Driving with ADHD is Frustrating and Can Be Dangerous. Here Are Some Ways to Limit Your Risk.
If you have terrible ADHD, and you can find a way not to, don’t drive. Driving is fun and saves time for most people, but ADHD driving is a mixed bag, and can even be dangerous. People with ADHD who are functioning and even successful have backups and workarounds, and that’s true of ADHD driving too. Some of the technology that’s come along to keep up with car technology is pretty amazing. We’re not driving Model T’s anymore, and tools to assist ADHD driving have kept up as well.
Here are the best strategies and tools I’ve found to keep ADHD driving a time-saver instead of another time sink — and to keep myself (and especially others) safe.
Everyone faces the same inconveniences, bad luck, and occasional dangers of driving, but when you have ADHD on top of all that, it gets exhausting. It gets embarrassing to ask for help. The repeated, sometimes outrageous car problems start sounding like lies to the people around you. They’re usually not. But at a certain point, people understandably lose their patience — and sometimes it’s not just their patience. It can be money, health, function, or even a life.
The Problems with ADHD Driving
The Inconveniences (That Aren’t Really “Just” Inconveniences)
Everyone loses their keys sometimes. Everyone has a dead battery once in a while. Everyone dings a bumper. But when you add ADHD driving to the mix, these things happen constantly, and the stakes feel — and often are — higher.
The universal ADHD driving inconveniences:
- Lost keys. Every single time. Sometimes twice in one morning.
- Dead batteries. You left the lights on again. Obviously.
- Minor fender benders. Costly, annoying, or just ugly to live with.
- Lost car. Yes, this is a thing in ADHD driving. You are not alone. You can read my own outrageous story of losing my car here:
I still barely believe it myself.
It was a huge relief and I had a few laughs when I came across this blog post.
These feel like small problems until they make you late to something important, cost you money you don’t have, or set off an anxiety spiral that takes two days to recover from.
The Actual Dangers of ADHD Driving
Distracted driving is dangerous for everyone. For people engaged with ADHD driving distraction isn’t something that happens occasionally — it’s the baseline. And the consequences can escalate fast:
- Insurance raised to levels you can’t afford
- Car destroyed and not adequately covered
- Injury and limited function
- Recovery time that wrecks your work, your relationships, your life
- Permanent loss of function
- Loss of life — yours or someone else’s
That is a weight no one should have to carry. And yet a lot of ADHD drivers do carry it, quietly, because they don’t know there are things they can actually do about it.
The Solutions for Simpler and Safer ADHD Driving
Solving the Inconveniences
Stop using smart keys. I know, counterintuitive. But smart keys are easy to misplace and expensive as hell to replace. A regular key you can make five copies of for $3 each is more practical. Make those copies. Put one at work. Give one to someone you trust. Tape one somewhere on your car if you have to.
Keep backup keys everywhere. We just covered this, but it bears repeating: multiple copies, multiple locations. Not just at home. Everywhere.
Get a portable jump starter. A compact lithium jump starter lives in your trunk and means you never have to wait for AAA or flag down a stranger in a parking lot at 10pm again. Charge it a couple times a year. Done.
You can find reviews and links for all of the ADHD Driving solutions here.
Key fob and GPS tracker on your car. Yes, there are devices that attach to your car itself so you can find it in a parking garage or a parking lot the size of a small country. A real ADHD driving time saver.
Reducing the Actual Risk of ADHD Driving
This part matters more than the keys. The keys are annoying. This part can hurt people.
Sleep. Driving while sleep-deprived impairs you similarly to driving drunk. If you have ADHD, you are already working with a brain that’s running a taxing background program at all times. Exhaustion is dangerous for ADHD driving. Take the bus. Call someone. Take a nap first. Call an Uber or Lyft. I’m serious. Spending too much and credit can be a problem with ADHD, but in this case the alternative can be far more expensive.
Substances. You know what you’re doing. Be honest with yourself about whether you should be behind the wheel. This includes more than just alcohol — some medications, some combinations, some bad nights. If you have to ask whether you’re okay to drive, you’re probably not.
Distraction — be early. If you’re running late, you rush. If you rush, you’re not paying attention. If you’re not paying attention, something bad happens. Build in more time than you think you need. ADHD brains are notoriously bad at estimating how long things take, ALWAYS add 10%-15% to the ETA you get from the map on your phone. That estimate is based on nothing going wrong, and you driving perfectly, like a robot.
Put down your phone. I know you know this. Do it anyway. Put it on Do Not Disturb before you start the car. Throw it in the back seat if you have to. The text can wait. The Instagram notification can wait. Nothing on your phone is worth what happens if you look away at the wrong second. Changing your playlist can wait!
And maybe — seriously — don’t drive. If you’re somewhere that makes this possible, consider it. Uber, Lyft, the bus, a bike, walking — any of these is better than getting behind a wheel when your brain is not cooperating. This is so important, if you have the ability to choose the city you live in, this should be a big part of your consideration. There’s no shame in knowing your limits for safer ADHD driving. There’s a lot of shame, and tragedy, in ignoring them.
The Bottom Line
Cars are essential to most adult lives in America. They’re also genuinely dangerous tools, and for ADHD drivers, that danger is amplified by the way our brains work — not because we’re reckless or careless, but because attention is the one thing we can’t always control.
The good news: most of the disaster scenarios are preventable. Not with willpower. Not with good intentions. With systems and tools that do the work for you, so your attention doesn’t have to.
Get the AirTags. Get the jump starter. Get the extra keys. Put your phone down. Get some sleep.
And if you’re in a bad stretch? Just don’t drive.
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