AuDHD

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A place for those that got both Autism and ADHD, those confirmed as one and are suspecting they got the other as well, and also everyone who is neither and just genuinely curious.

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Anyone drive? How do you find it? I am absolutely terrified after my first lesson (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Sorry in advance for the wall of text! Some background...

Enter me, someone who usually gets around by bicycle or public transport. I'm about 200 miles away from anyone close (besides my partner) and the trains, while fast and convenient, are expensive and quite limited at some times of the day.

So, as a solution, I decided I'll pick up some driving lessons so I can drive to friends with a rental or my own vehicle, on much more flexible terms. Since I had some existing experience in various driving simulators (almost 200h combined), I decided why not?

Now, about the lesson.

The instructor was absolutely amazing, got me up to speed with all kinds of things I wasn't familiar with, like adjusting the mirrors, wheel and stuff.

The car is a stick shift/manual, as that's the norm here. To be honest, changing gears was the easiest part - it felt really familiar because of the simulators. However I really struggled with how much information you need to take in from around you during the actual driving, literally had to try so hard to not make my mind wander for even a second, because I'd lose track of the environment and stuff. It was dark too so that made things a little challenging.

I'd say a major stress point too is the fact that i'm operating a 2000kg SUV, not an agile 20kg bicycle.

On one hand I'm hoping things improve with time, on the other I really wish we had good, affordable public transport to begin with.

What are your thoughts?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Stressful, but you learn how to deal with the stress. It took me baby steps to get into driving, and living in a small town just a minute drive away from a giant parking lot did help out heaps with getting over the nerves.

A good thing to keep in mind for me is that most people out there aren't being dickheads. Many are, but most people just wanna get home safely. A lot of those people are unfortunately, unbelievably stupid behind the wheel. Drive defensively. Stay aware of where every vehicle nearby is in relation to your own, try to give vehicles as much space as necessary, and make sure your mirrors are covering as much blind space as possible. You can usually find small mirrors in auto shops that glue to your wing mirrors which can help cover a blind spot the regular mirrors might not be able to. Assuming everybody is actively trying to kill you can help learn defensive driving, but I prefer to expect people to be passively stupid rather than actively malicious. Same end result but with less anger.