Many of us dread the holidays season for many reasons from family troubles to blaring Christmas music and flashing lights. Here’s a few survival links to help you plan ahead to avoid as much unnecessary trauma as possible.
If you are traveling or just going to visit, this will help you through the planning process.
How to Attend to Attend Family Gatherings When You’re Autistic
This is a lovely blog post viewing your participation and their respect for your needs as gifts.
Autistic Gifts and Expectations
The day of a family gathering consider some exercise, meditation time, or gentle music to ease your stress. Try to relax. The less you start off, the less you accumulate throughout the day.
By now you’ve got preparations down, so now it’s just family or friends to get through. Hopefully, this is the pleasant part, but for many of us it isn’t. If you have a toxic family you can’t avoid, try to remember it is only for a limited visit. You can leave if you need to. Try to keep the conversation light. Avoid controversial topics or subjects of family disagreement. Refuse to engage in blame games, but forgive yourself if they rope you in. Know you can also walk away for your own mental health. *You are not required to engage in painful or triggering conversation just to please others.* Repeat that previous sentence as often as you need.
I also try to prepare aftercare ahead of time. Do you need a dark room and silence? A small treat? Exercise? Just something to be kind to yourself and help you unwind. These two may already be part of your regime for regular life as it is for me. But if you aren’t thinking ahead, you may struggle to release the stress when you return home.
Hope you have a happy, safe holiday. We’ll have more for you next year.