Driving,

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Does anybody else have trouble driving? Not only do I suck at driving but I never use turn signals and usually don't look both ways and can't usually think a head. I need something to blame this on, my life is in turmoil right now. its such BS.

I don't drive. It's like immediate sensory overload getting behind the wheel, I can't pay attention to everything at once.

Eventually I might have to figure out how to get around that issue. Up until now, I've lived in cities where I can take public transit.

This is just BS. This shouldn't be happening to me.

When you're in an accident or stopped by a State Trooper, no one will behave as if it's BS that's happening to you but shouldn't.

I'm okay at driving. I don't like driving though.

Same here.

My wife does most of our driving in our home town.

But I tend to do most of the driving when we make a long distance trip (less ' noise')
- which is just a few times a year

Aspergers have limited awareness of things around them and they are usually have tunnelled vision. Driving requires: being aware of things on the road, anticipating what is going to happen next along with driving the vehicle.

It usually takes a person with Aspergers more time and more tests to pass their drivers license than an NT. I can not drive and failed the driving test a few times due to my Aspergers and consequently gave up. Driving a car is a lot more challenging than riding a bicycle or motor bike.

There is not that much different between a Manual an Automatic car: you have to be in control of the car and aware of things around you at all times. Not having a car license may adversely impact a person's employment prospects.

I find quite a big difference between driving an Automatic car and a Manual (or a 'stick' for American readers)

I haven't driven a manual shift car for almost 15 years now - it just seems a ridiculous and unnecessary complication of an activity that is already challenging for NTz AND Aspies alike.

My wife still occasionally uses an old manual shift car for local shopping, which sometimes seems akin to rubbing sticks to make fire!

In heavy traffic, driving a manual shift seems like a good recipe for an anxiety vortex (for me anyway) - even my NT wife complains of leg cramps during stop/start episode in heavy traffic.

I don't drive. I refuse to get a drivers licence because I can't afford gas for one, and second; I don't know how I would ever cope with being behind the wheel, having to mind everything. I can't filter sounds so I hear everything at once, and I get easily distracted by pretty lights. People are also illogical selfish beings, my default mindset is to expect logical solutions to situations, but people never ever drive like that. I'd be wondering when the driver behind/next/infront of me is going to do something stupid every second I'm behind the wheel.

Much safer to take the bus

This is exactly my experience of driving - it generally feels like an interactive computer game to me.

Driving is mostly a guessing game, wondering what 'drivers' are going to do next - 'Indicator' lights (if they are used at all) are generally a frustrating (and dangerous) source of misdirection.

All very conducive to the Anxiety Vortex

For me, oddly, I find manual easier to drive than an automatic in some ways. I'm NVLD, and Aspergers is somewhat of a question mark for me, though. But manual transmission, I can anticipate how the car will accelerate in a given gear, so I find it easier as I have more control over it, and can plan things ahead much better. Also though, I love racing games, the feel of driving fast, racing animes, and working on cars, so it comes with the territory. Also, manuals can at times be more relaxing, as it puts all the focus on driving alone, so it keeps my wandering thoughts at bay while I'm driving, thus not letting my emotions get to me as easily. If my emotions get to me, I tend to be much more reckless, speed, take corners hard, etc.

NVLD, my big problem is, everything I do has to be planned. I never do written plans, as I pretty much never need them, just my thought process is always constant contingency planning. So, if things are going "according to plan" my driving is excellent, I use turn signals all the time, and I'm very very safe. One minor issue is I take slightly longer to go at intersections, just because I guess my speed judgements are bad, so I compensate by giving myself lots of room to get in. I think I do have "sensory issues" but I've learned to compensate for them in ways like that. Then again, I really wanted to drive, not just for the sake of commuting, but because I liked the idea of having a fast sports car of my own.

My biggest issue driving, is actually direction. My sense of direction is like, James May lousy. That, and I hate passengers, except for maybe one friend, and can't drive with much degree of distraction at all. I get overloaded if passengers talk too much in my car, especially if the front seat passenger is talking to the backseat passenger, or there's a passenger in the middle seat in back obstructing my view. I've had meltdowns driving, usually for getting lost, or with passengers. Then when I get into meltdown sorta stage, I tend to drive a bit bad.

