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Driving difficulties

Messages
39
Did anyone else develop issues driving? Some years into my illness I can no longer drive on Highways. Driving can be taxing in general as my brain seems to work slow when gathering all the information. But busy roads and Highways overload my brain. I start to get adrenaline bursts and I feel like I could pass out. Often times I have had to pull over to the shoulder many times. Also, I get very confused navigating and make wrong turns or misinterpret traffic signals. This is one of my most hated symptoms because it traps me geographically even if I am in the rare state of having the energy to make a trip.

Does anyone else deal with issues like these? Does anything you found help?
 
Messages
70
It happened to me as well years ago, I was finding it very difficult to drive, to concentrate, and all this was making me extremely tired...my brain was responding real slow to stimuli and everything...
 

Hipsman

Senior Member
Messages
542
Location
Ukraine
I got ME/CFS when I was 17, right when I started thinking of getting drivers licence, but then I realized it will be impossible due to all the ME/CFS symptoms (the same symptoms you described), especially slow reaction times, becouse I wouldn't be able to react quickly and may crash the car...
 

Reading_Steiner

Senior Member
Messages
245
yeah you describe exactly what puts me off from it, I keep thinking about it and I practise with VR simulator and stuff but I give up after a while, either become too tired and lose motivation or my feet muscles become too tired and inflamed. I picked up the driving habit though after a couple of years of driving mobility scooters, from that I moved onto ebikes because I started venturing further out of town to go fishing etc and I found it was a bit tedious and dangerous averaging 6mph.

From my experience i'd recommend electric bikes for people with mild to moderate cfs that don't have consistent orthostatic intolerance or issues standing up for long periods ( I used to have it bad but now its only occasional ),
Its really dependent on where you live but often you can stay out of confusing or fast traffic flows.

Depending on the bike they can be light enough to lift, and you can often turn around quickly or leave the road at high speed without falling off or damaging the bike. I think i've done 2000 to 3000 miles on my current one which is just a modified mountain / trail sport bike. I used to cycle a lot before I became ill and this is the closest thing to that experience. I rarely ever turn the pedals I just use a twist grip thing with a hall sensor,
most of those commercial bikes are designed to be PAS which means it amplifies any physical effort you put into it. I'm making my own bike now from scratch but I think it will take months, its something to do at least.
If you are in America its pretty easy to get a good bike commercially, the laws are more relaxed there Hidden Motocross Track in the Mountains

You can go to the shops with these if you have a backpack, and some bikes have storage areas like the super 73, but you have to be careful because they are quite a big attraction to thieves.
 

IThinkImTurningJapanese

Senior Member
Messages
3,492
Location
Japan
I got ME/CFS when I was 17, right when I started thinking of getting drivers licence, but then I realized it will be impossible due to all the ME/CFS symptoms (the same symptoms you described), especially slow reaction times, becouse I wouldn't be able to react quickly and may crash the car...

It's not impossible, it's improbable, and it's not even that if you can find some help to alleviate this condition.

I recently took a driving test, one of the most difficult ones in the world. On a simulator, I showed reaction times that were twice as fast as the average.

In actual practice, while I only had a learners permit, a junior high student raced down a perpendicular sidewalk on his bicycle and into the road in front of me. I was traveling at 40km/h and he entered the road two meters in front of me. He's lucky he's alive, I thought I damaged a tire from the way it felt stopping so quick. :D
 

Wishful

Senior Member
Messages
5,684
Location
Alberta
Driving used to cause me PEM the next day, probably from the cerebral effort. It was much worse in bad driving conditions (dark, icy roads, blowing snow).

There were also some days when my ME symptoms were worse than usual, when I knew that my reaction times, judgement, etc, were impaired, so I just avoided driving.

One worrisome thing about ME's driving impairment: our judgement about our impairment may be impaired.
 

Rufous McKinney

Senior Member
Messages
13,251
Does anyone else deal with issues like these? Does anything you found help?

All that happened to me, in my case the cognitive and neurological issues have made driving extremely challenging and I only go a few blocks and come back real quick. Freeway is many objects moving far faster than I can process. c

Processing all this moving information is very taxing. Can't do it any more. I probably could take the back road about 15 miles to the next town, and I'd may be get there- avoiding big freeways. But even pedestrian activity makes me nervous. I could easily just not see- somebody in a cross walk.

