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Aspergers and Driving

Paiva

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
I just got my driving license, and it is by far the most difficult thing I've ever done.

When it comes to "book stuff" I'm really good at learning new things, but learning to drive has been very difficult for me. I've "only" failed the test once, so I passed on my second test. But to get there I had to take probably twice the amount of lessons that people normally do (in my country it is required by law to take quite a few driving lessons at an instructor, and it is really expensive. I don't know if it's the same everywhere).

I'm 30 years old, and I have been told that it's more difficult to learn to drive when you are older. That may account for some of it, but I think most of my troubles came down to my Aspergers. It was very difficult for me to deal with unexpected situations, and I often noticed everything that was going on, but I couldn't focus on what was most important.

I'm curious if others here have had similar experiences when learning how to drive?

If you are currently thinking about learning to drive, don't let this post discourage you. Despite the fact that I wanted to quit so many times, I'm really happy I went through with it. My advice would be: do not compare yourself to others. Find an instructor that's patient, and be honest about the things you find difficult. Be prepared to have more lessons and learn things slowly.
 
Here's my input: Don't waste your time and energy on getting a driver's license. There's too many idiots on the road as it is, and driving is expensive after a while. I'd much rather walk, bike, or take the bus.
 
When I first learnt to ride a motorcycle it took a lot of work remembering to do all these things like shifting gears, being constantly aware of what's around you, etc. I was terrified of stalling. There was so much going on in a sensory sense, you're feeling and hearing the wind, you see everything in front of you do past at quite a speed when compared to walking. You're trying to have a right balance of speed for every event. Roundabouts were a problem too, they just seemed like utter chaos - which is funny when comparing them to other European countries like France or Italy where they are complete chaos, or so I'm told.

It did take me a while, I've never truly felt confident on my bike so I've never once was serious about doing the test. I'm learning to drive a car now and I am serious about doing this. It's a lot easier when you have someone right next to you guiding you.

Here's my input: Don't waste your time and energy on getting a driver's license. There's too many idiots on the road as it is, and driving is expensive after a while. I'd much rather walk, bike, or take the bus.

Not an option where I live. I don't like in a city. I have to make trips to various towns about me. The closest ones are about 15-20 minutes from me and they are basic places too, not much going on, and I don't have good access to a bus stop. Learning to drive is pretty much essential to me if I want to continue living in my area or with my parents for the time being.
 
my sister who is aspie,struggled greatly to learn to drive,the same as my HFA [high functioning classic autistic] cousin/my dads brothers son, it both took them longer.

there is A LOT to driving,its quite complex so thats a lot of things to concentrate on at the same time which isnt the autists strong point, and then you have driving in the dark to get used to which is a whole other issue as it affects your visual perception and takes a bit of getting used to.

so im not surprised you had issues paiva but at least now,you have the freedom and independance to drive, which cant be beaten,its the best.

i have a motability car,which is a scheme that lets people on DLA/PIP high rate mobility component rent a car using their mobility benefit.
i have open insurance which allows anyone to drive it,it is a 1.6 peogeut partner tepee;a van thats turned into a car,lots of staff have been and still are terrible at driving it though and have damaged it a lot which really annoys me as it is me who ends up having to foot the bill when the contract is up and i have to apply for a new car.
 
Here's my input: Don't waste your time and energy on getting a driver's license. There's too many idiots on the road as it is, and driving is expensive after a while. I'd much rather walk, bike, or take the bus.

I kinda agree with you, which is why I never bothered to get a license before. However, I plan to move to an island with limited public transport, and not having a car would make it very difficult to get around.
 
Went through the typical US driver's ed to permit to license ...as far as written and visual tests I was great; the actual driving part got to me. I failed the license test the first time but managed to pass on the second.

My depth perception isn't good anyway (not good when trying to determine whether the red light or green light is coming first), and I have trouble with things like backing up straight or paying attention to pertinent information. It's very easy for me to get lost in thought and that doesn't translate into good reaction time.

