Traveling with ADHD & Chronic Illness

Sep. 27

I recently went on a girls’ trip to Walt Disney World with my mother, who I absolutely adore as a traveling partner. It was a wonderful week that we both thoroughly enjoyed, filled with good food, magical moments, and hot sunny weather. Unfortunately, my ADHD and chronic illnesses came, too. This was probably the first time that I truly struggled or was more aware of my symptoms while on vacation, and so I’d like to share some of my experience, strategies, and reflections on traveling as a neurodivergent, chronically ill human. I also want to be explicitly clear on a few key things:

Everyone with ADHD is different.
Everyone with chronic illness(es) is different.
I am not trying to glamorize or diminish any of the symptoms that I have (difficult or helpful), or that anyone else might experience.
These are my thoughts, experiences, and reflections, which all can look radically different from other folks. What I find as a strength, others may struggle with. What I struggle with, others might not, and vice versa.

As much as we would probably like them to, symptoms don’t just disappear when you’re on vacation, even if you’re going with safe people and doing something/going somewhere you love. And that’s okay, that’s perfectly normal. Your symptoms and needs are something that need to be considered, planned for, and supported — but they don’t need to rule or ruin your entire trip. I think a big part of that difference comes down to your mindset. Rather than judge, blame, or get angry with my body, I tried to be gentle with myself. I reminded myself that my symptoms can come and go, that just because I was having some pain didn’t mean that my vacation would be ruined by pain for the rest of the trip. I adjusted my clothing plans, took more breaks, and communicated about what I was experiencing rather than trying to hide it and “push through.” And you know what? My symptoms did come and go, and at times that was incredibly annoying. Did it ruin the trip for either of us? Absolutely not.

The Perks

Flexibility

In my personal life, I am *very* spontaneous. I’ve needed to bring in a lot of routines and strategies in certain areas of my life, such as my job, to compensate for this, but I find my impulsivity to often be a strength when traveling. I don’t need rigid itineraries, and usually don’t tend to worry about when things don’t go according to plan. In my experience, flexibility and adopting a “go with the flow” mentality has led to some of my very favourite, unexpected travel experiences. I also tend not to worry about the next day, or what’s waiting for me when it’s over, which helps me stay present and avoid distracting rumination. I often joke that those are Future Brianna’s problems, and Future Brianna is pretty resourceful; she’ll figure it out. (I will say, this makes for some pretty interesting packing struggles at the end of the trip.)

**Gratitude**

My health is unpredictable, and it can have negative impacts on my daily life. One practice that has been an essential part of my chronic illness journey is gratitude.. I’ve found that this practice enhances my enjoyment on vacation, because I appreciate the little things so much more than I once did. This is especially helpful when I am feeling pain or fatigue, because it helps me not get lost in the frustration and disappointment, and stay connected with what is outside of my body.
I practiced so much gratitude while we were on vacation. My mother and I’s go-to phrase whenever something positive happened was “Disney magic!”, and we had tons of fun pointing out all of the small positive things that were happening around us, like the bus showing up right as we got to the line or the thunderstorm stopping right as we finished a ride.

Difficult Things

Of course, even in The Most Magical Place on Earth, there were challenges.

Executive Functioning

***Planning & Decision Making:*** When it comes to Disney trips, I am The Planner. I know that might sound odd after talking about how flexible and “go with the flow” I can be. But these days you can’t go to Disney without at least some planning, and I’ve been the one to try to keep up with learning all the new updates. It’s become a hobby I really enjoy, but sometimes my compensation and coping strategies for my executive dysfunction can be co-opted by my perfectionism. I am often way, *way* too hard on myself if I made a mistake. No matter how small it is, I beat myself and worry about how the people with me might be impacted. And I definitely do make some mistakes, because I can have a hard time making decisions and keeping my facts straight. I packed my suitcase three separate times, and somehow I seem to manage to over-pack things I don’t need and under-pack the things I do. While on vacation, sometimes the freedom of having too many choices can also leave me stuck in decision paralysis (which is especially difficult if there’s any kind of time limit). And of course, there are times where my past impulsivity annoys the me that has to deal with it later.

Attention to Detail: It was definitely apparent on these trip that my attention to detail is, at times, awful. For example, I got my mom’s birthday wrong on her boarding pass (even though I thought I had triple-checked them), mixed up our gate at the airport (both ways, I’m pretty sure), and thought Magic Kingdom closed for an event on our final night … that wasn’t actually happening until the next day.

Time Blindness: Let’s just say that airports are my worst nightmare. And there was a lot of speed-walking to make it to reservations on time, because of course we can just squeeze in that one more thing.