Do You Have A "Go Bag"?

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I had a zoom meeting with all six of my various providers today in an effort to coordinate treatment and to make sure everyone was on the same page about how best to support me, especially when I'm in crisis or having meltdowns. One suggestion that was supported by everyone was that I should have a "go bag" of sensory equipment on hand at all times to help me mitigate sensory overwhelm. I went out today and got a small backpack, which contains: a therapy sensory brush; stretchy "theraband" exercise rubber bands; a ziploc bag full of sour, chewy candy; my noise cancelling headphones; my writing boogie board; and a keyring with yoga poses that I can do to calm myself down either before or after a meltdown hits. I'm excited to try it out and see if it works the next time I start getting overwhelmed. Do any of you keep supplies like this on your person when you go out?

Not exactly but - at my desk at work I have a jar of B 100 Complex, Ginko Biloba, A box of Lion's Mane supplement for when I've got a lot to do (mix that with the hot water tap from the cooler), and anywhere I spend enough time I have a supply of chewable One-A-Day vitamins.

At home where I'm doing a lot of my work now I have a Dome on a dresser right by my door - partly for privacy and partly to help me sleep (ie. white noise generator without needing a fan) and at work if people get too chatty I'll go out to Youtube and play 'Rain, Waves, and Thunder' to knock out the conversation - I'm an only child so focusing over loud conversation's not one of my strong suits.

In other words I've got a cocktail for everything, I haven't worried quite as much about transitional spaces but I did have to drive an hour each way for work for the past few years and buying a pair of Maui Jims, while they're expensive sunglasses, saved my brain and eyes on the driving.

Let us know how it works for you, StarTrekker.

I don't have a "go bag", but I never leave home without earplugs since I wear them in public. I also bring sunglasses and I always carry my "soap stick" in my pocket. My "soap stick" is something I created out of necessity. I take old lip balm tubes and repurpose them by filling them with a hardened liquid soap I use. That way I don't have to use the heinous harsh chemical fragrance soaps in public places.

I don't have a specific bag but I do keep earplugs and sometimes stim toys in my purse. I also keep a cinch sak in the car that I can put my ear defenders in if I want to take them off.

I usually take certain things with me to turn to if I need to. For example, I usually have a Railway Modeller magazine or I will have a book I bring called "The Living Model Railway". Often I will just open the book to random pages and look at the pictures. It has a calming effect to do this. I have read the book right through a couple of times, but many times I will read random parts of it after looking at the pictures. It is a sort of "Comfort item" (As my Mum calls it).
I do have one or two other books that I sometimes use in this way, but not many.

I do have one or two other items that I bring with me whenever I go out. When I get anxious/nurvous I need to drink a lot, so I always take a bottle of water or cola (Or Pepsi) with me (I use the same bottle which once contained Pepsi). I also will need many toilet breaks so my life can revolve around heading from toilet to toilet... Well. I am not quite that bad, and no, I do not have diabetis as I have been tested.
So a drink is another comfort item I always carry or have with me, even when at home.

I tend to have to stop myself from taking everything with me as I take this incase of this, and that incase of that... Many years ago when I was in my late teens to early 20's I was known as "The garage" by some in the cycling club I was in, because of the tools I took with me when I was cycling. It is like I need to have a plan B for every situation?

Anyway. Comfort items. Yes. I certainly do fit into the catagory of feeling the need to take familiar things with me.

I don't go anywhere, so I don't have a need. Solves that problem!

When I do go out I always have polarised wrap-around sunglasses, earplugs, lip balm, and John the Monster. He's a good luck charm who keeps me safe. Sometimes I take a piece of my stim satin depending how long I will be.

Things I could possibly add to the mix would be Play Doh to smell, and pens or stimmy toys to bite. (I was going to send you a picture of my latest, most completely destroyed pen -- but I'm a little embarrassed). Maybe I'll make a kit to keep in my car.

