Perception issues...?

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My senses are intact and well. I have a keen sense of smell, sound and touch... By sound I mean I have a sensitivity to sounds, and I have great pitch memory (my voice is undesirable for singing but I am described as a good singer because I am great at hitting the right notes and I have good vocal control as well...). While I has astigmatism, I doubt that has anything to do with my actual sensory perception...

But the thing is, I have a hard time actually SEEING things... Even if I am looking for something and it is dead in front of me, I cannot SEE it. Unless it is in words, I have a hard time finding it. My friends can pass me by sometimes and I won't SEE them. I can see everything, but sometimes it just does not register, if you know what I am saying. It takes me a while to perceive and register things...

I also have no common sense, just to throw that out there. I usually do not know what to do in a situation unless I have directions and guidance. I won't know to turn a paper in unless the turn-in process is directed and structured. Anything that is not structured leaves me clueless. I can't take initiative because unlike many of my peers, I do not know what to do.

But the problem is, my visual perception. Things just don't register. Sometimes when I look at things I do not feel I am actually SEEING them. And I do not have any form of ADD. I have quite the opposite. My focus is very strong, and if I focus on one thing, I can keep focused for a very long time. I can be in class and even though I know my phone is vibrating, I will not stop a task for anything. Working too, I hate stopping a task, even to go on break. I have to complete something I am focused on and become irritable if there is an obstacle keeping me from it (someone trying to initiate conversation... etc...)

I'm unable to think creatively either. I am quite boring and often have to "borrow" creativity from others...

What do you think?

Maybe there is an impairment in the right hemisphere of your brain. I'm quite the opposite. I can't make sense of words but I'm great at visual perception.
I'm not sure how you can get around this. Maybe some sort of therapy. Or practicing looking at objects and naming them. I'm not really sure.

Sounds quite familiar. Especially the AS Hyperfocus. We should trademark that.

I suspect the "see-ing" part is related to this. The hyperfocus is not disengaging sufficiently to let you "recognize" the object. Even when you are sitting there (apparently) doing nothing, your mind is still active and probably still following a path or working on something.

I have the pitch and sensitivites myself (you can read my intro in the link at your leisure) so here's an odd suggestion: Try talking out loud. Try this when nobody is around, of course, but say something like "I am looking for my cellphone now. Where is my cellphone." This auditory cue combined with the words may "snap" you into a mode where you can "see" the object.

I'm putting these words in quotes, because it's not like you can't physically see the object, the trouble is that you can't SEE the object. That sounds weird to anyone else, but I think you will understand what I mean. I find this strategy helpful.

If this does help, and you feel we are similar enough, I can offer some other strategies I use regarding initiative and creativity later. Otherwise, this is going to get quite long

I have the problem of not noticing things that are right in front of me, ignoring people on accident, and having trouble with taking initiative on some things. I also have the creativity problem and use my education to combine things to seem creative. The biggest areas of creativity that concern me are entertainment and hobbies. I just don't know what to do with myself sometimes.
I don't think my problem is as severe as yours, but I have a theory why it is that way for me. I feel like I live in my head and my body is separate from me. Touch smell and sound can surprise me. My eyes are windows in a room so I can see outside, but I am not always looking out the window. When I am thinking, I can see the window, but am not paying attention to it. When I am concentrating I am looking out the window, focusing on the sidewalk I am taking to get somewhere, and I don't notice who is in the cars going past me on the road. It is like that, but in a hallway with people going by. When I need a can opener I start in the front right of the drawer and work my way to the back of the drawer, touching everything until I find it. The only way around that is to make sure I find important things is to make sure they get put in thier proper place. I think that is why many of us line things up as kids, so we can practice noticing the difference in things so we can find hem later, This is just a theory, but I cant spend all day looking out the window, because I have to think too.

I am generally very perceptive but sometimes I've noticed a little delay in identifying what's in front of me and what to do with it. The weirdest thing was one time many years ago when I was walking on the street and someone was walking ahead of me and it took me several seconds to decide if it was a person or a pigeon. It turned out to be a pigeon.

I know what you mean. I used to get this all the time. I would be looking for something like a CD or set of keys on a desk in a group of objects and somehow feel like im not actually catching it, or focusing on anything. It felt more like being in trance and sort of looking through my peripheral vision and not bringing myself to look dead center (at least mentally).

I did find a trick for this though. Somehow for me if I thought of a math problem on the fly, I mean something as simple as 5+5... I could snap out of it and my focus would return. It felt like flipping a switch on part of my brain.

Hope this trick helps you.

Gav

I have trouble finding stuff too, even though its right in front of me.

It comes as a big shock to many persons when they realize they may have what might be called a perception difficulty or challenge of some kind.

General info:

Some persons can have subtle neurological perceptual difficulties/glitches - like face blindness, color blindness, blindness to motion, constructional apraxia, and so on. -

- http://www.hhmi.org/senses/b210.html -

It's my understanding that limited creativity is sometimes associated with an inability to easily access some information and automatic processes most often associated with the right hemisphere of the brain.

- http://www.hemihelp.org.uk/hemiplegia/c ... perception -

- http://www.encephalitis.info/Info/Recov ... ation.aspx -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Wh ... _for_a_Hat

Good luck..

I do have that sometimes, it's like I'm just a bit out of focus. I see everything, but not the details. Because I recognize things as being a total of a number of details it just won't register. I guess this has to do with associative thinking.

For example, I see an object with the front piece designed to curl staples, and the "rail" that holds the staples, so by association the object must be a stapler. When I'm out of focus I see the object but not the details which trigger the connection to staples in my mind. Immediate result is that I fail to recognize the stapler.

I usually notice when I'm spacing out, I mentally tell myself to snap out of it or shake my head a bit like I'm trying to wake up. Don't do the last in public

And face blindness, not recognizing peoples faces, is the same associative thinking problem with me. When I'm busy or encounter people in an unexpected place I will probably not recognize them. I think that is something that can't be helped...

DEFINITELY

I think I have something slightly different.

I have serious trouble maintaining language (it's a constant strain, drop it and it vanishes generally), especially language comprehension, and I certainly can't use language to find things or understand my environment. So I don't do the words thing you describe at all.

But I have serious trouble recognizing things. I see them, I just can't go "Okay, this is a table," I see just a combination of color and visual texture and shape and stuff. I can do visual searches based on shape well (like the "find the triangle in this picture" kind of thing), but I can't do them based on "find the baseball glove in this room", I will look straight through it, seeing only a pattern of blobs in varying shades of brown and white. It's similar to some forms of agnosia, I guess.

I have that same difficulty , and if I am mentaly picturing the object I am looking for and the actual object is not oriented the same way , I dont see it . I also have little depth perception , I can drive , but highway signs that are in the distance look like they are "stacked right next to eachother and it isnt until I get closer that they "separate " for me . I was told at my last eye exam when I brought this up , that it has something to do with needing glasses at a young age , if that had happened the depth perception would have been fixed . I gotta wonder if the other would have been fixed too or if that is just how my brain is wired .

Yes, I have those exact issues. I have a Nonverbal Learning Disability (NLD) which includes problems with visual perception. You sound like me!

You may want to take a look at the "NLD Information and Support Thread" sticky which is located somewhere near the top of this forum (I believe it is at the bottom of the sticky threads).