Reckless behavior/unaware of danger

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Hi

I'm not diagnosed with aspergers or any kind of autism. I'm asking here though to see if anyone can recognize the behavior. So here goes...

I've for great parts of my life been somewhat reckless in certain situations, mostly in traffic. Like when I was a teen and on my way to school on a bike, I would take a chance to cross the road even if a car was coming. Sometimes it came faster than expected, so it was a close call. This happened several times...

Later, I drove quite and sometimes very fast in city traffic when I was running late. I figured could do this since I trusted my skill as a driver. Never crashed during any of these speed runs...

I've also had other incidents, such as close calls in city traffic as adult. Was once nearly hit by a bus in some kind of bike related situation. I also used to ride my bike on sidewalks and cross the streets on pedestrian crossings. Several times going against the red light and when cars were coming. After near misses I reminded myself to be more careful next time. Still it happened again though...

I've also hung out with people in dangerous places at night without being especially afraid. Twice I could possibly have died because of this. I've also been alone in potentially dangerous areas and locations at night, without being overly aware of any danger. When something did happen I became more aware of the danger on some occasions, and became quite cautious.

Could mention more but guess you get the general idea. Do anyone with any kind of autism recognize any of this kind of behavior? I should mention that I'm reasonably smart and of course theoretically know what's dangerous.

So does anyone with autism recognize any of this?

I do not know whether this kind of thing might be directly related to autism, but yes, I definitely have the same deal. My wife says I seldom make mistakes but then they are big ones when I do, and I think that has to do with my occasional inability to properly recognize and assess all possible consequences beforehand.

I'm the exact opposite. As a kid I would obey safety rules to a fault, I'm always in fear of danger, and my idea of reckless behavior is to eat something deep-fried or full of sugar.

When I am driving I tend to follow what you would call the "rules of the road" to a fault. Unfortunately, generally, these days the rules seem to have gone out of the window. Many of the polite/courteous/considerate "rules" have gone by the board. I don't speed, and am very safety conscious in traffic. Big gaps, take my time, drive within the distance you can stop etc, etc. I can be very frustrating for drivers behind me.

Show me a National Speed Limit sign on a country road however and I can drive like a lunatic, and sometimes in the past did. [See my way of rigid/black/white thinking it is a 60 limit so you should be able to drive at 60 all the time.......]

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.63840 ... 312!8i6656

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.63554 ... 312!8i6656

Blind corners like those above would be taken at 50mph. I would be (and still am) fully conscious of the danger, but it never frightens me as to what could happen if something went wrong.

I am a lot calmer now in my driving, and take way less risks and those are much more calculated.

I've never been one for overtaking in a stupid manner. You don't save any time whatsoever - the person you are overtaking is going to a different destination and will always arrive sooner or later than you (at your destination) depending on which is nearer........

To sum up:
Reckless - sometimes.
Unaware of danger - almost never.
Concerned about the danger I might put myself in - occasionally.
Concerned about the danger others might put me in - always.

Not sure your age, but this seems like immature behavior, which can be associated with having autism.

I can relate quite well to being naive about dangerous situations, as I was in many situations like this when younger.

Risk-taking and recklessness have been well documented as expressions of adult ADHD. There can be overlap with ADHD and autism, and, of course, there are many people who have both.

When I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder I was put on an SSRI called Celexa. It eventually removed my anxiety, but then I started acting aggressive and reckless. They called it disinhibition.

This reads familiar. I too had a tendency of doing ridiculously dangerous things with dangerous people when I was younger, because I could (a) not understand motivations, normal emotions and other physical and verbal cues that would have alerted others to the fact that people mean harm. I've had people pull weapons on me, and I just stared (which ironically will back a few people down) and (b) not experience normal emotional processing myself, such as fear or pain.
I am more sensible with things I can understand - in traffic situations, I can understand velocity, and I know that if I misjudge a situation cars will smash and kill me. It's purely a physical object and a natural physical property. That keeps me ahead of doing anything dangerous. I speed, but only when I know I can get away with it ok. With shifty people it's a grey area - one must understand others and their thought processes, motivations and emotions in order to preempt any danger from them, and I often can't pick that sort of thing up.

Yes, and then later on I seemed to have some kind of dissociative thing going on where risks did not seem risky since I felt more like an observer than the participant. It was not like I consciously thought I was invincible, yet the idea, concern or fear that the consequences of risky action could actually happen to me simply seemed unnecessary.

Being unaware of danger has gotten me into a ton of trouble. One time I didn't realize i put myself in a situation where i could have gotten kidnapped or killed. I don't know if it's common behavior in people who have Aspergers or Autism but It would make a lot more sense to me if someone told me it was.
Also my reckless behavior doesn't come out much. When it does though, it turns into a huge problem to where I have to go to the doctor to adjust medicines. It's a lot to deal with if you ask me.

Due to being what I called 'clueless' I wound up in a situation where I was put into a forced labor situation by adults I thought I could trust. Some people in that town and friends helped me escape.