How often does your mind "space out"?

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How often does your mind "space out"?
it's virtually always spaced out 18%  18%  [ 18 ]
A few times or a bit more an hour 24%  24%  [ 24 ]
about once an hour 9%  9%  [ 9 ]
several times a day 35%  35%  [ 35 ]
maybe once a day, or every couple days or so 11%  11%  [ 11 ]
rarely or never 3%  3%  [ 3 ]
Total votes : 100

Spazzergasm
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26 Sep 2009, 6:43 pm

Willard wrote:
Huh

::You know for a moment there, I would have sworn it was April 29th, 2010::


XD what? i dont get it!



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26 Sep 2009, 9:38 pm

You might try googling "temporal lobe seizure" and "fugue state."
If something clicks in your mind, you can take it home.

There's so many confusing things going on at once, right now I'm not even trying to figure me out.


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26 Sep 2009, 9:43 pm

I know that happens to me, usually out of boredom or over-stimulation (lights, noise, crowds, etc . . . like i mini blackout). Happened once when I was checking out at a Barnes/Noble and while in line i just "phased out" (as i call it) for a few seconds. Cashier called for next customer 2-3 times before i snapped out of it.



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26 Sep 2009, 9:52 pm

Spazzergasm wrote:
ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo wrote:
I'm not sure what it's a symptom of, but I've always been this way! I space out a lot. I think I spent most of my childhood spaced out when I was in my own little world drawing pictures. Now, instead of drawing pictures, I just "space out" and do nothing. I connect the two things and think they are related. My brain needs those moments for some reason. Maybe it's connected to stimming or talking too much? I did those things, too.


argh!! ! me too!! !! i used to draw for hours as a kid...i had epically advanced fine-motor skillz (my age caught up to them, though :/) cause i got so deeply into it. now i cant just randomly start drawing X/


I think this is the same situation with me as well. When I was a kid, I used to really love cartooning, and even drew a comic book series about my dog. Even though I would also daydream a lot as a kid, I wouldn't space out the way I do now. Now in days, whenever I space out, my mind travels 500mph. I feel like I'm in a trance, because an hour or more will fly by with me picking my fingernails and having my mind wander. Often I don't get as much done in the day that I would like to have done because of it. It has been induced by stress, and things have been this bad since after I was ignored and bullied as a teenager. (Maybe if I further developed my artistic skills I would have a better way for venting off stress.) Do you guys relate to this?
Anyway, I find that writing in my diary, meditation, exercize, and awareness of my thoughts seem to help. I try to think positive thoughts. These techniques don't help me 100%, but they at least lessen the intensity.



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26 Sep 2009, 11:22 pm

My daughter calls it "zoning out." Sometimes it'll happen several times during one day, then not at all for a week, then about once or twice a day for a while.

Occasionally, it will happen during a conversation, even one I'm interested in having. I'll ask someone a question, hear about the first five or ten words of the answer, then zone back in at the end and have missed most of the person's comments. It's very embarrassing and frustrating to have to ask them to repeat themselves. Often, I'll just nod and pretend I heard what they were saying because I'm ashamed of having zoned on them. :oops:

This is different from drifting off into a daydream or hyperfocusing on something to the exclusion of whatever else is happening -- both of which I'm also guilty of doing from time to time. There's no thought in a zone out, just a few seconds of blank time.



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27 Sep 2009, 1:54 am

this virtually never happens to me during school because i have to be always move but after i get back home and lay on bed with laptop*click* my mind starts go time to time plank


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Spazzergasm
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27 Sep 2009, 10:06 am

pschristmas wrote:
Occasionally, it will happen during a conversation, even one I'm interested in having. I'll ask someone a question, hear about the first five or ten words of the answer, then zone back in at the end and have missed most of the person's comments. It's very embarrassing and frustrating to have to ask them to repeat themselves. Often, I'll just nod and pretend I heard what they were saying because I'm ashamed of having zoned on them. :oops:

This is different from drifting off into a daydream or hyperfocusing on something to the exclusion of whatever else is happening -- both of which I'm also guilty of doing from time to time. There's no thought in a zone out, just a few seconds of blank time.


oooh, i get embarassed by that, too! because it's not that what they said was uninteresting, it's just my brain clicked off! thankfully i dont think it's happened to me with a stranger, yet. my friends seem to be ok with it.



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27 Sep 2009, 5:27 pm

My brain has a built-in screen saver. Whenever I start to get bored or overworked, my screen saver switches on and I start day dreaming about something else for a few seconds/minutes.
Try getting Concerta (or one of the many other Ritalin variants) from your doctor and see if that helps.



