Do you carry around comfort objects?

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I know this may or may not been brought up. I'm just curious about this. I know that some people who have more prominent forms of autism do this. I happen to be one of the ones that do. I have a fluffy soft blanket I carry around with me. It's sort of a special security blanket I can't part with. The reason is because it reminds me a lot of my hero. I see him as being a comfort as well as providing me with a lot of security towards anxiety and other things I go through. I named my blanket Keru (Kay-Roo) after Takeru, who is my hero... and the guy in my avatar.

So yeah, does anyone else carry around comfort objects? What do you usually carry around to bring you comfort? You are also welcome to post pictures, if you have them. X3



^ This is what my blanket looks like.

I had a stuffed rabbit that I took everywhere as a kid, and even slept with him until around age 16. He is actually still in my bedroom (I'm 31) and watches me sleep, and I would be lying if I said it didn't provide me some comfort.

As I have a job and try to appear typical (pretty sure they have noticed but not said anything), my comfort object these days is a bracelet, that I never take off. It is hard to explain but it helps me knowing it is there, I do play with it a lot, spinning it on my arm, tapping it.

I have also had a car since I was 16, (had many, but this is the only one I have kept) while it is no longer on the road, I cannot part with it. It may sound strange to have such strong attachment to a car I cannot currently drive, but I'll run my hands down it, sit inside. even the smell (a good one) relaxes me and eases my anxiety.

I always wear a sweater or cardigan of some type and spray myself with a perfume I find extraordinarily comforting. Otherwise, I don't really carry anything.

I don't know whether or not I have mentioned this but your avatar (picture) is simply amazing.

For several years when I was younger, I was obsessed with carrying my comb around -- I don't just mean having it in my bag when I left the house, like many girls and women do. I mean I carried it around the house with me too, always needing to have it either in my hand or set down next to me where I sat. It wasn't even that I constantly combed my hair; I didn't that much, it was the comb itself I seemed to need to cling to and keep with me. I didn't even know about comfort objects at the time.

I grew out of the comb obsession eventually.

I think now my comfort object is hats when not at home -- I don't feel comfortable emotionally and in some sensory issues too, without a hat on my head when out in public. I seem to need the "hiding" a hat affords me.

Nope. Never had a comfort object. Things don't comfort me or calm me down very much. I wish it's that simple. I could use something to calm my anxiety.

I carry my bear around wearever I go.

Not so much an actual object, but when I'm out travelling I'll always bring something familiar from home... Its usually a particular clock and maybe a writing pad for if I get time to let my graphomania out!

Considering that my earphone is a comfort object for me, I think I do.

Baseball cap. I like wearing it when I have to focus on something. Also I can fiddle with it when im anxious and I use the brim/visor to cover my eyes from the bright lights whenever im tired.

Something like this:


It's attached to my cellphone as a lanyard and it is my stim toy. When I get uncomfortable I zip and unzip it repeatably to calm myself. It's also red and black. I always have to have something red&black with me(all of my clothes are those colors) or I become really anxious.

I always have to have a cotton handkerchief in my pocket. If I leave home without one I go back, or if I've gone too far I have to find a shop where I can buy one.

No. It's hard enough for me to carry my house keys, bank cards, shopping list, pencil, nicotine gum and mobile phone around with me. I hate losing things, so if I don't take much with me, I don't feel at risk. Also I like my hands to be free (I never carry shopping bags, I use a rucksack), and stuff in my pockets gives me sensory issues and makes my clothes look stupid. So carrying anything is a necessary evil for me.

I do get some comfort from hugging cuddly toys. Ages ago somebody was showing me their collection, and I was struck by how insecure I felt when I put them down (note my keen eye for the negative side of the coin there).

But if I carried them around, what would I do if I lost them? I'd also be at risk of being judged as weird, childish or unmanly. It's been a long time since I had a circle of friends so nonjudgemental that they'd not be at least slightly weirded out. I'd probably get away with it if I was a young girl. There was a craze at secondary (boys') school for carrying cute little toys such as gonks around, but that was dignified by the op-art fashion that prevailed at the time, and more of a statement than a comfort object, though there was some overlap. Carrying a teddy bear would have been a bully magnet for sure. It's a great shame that society still mostly hasn't learned to stop attacking people for doing harmless things.

I have a 2-foot long keychain. Most of it really is just the chain, all sorts of random things on it (including something like what used to be called a "Swiss army knife" that is fairly useful). There's only 2 actual keys on there; my car key, and then a key to the house of a neighbor that moved away years ago (and I dont live in that area anymore either). Why I still have that particular key, I dont know, but it'd bother me too much to remove. Memories attached to it, I guess. But the main thing is the overall chain itself.

If I'm in the house, the chain isnt such a huge deal. But if I'm anywhere else at all, yeah, I have to have it. And I dont like it when people pick it up or poke at it, which happens sometimes like if I'm at someone else's house or something.

....and of course it's nigh-impossible for the thing to NOT be noticed by people.

I cannot go anywhere without a comfort item. But it is usually a small stuffed animal or a toy from My Little Pony. I get a lot of weird looks, but I honestly don't care at all.

I still sleep with my blue "Linus" blanket (from back when I was going through my Peanuts obsession in middle and high school) and have a rag doll named Wilson who comes around the house with me, and sits in the car every once in a while when I go to the grocery store or some such. As far as what I bring out with me, I have a very tired old blue hoodie to which I am very attached; I've stretched it out to the point that if I need to, I can pull it over my knees, bring the hood up and tuck my head down through the neck hole, so it's like my own mini sensory isolator. I also really like that the sleeves are long enough to cover my hands, it makes me feel safer and more self-contained somehow. I also have a couple of stim toys that I keep with me in my school bag at all times; a fuzzy tangle (which gets decidedly less fuzzy by the day), and a stringy koosh ball. I like stretching and chewing on the strings, though I try not to do that when other people can see, since I'm sure it looks a bit strange.