Excessive Risk-Taking: Adult Danger Blindness?

[Gritches]

I hear a lot about danger blindness is ASD children, specifically. I don't hear a lot about the forms that danger blindness may take as an adult, when there's many more pieces on the board and much more at stake.

I don't believe a behavior like danger blindness, or any behavior for that matter, simply disappears. It either persists or "mutates" into another behavior that is less objectionable to those who may be bothered by the nuisance behavior.

It would follow logically that a child with danger blindness would grow up with danger blindness, and their danger blindness would grow up with them. So it makes me ponder: what would the adult version of danger blindness look like?

Of course, the thought occurred to me because I've been taking stock of my life lately, and looking at where things have gone wrong and why. It all returns to the same thing: I keep doing risky things that really don't seem risky at all at the time. Or at the very least I have little trouble ignoring the potential dangers.

Risk-taking can take all kinds of forms on all different scales, from reckless driving all the way to taking a chance that you have enough toilet paper to meet your needs. Other examples might include gambling or participating in extreme sports (where the possibility of serious injury is ever-present).

My question is: Am I just the last person to cross the finish line on this one, or am I on to something here? Does anyone identify with what I relate, regarding adult danger blindness?

 

[Joel's Hear]

When I was a kid I was prodding a water moccasin on the banks of the Kinchafoonee. Thank God that that snake decided to keep basking and not mind the prods!

I'm the exact same now, but I have to think things over carefully always. I have a family and can't afford to hurt myself.

At times I have relished my reckless bravery but other times viewed it a bit as a liability.

Do I really need to walk through the dark alley at night just to cut a few hundred yards off of my route?

But sometimes I just don't think of it.

Sorry if my post is a bit rambling.

 

[Fino]

I'm on the opposite end. I'm constantly asking, "Isn't that dangerous...?" I've had kids (students) yell on several occasions, "Stop being scared of everything!"

The biggest risk I take, which I need to stop but won't for some reason, is the ol', "I'll remember that!"

I don't need to write it down.

I don't need to do it right now.

I'll remember to do it later.

NOPE.

 

[Ezra]

A few years ago I was put on an SSRI for generalized anxiety. And it worked. But eventually I developed danger blindness. Became reckless and aggressive. So I was weaned off it. Normally I'm leery of anything potentially risky and dangerous.

 

[Annanda]

My question is: Am I just the last person to cross the finish line on this one, or am I on to something here? Does anyone identify with what I relate, regarding adult danger blindness?

Sounds like my brother. He and also my parents are sort of danger blind. I did my best to survive childhood. With a great deal of luck I succeeded.
My brother payed a high price for it. He's paraplegic after a sports accident.
And you could predict this would happen one time.
As I can observe he kept his risky behavior. May be he learned by trial and error to better asses the degree of risk. He is still alive .

 

[Progster]

Once or twice I have done something that other people have found dangerous or risky, but I didn't see it that way because I felt that I was in control - like go right up to a cliff face. I wouldn't describe myself as a risk taker, though.

 

[LucyPurrs]

Interesting post Gritches. I have to wonder what the relationship is to impulsivity and failure to assess consequences before acting. Assessing consequences would seem to be a learned behavior whereas impulsivity may be more related to temperament. I don't know- certainly I'm not an expert on this (or anything for that matter). But to me, part of being "grown up" is the ability to look at consequences when faced with decisions. Just an initial thought. Since I just woke up, don't hold me to it though

 

[Mia]

Am I just the last person to cross the finish line on this one, or am I on to something here? Does anyone identify with what I relate, regarding adult danger blindness?

You're on to something, and as brilliant as usual. Still do a lot of reckless things, have since I was a child. They've morphed though into people indicating that I'm too old to do the things I do. Like painting my house from scaffolding, while standing at the top of it with a brush clamped to a broomstick so I can paint the highest part.

Or cycling so fast that I have little control if someone cuts me off. In the city, I and another friend used to jaywalk in and out of traffic, standing in the middle of the street with cars moving inches from us on both sides. Somehow I thought I would be miraculously unharmed and I was. Perhaps I was only stupidly lucky.

Sometimes I have to prevent my husband from not noticing something, as he seems immune to some danger signals. Like cars and trucks, and assumes they will notice him and slow down. He still cuts bread with a serrated knife with the bread in his hand. I would guess that as Aspies, some of us are still the ones who run with scissors.

 

[Tom]

I'm the opposite. Very risk conscious. I did many daredevil things when younger but was always gauging the chances. Some crashes and close calls of course are of course the best teachers. Became pretty good at predicting problems really and specialized in it to a degree in the military.

 

[Gracey]

All depends on what you’re going to class as ‘danger’ and to whom?
Self? Others?

An example,
Driving at 126mph, level with another vehicle also travelling at that speed approaching a bend only one of us could corner ‘safely’
(One vehicle needed the whole width of the lanes to use various points and forces applied to make the bend successfully)

Would the roads used be a factor?
On a typical two way road?
On a clear autobahn in Germany?
On a racing circuit?

A different example,
Do the experienced and capable rock climbing and bouldering family take more risks than The Red Arrows putting on a display at an air show?

How are we gauging the ‘danger’ please?

 

[Annanda]

Do the experienced and capable rock climbing and bouldering family take more risks than The Red Arrows putting on a display at an air show?

