a trip to Iceland with my best friend and her husband.

After I agreed I thought ‘what have I done?’

I then had an Autistic moment where, because I like to plan and be in control, I agreed to organise the whole trip and book everything for us all.

After that I got extremely anxious about the whole thing, but I’d agreed and that was that.

So in the August, I booked the flights. No getting out of this now. The count down was on for April 2025.

My main worries were:

• The cold, I hate being cold
• The hot springs, I hate being too hot
• Travelling, I hate to be around a lot of people,
• Flying, I get air sick and that makes me very anxious
• Being responsible for everything, I am a perfectionist, but something will definitely not go to plan

My friend had created a spreadsheet with a rough outline of where to go each day, and I scrupulously updated it with every booking, adding in the logistics of where we would go and how long it would take.

I booked accommodation next, it was near The Sky Lagoon, but not in Reykjavik, so after 5 months of worrying that there wouldn’t be anything to do near by, I cancelled the booking and booked another apartment in Reykjavik. (Yes I can spell Reykjavik now 🙂 )

Okay new apartment is a short walk from the town centre. Great.

Then I started worrying about what to pack. I kept checking the weather it was 5 degrees Celsius most of the time, I’d been buying snow trousers, what if I got too hot?

I ended up packing for extremely cold, cold and mildly cold weather, so only used about a third of the clothes I took.

I had booked our flights and reserved seats, the airline then changed planes and we were no longer sitting together or where everyone had wanted to be, isle/window seat etc. This caused me a lot of stress and I eventually got a compromise from the airline, though still not what I’d paid for, which was annoying and out of my control. I hate confrontation, so this was the best I could achieve by asking nicely.

The moral of the story is I was impulsive and anxious, but I had an amazing holiday with my best friends and it all worked out in the end.

Sometimes being out of your comfort zone is the best place for you to be in that moment.