Driving

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Can anybody relate to this? Although I have never taken my driving test, I have driven my dad's car at time and feel that I would be absolutely awful at it. Driving is an activity that my mind just isn't particularly good at. I was thinking perhaps this could be to do with the fact that the autistic brain if considered to be an ultra-masculine brain(which is a theory that has not been backed up evidence) may lack the feminine aspect of the brain for multi-tasking. All of the signs, signals, rules and pressing certain pedals at certain time. I find it all stressful and start over-analyzing the act to the point that I am unable to do it. Anyway, can anybody relate to this? I remember seeing an episode of the big bang theory where Sheldon found it very difficult to drive and I thought this may be a subtle hint by the producers to indicate that he was aspergers but I am not sure. Sorry, this probably sounded like a stupid post

with my spacy mind and occational violent tics(tourettes)... you can probably imagine what would happen.

Oh no, that would be awful. Yeah I wouldn't be driving anywhere soon myself. Sorry to hear that. Yeah, I too suffer from the spacy mind syndrome I would probably be driving and start thinking whether whales drink the sea water by which they are surrounded and then find I had hit into a tree. How do you travel currently? Sorry if that is a persona question.

I agree it may be problematic for Aspies due to the multitasking and coordination problems. I had to take driver's ed twice and beg to be passed the second time around by promising to wait until my birthday to pursue my license. I passed my driver's exam the first time around though. I was slow learning anything requiring coordination, e.g. swimming or riding a bike. Most notably I couldn't make it through National Guard basic training, because I couldn't get marching down and eventually drove myself and the drill sergeant crazy. Dancing is strictly a free-form affair -- forgot anything choreographed.

Oh god, I have always found memorizing dance moves an absolute nightmare.

Nonsense. It is a bit overwhelming at first, especially for those of us whose brains are trying to process incoming sensory data a mile a minute constantly. However, like anything else that's hard to do at first, it's an acquired skill - meaning the more you do it, the easier it gets. After you have put in enough time behind the wheel, it becomes an organic memory and your body will do most of the work unconsciously - all you'll have to do is navigate and watch the road.

Once you get used to doing it all the time, you'll find it's easy to get in the car, drive for an hour or more and get out at your destination without any conscious memory of how you got there, because your mind was thinking about a million things other than what your body was doing. I know that's hard to imagine in the beginning, when every second you spend learning to operate that vehicle is nerve-wracking and mentally exhausting, but it really does get easier and easier the more you do it.

When I was a teen, I had no interest in driving for the longest time. I was content to let my friends drive me around in their cars. Eventually, though, I had things I wanted to do that didn't involve them and my parents were busy with their own tasks. Of course, it didn't hurt that about that time, I saw a car that I thought was awesomely cool looking.

Take a deep breath, be patient with yourself and don't give up. You can do it. One day you'll look back and wonder what all the anxiety was about.

I think I'm exactly like the OP. I got my license but I don't think I'll ever drive again. There are just too many things to do concurrently with the pressure from the other drivers on you. It's too stressful. I also can't make quick decisions.

I remember that I drove on socal freeway once when I was learning to drive, and it was verry merry berry terrifying, but now it is trivial activity, and I love driving for hours and hours and hours while singing along to loud music on radio.

I'm not the biggest fan of driving but I have driven for years. It was a necessity; there was just no way around it. The buses didn't run my way, or at my time, and I had no one to drive me. So 'tag', I was it. I even got my taxi license and drove a cab for nearly a year. That was more of an adventure though. Oy! The stories I could tell.

I consider myself a very good driver, and when there is no traffic, I enjoy it.
My visual/spatial aptitude lends well to operating a vehicle.
It's the traffic that creates problems with me, other drivers are very unpredictable.
I can get quite upset & frustrated in heavy traffic. It's actually a little better if I have a passenger, they can help keep me emotionally grounded.

Nah, not really.. I like driving. Although, when my coordination has been poor and my attention and focus equally poor I've been a pretty bad driver in the past. I'm much better now, but that also has come with experience and maturity regardless of neurological differences.

I have poor visual spatial reasoning and I never learned to drive for that reason.

I have the exact same problems. I've had my learner's permit for YEARS now and driving hasn't got any easier or more automatic for me. I have visual-spatial issues, so I have no real sense of my car around me or how far away the other cars are, and I have a hard time paying attention to everything around me and knowing when I need to start slowing down, or how fast to speed up and things like that. I feel very fatigued after driving for very short time periods because of that. I want to learn to drive so I can move forward with my life (my town has very limited public transportation and there are no stops near my house), but I seriously doubt that it's ever going to happen for me.

I wasn't ready for driving until my Thirties. I enjoy it now though.