I have no such items at all and don't need them, but if they help you through the day, that's a great idea. The only things I have to bring if I venture out, are my asthma inhaler and keys, both for their intended use even if the former is just in case. And usually cash since I seldom go other than grocery shopping.

If I'm going somewhere where there will be waiting, I usually bring a book to read while I wait. Occasionally I have brought my DS, but I'm afraid someone will try to steal it as it is valuable. Thugs are less likely to try to steal a book!

These are great, thanks for sharing guys! Magna, the soap stick idea is ingenious, what a clever idea. Skibum, I too can't go anywhere without my ear defenders, the world is far too loud to manage without them.

I don't have one. I don't have to have one.

But I would like to have one.

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I don’t, though it would probably be helpful if I did. If I’m going to be doing something stressful/unpleasant (especially if I can’t bring my service dog, such as for medical procedures), I usually will grab a “stim toy” or two that will fit in my pockets, my phone so I can distract myself with mindless games, and in the car I will have my noise-cancelling headphones (though I don’t usually bring them in anywhere since 1. I don’t want to draw attention to myself and 2. I rely strongly on my hearing to monitor my environment and get antsy if anything’s dampening it. Mostly I just use them if it’s raining while I’m in the car, which is a huge problem for me, and I bring them inside after a trip to use when the neighbors are using noisy yard machinery.) and my stuffed tiger shark (Lilia) to at least comfort me in the car (though again, I don’t usually bring her inside places both because I don’t want anything to happen to her (getting lost, having something drip or spill on her, etc.) and because I don’t want to draw attention to myself by carrying her around. I guess it might work if I had a backpack I had her in and left it a little unzipped so I could touch her, but she’s a little big and I don’t want her to get a permanent bend in her tail or anything from being tucked in a backpack).

No bag, but if my neighbourhood gets too noisy, I can quickly pack my car for extended camping.

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I don't have such a bag, but I have quite a few things around that I would call comfort-management items. Their range overlaps what many people would call creature comforts. My autism isn't severe enough to do anything worse that make me feel subclinically stressed out, overheated, exhausted, angry, sad, frustrated and sick, as long as I stay vigilant against the assault that life can hand out to me.

So I keep these things on standby wherever possible: tea-making supplies and equipment, including additional caffeine (for travelling I take have a couple of water heaters, tea bags with various caffeine content, a nice porcelain cup, water of course, and a mixture of frozen and liquid soya milk in a vacuum flask), nicotine gum and vaping pens, a moderately stiff brush and 2 kinds of aspirin cream or ibuprofen cream to alleviate itching skin, ibuprofen tablets (rarely needed but sometimes very useful), comfy shirts and cardigans that can easily be put on and removed, a small clip that I fix onto car seat belts to slacken off the intense pressure I feel from an unaltered seat belt, and my computer (for decompressing and distracting me from sensory issues, anxiety, and ennuie*). Map and compass in case I get lost. Carriable food so I can maintain control of what I eat. Headphones and mp3 player to drown out screaming brats, chattering people and the strident, in-my-face racket TV sets in people's houses and waiting rooms.

But my complete management system goes beyond items, and includes learned strategies such as a remembered list of things to avoid and another list of excuses for avoiding them (these lists aren't consciously assembled or memorised, just intuitively accumulated as learned reactions to events). A pen and paper is also very useful to partly compensate for my memory problems - I often notice things that wind me up so it's good to make a quick note so that I won't forget and fall into the same trap again.

* Ennuie:
"Listlessness and dissatisfaction resulting from lack of interest; boredom.
A painful or wearisome state of mind due to the want of any object of interest, or to enforced attention to something destitute of interest; the condition of being bored; tedium.
A feeling of weariness and disgust; dullness and languor of spirits, arising from satiety or want of interest; tedium."
That little word describes an awful lot of the feelings that pervade my life and threaten to turn me into a basket case.