Guide to an Outdoor Festival with Anxiety
I have a love/hate relationship with outdoor festivals. More of a hate as of the past three years when my panic disorder joined the party, but there are some festivals that I genuinely love attending. Some, on the other hand, I have just grown out of and the thought of attending is my worst nightmare - buh bye Coachella & Lollapalooza. Not to be dramatic or anything. There are festivals that I still want to attend and I need to make sure I’m prepared in the event my anxiety tries to be sneaky. Here is my guide to attending an outdoor festival with anxiety.
Guide to an Outdoor Festival with Anxiety
Prepare Beforehand
File under setting yourself up for disaster: pounding a couple coffees in the morning and skipping all meals until you get to the fest. I get it, the food at these fests is usually bomb (I mean, there’s an all barbeque festival here in Chicago), but too much caffeine and low blood sugar levels both have side effects that resemble symptoms of a panic attack. I recommend skipping the caffeine all together, or swapping coffee for tea, and eating a well-rounded breakfast full of protein. This will level set you for the day, and then you can also indulge at the fest, because you deserve it. I will also take 10mg of CBD oil before I leave to take any anxious or anticipatory edge off.
Pack Your Essentials
Often times there are bag restrictions for festivals (do your research beforehand!) and only smaller bags are allowed. It’s important to squeeze all your essentials into the fest, and to be prepared for any bag restrictions. Lack of preparation is a sure fire way to trigger anxiety. If you take Xanax, be sure to pack one to two emergency pills in case you need them. Recently, I took my Xanax in a plastic bag and it was almost confiscated...because well, you probably know why. Take a copy of your prescription, or take it in the bottle. Other essentials I include are wipes to cool down, hand sanitizer since you’ll likely be using a porta-potty, and a koozie because who likes warm beer?
Know Your Exits
You know what goes hand-in-hand with festivals? People—and lots of them. Crowds can lead to feeling trapped and claustrophobic, which are major anxiety and panic triggers. So, while at a festival, it’s calming to know where an easy exit is at all times. I also recommend leaving at least 30 minutes prior to the end of the festival to avoid the large amount of people exiting at the same time.
Have a Dialogue with Your Crew
If you’re feeling anxious, or have historically had difficulties with fests, give your crew the heads up that you are perhaps a bit on edge. If you are surrounding yourself with good people, they will be fully supportive of your needs. But, it’s important to give them a heads up or else they will never know how you are feeling. My friends are well aware of my needs when I’m at a festival and they are completely supportive. One even battled a crazy long line in intense heat to get drinks for us when I was feeling uncomfortable. Now that’s a good friend.
Bail if You Need To
Sometimes no matter the preparation, you have to bail. This happened to me recently at a festival that was much more overwhelming than I anticipated. I felt a panic attack come on. And I decided it was in my best interest to leave before things escalated. I had two choices: be mad and hard on myself that anxiety took over, or be gentle on myself and let it go. I chose the latter and ended up meeting my friends back out and had a great end to my night.
It’s helpful for me to stop anxious thoughts when they arise and remind myself that I am in an anxiety inducing situation because I want to be there. Sure, there are many triggers, but avoidance coping is only going to make me fear the situation more. We are taking our power back, and if you follow my trusty guide, you will be prepared. My last tip: go find your favorite beverage once you get there (and put it in your koozie) and have some fun!