How do you navigate overstimulating environments?

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Growing up, I could avoid overstimulation by staring at the floor, using my peripheral vision to follow my family members around obstacles in overstimulating environments. For the last few years, I had my Service Dog trained to guide me around hazards, and stationary and moving obstacles, and find people and things, so that I could just focus on him and avoid overstimulation in overstimulating environments and give myself some independence. Now that he is retiring and I do not have a replacement for the foreseeable future, I do not want to go back to being completely dependent on my family all the time. So what can I do to help myself to navigate overstimulating environments without opening myself up to the overwhelming stimuli?

Everything online recommends adapting the environment, but I only have control of my environment at home and that is limited because I live with others. I have memorized the layout of familiar places and the location of commonly used items, but that does not help me navigate in new places, find new items when needed, or avoid moving obstacles like cars and people. I already use sensory calming tools like earbuds and sunglasses, but those are not enough. And I cannot just isolate myself from all overstimulating environments.

I do have some visual impairment, but need help navigating the physical environment and communicating to others that I do not see well because of my sensory issues. Having used a Guide Dog, I have considered using a white cane, but do not know the ethical and legal considerations of using a white cane for a disability other than legal blindness.

_________________
31st of July, 2013
Diagnosed: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Auditory-Verbal Processing Speed Disorder, and Visual-Motor Processing Speed Disorder.

Weak Emerging Social Communicator (The Social Thinking-­Social Communication Profile by Michelle Garcia Winner, Pamela Crooke and Stephanie Madrigal)

"I am silently correcting your grammar."

Nothing you can do other than try to adapt to the world. A sense of duty helps; no matter how terrifying something appears to be to me, if I feel it's my duty to do it, I never have any difficulty doing it. Of course, the deontological conception of ethics is unfashionable today, but I don't care.

I tend to just zone out by daydreaming & barely pay just enough attention that I need to in order to get around OK. I think this may be partly related to my ADD. Maybe you could do something on your phone/tablet or play a game on the Nintendo Switch while out so you'll distract yourself from some of the anxiety/stress

Thank you for your responses. Unfortunately, by themselves, they will not be sufficient.

It is not terrifying, anxiety-producing, or stressful; it just overwhelms my senses so that I cannot make sense of any of it fast enough. Psyching myself up will not help overcome the physical limitation. And distracting myself only helped if I had someone to rely on, like my family or my Service dog, to do the navigating for me. But I will not have use of a Service Dog soon and I do not want to be dependent on my family if I do not have to. I mean, I will not always have my family here to depend on, so I need to learn how to do this myself.

I need a way to gather just enough sensory information to safely navigate the environment without taking in so much that it overloads my senses. Looking down at the ground helps to reduce the amount of sensory input to an acceptable level to process but does not give me enough information to safely navigate traffic. Looking up at my surroundings gives me enough information but too much for me to process to safely navigate traffic.

_________________
31st of July, 2013
Diagnosed: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Auditory-Verbal Processing Speed Disorder, and Visual-Motor Processing Speed Disorder.

Weak Emerging Social Communicator (The Social Thinking-­Social Communication Profile by Michelle Garcia Winner, Pamela Crooke and Stephanie Madrigal)

"I am silently correcting your grammar."

Maybe not a white cane, but how about just a regular cane. You could even get a stylish one, maybe that shoots darts.

when outside is chaos, you can try managing it from within,
i though (i knew not about autism) controle over (taking the control back) eyemovements would be an important concious step in reducing anxiety and chaos,
you can try for yourself, keep your eyeballs from moving randomly to strictly focus straight in front,
there's immidiately more self stability and center

from letting your eyes wander around by themself, come feelings as fear and uncertainty,
i wondered why isn't that thought?
oh maybe it's only me, but i doubt that it is so

I use headphones to isolate myself from sounds not much help for visual.

My partner said when he was young he underwent some kind of conditioning which would be considered cruel now but allowed him to adapt some of his autistic behaviours.

