Do You Wander?

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Does anyone here have a history of wandering off or getting lost? It happened to me on Friday and kind of freaked me out.

I went for a walk to get away from the chaos that was the office Christmas party, and ended up getting myself lost for close to an hour. My friends were on the phone with the police to send people out to look for me when I finally found my way back. Since then, my two friends who work with me and act as my support people have added both my tablet and my phone to their “find your friends” app, so they can track me if I wander off and get lost again. I didn’t have any of my electronics with me on Friday because I thought I was just going for a short walk, and I went nonverbal when I discovered I was lost, so I couldn’t ask anyone for help. My friends are going to be teaching me the difference between safe and unsafe-looking people, because even if I could have talked, I would have been too afraid to ask for help in case a stranger tried to hurt me.

Do any of you have a history of wandering? I used to get lost all the time in department stores as a kid, because I’d see something interesting and go towards it without paying attention to what my parents were doing.

I had a few accidents but I never had any major ones where I would need help getting back, and the most recent one was 10 years ago.

Wandering is something that I've done throughout my life. As an adult, I only do it when I'm very overstimulated and have a shut-down or at least a partial shut-down, which has got much rarer as I've got older. My instinct seems to be to get as far away from noise and people as possible, so I tend to end up in the countryside, parks or gardens, sometimes several miles from where I started. My memories and those of my family are too old and vague to know if my childhood wanderings were always associated with shut-downs or not.

I remember very little from my wanderings, so I'm not sure whether I have ever interacted with people, but I guess not, as I usually can't understand language or speak when I'm shut down (my language use is otherwise good enough to ask directions, though it would make me anxious.) I can usually only remember brief flashes of random details of the journey, and have often not known where I am when I "come to". Under normal circumstances, I'm usually a good navigator, and can nearly always get back to where I started, even in unfamiliar places.

As I mentioned on another thread recently, I often get into quite a "trancey" state when I'm walking generally. I walk a lot just to travel, and country walks are a favourite "therapy". If I have something on my mind, I can go a long way with very little awareness of the journey, and I've come very close to some having some serious accidents this way. So I guess I have an "auto-pilot" somewhere in my head which must be what I use when I'm on my shut-down wanderings. It might also relate to pacing being my most common adult stim. I have described myself to people for a long time as "having clockwork legs"!

Department stores, oh! - losing me in them is something my Mum remembers very well, though it seems I was usually trying to hide rather than being curious. I must have given some people quite a fright when they stumbled across me curled up inside racks of clothes or whatever!

I feel as if there's just an instinct there that knows exactly the thing that will help us, much like the need to stim. When we're overloaded and the "higher functions" of the brain start struggling, I think this instinct steps in to get us to a "sanctuary". We don't know "where" the destination is, but we'll know it when we find it. Peace and calm are obviously things that we might seek out, but it seems common that people find nature therapeutic, and I have read scientific studies which show the benefits of it for mental health patients and people recovering from sickness.

Unfortunately, modern civilisation means that we're not always close to nature any more, so we can end up to endangering ourselves by finding a way through built-up areas. When I have lived closer to the countryside, my wanderings have usually been much shorter than when I lived in the city - presumably because I found what I needed more easily.

As a little kid, I had the habit of sneaking away from my mom in stores- especially to hide around clothing racks. I still occasionally walk off for a bit, but not enough to get lost (more like go somewhere quiet nearby, where I can be alone). I have walked away and out of a building and my home when emotional, or mute and overloaded a few times, getting in trouble for leaving and losing awareness of danger.

I used to get lost a lot. Sometimes even on purpose, if I had a lot of time on my hands. Somehow, I get really nervous when I lose control over something small, but when I have zero control at all (like when I'm lost in the woods) I relax completely. Doesn't happen anymore as I live on a small island, so I'm all out of space to get lost in.
My little brother (also autistic) wanders off a lot, and often needs to be picked up by the police somewhere. This summer he went away for over a week, and showed up at our dad's house, 400 kilometers from where he started.
I probably would do the same if I didn't have responsibilities at home. I like walking.

Yes I wander alot. There's something freeing and calming in just being somewhere with nothing but the present. I think I spend so much time planning and worrying that taking a break and wondering is a nessesity.

In terms of wondering and getting lost when stressed, yuppp normally I eventually find my way back but I nearly missed my driving test because I was wondering in the woods and later realised I was lost. I do have a method for how to handle getting lost as I wandered off all the time as a child . Mainly involves walking in a straight line in the direction I think I should be going, chances are that as long as I stay straight I will get out and hey there is something enjoyable about being lost! Unless it is dark then I freak out and start crying lol.

I'm what's known as a flight risk. I'll only mean to explore a little ways off and that quickly turns into getting lost.

I'm too busy taking in what's right in front of me, to keep track of where I am going or even what's further ahead, like a cliff.

Whenever I go out walking there's always someone who has a hold of me, like by the end of my shirt. And I wander all over the place and love it, until my bad leg starts wearing out.

I sometimes find myself in another room, wondering why I went, but sometimes what I really needed most was just to stretch my legs. I wander deliberately when looking for a new place to live, and to familiarize myself with one. However, my dog was much better at finding interesting paths to follow. I like finding every possible short cut between frequent destinations.

"I'm the type of guy that likes to get around......going to one place, going from town to town.....I am the WANDERER, the WANDERER"

Song by Dion from about 1961-1962.

I end up going non-verbal and wandering mostly when I'm in large stores. They tend to completely overwhelm me within about thirty minutes, depending on the population of the store. My mom will often tell me the story of when we were shopping when I was young, and I quietly wandered off to later be found in a linen cupboard of the department store. Now, cell phones help my husband find me when I wander away while we're shopping.
When it comes to wandering in nature, I have always done that and always will, I suspect. I am usually relaxed enough to be in a verbal state, though, so I let loved ones know where(ish) to find me.

No, I have never wandered off like that. I've always preferred to stay a bit away from others, on the outskirts, behind some bushes, around the corner etc, but I've never actually left, and I have never gone far.

I always stuck close enough to my class, daycare, family, whatever the case was. I have always feared getting lost.

I don't wander.

But..

I wonder

I wah wah wah wonder

where....all of you (getting lost prone folks) will stay-a-ay

My little runaways.

Run run run run runaways.


(apologies to singer Del Shannon)