A two+ hour drive would really take it out of me. I would often have to stop and have a 10 minute nap.
I’ve found meds have really helped, I still feel tired, but I don’t have to sleep afterwards or take naps.
Same with riding motorbike, but double. I think it’s the intense concentration for long periods of time.
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Interesting experience, my son and I are both ADHD and we love to drive. I’ll drive for 14 hours almost straight just fine and enjoy it.
My youngest is what ADHD and hates cars, takes a bus whenever possible.
enjoy it.
That’s the key. Actually, I have driven for a lot longer on unfamiliar roads which are interesting, so I don’t feel tired. It’s when it’s the same road I’ve seen a million times already that I get tired.
This sounds like you’re not getting tired because of driving or riding, but from being forced to sit through something boring.
I love riding my motorbike, and find that it wakes me up, and brings me out of a bad mood. I do get tired after a long ride, but it’s a good tired, not feeling drained.
If I’m forced to ride on the same old busy roads into the nearest city and back though, I feel irritable and drained afterwards. It doesn’t help that I’m in Wales, and we’ve had artificially slow speed limits forced on us, with penalties for exceeding them, so it feels more like an exercise in concentrating on the speedo, rather than enjoying the ride.
Actually healthy adrenaline inducing. Kinda the oerfect natural activity to keep one vigilant and engaged
I think my driving issues are more related to autism. Driving just presents so much information in so little time that it, at times, completely overwhelms me. I got my license, but since I can basically cycle or use public transport to get anywhere I haven’t driven a car in years at this point. I really dislike driving on public roads and nowadays I think I’d need a few courses again before I’ll climb behind the wheel. I do like sim racing though.
holy shit, yes!!
That’s never really been an issue to me, thanks to unlimited Autobahn. I can barely focus at speeds below 130, so I always went for the fast lane.
I’m in America and I love to push my car to its limits. I will take turns unnecessarily fast. Give me a relatively clear rural road and I will be punching that speed or greater if it’s long and straight enough. Put me on a dry dirt road and I go crazy, nothing is quite like leaving a huge plume of dust behind me.
Finding out risk taking was a symptom explained soooo much about how I drive sometimes.
Edit to add: I’ve done about 160 kph(100 mph) in west Texas on the desolate straight interstate out there. That’s kind of a limit for me in a regular car without more safety features.
No, driving was always something I could hyperfocus on and I find it relaxing.
I do need a break after 2h at the most, but that may also be cause driving in Southern Germany is pretty demanding. Traffic is dense, and on the Autobahn you have semis going 80 km/h in the right lane and BMWs going 200+ in the left lane. So if you’re somewhere between those speeds you’re forced to constantly switch lanes while watching your rear view mirror like a hawk for cars coming at you fast, and riding your bumper if you don’t get out of their way quickly enough.
I love driving in France, Netherlands, Switzerland or Scandinavia in general. Just set cruise control to 100 and put some Dub or an audiobook on. It feels like meditating to me.Even with meds. Not so much anymore, but when I was commuting to college. And not just when driving. I would get really drowsy seemingly randomly sometimes to the point of having little split-second visual hallucinations (extremely rare though).
Come to think of it, I was also taking Zyrtec (OTC allergy medicine) at the time, and I think drowsiness was one of the side effects. That might’ve been my issue.
Could be drowsiness inducing for you for sure, but in general generation 2 antihistamines are incredibly non drowsy. Only mention it because it is so fascinating. It took us like 30 years after finding Benadryl to find something that won’t put us to sleep.
Opposite for me. I can get in my car and drive 4+ hours without needing to stop or rest.
Do you have good posture in your seats? My Outback’s seats aren’t the softest, but they force you to have a really good posture which helps a LOT.
Used to have an Outback. Not sure on the seats in my Mazda, but I do sit on a towel because after an hour they get pretty dam uncomfortable. I will change seat position sometimes during the drive.
Have you fiddled with the lumbar support? Also make sure the seat bottom is angled to match the angle of your legs roughly so your weight is (mostly) spread across your butt + legs and not just the back of your butt.
Good tips, thanks! will try that next time
For sure. I will fall asleep driving even if I am otherwise fully awake. Caffeine didn’t help at all. Meds were the only thing that makes me safe to drive.
This is for multi hour drives, i at least don’t fall asleep going to the grocery store.
Interesting. Before I got my license, I was really worried I would have trouble focusing on driving. As it turns out for me I love doing it and actually seek it out. I kinda hyperfocus when I do it so I’m able to keep going for hours.
If anything, I feel refreshed after a nice drive. That said, if it’s straight highway for hours it’s a different story. I’ll need to rest after a long road trip. Especially if it was understimulating.
@luthis I also love to drive, before and after I got medication, but when I used to be stuck in rush hour traffic I had to fight not to fall sleep after my workday.
So tired! It’s exhausting, especially for my eyes.
I had that problem, but I never thought it was ADHD. It turned out to be sleep apnea, and I had it for a while undiagnosed. I was 32 when I found out and not overweight.
I get the effect you describe when I am doing highly social things like parties, festivals, or public entertainment events. I attribute this to introversion rather than ADHD.
I started taking medication before I started driving so I can’t speak from experience regarding that, but I do find when I drive I concentrate a ton so when I finish driving I get really tired.
I don’t like driving much so I try to cycle and take public transit whenever possible.
Quite the opposite. Driving doesn’t really seem to tax my ability to concentrate because its kind of fun and engaging. And the scenery out here is great. Especially during the fall when the trees change
Are you sure you didn’t have a light narcolepsy or hypersomnia ?
