Published on 12, July, 2020
It took me many years to learn to drive and only eventually passed my test in an automatic car in my 40s.
Today I've just come home from driving to Chichester and the other drivers drove me a bit mad.
Motorbikes cutting me up, people doing 20 miles an hour in a 60 zone, me getting out of the way of 2 ambulances and no-one letting me back out etc etc etc.
I seem to like driving less and less and am more inclined to stay at home than I ever was.
There is just so much going on around you to be aware of, especially in cities (with pedestrians too).
So, 2 questions.
1. Is my difficulty with learning in a manual car, which I took at the time to be poor co-ordination, but I wasn't aware of my autism, an autistic thing?
2. Does anyone else find driving difficult (and, again, is it an autistic thing)?
Thank you Former Member and Unicorn
It's good to find another thing I've struggled with in life has an autistic foundation.
Here are some funny things said to me during driving lessons by driving instructors:
'don't ever, ever, go around the corner at that speed again'.
'well, Debra, you caused havoc on the roundabout. Why did you just stop?'
My answer was because I wasn't sure which lane I should be in
On my 1st driving test I reversed parked into a tree.
On my 2nd driving test I had the same person taking it.
Upon parking at the end of the test he said 'well, Debra, well done. You missed the tree this time'.
It's funny, I've always beaten myself up about my driving phobia and failure to pass my test at 17. I got some stick from my family for it over the years, but my wife has always been very cool about it for which I'm eternally grateful. Learning that other autistic people can struggle with driving has been so helpful. It was also part of the jigsaw pointing towards possible autism.
Lots of autistic people do drive, but so many report finding it inherently stressful. I enjoy cycling, and I'm quite happy to use public transport.