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27 Sep 2009, 5:49 pm

I space out many times a day. I have always been notorious for being away with the fairies. I don't know what makes me space out but it happens, usually when I'm busy or busy daydreaming.


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Anonamess
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27 Sep 2009, 6:06 pm

Spazzergasm wrote:
pschristmas wrote:
Occasionally, it will happen during a conversation, even one I'm interested in having. I'll ask someone a question, hear about the first five or ten words of the answer, then zone back in at the end and have missed most of the person's comments. It's very embarrassing and frustrating to have to ask them to repeat themselves. Often, I'll just nod and pretend I heard what they were saying because I'm ashamed of having zoned on them. :oops:

This is different from drifting off into a daydream or hyperfocusing on something to the exclusion of whatever else is happening -- both of which I'm also guilty of doing from time to time. There's no thought in a zone out, just a few seconds of blank time.


oooh, i get embarassed by that, too! because it's not that what they said was uninteresting, it's just my brain clicked off! thankfully i dont think it's happened to me with a stranger, yet. my friends seem to be ok with it.


Yep, sounds very ADDish. I do it all the time. Worse even than spacing out when someone else is talking is that I interrupt myself on ocassion and even forget sometimes midsentence what I'm talking about. I was reminded at my appointment with my new shrink this past Friday just how bad it gets sometimes. He had to remind me several times what I was talking about. Most of the time, I was thinking to myself "Why can't have an unattractive (to me), grumpy, old person to be my shrink instead of the gorgeous specimen in front of me?! It's terribly distracting!"



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27 Sep 2009, 6:22 pm

From many times an hour to maybe 3-4 times a day, depending on the day. Sometimes it seems to happen for no particular reason, but on others because of being tired or stressed out.

Also in crowded, noisy places, though, especially restaurants. I tend to end up spacing out & staring a lamp/light or something and end up pretty unresponsive. (but not enough to have people calling 911 or anything) Also sometimes in the grocery store (the rows of brightly colored labels under snowblindless level light). I've found I can 'force' my way out of that state, but it feels mildly bad/weird to do it. Feels sort of like walking out of warm house into cold outside air.


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Spazzergasm
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27 Sep 2009, 6:27 pm

Anonamess wrote:
Yep, sounds very ADDish. I do it all the time. Worse even than spacing out when someone else is talking is that I interrupt myself on ocassion and even forget sometimes midsentence what I'm talking about. I was reminded at my appointment with my new shrink this past Friday just how bad it gets sometimes. He had to remind me several times what I was talking about. Most of the time, I was thinking to myself "Why can't have an unattractive (to me), grumpy, old person to be my shrink instead of the gorgeous specimen in front of me?! It's terribly distracting!"


ooh, really? i suspect i may have that. do you have AS as well?
i interrupt myself and forget midsentence, too! or i have to pause and think for a word extra hard. like, if i'm talking to someone, and someone walks by with a cool hat, i may sound like this: "so we went to the mall and saw this guy nice hat man and he was running around in his boxers...." do you do that?
and :cry: :D :o you have a hot shrink?!?!?! lucky!! ! what does he look like? boy, a hot shrink would make it much better. XD. i hate having to discuss deep personal issues with a grumpy old man! >:/ ive actually only been to one shrink...but he was a grumpy old man.



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27 Sep 2009, 8:08 pm

Yes , space out constantly through the day. Have found it relates to tiredness levels too. But then can be well slept and real energetic but still have those episodes of 'freeze' glaze, unable to talk because of the focus my whole body seems to be attached to ---defintiely not a seizure like experience because it has always been like a signal device . Outcome of which I know there and then or some moments/hours later.

I've NEVER been frightened of it.

I've always had this innate respect for this sensitivity. :)



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27 Sep 2009, 11:30 pm

Space out whenever I'm alone.

Whenever I'm forced to interact with people.

Whenever I stop concentrating for 5 seconds.

Whenever I concentrate really hard.

I wasn't aware there was such as thing as not spacing out?



Spazzergasm
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28 Sep 2009, 9:42 am

Gingersnaps wrote:
Space out whenever I'm alone.

Whenever I'm forced to interact with people.

Whenever I stop concentrating for 5 seconds.

Whenever I concentrate really hard.

I wasn't aware there was such as thing as not spacing out?


apparently some people have never had it happen to them. they must be extreme extroverts or something. strange, isnt it.



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28 Sep 2009, 10:56 am

Rarely (10-15 times a year) but when I space out I can be "there" for hours. It's something that went down with age, when I was a child It happened everyday more times a day. I think that it's simple that I no longer do annoying things (I no longer study anything I dislike, I can now avoid people I dislike and so on).