One thing I've been working on is making a game out of it: predicting that a driver is going to jump in front of me or start weaving, and then calculating how many times I'm right. This has helped me develop a sense of when people are going to do things that normally I wouldn't be prepared for. I also tend to have a very defensive driving style, which can really irritate aggressive drivers, but I've learned to tune out angry honking or yelling.

Driving to new places is very much a challenge for me. I try to have other people in the car who can direct me where I need to go, whether they're reading off a map or have just been there before. If I absolutely must be alone, I typically calculate in an extra hour of time needed to get there, because that's the average amount I'll spend lost. I bring maps when I can, but when that's not possible I'll try to memorize the route beforehand or write down road names on a sticky note.

So yes, driving is a challenge and, as I often tell family members, I'd enjoy it a lot more if it weren't for all the other people who do it. But with practice (lots and lots of practice), driving is definitely something you can do well ...probably better than a lot of people who don't really think about what they're doing when they go out on the road.
 
Learning to drive was very important for me, as I wanted to be independent and to be able to get out of the**** hole town i lived in.

I think I'm very good at machine control, both car and bike, maybe because I made peak performance a special interest ( I use to get my bike front tyre to the limits of braking on every ride, braking until the tyre howled).

I'm also extremely aware of every threat around me, and that makes me a much safer driver, but also adds to the exhaustion I get from driving.

I do think I struggle when a road or junction is unusual, and that after nearly 30 years of driving, and I had a 50k mile a year job at one time. I get very stressed very quickly with road works and weird road design. Same when people do unexpected things.

Half the junctions in Australia look like they've been designed at the local kindy.

In addition there's a manourve I call the "Queensland dive". It's done on motorways at high speed, in the fast lane. When you're about to miss your turn, rather than go off at the next exit like a sane human being, you violently turn, veering across three lanes and solid white lines and expect everyone to miss you by gods grace alone.

Awe inspiring!
 
I didn't start practicing until I was 18 years old (16 is typical in my country), and I didn't obtain my license until age 21. I failed the test twice and barely passed the third time. Parallel parking in particular is totally lost on me; thankfully, where I live, it's not required to know to pass the general test.

I'm 32 now. With practice, I'm mostly okay driving these days, but I do have some delay in processing the visual-motor aspects of it as quickly as most, so I have to be extra careful. I also need GPS to get around anywhere unfamiliar.
 
I get lost sometimes if pictures in my head don't match like driving at night.
I can be a savage little beast on the road tho, I love driving with stick winding the RPMs up perfectly for a pass.
If there was no speed limit I would put the petal to the floor...I feel at peace when going fast...time slows down for me...it feels smooth!

Cops scare me to death so I don't speed much!:eek:
Cops are very very scary?:confused:
 
I just got my driving license, and it is by far the most difficult thing I've ever done.

When it comes to "book stuff" I'm really good at learning new things, but learning to drive has been very difficult for me. I've "only" failed the test once, so I passed on my second test. But to get there I had to take probably twice the amount of lessons that people normally do (in my country it is required by law to take quite a few driving lessons at an instructor, and it is really expensive. I don't know if it's the same everywhere).

I'm 30 years old, and I have been told that it's more difficult to learn to drive when you are older. That may account for some of it, but I think most of my troubles came down to my Aspergers. It was very difficult for me to deal with unexpected situations, and I often noticed everything that was going on, but I couldn't focus on what was most important.

I'm curious if others here have had similar experiences when learning how to drive?

If you are currently thinking about learning to drive, don't let this post discourage you. Despite the fact that I wanted to quit so many times, I'm really happy I went through with it. My advice would be: do not compare yourself to others. Find an instructor that's patient, and be honest about the things you find difficult. Be prepared to have more lessons and learn things slowly.
I'm sorta in the same boat. I just turned 29 and I still don't have my driver's license. I do have my permit and have had it for the last 2 years or so. I've just been unable and kinda of scared to take the driving test. I've had no problem with the written test. I can pass that easily enough. But I need to take driving lessons, a lot of them.