As a kid, I always wanted to be able to drive. At age 5, I constantly watched my mum driving, and even "helped" by moving the wheel. Still at 5, I drove my parents' car out of the driveway at night and crashed it into my next door neighbor's house, which caused them to discourage that "helping." A great uncle actually was impressed by that and kept joking, "Is [beneficii] a NASCAR driver yet?" As I grew older, I still wanted to drive, but I knew I still had to wait. I was a bit disappointed at times, like in special ed and in the mental hospital, when I was told that because I was mentally ill, I wouldn't be able to drive.

When I finally got my license at 17 and could drive myself to school, I was happy! Nowadays, I feel very comfortable driving, one with the car, plugged in, though I'm probably not the best driver. I can be somewhat aggressive in my driving habits.

TL;DR: I like to drive.

The last few weeks I have been sort of commuting an hour each way in the process of moving and downsizing. The drive has been done in a 3500 series turbo diesel chevy van with new studded winter tires. The anxiety I experience is intense. Driving into a city of a million dumb bell drivers is bad. Doing it on ice in blizzard conditions with people tailgating because 110kph is not fast enough... Horrible.

When I am in the middle of all that, I grind my thumbnail on my right hand HARD into my fore and middle finger tips and nail tips... While chewing the hell out of the inside of my lips... while vocalizing "ba bababa bumbumbababa" and bouncing my legs around.... Please tell me I am not the only one to stim while driving.

I WATCHED two really good wipe-outs on the drive home tonight. One with a pickup truck that was towing an overloaded trailer, that whole mess was parked backwards into the ditch, one wheel torn right off the truck, trailer BURIED in snow. The other happened right beside/in front of me, one of those newish crossover awd suv things... bald all season summer tires, cellphone and speed..... I watched as she lost traction when she was passing us in the fast lane... must have been going 145ish kph.. spun right in front of us and hit the ditch backwards. My guess is she was using cruise control (AKA auto-pilot)

I also just about wound up in the ditch tonight. Despite driving for the conditions with the proper equipment, I hit an icy patch lost traction at almost highway speeds and almost parked it in the tulies, NOT GOOD!


Everytime I have a drive go like this, I spend HOURS rocking back and forth in my office chair. So that I can feel the seat back bouncing off my back right on those muscles that run down each side of the spine just under the shoulders. My therapist calls it "Anxiety Back". Sounds about right....

I'll finish the drive and be at home by 3PM, I will be sitting here rocking till 2:30-3AM... and my fingertips will still hurt in the morning.

I really am a decent driver. I love driving. It is one of the few things I excel at. I understand the physics involved, I understand unsprung weight, rotational mass, suspension, brakes, body roll, turbo lag, etc etc.

I can and do Heel-toe shift in my FWD car. I can scandinavian flick in a FWD car without the use of the ebrake, I can power shift without the clutch just by listening to the rpm of the engine and the vibration in the pedals. I can also maintain and repair my own vehicles. I have never been in an accident of my own causing. I do not speed generally.... I follow the "9 yer fine, 10 yer mine" rule of thumb but I mostly keep it at the speed limit unless the conditions change at which point I drive safe and prudent or I get off the road.

I started my own delivery company/gypsy cab while in my late teens early twenties. I was the boss but I spent most of my time on the road driving. Completely ignoring my fares... I did well with that until the local MC wanted to become "partners" I just walked away from the whole thing at that point.

I can drive Just. About. Anything.

I can DRIVE!

(I can fly too, only single prop VFR)

But I do not deal well with having to share the road with others, mostly because they do not follow the rules or they put my loved ones and myself in jeopardy. Like pete1061 I do better when I have my co-pilot with me when I encounter heavy traffic.

I also do not deal well with snow blowing over the road or onto the windshield, TOO MUCH INFORMATION!! !! !! ! Heavy rain does this as well... Visual overload. Rush Hour traffic, Overload.... too much going on all at once. I can do it and do it well, but wow am I ever frazzled by the time I get to where I need to be. Quiet time kind of frazzled.

Menacing is a thing I have personally seen and have had happen to me. They come up from behind really fast, usually in a lifted truck, and they will get as close as humanly possible to the back of your vehicle. Even if there is no other vehicles around and they have a passing lane to use.... they will menace you until you change lanes and let them fly by. I either shut off the cruise or lift off the throttle. Surprise!

I have a smartphone, I do not use it while in traffic, only when parked OFF the road. People texting or chatting on their phones while driving are JUST as bad as drunk drivers. They weave, they have poor lane control, poor throttle control, they hit stuff.... and of course just like drunk drivers they swear up and down they drive better when texting/chatting. Which is B.S.



I am doing better with the anxiety with driving where I live now, only 6000 people in the city and most of them are old as dirt and easy to spot on the road. Cannot wait to sell the house in the city so I NEVER have to drive there again.

Looking forward to hooking up the trailer here in a month or two and heading east to visit my grandmother. YaY! for winterized camping trailers, just like cozy warm ritzy hotel rooms on wheels. Very heavy but very warm, good for camping in Canadian winters, pretty good the rest of the year too.

I love to drive!

Sorry for rambling, it was a hell of a drive tonight and this is helping.