I don’t know if it’s ADHD, autism, a combination of both, or something else entirely, but I have very specific routes when driving. For instance, most of my drives in town are to the grocery store. I take the same route every time without fail. If I am taking certain turns, I am going to the grocery store.
Sometimes, my wife will need to visit the crafts store nearby. It’s a very similar route, except for one specific turn that I skip. We will get in the car, and she will have to remind me 9 times out of 10 to not take the specific turn that goes to the grocery store. Because the routine is that if I take turns A, B, and C, then turn D to the grocery is what naturally follows. It’s not because I’ve forgotten we’re going to the crafts store (though I probably have). It’s because if I’ve taken these specific turns, I must be driving to the grocery store.
It’s almost muscle memory at this stage. She’ll see my pinky reach for the turn signal and holler DON’T. And yes, it has to be loud and abrupt because if not, odds are I won’t process it in time and we will be driving to the grocery store.
Maybe this is me being unaware of my own divergence, but that sounds pretty normal. We’re attached to pattern as humans, and driving is one of those things you do subconsciously (or at least it’s on the back burner in terms of direct focus) after a while. Makes sense you would conflate two super similar routes when you are essentially operating off muscle memory
Yep, this. Our minds need to process thousands of things, and actively think about another thousand of stuff. This takes tremendous effort, so whatever can be automated, our brains automate. That’s mostly gets turned into habits and routines…but also extend to repeating tasks we do occasionally.
ADHD and Autism can have overlapping symptoms so it could be either or both. I’m kinda the same way and often have to remind myself to do certain things if I’m drving to a place i know how to get to.
Like when I was driving to my gfs parents house for her grandmas birthday and I forgot to pick up my ADHD meds.
This is a big reason why, if I am not going by my normal routine, I will set my navigation to where I am going. Even if I know the way, this is the absolute best way I have fought against the muscle memory.
My mind will just overthink the decision, stoplights, traffic, time of day, probability of street racers, school buses, UberEATS and door dash drivers, until it’s too late to realistically decide, then either decision becomes equally justified until I finally bite my lip and just keep driving straight anyway and never turn to take the other way to work.
Lmao in similar but I get anxiety when I change the path. Even if it’s a known path change prior to starting the trip. So I’ll try to avoid the turn to avoid the anxiety. 😦
AFAIK I don’t have autism or ADHD, certainly I’ve never been diagnosed with either, but routines are a good thing. If you have a functional routine that you follow, you probably won’t make many mistakes and you’ll have less cause to question whether you missed a step or did something correctly. To put it another way, if you know the rules going in, you’ll probably do it right.
I’m consistent enough that any space I regularly occupy (my bed, car, office chair, etc.) has wear patterns reflecting the way I use the space (mark on the wall where my hand goes when I sleep, dent on the car door where my elbow rests, etc.). My wife teases me, too, for having patterns … But I rarely fumble on any task I’ve performed more than two or three times and I don’t have to work hard to do things familiar to me. A few times I’ve been ill but doubted it until I bungled a routine.
As a final point, I would direct you to a scene from the excellent Meet Joe Black, but lamentably I cannot remember enough about it to find it online. In this scene, the protagonist references that shaving is a simple and consistent enough process that you can perform other mental tasks while physically occupied. If you have good routines, the same thought process applies to all recurring and regular tasks. (In case you have not seen the movie, I assure you that both the scene and movie are significantly better than I’m making them sound.)
I don’t know if it’s ADHD, autism, a combination of both, or something else entirely, but I have very specific routes when driving. For instance, most of my drives in town are to the grocery store. I take the same route every time without fail. If I am taking certain turns, I am going to the grocery store.
Sometimes, my wife will need to visit the crafts store nearby. It’s a very similar route, except for one specific turn that I skip. We will get in the car, and she will have to remind me 9 times out of 10 to not take the specific turn that goes to the grocery store. Because the routine is that if I take turns A, B, and C, then turn D to the grocery is what naturally follows. It’s not because I’ve forgotten we’re going to the crafts store (though I probably have). It’s because if I’ve taken these specific turns, I must be driving to the grocery store.
It’s almost muscle memory at this stage. She’ll see my pinky reach for the turn signal and holler DON’T. And yes, it has to be loud and abrupt because if not, odds are I won’t process it in time and we will be driving to the grocery store.
Maybe this is me being unaware of my own divergence, but that sounds pretty normal. We’re attached to pattern as humans, and driving is one of those things you do subconsciously (or at least it’s on the back burner in terms of direct focus) after a while. Makes sense you would conflate two super similar routes when you are essentially operating off muscle memory
Yep, this. Our minds need to process thousands of things, and actively think about another thousand of stuff. This takes tremendous effort, so whatever can be automated, our brains automate. That’s mostly gets turned into habits and routines…but also extend to repeating tasks we do occasionally.
ADHD and Autism can have overlapping symptoms so it could be either or both. I’m kinda the same way and often have to remind myself to do certain things if I’m drving to a place i know how to get to.
Like when I was driving to my gfs parents house for her grandmas birthday and I forgot to pick up my ADHD meds.
I knew I was forgetting something lol.
This is a big reason why, if I am not going by my normal routine, I will set my navigation to where I am going. Even if I know the way, this is the absolute best way I have fought against the muscle memory.
My mind will just overthink the decision, stoplights, traffic, time of day, probability of street racers, school buses, UberEATS and door dash drivers, until it’s too late to realistically decide, then either decision becomes equally justified until I finally bite my lip and just keep driving straight anyway and never turn to take the other way to work.
Lmao in similar but I get anxiety when I change the path. Even if it’s a known path change prior to starting the trip. So I’ll try to avoid the turn to avoid the anxiety. 😦
AFAIK I don’t have autism or ADHD, certainly I’ve never been diagnosed with either, but routines are a good thing. If you have a functional routine that you follow, you probably won’t make many mistakes and you’ll have less cause to question whether you missed a step or did something correctly. To put it another way, if you know the rules going in, you’ll probably do it right.
I’m consistent enough that any space I regularly occupy (my bed, car, office chair, etc.) has wear patterns reflecting the way I use the space (mark on the wall where my hand goes when I sleep, dent on the car door where my elbow rests, etc.). My wife teases me, too, for having patterns … But I rarely fumble on any task I’ve performed more than two or three times and I don’t have to work hard to do things familiar to me. A few times I’ve been ill but doubted it until I bungled a routine.
As a final point, I would direct you to a scene from the excellent Meet Joe Black, but lamentably I cannot remember enough about it to find it online. In this scene, the protagonist references that shaving is a simple and consistent enough process that you can perform other mental tasks while physically occupied. If you have good routines, the same thought process applies to all recurring and regular tasks. (In case you have not seen the movie, I assure you that both the scene and movie are significantly better than I’m making them sound.)