[aspiegirl93]

Hey! My name is Cassidy. I have Asperger's Syndrome. I'm 19 years old. I am from Mississippi. I am currently taking online classes at a local community college. The thing is that I want to take classes on campus, but I don't drive. My parents have forbid me to drive because I got into a wreck and it was really bad. Thank God me and my mom didn't get killed in the wreck. That shook me and my mom up and we decided that I'm never going to drive again. What happened is that I mixed the gas pedal and the brake pedal. When I thought I was hitting the brakes, I was really hitting the gas. We hit my grandfather's house and a tractor. Luckily, we are okay. That hindered my chances of ever driving again. The crazy thing is that I still don't want to give up driving because how am I going to get somewhere. I can't stay homebound or depend on my parents to drive me everywhere for the rest of my life. I also want to live on my own, but I'm not independent and live with my parents. I depend on them for everything. What should I do?

[manwithnofriends]

It is possible to live without driving, you just need to find a place with good public transport. Oh hi Aspie girl! Welcome to PC! (Girls like you are valuable y'know, autism's always been a boy's thing)

Don't listen to your parents. They can't disallow to to drive for ever. Buy a car, and drive.

[rosska]

Sorry if this sounds blunt, but your parents are not being very supportive. So you made one mistake and you had one accident? Big deal. Accidents happen, it doesn't mean you should never try again. Hell if drunk drivers who have killed people can get their licences back, then why the heck shouldn't you?

Also, welcome to the forums.

[likewater]

Ummm. Yeah. I don't know what's wrong with my brain, but it doesnt work like other peoples. I think it might have been because of repeated head trauma and other abuse that gave me DID and PTSD but learning to drive was a disaster for me, but i got through it and it is worth it. You CAN drive. Even
experienced drivers make mistakes . That's why we have auto insurance. You didn't make an unpardonable mistake. If you want to drive, drive. You can even find a driving teacher /class if it's stressful learning with your family.

Ps. Aspies rock. My brother was an Aspie. He was a gentle genius and there had to have been galaxies and universes and rainbows of equations in his brain that i could not begin to understand.

[WePow]

I understand about mixing up the gas and breaks. I did that when I was 17 and had a friend with me. We crashed through a fence and almost hit a shed.

I happened to be driving a standard at the time. I am now 43 and still can not relearn to drive a standard as much as I would like.
It was hard to drive again, but I had to because i was taking my brothers to school as well. We did not have bus service out there in the country.

What helped was I learned how to zone in to the task of driving. I refused to drive with the radio on or my brothers talking. LOL. Once I even punched my brother in the arm when he kept turning the radio on after I told him to stop.

I did not know I was an Aspie, but I am finding out that I did the right thing by reducing my inbound stimuli while driving. In fact, after learning how to drive in the zone or flow, I actually enjoyed driving!

My suggestion would be to start slowly siuch as dring a few blocks and returning. If you can get a different type of car control such as paddles in the smart car, you may feel more comfortable.