spacing out

Post Reply New Topic

I space out sometimes especially when I am stressed. It's like I have no thoughts really. I just kind of hyperfocus on something with detail like tree bark or the the details of a picture or on a landscape.

I space out a lot. Well, I used to more before I had kids. ..or perhaps, more properly said, it happens less often but is much more severe.

I think, generally, it's a helpful personal defense mechanism. It is really a mild form of dissociation.



How it feels for me ranges from

-nothing (suddenly becomes later as others mentioned)

to

-not understanding my surroundings, I can look at something and not recognize it, and not even put all of it's attributes together. I won't be able to separate speech from other noises, much less find meaning in it. I won't know who I am or even what I am. (This worst case scenario has only started happening in the past few years and seems very short - minutes long, but is quite distressing.)

I space out a lot. I wrote the introductory post asking what others think of it because since I was little everyone notices I space out a lot, they say I am really distracted. They don't perceive it as something everyone does. I mean, if you are in a boring class it is normal to space out, but not when you are in the middle of a conversation or when someone is calling you.
It is very common the situation that someone tells me something but I am actually spacing out. Then later I don't know what they said and it drives them crazy, my family members specially. For instance, mother says: "I am going out, you need to put the meat back in the refrigerator or it will spoil". But when she said it I was spacing out, so when she comes back in the night she sees I didn't obey her and gets mad. Crazy thing is sometimes I even answer people when I am spacing out but actually in my mind I didn't even notice they are talking to me.
About the relation of spacing out and autism, I don't know why it is so but it is funny, here where I live when someone is spacing out there is a verb "to autist" (from autism). For instance, the person is talking and the other is not paying attention and staring at nothingness, then they say: "stop autisting, I am talking to you" isn't it interesting? gotta love brazilian portuguese

I space out - go catatonic all the time. if you like try to shake me out of it i get violent. so someone has to say my name over and over and eventually I snap out of it. it's hard to explain. It's like cloudy white light and then the room comes becomes visible and my mom's face is in front of mine saying Shea! Shea! Shea! Then she'll just smile and say 'that's better' and walk away.