Oddly, when I totalled my mom's Taurus, I was completely emotionally fine for the first couple days after. The rest of my family was all sad and stuff about the crash and me, night I got home, was printing out cars to see on Craigslist, didn't emotionally affect me at all. Then a couple days later, I felt like the worst person in the entire world for crashing my mothers car, and I still beat myself up about it now.

One thing that oddly helped my driving, was actually ice skating, as it forces your mind and body to work together, and get your right brain working better. It requires you to "think" about the moves you're doing, without actually thinking about them, if that makes sense. That's what's required to be a good driver in emergency situations, the ability to "think" under adrenaline. It's just very hard for me to let go and "not think" about what I'm doing, and people tell me all the time I overthink things.

So yes, for driving, I overthink the hell out of everything, plan too much, and sometimes it's an advantage, sometimes it's not. I recognize it as the most deadly activity I do everyday, and usually treat it as such, and to me, I find it odd that others do not think the same way. To everyone else, they don't take it seriously and it comes "easy."

I passed my tests on the first go. But besides some limited driving after that, I've barely been behind the wheel since. No one knew the anxieties that came about would be associated with what was confirmed less than a year ago.

I tried to learn to drive but I was terrible. I reached a stage where I could physically do the actions required to drive, but I just lacked awareness. I found it impossible to be alert to everything all of the time. Another problem I had was mirrors; an object in a mirror meant nothing to me. I couldn't work out if something was a threat or not.

Same here

I want to try and claim SSDI but doubt I will, I don't like the way I was treated last time I went to get a diagnosis.

I recall being rather traumatized in driver's ed as a teenager. I was usually in tears after every class. It didn't really come as a surprise that driving was extemely difficult for me given my history of poor motor coordination. (I did not learn to ride a bike until age ten and had difficulty making contact between ball and stick in various sports.) However, I didn't understand the cause of my troubles and the general attitude toward driving was that it was simply something that everyone needed to do, almost as a sort of coming-of-age rite. I remember I had more than a few misgivings about it and thus put off driver's ed until the summer after my junior year (at least it wouldn't detract from precious homework time that way).

Once behind the wheel it seemed like I lacked a sense for the physical dimensions of the vehicle. One of the teachers said encouragingly that eventually the vehicle would feel just like an extension of our own bodies. But as person who not unfrequently misjudges the breadth of her own shoulders when passing through doorways, this was not a source of great comfort.

It also seemed as though, compared to the other students, I did not learn as quickly, if at all. Being nervous didn't help things either. My instructor frequently told me that I needed to "pay attention to the big picture." I'm not sure if I made any progress in this area though I do recall being more interested in a bird I spotted in the rearview mirror than in the fine details of parallel parking--much to the chagrin of my instructor. She's just lucky it wasn't a squirrel.

I once ran over a curb during one of the sessions; I'd been entreated to not slow down so much while making turns so I made a conscious effort to refrain from decelerating but with an unfortunate outcome. One of the other students told me that he knew we were going to hit the curb. I wished he'd spoken up sooner. I'd just been focusing on the speed aspect and didn't have a clue about the curb. I was rather shaken up by the event, especially by the way the instructor went on about it in class to the other students. It was like I was a bad person for what I had done, driving skills being framed in a moral context. I felt a lot of guilt and self-loathing over the event and was mortified at how the instructor talked about me to the other students (at least he didn't mention my name). I'd started engaging in self-harm a year or so earlier; I took out my frustrations with driving upon myself.

I made an attempt to continue learning how to drive once the class had finished (Ironically, I was the top in the class in terms of memorizing the various rules pertaining to driving.) but found the endeavor far too stressful. My parents kept encouraging me to learn, saying that I just had to do it in order to survive. It seemed like there was no way out; I'd hit a wall that I seemingly couldn't cross. Still haunted by nightmares of driver's ed, I was considering the option of suicide.

I managed to survive. I still feel a bit embarassed when asked if I drive but I'm getting over it. It's been difficult having jobs and all that and I'm far less independent than I would be otherwise (having lived with my parents through college) but there are cetainly worse fates. In another year I'll be off to grad school in a larger city with public transportation. As an adult I've also grown more willing to question the idea of automated vehicles as a necessary part of life. There are things I can do and things I can't (or shouldn't for fear of killing myself or someone else). Superior motor skills really wouldn't contribute to my effectiveness as a student of Japanese history. And cars tend to be costly and smelly. Definitely something I can live without.