Do you have trouble driving?

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Just wondering if anyone here has trouble driving a car. Whenever I drive a car I get HUGE anxiety and totally panic. Freeways are the worst. The only places I really feel comfortable driving are areas I know REALLY well like the town where I grew up. I currently live in a place where i don't need a car (I take the subway) but I may soon need to move to a place that will require a car...(possibly moving to the suburbs to buy a house, got kids now.) Does anyone else here have experience like this?

I can't drive. On top of being an Aspie I am also visually impaired. I also have a huge fear of cars believe it or not! I get in them but have severe anxiety! I don't even sit up front lol! I always wonder if there are some Aspies out there that don't drive or have a fear of cars too because I've been scared of cars since I was 4!! I have no desire to drive!

hi all

cars. hmm... i don't have problems with cars. theyre useful no doubt. theyre quite ingenious.. sure. but i still have problems with them. i'll explain.

first... i always wanted to drive. im a musician, i wanted to be able to dash around doing so.
i took lessons (a hell of a lot of them)... but it was pretty obvious from lesson 2 that my attempts to learn were hampered somewhat (ok... so UTTERLY). First, the driving instructors giving me instruction was problematic. example. "release the clutch"... answer "ok, i can release the clutch but can you explain why the biting point doesnt tear the engine to shreds please".... instructors reply.. "you're a trouble maker" and such. lol not a great start. i never take things at face value and need logic and reasons, not just isolated "bits".

problem 2... this is the biggie
controlling the car... meh... ok. not brilliant but passable.
looking out the window... really really bad. shocking. im very visually sensitive. driving a car and attempting to monitor the surroundings really messed me up. in the end, after several instructors and years of attempts... i had enough of feeling like an idiot due to the spaced-out fuzz when trying that i gave up.

final problem... cars seem to make some people very angry. impatient, rude and kind of lazy. also... terrible for the environment etc.

my final issue with cars (although im sure if i could drive i'd be far less harsh about them)...whenver i see traffic jams and lines of cars waiting to merge, or turn, or basically get from a to b... i get annoyed... i cant help but picture the "grumpy frustrated drivers" sitting in position, suspended in the air... without their cars. problem solved. no jam

in short... i cant drive

i also waffle. lol

Im a really good driver when i have passengers... otherwise i have no patience... my concentration suffers from this

I have a huge fear of cars in general, specifically of car accidents, though I also hate the feeling of moving really fast. When I used to drive I would never go over about 55 mph, which drove everyone nuts, so my passengers would complain and people would flash their lights or honk their horn at me, which would ramp up my anxiety and make me want to drive slower. I had trouble from day 1 and one of the reasons I left the USA was because I never want to have to drive again. Hooray for European public transport!

I agree with the speed thing. I see no need to go over 55 and doing so makes me mega-nervous.

I am in Japan now which has great public transportation but I will likely be going back to the US soon...had a son with ASD and services here are pretty abysmal.

So in short I unless I move to NYC I will have to do that driving thing again soon.

I grew up in a rural area where there was not much in the way of public transportation, so learning to drive was sort of a prerequisite for being a part of the world. That said, I'm not a fan of driving, unless it's on back country roads or something. Parallel parking is sort of a joke for me and I'm awful at merging in congested, high-traffic areas, too. Both stress me out. I have some depth perception problems, thanks for a non-verbal learning disorder and that might be the root of those problems.

To top things off, I tend to have a pretty bad sense of direction and get lost easily. I have to travel a bit for work and they bought me a GPS, but I've somehow managed to get lost even while using the GPS before. Don't ask me how I managed that one ... I do have to say it helps me out a lot overall, though, since multi-tasking and trying to read a map or direction while driving, just makes everything worse.

I don't panic really but I just have difficulty doing so much multi-tasking at once. I just aim to get to where I need to go alive and not kill anyone else.

I love to drive. It's one of few ways I can relax. As far as having problems dealing with the distractions, I don't know how but I have developed a virtual 6th sense. I can see people doing stupid things long before they do it. Once I was cut off by someone making a left hand turn and because I knew he was going to go, I was able to swerve around him without so much as spilling my soda. I genuinely believe that most drivers would've t-boned the guy.

When I first started driving around 1981 I experienced the same anxiety as you're feeling now. Now driving is like 2nd nature. I love to drive. I've driven all over the Western United states and Canada, and also the North Eastern United States when I lived there for a while. I've driven cars, vans and pickup trucks. I have my own car now. I think you'll get over the anxiety as you gain more experience.

The only place I hate driving is in Los Angeles. It's so congested. I would rather drive on a freeway through the desert or some back country or mountain road. There's lots of them where I live.

You know, it's possible I just never got used to driving. I grew up in a pretty rural area, got my licence at 16 like everyone else. But when I went to college I moved to a big city with public transportation and didn't take have a car...since then I've lived exclusively in places where no car is needed...

Funny, but I can relate to that too. While I learned to drive at the age of 19, there's been many times since then when I didn't own a vehicle and relied on public transportation. Even now every once in a while I find myself on a bus or train. I think there may be a misconception though that most Aspies have trouble driving. Anxiety over driving is something that most people experience when just starting out, in my view. I mean think about it; cars can be very dangerous machines in the wrong hands. Feeling confident, therefore in my view takes time. I've had many close calls while driving that scared the sh** out of me, so I know how it goes. One time I had my one and only tonic-clonic type seizure, and as a result I didn't drive for about 5 years just to be safe. And even though I hate driving in LA, there are times I must in order to get to places I want to go. LA lacks convenient and quick public transportation. It's primarily a car town.

I can drive, but I prefer not to. I find driving at night, with all the headlights of the opposing cars shining in my eyes, rather difficult. It's easy to 'zone out', especially on long trips, unless I have someone talking to me to help me stay in the moment. And when I get stuck in traffic while driving, I find it very aggravating. As a passenger, or on public transit, I can just read, or daydream. But as the driver I can't, and it just feels like a waste of my time.

I can drive but I don’t like to. I have trouble finding places and I know I’m not a very good driver. I got into a car accident once because I didn’t notice a stop light, I got a ticket once for pulling out in front of a cop I didn’t see, and I popped a tire by hitting a curb I didn’t notice.

I hate driving. It's always been extremely stressful for me, but then I got into a severe car accident due to ice when I was eighteen that landed me in the hospital for a week and out of school for a month, so now it just terrifies me. The things that make me the most nervous are being on the freeway, and turning left onto a busy street. When I'm a passenger I also don't like to be in the front seat. It feels like there are too many things to look at. Driving at night is really stressful for me, too. Last year I finally just got rid of my car and now only either walk or take public transportation. I feel so much more relaxed and happy.

I can drive, but like the OP feel the anxiety that deters me from driving if I have other options.