Last year, I decided to travel to Canada. It took me less than an hour to go from wondering, “How much is a flight from Madrid to Toronto?” to receiving the confirmation email for my airline tickets.
And it’s not the first time it’s happened to me. Impromptu trips have marked my travel experience ever since I can remember. For years, I’ve been going on solo trips to Thailand and last-minute adventures in Japan. Once, I even decided to move to New Zealand without thinking too much about it!
What I didn’t know back then was that the driving force behind these wild ideas, besides my love for travel, was my raging neurodivergence.
Let’s turn the clock forward to 2019. A few months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I learned something that suddenly made my whole life make sense: I was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
At age 33, this diagnosis was an epiphany. A lifetime of quirks and chaos that I couldn’t control, of physical and mental hyperactivity, constant neglect, chronic disorganization, and impulsive behavior, suddenly had an explanation.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a condition that affects people’s behavior. People with ADHD can seem restless, may have trouble concentrating and may act on impulse.
Although it is usually detected during childhood, it is becoming increasingly common for adults to be diagnosed with ADHD. But it’s not all bad news; ADHD can also bring several advantages, including the ability to think more creatively and find new ways of approaching a problem that others have not thought of.
No one knows exactly what causes ADHD, but some researchers point to a difference in dopamine receptors as a possible contributor. Dopamine allows us to regulate our emotions and is responsible for feelings of pleasure and reward.
To motivate these brains, an event or stimulation must trigger a release of dopamine. The major triggers of this neurotransmitter in an ADHD brain are: interest, challenge, novelty, urgency and passion for what they are doing.
Not everyone agrees, but I see ADHD as a cognitive difference within the umbrella of neurodivergence and not necessarily as a disorder… In fact, I think if I were neurotypical, I wouldn’t have this blog… or I would, but it would be a lot more boring.
Virtually every travel tip you can find online is written by and for neurotypical brains, so I had to learn to do everything from scratch in a way that worked for me even before I knew I had a name for it.
So, today I’m here to talk about some of the unique challenges of traveling with adult ADHD.
Before we start: I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist, and this is written as a source of personal information and catharsis from the point of view of a traveler with ADHD, with information and advice resulting from my own personal experience, research, and opinion. If you have any medical questions, please consult with your healthcare professional. At the end of this article, you will find a list of ADHD resources.
What are the challenges of traveling with adult ADHD?
People with ADHD love novelty, and there are few things more novel than going to an unfamiliar place. But no matter how excited we may be to travel to a new destination, getting there can be difficult for us.
Traveling, specifically planning a trip, requires a great deal of organization and attention to detail, two functions controlled precisely by the brain regions affected by ADHD.
For example, I have a friend who has booked airline tickets for the wrong dates and even the wrong cities, not once, not twice and not three times. In the least serious case, he had to spend hours on the phone with the airline’s wonderful customer service to change them, but on several occasions, he lost the money.
In case you were wondering, I am that friend.
And I don’t mean that these things don’t happen to neurotypical people; everyone has occasional oversights. But for an ADHD brain, these little mistakes are almost the norm. There’s actually a name for it, the ADHD Tax.
Booking flights and hotels is a fundamental part of my job, so I’ve had to adapt the way I buy travel online to avoid cumbersome and expensive mistakes. At every step of the purchase, but especially before hitting the confirm button, I repeat out loud the details of the trip (dates, times, destination, and names) to make sure everything is correct.
But there’s more to planning a trip than booking tickets, and the impulsivity that has driven me to buy travel also takes its toll on my pre-departure shopping. Some examples of small Amazon-sponsored dopamine shots I could have survived without include a GoPro camera that I used literally two times, backpacks and suitcases, countless first aid kits and toiletry bags, speakers, headphones, tablets, and dozens of other gadgets.
Few people stop to think about how many executive functions are required to prepare a trip from start to finish. For example, packing a suitcase.
My particular system involves packing more things than I need and always forgetting something important, such as documents, chargers, medicines, toothbrushes, etc.
For example, a few years ago, I traveled to Dubai in August with a backpack full of clothes, including a jacket, because the words “Dubai” and “August” mean nothing to me. I also brought the most complete travel kit ever (with anti-diarrhea medicine, antihistamines and color-coded band-aids), as well as photographic accessories of all kinds. When I finally arrived at the check-in counter, I realized that I forgot my passport.
Sometimes it’s not about not putting something you need in your suitcase, but the charm of forgetting it along the way, like the time I left my camera on the plane when I arrived in Amsterdam and didn’t realize it until I got to Central Station, or the time I forgot my passport on the bus from Melbourne Airport and had to get an emergency one from the consulate the next day.
And then there are, of course, the organizational problems once you’re settled in the destination. From getting up on time to remembering that I had a tour booked or a restaurant reservation, all tasks that depend on a minimum of coordination can be an insurmountable challenge for our brains.
Our eternal quest for dopamine, impulsivity, and poor organizational skills can lead us to want to do things that go against the laws of time and space, like booking a two-hour guided tour at 6 p.m. and dinner (at the other end of town) at 8 p.m.
We all agree that a travel budget is nothing more than a spending plan that is made, in my case, with an almost deluded optimism, to know how much money it is possible to spend while on vacation. But what happens when the ability to follow any kind of plan is damaged at the factory? What happens when impulsivity rules? What happens when there is a need for instant dopamine? The answer is obvious: traveling with ADHD is a major challenge for our bank accounts, especially for those of us who like to travel solo. Sometimes, we need a reasonable voice to tell us, “Maybe you DON’T need to buy that expensive jacket just because you are in Paris.”
And finally, there is the issue of medication. Although it may seem counterproductive at first, ADHD is mainly treated with stimulant drugs. This type of medication is heavily regulated (and even banned) in some countries, and depending on where you go, you cannot carry it with you, or you need to carry the corresponding translated prescription.
In conclusion…
ADHD does not take a vacation, and neurodivergent people face many unseen challenges when traveling.
But as I said above, it’s not all downsides when you are a traveler with ADHD. Recent studies indicate that people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder tend to be more creative and curious than neurotypical people, and this creativity, which includes problem-solving, can play in our favor in many situations.
I’d love to hear from you. Do you have any experiences to share about travel and neurodiversity? Let me know in the comments, or submit your story.
Do you think you might have ADHD?
Mental health is important. Here are a handful of reputable online resources about ADHD. If you think you might have ADHD, don’t hesitate to contact your family doctor or therapist – you are not alone!