Tried something different this afternoon...

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I went out this afternoon, to a shopping center, and this time, I didn't take as many of my coping items/plushies with me. Usually when I go anywhere, I take several of my plushies. The ones that usually go everywhere with me, along with Dory, are Truffles the pig, Baby Sulley, Piglet, Little Carol, and Rebound (sometimes). In the front zippered pouch of my bag go Susie and Miss Important, and when I'm feeling particularly anxious, my small plastic doll of Sgt. Calhoun from Wreck It Ralph goes in there too, as does Penny Ling the panda.

Basically, I currently have around 12...ish small plushies that are designated coping items, and I usually carry about at least six of them, including Susie and Miss Important, and/or Sgt. Calhoun and Penny Ling.

However, today was different. The only coping items I took with me were Dory, my two stones, Susie and Miss Important, and Petunia, a little bunny a friend sent me. I still felt okay, and my bag was a lot lighter than usual, which I liked.

Today wasn't at all stressful, though, in the grand scheme of things...I'll probably continue to carry the usual amount of coping items whenever I do something like go out amongst crowds of people of spend time with my stepmother. But this is progress, right?

Hey that's pretty cool!
Maybe you can get it down to just Dory pretty soon, that would be much easier on your back!

Bravo! Good for you.

My sister, though not autistic, uses what she calls a "therapy rock". Coping items can be very useful, but if you feel you're embarrassed or burdened by them, try to see which ones you could cope without. Hope this helps.

That's great, well done Keep it up!

My coping thing is earphones. I can't deal with all the noise.

I need to invest in some noise canceling earphones though. I bought some, but I can still hear the outside world. I don't want to have loud music hurting my ear drums just to drown out the noise.