Wandering

Post Reply New Topic

Even though i am 16 and "high functioning" i am a wanderer. I tend to wander when i am in unfamiliar places and i get bored. Does anyone else do this?
Why do i do this?

I did this. Totally drove my parents up a wall. Of course, they didn't understand that I had sensory issues and that i was either over or under-stimulated and needed to fix that. As an adult, I am both an excellent hiker and very good at finding my way around new places. So, I learned something. I still love visiting new places and just walking. I like observing other humans doing their human thing. I love being among the trees away from other people, too. Its just pleasurable.

You have to be safe about it, obviously. Some autistic people also have non-verbal-learning-disability. They are at real risk for getting lost and not finding their way back! Most of us are fine. I try to always have my cell phone on and charged when I go out. And I turn it off at 10% energy in case I need to call for emergency help. I bring water. Once, I was bike riding and got a flat and ended up having to call a taxi. I was a good ten miles from home and figured I couldn't walk back. I hate taxis but I did it. MANY times, I wondered too far and my feet started HURTING while I made it back, but that's not the end of the world. I just rested the next day.

When I was your age, I wandered into the woods while my parents were packing from a cabin camping trip. I got a little lost and it took me way longer than I intended to get back. It was so embarrassing! When I got back, everyone had left except my parents, who were trying to decide when exactly they should call the police. They were so nervous, I didn't even get in trouble.

Oh yeah. I do it if understimulated to gain input through exploration, or if overstimulated to escape the thing causing it. I think I need one of those kid leashes some people use.

Sometimes i know its bad and wrong but i cant help myself and i still wander

First it was on my bike, then it was the car. I'd get the urge to go out and I'd head out the door and I wouldn't return for the rest of the day. I never worried about getting lost cause I had the local road network memorized. My longest trips on bike tended to be about 10 miles, in the car... about 100 miles.

parents didn't care too much for it though. I often took off with telling them. One of my first trips out the door during the summer of 1989 ended up with my parents forming a search party with the neighbors to find me since it got to be after dark and past my bed time. After they found me I couldn't understand why my parents were so upset.

As a preschool kid I was brought home on several ocasions by the police. I'll go for long walks of several miles by myself and if I decided it was too far to walk back home I'd stop a policman and tell him that I was lost. Hey presto a cup of cocoa in a police station followed by a ride home in police car.

As a boy aged eleven I started climbing out of my bedroom window in the middle of the night and
going for long walks. It was great, no people and hardly any traffic.

I definitely wander. I tend to accidentally wander off when in a group a lot and get lost from everybody else. I think I do it in those situations because things get overwhelming in a crowd and I tend to seek a quieter and less populated space where I can relax for a bit.

"Not all those who wander are lost ... "

I was a wanderer because I was curios and I liked to be on the go and I wanted to be where I wanted to be. I was smart to wait until my parents had their backs on me before taking off. Because I frequently took off, my parents finally got me an ID bracelet with my name on it and address and phone number. They didn't take it off until I could say my name and I knew my address and phone number and I didn't wander off far anymore.

When do you call it wandering, and when do you call exploration? Usually, I would think of wandering as being oblivious to where you're going.

Another wanderer here. I like just getting up and going on walks outside. I have gotten in trouble for it a few times as a child... for walking off outdoors and wandering off in stores as well. Walking seems to calm me down and I find it pleasant as well.