Oh boy,

I can remember those days. I feel so sorry for you. In the early stage of my recovery, I was flying from Idaho to Phoenix for an hour than on to San Antonio then driving to Comfort Texas. We were stuck at the back of the plane on AirWorst. I was visually overstimulated by all of the heads I saw every time I looked up. The airports are loud. My brother's house in Scottsdale was a zoo. San Antonio traffic was chaotic. I ended up having to hole up at our motel room in Comfort with my music for a day to get settled.

I am fortunate. Over 17 years, my wife has learned to recognize the environments where I will likely be over-stimulated and is quick to ask if I am doing OK. Just the other day, we changed tables 3 times at Red Robin trying to find a table that would not cause me to struggle. She knows that if I am struggling, she will have to sit and eat her meal across the table from a corpse.

Maybe your therapist can help you dissect the trip and inventory the over-stimulation so you can help your husband understand. Once he knows how to recognize over-stimulation, he will become your favorite person to be in public with.

I request the airline ticket counter assign me an aid for getting through TSA. It is a mandated program. I tell the airline agent that I need to avoid the chaos of TSA and they usually can help me do that. I have been denied boarding once and they tried to deny me boarding on two other occasions because of how I react to the chaos at TSA.

It is best to request this assistance 24 hours before your flight. It is part of the Access to Air Carriers Act, the airline version of ADA. Your husband cannot access the alternative path through TSA. The airline agent can.

My best to you as you recover.