Nothing shorts out my autistic brain more than a last minute change of plans

I have a big day today, its the end of my course and we are having a big dedication ceremony and celebration. A lady from my course contacted me to ask if I'd like a lift there. I get nervous driving very far, so I accepted. I was relieved to have that part of the day sorted out.

She messaged late last night to say she wasn't up to driving, and could I drive her and pick up someone else she was supposed to be taking too.

She did the same thing once before. I just thought it was a one off.

It took me about an hour to get my shit together. My brain just shorts out and I can't get any sense out of it. I need to know what I'm doing as far in advance as I can. I envy people who just wing it.

She said she'd let me know if she was ok to drive this morning at some point. I booked my very expensive last minute train tickets already 😐

Like I wasn't nervous enough about today 😕

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ThreeLittleBirds · F

Aww ikr re driving , personally I don’t mind driving sometimes but then other times I’m like nah lol, I drive a manual and it’s ok but tbh i absolutely love walking whenever I can … have you ever thought about driving an automatic… it’s less to take on behind the wheel

I read you say you’re autistic.. have adhd ?

I was diagnosed as having adhd as a kid but it turns out I was wrongly diagnosed and put on meds I shouldn’t have been on as a kid thankfully my mum took me off them when I was still little but my parents were led to believe as I was that I had adhd until I found out only last year that I actually didn’t have it at all

It’s crazy because I did so many things with my life while thinking that I actually still had adhd including learning how to drive so now I’m like this person who never even had it … I feel kinda betrayed re my mental health but at the same time I humour myself about it because it’s just ludicrous to think that for years I thought and my parents / family thought I had it

Anyhoo I’m rambling now

Always remember that protecting your personal boundaries and saying no to pick ups’ is perfectly ok … you don’t have to be anybody’s “yes woman”

Kuronekko · 41-45, F

@ThreeLittleBirds I actually don't have an issue with driving a manual. Its more the overwhelm of whats going on around me. The issue I have as an autistic person is that we are constantly taking in so much data. We struggle with filtering out whats important and what we can ignore. Being on the road, we are blasted with a lot of vital information along with a lot of distracting extra information. This is so much worse when visiting new places etc.