Though he faces the challenge that with his seizures hitting hard some of his autistic traits are affecting him more.

Looking down at the ground directly in front of me, I can only see the few items between me and the edge of my vision. Then, my slow brain only has to process and identify those few items. And I can handle that, but then I constantly run into things before they come into my field of vision.

Looking up in the distance to find just one piece of information, even just staring straight in front of me, I can now see hundreds of items between me and the edge of that space. Then, my slow brain now has to scan and process and identify every item to find the one piece of information I need. But I cannot process all of that information quickly enough to avoid running into things.

Something like a cane would allow me to gather information outside my field of vision to avoid running into them without overwhelming my senses with too much information. Regular canes are not long enough to give the person enough time to avoid collision. Non white long canes help with that, but do not warn other traffic that the person may need extra care to avoid collision. White canes are long enough and warn other traffic that the person may need extra care to avoid collision, but some state laws sound like it may be illegal to use a white cane for this purpose if the person is not blind -which sounds inconsiderate toward people with other disabilities who need the same consideration.

_________________
31st of July, 2013
Diagnosed: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Auditory-Verbal Processing Speed Disorder, and Visual-Motor Processing Speed Disorder.

Weak Emerging Social Communicator (The Social Thinking-­Social Communication Profile by Michelle Garcia Winner, Pamela Crooke and Stephanie Madrigal)

"I am silently correcting your grammar."

The only law I can find only covers the duty and liability of a driver that causes an accident with a blind person. But according to the American Council of the Blind, only the blind may carry white canes under my state law. I just do not know how that can be illegal if there are no set fines or penalties (that I could find) for a nonblind person using a white cane.

And there are actually long canes in other colors, so no need to paint one. But the white color serves another purpose that could really mitigate my disability: it identifies to other people that I need extra care.

_________________
31st of July, 2013
Diagnosed: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Auditory-Verbal Processing Speed Disorder, and Visual-Motor Processing Speed Disorder.

Weak Emerging Social Communicator (The Social Thinking-­Social Communication Profile by Michelle Garcia Winner, Pamela Crooke and Stephanie Madrigal)

"I am silently correcting your grammar."

I was born with a rare low vision disorder that was diagnosed during my senior year in high-skewl. After graduation my voc-rehab counselor sent me to a place where blind or visually impaired people learn life skills. One of the classes I had was mobility where you learn how to go out in various places & get around. My instructor required me to learn to use a white cane even thou I'm not legally blind, my condition is not degenerative, I can see well enough to get around without one & had gotten by over 18 years without ever using a cane before. My instructor asked me some questions during my 1st class & the big two he asked that caused me to have to use a cane were "Do you tend to look down when you walk?" or something like that which I answered Yes to. The reason I look down is NOT because of poor vision but it is instead due to Aspergers related stuff like anxiety & avoiding eye contact. The other question he asked was something like "Do you sometimes stumble or trip when walking which I also answered Yes too. The reason I sometimes stumble is NOT because of my vision but instead due to me not paying enough attention probably due partly to my ADD. I still looked down out of habit even when using a cane & having a blindfold on. I sometimes stumble when walking on sidewalks where there are big humps cuz I'm zoning out & not paying enough attention & I still had that same problem even when using the cane without the blindfold on & I was looking down. My point is that using a cane won't help if you don't learn to pay enough attention to using it. A guide/service dog helps you navigate/get around because the dog has a a brain & was well trained. When using a cane instead you are the one who has to think & be trained on how to use the cane. If you cant focus cuz your overwhelmed by sensory input &/or stress or whatever, you might still be overwhelmed when using the cane & it could potentially be useless for you. I'm not sure if that'll be the case for you or not, you know yourself & your situation better than I do. I'd just hate for you to put yourself in a dangerous situation because your expecting the cane to work for you when it doesn't. Do some tests runs if you wanna try it, like have someone like a good friend or your parents hang around close for a while when your learning to get used to using the cane.

Slowly badly and wrongly