Gracey, in my view this a little bit "playing the witch against the devil" or "deciding between devil and Beelzebub" as you say in Germany.
The experienced and capable rock climbing parents would probably not come up with the idea that they may better rope up their children in the lofty mountains and would not recognize that one of their children suffer from acrophobia. This child would be in danger of life.
This happened within my family and due to luck and the high reaction rate of my father, my brother survived this weekend-trip.
So the concept of risk or danger needs a very competent and thoughtful assessor lacking any blind spot (may be god, if you belong to any theistic belief system ).

 

[clg114]

I have a form of danger blindness. I like to go fast. Speed is very big rush for me. I have been this way all of my life. I know that I can not go fast on public roads. There would be a lot of grief for me with tickets. or worse yet, I could hurt someone. So my solution was riding and racing motorcycles & snowmobiles off road. While the speed was not all that high, the thrill is there. Over the years I have broken a few bones and gotten lots of bruises. But it has been my wife and old age that made me quite.

 

[Judge]

Found an interesting article on such a thing as well, although it involves lengthy and complex reading. Though focused on risk-taking relative to gambling, it doesn't appear to draw many solid conclusions relative to differences between ASD and non-autistic test subjects.

However that perhaps excessive risk-taking may be yet another manifestation of executive dysfunction relative to deficiencies in cognitive flexibility. The maintaining of rigid, consistent response patterns when faced with gambling decisions regardless of their outcome.

Executive function in high-functioning autism: Decision-making consistency as a characteristic gambling behaviour

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945218300303

 

[AuBurney Tuckerson]

I hear a lot about danger blindness is ASD children, specifically. I don't hear a lot about the forms that danger blindness may take as an adult, when there's many more pieces on the board and much more at stake.

I don't believe a behavior like danger blindness, or any behavior for that matter, simply disappears. It either persists or "mutates" into another behavior that is less objectionable to those who may be bothered by the nuisance behavior.

It would follow logically that a child with danger blindness would grow up with danger blindness, and their danger blindness would grow up with them. So it makes me ponder: what would the adult version of danger blindness look like?

Of course, the thought occurred to me because I've been taking stock of my life lately, and looking at where things have gone wrong and why. It all returns to the same thing: I keep doing risky things that really don't seem risky at all at the time. Or at the very least I have little trouble ignoring the potential dangers.

Risk-taking can take all kinds of forms on all different scales, from reckless driving all the way to taking a chance that you have enough toilet paper to meet your needs. Other examples might include gambling or participating in extreme sports (where the possibility of serious injury is ever-present).

My question is: Am I just the last person to cross the finish line on this one, or am I on to something here? Does anyone identify with what I relate, regarding adult danger blindness?

An adult version would probably be like me. Forgetting to lock the door when you're home by yourself. That's all I got..

 

[the_tortoise]

My question is: Am I just the last person to cross the finish line on this one, or am I on to something here? Does anyone identify with what I relate, regarding adult danger blindness?

I get it. I think I take fewer risks as the years go by because I have become risk-averse through trauma....but that doesn't help with risks I don't even see.

 

[Fino]

I was thinking about this last night, and it hit me! I had been wondering about this for a long time! Maybe this is something different, but it seems similar.

I seem to have danger-blindness only when it comes to drugs. Someone could hand me anything and I'll try it (not anymore). I never really even had to know what it was. The fact that I didn't do anything lethal is just luck that I wasn't presented with it. My friends were against all the hardcore stuff and I'd say I wanted to try it and they'd say NO. And I wouldn't know how to get anything myself.

But the amount of times I've had terrible experiences from too much of something or OD'd makes me surprised that I'm still alive and functioning somewhat normally. I just can't sense any danger from a drug for some reason. And I'd offer things to other people to help in some way and I was always so confused by their caution.

Edit: I forgot to mention that this is likely just a feature of BPD, the immediate willingness to do anything that will take bad feelings away. So maybe it's all mostly irrelevant.

 

[Judge]

I seem to have danger-blindness only when it comes to drugs. Someone could hand me anything and I'll try it (not anymore). I never really even had to know what it was. The fact that I didn't do anything lethal is just luck that I wasn't presented with it. My friends were against all the hardcore stuff and I'd say I wanted to try it and they'd say NO. And I wouldn't know how to get anything myself.

Ironic given the existence of certain pharmaceutical products that have catastrophic side effects causing people to lose any and all sense of risk aversion. The sort of thing that has resulted in class-action lawsuits against the manufacturers.

 

[tducey]

I really haven't done anything that dangerous. First thing I can recall was climbing a ladder by my grandparent's house when I was 8 or 9.

 

[Moomin]

In most areas I’m generally conscious of risks and safety, however that’s only resulted from huge learning experience and the expressed concerns from others that I shouldn’t do this or that because it might be dangerous for me. An example of this was impressed on me by my mentor during my first year at university. To save myself from sensory overload when out, I had music on at all times. It took a lot of explaining by my mentor because I didn’t seem to get that it could be dangerous for me to walk around unawares. It wasn’t until I had a near miss that I actually understood her point.

 

[Crossbreed]

My youngest son had pronounced "danger blindness" when he was younger. It seems to have gotten tempered by experience somewhat, though he doesn't seem to apply it broadly to subsequent decisions.

He was once thought to be Aspergers, but his skill/savvy in social/emotional manipulation points more to psychopathy.

My ASD2 [31yo] son does not grasp causation, so that results in a type of danger blindness, as well. Maybe, it is a variation of Theory of Mind.