Stress will do that yes. Texting is a life saver I think personally, I avoid phone calls intentionally and reply to missed calls with text messages as speaking to people is very draining and awkward because I am never sure when it's my turn to speak so I either say nothing or continually interrupt people.

It's great that she's made a lot of progress since her diagnosis, but it's important to remember that no amount of progress will change her neurology, she will always have AS and it will always affect her day to day life. Learning to cope with it is all we can do.

When driving I like to have a CD on all the time, largely because I tend to get hyper focus when driving if I don't have music on. The music gives my brain enough of a distraction to keep it from hyper focusing but not so much that I'm no longer paying attention to the road. For me driving is one of my stims, I love it. Being away from everybody, alone in my car with some relaxing music, driving around on little country roads (don't like city driving, too many cars, turns, people etc) just me and the car, it's very soothing.

If I have to drive in cities though I do get frazzled quickly and it's not uncommon for me to pull over and just sit for a few minutes to calm down and let my brain rest. It's like any form of sensory overload, step back and let your body settle, if you keep going it'll only make things worse and put yourself and others at risk. She's doing the right thing.