Distracted Without Driving

Distracted Without Driving

A text, a honking horn, a tug on a seatbelt. Many distractions can and will compete for my attention.

Diagnosed with a mental illness early on, then later with Autism Spectrum Disorder, I struggled with my own identity. Multiple hospitalizations and radical medication changes became habit. I attended 7 different schools in the past 10 years. I had made and lost friends. I grappled with my weight and developed a tic disorder. The demands to regulate my emotions internally, only added to the expressions I showed the world.

Despite this, I was able to obtain a Learner’s Permit. Thus, demonstrating driving knowledge. However, despite practice and repetition, I lacked the skills necessary to perform optimally in a motor vehicle. Deficits in executive functioning, such as prioritizing and processing information, remain the key issues with which I struggle. Yet, I am also an adolescent, whose inexperience complicates things further, such as the ability to recognize less obvious signs of a potential hazard.

Interestingly enough, there has been a steady decline in adolescents obtaining their driver’s license over the past 30 years. Perhaps, in part, due to newer, more difficult requirements for licensure or just due an overall lack of interest. Yet, teenagers remain three times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than their seasoned counterparts. Distracted driving while texting remains the principal cause of these incidents.

As a generation obsessed with technology, learning to curb these impulses may be a good start. It comes down to personal responsibility. Yet, this is not so easily taught, as I have made repeated mistakes over the years. These were necessary in order to make improvements upon myself. However, without a desire to make these changes, personal responsibility can never happen.

Perhaps, the answer to distracted driving will lie in a self-propelled vehicle, until then, I feel confident with my decision not to drive.