Open questions

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Yeah I used to say "I dont know" a lot and usually I really didn't.

Sometimes though it was just easier to say it and get hit then wrack my brain and have them still get impatient and hit me before I could come up with a proper answer.

Apparently my parents didnt like not being given a "decent answer".

And as I remember it I refused to talk to most of the therapists the school made me go see.

If I did respond I just told them what they wanted to hear or "I dont know" if I wasnt sure what the "right" answer was.

There are way to many of these from people who are supposed to be professionals....I hate it...they would ask "how I felt" and I would tell them ...what I did or what I thought.....I know a few basic emotions....elated(very rare)suicidal(used to be a lot),overwhelmed or confussed(most of the time)Angry...these get all mish-mashed together and are hard to untangle.

I hated taking the aspie test and MMPI.....way to vague for me....I try and ask for clarification but people seem to get offended by this?

I've been very lucky with my therapist so far... if he sees that I am not done saying something, that I'm just pausing to sort something out before I say it, he'll sit there and wait for 5 minutes usually if it takes me that long, and then just listens. He has a few open questions that he asks, and if I'm going in a very different direction than what he is wanting as the answer, he'll hear me out first, and then he'll say what I said (very shortened and uses example to apply it) and then he'll say "well, what about this, for instance, how would you feel in a situation like this?" and he'll just keep redirecting me or will point blank say it eventually. I've only had 4 visits with him so far, which doesn't seem like a lot, but I really feel that even though I'm always talking in circles, that he is listening and taking in everything that he can (I should bring him more pencils for tonight's session )... if he didn't use examples to apply what I said and ask me if it was right, it would be a whole different story.

Yes..I am never able to fully articulate myself...and later I will find myself kicking myself for it....
Happens at job interviews....will shoot myself in the foot with the difficult open-ended question...

Yeah. I have trouble with open ended questions, and "abstract" thoughts and ideas. My boss will ask me to do something abstract like "make a form that does this" and I will be lost for quite a while.

I have problems with things like that too. I need things to be explained to me properly (exactly what they mean) for me to understand. In school we'd sometimes be told to do something and everyone else would just start as if they automatically knew what to do. Whereas I'd be sitting there wondering how they wanted us to do it because they didn't explain properly.

Jeeze I so hated that.. everyone else would start working and your left looking around going "wft did I miss?" and feeling stupid

I had that all through school and college.

I remember as a child saying 'I can't think........' when asked an open question. I don't say that any more but it is a strain trying to figure out what it is the person is getting at and I often gawp like an idiot while struggling to come up with the required response. And even then I get it wrong!

I find open-ended questions extremely frustrating since my first thought is "What are you actually asking?" This is a holdover from when I was younger and supposedly open-ended questions usually masked some hidden agenda.

These days, and especially with my therapist, I tend to shoot back with "You're asking for an essay answer when I'm only prepared for multiple choice."

Things like, for example, "what would you do if you could do anything?" totally stymie me; I see too many meanings, too many possibilities, too many vagaries and my first reaction is to ask, in this case, "what are my options?"