Travel tips 1: The journey itself

This post is one that I've moved directly from my old blog, about travelling as an emetophobe. Bear with me if the formatting is a bit 'off'! These tips are from my personal experience – if you have any others, please add them in comments for others to see!

1) Build an ’emet survival kit’.

This one has definitely been the most helpful for me – I take my kit (or a reduced version of it) literally everywhere with me! I essentially pack a small bag (or pocket of a larger bag) with essential items that I know will help me whatever the situation. It really helps to have the reassurance of knowing that you have the tools to deal with whatever happens! Here are some examples of things you might want to put in: >Mints/mint chewing gum (I usually put in both – I find both helpful with different types of nausea!) >Ginger based things (e.g. ginger biscuits, capsules or cordial) >A small bottle of water >Something that smells nice (I sometimes bring something lavender scented with me, or put lavender essential oil onto a tissue) >Headphones >A fidget toy/play doh/blue tack/something similar >Hand sanitiser >Rennie’s/other antacids >A small spray bottle of water (I find spraying my face with water sometimes helps me to calm down?) >Plain crackers (I used to carry a pot with me everywhere!)/a snack bar

This is a very extensive list – I normally don’t carry all of it around (for example, I only carry lavender-y things on really long, stressful journeys), and often I’ll only carry one or two items. You’ll have your own helpful items too – your kit will be individual to you! This list is a good starting point though.

2) Breathing exercises.

Breathing exercises can honestly be a life saver on long journeys. Taking deep breaths in and out can help to lessen the physical symptoms of anxiety, giving you respite and allowing you to get control of your thoughts. Once again, different people will prefer different exercises, but here’s an example I often use (it’s very simple and easy to remember, which helps – often when you’re fighting off anxiety it’s hard to recall patterns!): >Breathe in through your nose for 4 slow counts >Hold for 4 slow counts (if you can’t make 4, don’t worry – I sometimes reduce this to 3!) >Breathe out through your mouth for 6 slow counts (or for as long as you can before you need to take a breath again). It’s incredibly simple, but really effective. Often it’ll take a few minutes before you’re actually able to keep to the breathing pattern, but aiming for this rhythm will help to slow down your breathing and bring you back to your resting state. Alternatively, you could download an app to help you slow down your breathing (if you’re too stressed to count). I’ve got an app called MyCalmBeat which is really good. The meditation app Calm has a good ‘breathing bubble’ too!

3) Listen to something.

I always make sure that I download a variety of music before long journeys – listening to it is a great way of distracting yourself that doesn’t involve looking at something (as looking at a screen or book can make you feel cars**k – however, on different modes of transport, reading/watching something is a great distraction!). Recently though I’ve started downloading more podcasts (I highly recommend The Guilty Feminist (a comedy/feminist podcast) and Witch, Please (a Harry Potter podcast)!). I find that sometimes it helps to listen to something you’re interested in with a conversation that you can follow, as opposed to half-listening to a song you’ve heard many times before. Audiobooks would also be a great thing to download – when I was younger I used to listen to Harry Potter whenever I couldn’t sleep because of anxiety! Something else that’s great to listen to is meditation tracks. I have the app Calm, and it allows you to download meditations to listen to offline. It can sometimes help to centre yourself by completing (for example) a full body scan, and you’ll be guided through the whole thing.

4) Preparation is key!

Both physical and mental preparation is vital before embarking on a journey you know is going to be stressful. Before travelling, I try to make sure that I’m as well rested and hydrated as possible. I also avoid having any rich, heavy or large meals, and I avoid consuming foods that I know make me feel s**k. I also wear clothes that I know won’t make me uncomfortable (e.g. high waisted jeans – I know that the waistband presses on my stomach when I’m sat down, which inhibits proper digestion and therefore makes me feel s**k, so I never wear them for long journeys (especially those that involve a meal part way through!)). In terms of mental preparation, I try to make sure that I’m as calm and collected as possible before travelling. This might mean doing breathing exercises, listening to a meditation, or joking around with my friends (laughter often helps to dispel anxiety!). I also make sure that I know the travel plans well in advance (e.g. when the transport leaves, when we need to get there, when and where we’re going to eat etc) as this takes away the unknown factors.

5) Passing the time.

This is a small tip and is of limited help, but something I do is count the time in things as opposed to minutes. This often makes the journey feel more manageable as it breaks it down into smaller chunks. For example, if I’m going on a 3 hour journey and an hour and a half has passed, I might think to myself ‘now all I have left is the time it takes to get to my grandparents’ house’ or ‘all that’s left is the time it takes to go to Bristol 3 times’ or ‘I only have 4.5 Brooklyn Nine-Nine episodes left’. It’s quite a weird way of passing the time and I doubt it’ll help anyone, but it’s something I do (and it seems to help me!) so I thought it was worth posting just in case!

6) Travel s**ckness tablets.

This last tip is more of a general suggestion, rather than a tip from experience. I myself do not get physically travel s**k, and therefore have never needed to use travel s**kness tablets. However, if you do get travel s**k and can’t manage it by using ginger/mint (or you’re going on a very long journey), it definitely could be worth trying travel pills. Be careful to read the correct dosage and try them out before you actually travel, as they may cause some side effects. Also, make sure to talk to your pharmacist about it when buying them for the first time, as they will be able to work with you to choose the right tablets for you. As I said, I’ve never used them (and neither has anyone in my family to my knowledge), but I’ve sold them to quite a few customers who say that they’re an absolute life saver!

So, that’s it for my journey tips! I’ll post a part two with tips for the actual holiday next. If you’ve got any other travel tips, please comment them so that others can see and benefit from them!

I hope this post was useful to someone – if you’re currently worrying about a journey while reading this, know that you’re going to be absolutely fine and that it’ll never be as bad as you think!

~ Alice