Driving, bike riding, clumsiness

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Hi, I am new here and this is my first post.

Do you find it hard to drive a car or ride a bike? I used to be able to. Then one day suddenly everything looked funny. Potholes seem deep enough to fall into. The camber on the road looks so steep that the bike or car might fall off sideways. And it looks like I am going faster than I am. At junctions, I can't see any safe gaps to move into.

After a long time, I can drive again. I can ride a bike slowly. It makes me very tired and makes my eyes twitch.

Is this an ASC thing?

I've read that quite a few people with AS find it hard to ride a bike and/or drive. I can't drive. People have tried to teach me and I think I'm a hopeless case. The car is so much bigger than me and I have trouble figuring out how much space is infront of me, behind me, at each side of me and how much I should turn the steering wheel.

I've never had that problem. Have you talked to a doctor about this? Are you physically fit? The fatigue could be related to that.

It seems a bit strange that you were ok before, then your perceptions changed. I think you should see your doctor about it, if you haven't already and ask for a referal to an opthamologist.

You might also want to check out this website. http://jordanseyes.com/

This "multisensory optical practice" is in Scotland, so a bit too far for you, but there might be something similar in your area. I was told about this earlier in the week by my local Autism Resource Centre. The lady there told me of two autisic adults she knows who went there. One of them had difficulty with distance and depth perception and this was corrected by coloured lenses.

The other woman had always had difficulties reading facial expressions. She went to see this optician, got glasses with coloured lenses, and realised that she had always seen faces in a completely different way from most people. When she looks at people without her glasses on she misses minor facial features althogether, and the features she does see are distorted and out of place. I was told that she had always seen people as like Picasso paintings, and because she didn't know any different she naturally assumed that everyone saw like that.

I have no trouble with either.

If you could do these things and now can't, I doubt it's AS related. I can see having a problem and growing out of it, but to suddenly get worse?

You may have other problems. Have you had your eyes and ears checked out thoroughly. A problem with balance could indicate an inner ear problem.

ruveyn

I always had a problem with riding and bike and driving though I'm not clumsy. But as I just wrote - I always had these. They didn't suddenly start at one time because for me, the problems come from my autism and I've been autistic since I was a toddler.

I find it strange that you think it might be connected to your autism when actually you didn't have your problems with driving and rising a bike before. There are lots of other disorders you can suddenly 'get' at every age that have little to do with your autism. If it's your eyes that twitch, you should see a specialist about that just to be sure there's nothing wrong with your vision and with your ears/balance/motor control.

Clumsiness from autism itself you have all your life, it doesn't just suddenly start.

Yup, I always had a problem riding a bike. All the other kids my age are zooming around, doing tricks and stuff, having a great time. I get through a few seconds of shaky pedaling, then fall over, scrape up my legs, end up with bruises, horribly embarrassed. I tried and tried, and kept just falling and crashing and hurting myself. I couldn't seem to master the coordination and balance involved.

Driving a car was, for some reason, never difficult for me. I got my license pretty easily when I was 17. I'm a good driver. I seem to be able to hyper-focus on what is happening on the road, and anticipate situations with other cars. Also, my obsession with geography and geographic thinking is incredibly helpful while driving. I never get lost or lose my sense of direction. Honestly, I really like driving, although I am prone to terrible road-rage. Because of course I know EVERYTHING, and I am NEVER WRONG on the road, and everyone else is a MORON. See? Terrible road rage. It even comes out while typing....

Other than that, I am generally clumsy. I fumble around and drop stuff all the time, and I seem to be more prone to tripping, falling, and bumping into things.

Like others have said, as far as autism is concerned, clumsiness is lifelong affliction... and one that I certainly experience.

Am AD,have a physical impairment on left side and cannot drive/ride a bike but for different reasons.

clumsiness [without being caused by a different condition] and dyspraxia are associated with AS more than the autism spectrum overall.


AuntyCC,
have a look at the page this links to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestibular_system it sounds like this could be what is affected.

Driving: When I drive, I sometimes forget which is the gas pedal and which is the brake pedal, and that makes me panic. I've been driving for 20 years, but am limited where I can go. I can't even be a passenger on the freeways around here (SF Bay Area) without getting scared, because the cars are going 70 MPH and are just a few feet from each other. And everyone weaves in and out without signaling or even looking. The only time I drive is to pick my kids up from school, and sometimes I have panic attacks. It's horrible.

Bike riding: I learned to ride a kid's bike when I was 7 or 8, and rode around on our driveway and that kind of thing. Ten years ago I got my first "grown-up" bike, and I found that I can't get on and off of it. I mean, I can, but it's really hard. I can pedal and keep my balance, but if I suddenly need to stop or start up again, I end up dumping my bike over and getting all scratched up. Once, I was in a position where I had to ride with my toddler in a bike-seat, and I didn't realize how hard it would be. I managed to ride, but when I had to stop, I couldn't get off without dumping the bike over, with my baby in it. I also cannot use hand signals or scratch an itch while I ride, because I if I take a hand off the handle bars, I crash. I practiced for about a year, and then gave up. Yet another thing to drive my non-existent self-esteem deeper into an abyss.

Thanks for the replies. I should have said that I was always clumsy. I also found it very hard to learn to drive, and to ride a bike. I just kept practising and gradually I could do it.

When my balance suddenly got really bad, I did get it thoroughly checked out - took about two or three years, saw about six different kinds of specialists. In the end they said they couldn't figure out what it was.

Elderwanda I can totally relate to what you are describing with the panic attacks - is it due ot having too many things to think about?

Marcia, thanks so much for that link to the specialist optician. It is the first new idea I have heard for years now.

Alex, the fatigue is in my eyes - to judge speed I have to constantly flick my eyes to three points along the road, so I make a lot more eye movements than normal, and I have to totally focus on speed. I think I'm lucky that I have found a way to do it.

When I first started driving, I had the twitching issue when going long distances, but over time, I got used to it, and it wasn't an issue.I was able to eventually do a sixteen hour drive from Red Deer to Winnipeg with no problems...and only stopping for coffee, gas, and bathroom breaks.For me, it was just a matter of getting used to it.I got my license at 22 mainly due to procrastination on my parents' part.I got fed up with waiting and took drivers ed and paid them to teach me to drive.They were pretty good and patient...which is another reason I did well.Teaching me to do something usually takes patience...but once I learn, I am pretty damn good.
I learned to ride a two wheel bike at the age of 6..I had lots of practice on the old family farm where it was safe to practice without fear of traffic.

I was years behind other kids in learning to ride a bike But now I ride everywhere. Ride to work, ride to church, ride for recreation. I used to ride to pick my kids up at school in a burley trailer (but my wife said I was embarassing the kids and asked me to stop.) This summer I rode 242 miles across the state on Missouri. (Thats 136,805 pedal rotations.)

Can't drive or ride a bike. I have awful balance, and I think cars are too expensive and I'd probably freak out if I was behind the wheel.

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If you were clumsy before this sudden change, the clumsiness may be referred to as developmental dyspraxia (from birth).

A sudden change in body balance can be caused by many different things.

Body balance can involve the inner ear, the cerebellum, and related feedback circuits.

Glad that you feel the symptoms have diminished a little.

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http://www.nora.cc/
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/balance/meniere.html
Other

I can't ride a bike. And my parents and my brother tried to teach me to drive, even though I can't get a license without my doctor's permission, but I just couldn't learn. Now, I just say I'm now allowed to drive because of my epilepsy, so they'll stop trying to teach me in the hope that I may be allowed someday.