Navigating the Challenges of Travel with Neurodiversity
By Ashley Ableson, Deputy Head of Neurodiversity
Imagine this: you are travelling to work, but today, the journey is different and unfamiliar.
To prepare for this unusual journey, you leave home earlier than usual, checking and rechecking the directions saved on your phone, hoping you have understood everything correctly as you get ready to set off. As soon as you step outside, your senses begin working harder.
The sounds feel sharper today. Traffic hums loudly. A sudden horn makes your body tense. At the station, announcements echo and overlap. Footsteps, conversations, doors opening, trains screeching, every sound pulls at your attention at once. You feel as though you cannot tune any of it out or focus on the sounds that you actually need.
The lights feel harsh. People move quickly around you, brushing past without warning. The space feels crowded and unpredictable. There is no clear moment to slow down and think.
Your mind is racing: Did I read the sign correctly? What if the platform changes? Am I going the right way? What if something goes wrong?
You are constantly planning, scanning and processing. Sequencing steps. Managing time. Interpreting information. Making decisions in real time without space to pause. Outwardly, you may hope you look calm. You keep moving. You try to appear fine. But inside, the effort is building and you worry that people can see how difficult this is for you. Now you feel embarrassed as well. The noise, the movement, the thinking, the adapting. Your body feels tense. Your mind feels full. The strain is invisible but very real.
Then you step away from the crowd. You find a quieter space. You put on your headphones. You slow your breathing. The noise softens slightly. Your body begins to settle. Your thinking becomes clearer again. You feel more in control.
The journey has not become easy, but you have adapted and created the conditions you needed to continue. For many neurodivergent individuals, this level of effort is part of everyday travel. Much of it is unseen, but it requires significant skill and energy.
Imagine your ability to carry stress as a bucket. Every stressor, big or small, adds another drop of water. Some days the drops fall in slowly; on others, they pour in all at once.
If this were your daily experience, consider how full your bucket might feel when carrying multiple demands at the same time. It becomes much easier for the bucket to overflow, leading to emotional overwhelm, shutdown or difficulty coping. This metaphor helps illustrate that overwhelm is not about weakness. It is about capacity, accumulated load and the importance of recognising when the bucket is nearing full, so that we can pause, support regulation and prevent overflow.
What if something goes wrong?
What if the platform changes? Am I going the right way?
Did I read the sign correctly?
Why Travel Can Feel Harder for Neurodivergent People
Travel often naturally involves stressors such as:
f Sequencing each step of the journey into a clear, manageable plan
f Processing multiple sources of information, such as signs, announcements, scents
f Managing unexpected change, for example diversions or cancellations
f Travelling through crowded or noisy environments such as stations and streets
f Maintaining awareness of surroundings to stay safe in unpredictable settings
f Regulating sensory and emotional responses.
Navigating these steps can feel overwhelming for anyone, but the effort required to cope can be compounded for neurodivergent travellers as a result of the traits and differences that they experience. These include:
f Experiencing sensory intensity: Busy stations, loud announcements, bright lighting, strong smells and crowd density can quickly fill the bucket.
f Challenges managing cognitive and executive demand: Planning routes, sequencing steps, managing time and adapting to change require sustained mental effort.
f Difficulty with uncertainty and unpredictability: Delays, cancellations, platform changes and unclear signage increase stress and cognitive strain.
f Masking and social pressure: Trying to appear calm while working extremely hard internally can quietly drain energy.
f Individual emotional and physiological responses: Tension, anxiety, overwhelm or shutdown may occur when the bucket becomes too full.
f Invisible effort and fatigue: Even when a journey appears routine.
After travelling, some people may experience mental exhaustion, reduced concentration, heightened sensory sensitivity and emotional fatigue resulting in the need for recovery time.
However, neurodivergence is not one single experience. Needs vary between individuals and can change from day to day, depending on the environment, the journey and the demands involved.
