Hi I am Amy and I am 20 years old.
I was just diagnosed with NLD and ADHD this year.
I had a terrible fear of driving up until last year. I feared it because of my terrible hand eye cordination, and bad depth perception and spacial judgement. I also have trouble with directions. I mix up left and right all of the time. I also get lost all the time.
When I first started driving I looked so funny. I was so tense and nervouse that I had my seat so close to the wheel that the wheel hit my legs. I gripped the wheel so tight that I had cuts on my hands from my nails. My mom and dad forced me to learn to drive, at first I hated it but now I am glad they did.
I still fear driving but not as much now because I am taking the step to drive. I have a car and I find that the way to get over the fear is to drive to a new place with a friend (who knows the place we are going) a few times untill I know the road I am driving on. When I know the road and the way I try to drive it by myself.
To get over the fear of getting lost I have my mom right out my directions so they say driverside and passanger side turns. I also labled my car. On the driverside it says left and on the passangers side it says right and gas.
I can now proudly say that I can drive the 242 mile trip from NH to NJ all by myself without feeling sick from anxiety.
My advise to you is to learn to drive slowly. Have someone you trust take you driving in a parking lot and then gradually move up to driving other places. The only way to be a good driver and to get over the fear and anxiety is to drive.
Unfourtunatly in todays society you need to drive to get around.
Good Luck.
Feel free to contact me if you need anymore suggestions. Email me at [email protected]
I hope this has helped.
Amy
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Hi Amy,
What a great story and kudos to you for what you have accomplished. Also, your parents deserve alot of credit for insisting that you drive when usually, alot of NLDers are discouraged from doing it.
As an adult who also has NLD/ADHD and who drove as soon as I was legally allowed to, I couldn’t agree more that that the key to overcoming driving problems is to keep doing it. What helped me is very early on, my mother insisted that I get on the major highway in our area but she feared if I didn’t, I would always be afraid of it. I took her advice and now, I think she regrets it:)).
Also, when I had accidents very early on, she made me get back in the car the next day to drive. That was so valuable.
I keep complaining how adults have gotten short changed in many aspects in dealing with LD. But one advantage I think I had was because I wasn’t diagnosed at the time, it never occurred to my parents that perhaps I shouldn’t drive even though I had visual spatial difficulties. Maybe that was foolish on their part, I don’t know but all I can say is I am an excellent driver and I drive anywhere without fear. I have even driven in NYC one time, which was enough for me:))
Finally, you are so right about how important being able to drive is in today’s society. Of course, if you can’t, you have to do the best you can. But I would be in big trouble if I didn’t know how to.
Thanks again for sharing your story.