Visual Thinking When People Talking to Me--Why?!

Post Reply New Topic

So for the past few months I have stumbled upon Autism and Aspergers and all other related disorders and how autistics are thought to be "visual thinkers." I have always been a very visual person (sucked at algebra but great at visual subjects like biology and calculus) but just recently discovered that this expands to even conversations and can be quite distracting when trying to get to know someone new. For example, when they are talking to me and they say something like "I saw this black panther while hunting the other day" I actually see a black panther in my head while they're saying this. Now if it is just one-one-one conversation I can do pretty good at staying focused on the conversation while yet seeing this stuff in my head; however, if I get a group of all new people together the visual imagery is almost unbearable and it's hard for me to stay up on the conversation without giving more than one or two words at a time. After deep examination of this, I realized that this happens to me even with people I know, say family members I've lived with my entire life, but doesn't happen as much with these well-known people, making it much easier for me to be "present" in the conversation.

I'm not sure what else to make of this and am pretty feaked out to say the least to think that all these years I've struggled with this--what could be autism/apsergers. Can anyone relate to this and/or please comment on this?!

I'll sure appreciate any help. Thanks!

PG

Hello PenelopeGrace! From polls/postings on here it's evident people with autism/Asperger's range in thinking styles and some say they never think in pictures. Anyway I am the same as you and I am diagnosed with Asperger's. It is overwhelming to think you (me myself, you yourself, anyone themselves) might have it but if you do it is okay, you're still the same person, and different ways of experiencing things are NOT worse ways of experiencing them. Every way is valid and valuable.

Thanks for your reply/input. So you "see" things when people are talking to you? How does this affect how you interact with others (i.e. is it distracting)? I'm not necessarily "freaked out" by being diagnosed but simply by the idea that for all these years I thought this "issue" would go away and now it's like, hey, it's not just in your head, it's a real issue and it isn't going away. Stupid perhaps but just how I feel.

I don't have empathy issues that are found on the description of what most Aspergers symptoms describe...however, if anything, I tend to feel things too much.

I also have staring issues which for the opposite sex I guess has been perceived as flirting and/or sexua interest when it was nothing of the sort.

Yes, I visualize things in my head like you describe. That makes it so I miss a lot of words. I never thought it was weird for some reason so I didn't expect it to go away. I mean I knew a lot of people don't do it cause people always seemed to not understand why I wasn't current with the conversation, or they'd say something when we were in the car and they were talking and be genuinely surprised I hadn't heard something of pertinence to me. So I realized that some people spend most/all of their time in the plane where everybody interacts together commonly known as reality. <--- that sounds insane huh.

Oh - I feel I feel the feelings of others acutely too. I don't know if there's ever a way of telling if I'm actually feeling what they feel but anyway I feel something intensely that I attribute to others' emotional states and is based on observation of behavior.

I tend to spend so much time and mental energy 'reading' new people and getting a vibe from them that I usually forget names. I am terrible with names, but I never forget a face. I also visualize everything - quite a fertile imagination. I thought everyone was like that!

Hi there
I, too, think in pictures. It was only recently I realised, that not everyone think that way, reading books by Temple Grandin. And yes, it does cause me to miss out on parts of conversations, occationally. Especially if people are using metaphors that I haven't heard before. It can be quite amusing at times. Then I giggle to my self, and people don't understand why. I can't imagine, not being a visual thinker. I quite like being a visual thinker, cause it's all I've ever known. Pictures pop op in my head all the time: When reading, conversating, thinking to my self etc. etc. Greetings from Denmark

I experience amusing visual thinking now and then as well, somewhat similar to Roxy.
More greetings from Denmark

I took a trip back in 2000 and Copenhagen was a stop. My sister and I had a wild time at Tivoli with some Dutch boys we met at a pub on Christianhavn. Amazing place to live - I would kill to go back and live there, or Helsinki/Stockholm/Oslo. I felt so comfortable in Scandinavia! Wish it was easy to pick up and move....way too expensive. :/

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

I'm similar, it's kind of a gift/curse honestly