Where I currently live there is only one driving school and it's expensive. I've tried taking lessons from my mother once some years ago but that ended terribly. I freaked out. She never offered to take me driving again after that. My boyfriend has tried teaching me and we've gone driving in an empty parking lot a few times. But I scared him pretty badly once and he's been kind of leery since. So I'm not too good at driving. :oops:

I've just kind of been avoiding the whole thing. It does scare me that everyone else seems to drive so fast. It just seems like there's too much happening in the car and on the road to keep track of. I would like to learn how to drive but I'm not sure if it's a good idea. I do compare myself to others because everyone else around me knows how to drive. My younger brother learned how to drive as a teenager. Everyone in my boyfriend's family drives and they are pushing me to learn ASAP. My boyfriend's mother thinks there's something wrong with me because I don't know how to drive. So I do feel bad about it.

I'm in between whether I should keep with it and get the professional lessons to try to get my license. Or say screw it and just be looked down on by my family and boyfriend's family. o_O
 
I got my license when I was 19. I was pretty terrible at first. Now I'm more comfortable, but still have a lot of "dummy" moments. Not sure if that's my aspergers or my topamax, which I recently learned was nicknamed "dopamax" haha.

I'm pretty terrible at manuevering.

But the worst experience I had was getting a ticket because my mental script completely shut down and it was awful. The cop thought I was on drugs.
 
When I first started learning to drive I was probably the worst in the class, but I'm so good at taking direction I ended up being one of the better drivers at the end. Probably because most of the people in the class drove themselves to work so already had bad driving habits. I didn't personally have trouble getting the license, however when I'm driving I have a tendency to "zone out" so I have to be extremely vigilant. Sometimes I'm too vigilant making me jump at trash blowing in the wind thinking I'm about to hit something. I also have a hard time NOT speeding
 
I failed my test three times (UK), and gave up, but i live in a city with lots of public transport and my partner kind of shares a car.
 
I just got my driving license, and it is by far the most difficult thing I've ever done.

When it comes to "book stuff" I'm really good at learning new things, but learning to drive has been very difficult for me. I've "only" failed the test once, so I passed on my second test. But to get there I had to take probably twice the amount of lessons that people normally do (in my country it is required by law to take quite a few driving lessons at an instructor, and it is really expensive. I don't know if it's the same everywhere).

I'm 30 years old, and I have been told that it's more difficult to learn to drive when you are older. That may account for some of it, but I think most of my troubles came down to my Aspergers. It was very difficult for me to deal with unexpected situations, and I often noticed everything that was going on, but I couldn't focus on what was most important.

I'm curious if others here have had similar experiences when learning how to drive?

If you are currently thinking about learning to drive, don't let this post discourage you. Despite the fact that I wanted to quit so many times, I'm really happy I went through with it. My advice would be: do not compare yourself to others. Find an instructor that's patient, and be honest about the things you find difficult. Be prepared to have more lessons and learn things slowly.
I just got my driving license, and it is by far the most difficult thing I've ever done.

When it comes to "book stuff" I'm really good at learning new things, but learning to drive has been very difficult for me. I've "only" failed the test once, so I passed on my second test. But to get there I had to take probably twice the amount of lessons that people normally do (in my country it is required by law to take quite a few driving lessons at an instructor, and it is really expensive. I don't know if it's the same everywhere).

I'm 30 years old, and I have been told that it's more difficult to learn to drive when you are older. That may account for some of it, but I think most of my troubles came down to my Aspergers. It was very difficult for me to deal with unexpected situations, and I often noticed everything that was going on, but I couldn't focus on what was most important.

I'm curious if others here have had similar experiences when learning how to drive?

If you are currently thinking about learning to drive, don't let this post discourage you. Despite the fact that I wanted to quit so many times, I'm really happy I went through with it. My advice would be: do not compare yourself to others. Find an instructor that's patient, and be honest about the things you find difficult. Be prepared to have more lessons and learn things slowly.

When was younger, I was terrified of driving. I got my license at age 19. I was so nervous. Many many years later at age 46, I drive out of necessity and independence. I'm not an extreme fan of driving though. If possible, I'd rather walk.
 
