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Hello everyone! Can you still drive? I can no longer process that many stimuli

SharonG83

Hello all and thank you for welcoming me. I have suffered what looks like autistic burnout a year and a half ago and it turns out therefore, that I may be autistic, waiting to be tested. Among many things that happened (brain slowed down to process visual and auditory info, needing predictability, overwhelw from too many stimuli) I have stopped driving because I get exhausted the minute I buckle my seatbelt. Has anyone experienced this? I've researched it and it seems like you can do fine with driving.

Take good care.

  • I've never had a driving licence. Did lessons when I was younger, took a test which went terribly and had a meltdown afterwards, decided I never wanted to do it again.

  • I drive for work and love it. My car is my private little space and when I’m inside I feel happy. It did take me a long time to get used to driving, my lessons took forever! And I am the worst passenger in the world, better if I’m sat in the back. Prone to motion sickness. 

  • I often have to drive at high speed for my job since I work in emergency services. But I‘m not gonna lie; it‘s not something I could do for the rest of my life and it took me longer than most to get kind of comfortable and I‘m still not exactly great at it. My driving instructor (back when I did my drivers license) had two autistic step children and immediately got that vibe with me. I took ages to get the hang of driving and broke down at a gas station during a lesson. So yes, I get it and I still don‘t like driving, but I found a way to deal with it.

  • I was taken to emergency room multiple times because of overstimulation in dynamic environment. I don't have any driver license and not gonna ever do it. In case I get my bad reaction (crying, shaking, dizzy, heart palpitations) I would loose control over the vehicle and could cause an accident. So as a responsible person I refuse to do tge driver license. I prefer living without it rather than living with someone's death on my remorse. Now i also need a paper for my work stating, that I should not drive. I hope that the assessor will be able yo write it. Not every autistic person has this problem. 

  • Good morning from America, SharonG83!

    Personally, I have not really had that exact issue of being too overwhelmed to drive, but boy do I understand that! My thing is that I am cool as a cucumber if driving somewhere I am familiar with, but the second I drive on a road I haven’t been on the anxiety goes absolutely nuts. I live in suburbs for a major metropolitan area, but thankfully I only have to drive mostly in the country outside of the big city.

    While I have not heard specific examples of other people losing the ability to drive while on burnout, it is certainly possible. There is so much stimuli - physical and visual - that go into driving. It’s amazing we don’t hear about that more!

    My advice is be kind to yourself. Gradually ease yourself back into driving when you are ready. Start with short drives on roads you know well, then slowly expand your horizons.