All this is part of losing something else. Its the compass in our heads. I had an impecable compass. I never get lost, I worked remote with maps and compasses and alone- in the woods, you cannot get lost EVER. Its a ability to be spatial, to orient geographically.

Segway to ME is worse- I'm borderline having anxiety attacks on a hiking trail (I was hiking, tho, this was before the worsening). But already- disoriented somehow- had set in.

Hate it.

(ps I had several sort of driving events happen that suggested to me my judgement was also getting worse, so for instance, when I made a U turn infront of oncoming traffic at 6:30 AM , not awake at all due to medications, having to find some road Im unfamiliar with. I did the simple misjudging of speed and some lame maneuver and could have gotten in an accident.

I do not believe in getting into accidents.
 

Starsister

Senior Member
Messages
834
Location
US
@Spanky88 I learned this was part of the neurological issues we have. Went to a “ Neurological chiropractor” who evaluated me with interesting tests. Confirmed my overstimulation because eyes notable to focus. He gave me some “ eye stabilization” excersizes that I also later found on YouTube. The excersizes helped but I gave up on highways years ago and don’t plan to mess with ever again. It did give me important validation that I could show to family and my partner who said it was just psychological and I could do it if I wanted to. Having the lines on the paper showing how my eyes are unable to follow the test really made me feel better! Im sure I could get even better but not made time to keep up with excersizes.
 

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SnappingTurtle

Senior Member
Messages
257
Location
GA, USA
I stopped driving once I self-diagnosed my ME/CFS and learned about pacing. I noticed I would break out in sweat, feel very stressed during the drive, then fatigued next day. This was a big change: it was easy driving pre-illness. My orthostatic intolerance may have been contributing.

I only have so much energy nowadays that I rely on my husband for transportation. I save my energy for parental and spousal interactions.
 

EtherSpin

Senior Member
Messages
257
Location
Melbourne , Australia
my time for a drive plus radius from home are altered a lot by having no back seat passengers (i.e. KIDS!) having no interference by front passenger like putting on music or altering thermostat.
knowing the area I'm driving in.

I discovered a new one the other day cause our car busted permanently and the new car was a low engine capacity but using a turbo (I know nothing about all this) but where the acceleration ends up feeling like a very smooth gradient with no overt noise change as you go up in speed unless you are hammering it like an idiot.

when I was out by myself in this car I discovered something that I hadn't had in a very long time. I could put on ambient/quiet music

so the car in question can be a huge factor I think.

also, we managed a vacation earlier in the year, first in 6 years and it was in the country region I grew up in decades before CFS and all my normal car rules about time spent driving and max radius were completely out the window because the location was hard coded into my memory before any of this fatigue/fog bull**** was affecting me. it was more second nature than anywhere I've driven since I've been sick.

My dads car has a little tunnel view/glass thing you look down to see the speed the car is going at which I think is to mimic the distance you focus at when you are looking at the cars in front of you so you can save fractions of a second everytime you speed check and THAT is another boon for me, I imagine cars with a windscreen projected HUD could be good OR an aftermarket HUD being added could be good if the Numbers it projects on the windscreen are Opaque enough
 

Rufous McKinney

Senior Member
Messages
13,251
so the car in question can be a huge factor I think

before I got "worse" ME, and still working, they got electric vehicles and I had to drive one. that was a huge issue for me- My previous vehicle was like my best friend, I drove it for 16 years. I was very safe in it.

this electric thing was very disorienting. Lots of more thinking is required. Not good.

Including its not making any noise. Its likely hard, when your older Plus got ME- to find yourself having to drive a very different piece of equipment.
 

EtherSpin

Senior Member
Messages
257
Location
Melbourne , Australia
before I got "worse" ME, and still working, they got electric vehicles and I had to drive one. that was a huge issue for me- My previous vehicle was like my best friend, I drove it for 16 years. I was very safe in it.

this electric thing was very disorienting. Lots of more thinking is required. Not good.

Including its not making any noise. Its likely hard, when your older Plus got ME- to find yourself having to drive a very different piece of equipment.

I read that they feel very different not just because of the acceleration being so powerful but also because they don't coast/roll with your foot eased off the accelerator but actually rapidly decelerate as the momentum is harnessed and transferred to the battery via that "regen" braking ?

that put me off when I was looking into and quickly ruling out electric when replacing our car this month. cost was the factor but that difference in feeling would be huge