I'm terrified of driving, especially on highways and at night...and even more so on rainy nights. I'll do it, but I prefer not to. That's why even though my license has been suspended for a while, I haven't done anything about it, because I just don't really care that much if I can drive or not. I can not afford a car anyways. Driving is just so overwhelming for me. At night and when it's raining, the headlights shining in my eyes are too much for me to handle, and on the highways, moving that fast is just too much for my rate of processing.
 
Here's my input: Don't waste your time and energy on getting a driver's license. There's too many idiots on the road as it is, and driving is expensive after a while. I'd much rather walk, bike, or take the bus.
This is definitely not an option in all areas. I could never walk or bike safely to town and there is no bus.

If you wanted to walk somewhere where my dad lives you'd better have a good 6-12 hours for it and will probably get hit by somebody not paying attention. Even the Amish have horses. It would be kind of cool to have a horse.

I got my license when I was 19. I was pretty terrible at first. Now I'm more comfortable, but still have a lot of "dummy" moments. Not sure if that's my aspergers or my topamax, which I recently learned was nicknamed "dopamax" haha.

I'm pretty terrible at manuevering.

But the worst experience I had was getting a ticket because my mental script completely shut down and it was awful. The cop thought I was on drugs.
They always think I'm on drugs when I have to interact with cops, I've always been searched.
 
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I'm terrified of driving, especially on highways and at night...and even more so on rainy nights. I'll do it, but I prefer not to. That's why even though my license has been suspended for a while, I haven't done anything about it, because I just don't really care that much if I can drive or not. I can not afford a car anyways. Driving is just so overwhelming for me. At night and when it's raining, the headlights shining in my eyes are too much for me to handle, and on the highways, moving that fast is just too much for my rate of processing.
I avoid driving a night always. The headlights and street lights and shop lights and reflective things just all mess me up. Construction zones are a no also I will go way out of my way to avoid them. i also avoid many left turns, my spatial ability is not the best and I don't trust it. Especially on multi-lane highways. If there's heavy traffic I find a light, four-way or a way to make a series of right turns.

I also have a terrible time with high speeds and can just barely do the speed limit on the interstates. I'm always expecting the car to fly out of control and start rolling then catch fire and explode, I'm sure it happens a lot more on TV than in real life (stupid tv) but I'm always expecting something crazy to happen when I have to drive over 40mph. I've been practicing and using the cruise control helps a lot though when some hole pulls with a few inches in front of me on the interstate I always freak out, why do people have to do this? Aren't you supposed to leave x amount of car spaces?
 
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I have no trouble with high speed, but I would ease off earlier than some bikers.

I used to be a bit of a hooligan;

Got up to 150mph a few times.
Nearly got caught at 90mph in a 30 zone.
Had cops trying to clock my speed when I was well over 100mph, but I saw them and put traffic between us. They were pretty pissed off when they caught up, but nothing they could do as I'd "normalised" my speed.
120Mph on the way to work almost every day.

Only ever got one ticket and that was 35 in a 30 in the car, never got a ticket on the bike, even though it was so loud I had to pull in the clutch as I went past cops.

Then I got to Australia and got a ticket in three days.
Then another, and another, until now I drive at the speed limit.

Cops here don't play fair:)

I don't ride any more and maybe never will again, and certainly not any thing foolish like I used to do.

Riding and speed both gave me peace, and I felt calm and centred, and I was a pretty safe rider, even taking into account the above. I'm sure many would not agree though.
 
I love driving, couldnt imagine my life without my car, its my safe lil bubble and im ready for anything, getting out of my car and entering the public filth is the hardest part for me.
 
i've had my license for nearly 8 years now [i'm 25 now] and by now i am sort of becoming familiar with driving a car; to many things to do at the same time. getting my license was a horrible experience and i feared it very much, since everybody else in school already had passed the test; and i was sure i wouldn't pass. i did, though, drenched in sweat and shaking. it was humiliating. later, i used to take the cars of place i worked at to the carwash, which terrified me much - but i couldn't say no because everybody was already joking about me, for it took me ages to get a cars out of their parking spots and i added some scratches to most of them [haha]
 

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