Do all aspies think in pictures?

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I used to speak in monotone and labored long and hard to get over my jonny one note voice. Now I am lyrical, almost singing in my responses to people all day long.

I am an actor in life, just an actor.

Merle

I've also wondered about this "thinking in pictures" description. I think with internal monologue and the accompanying image, as do many, I see.

How can someone with language not think in words, even if not much?

I think in both an internal monologue and in pictures. I think the imagined sounds and images serve as kind of a cataloging system. These imagined sounds and images aren’t thoughts themselves but rather like variable names. They simply refer to the abstract "platonic" idea. If the ideas don't get cataloged with accompanying imagery or sounds they are quickly lost.

It seems like whenever a completely new idea pops into my head there has to be an image accompanying the thought or it immediatly becomes lost and forgotten. However I don’t always have images accompanying simple words that I have known for a long time. The imagined sound of the spoken word in my head is enough to recall the meaning.

Sorry to quote my own post. Can anyone relate to this?
I hope it doesn't mean I'm messed up. :/

Another interesting thing with me.

I seem to have trouble following a spoken monologue such as a book reading or lecture when there isn’t enough breaks to “digest” the information. I think the problem is that the lecturing person’s voice competes with my internal voice.

Even when I’m reading something I often have additional words and images in my head besides what’s written on the page. I need the additional words and imagery in order to catalog and digest what I’m reading. Just hearing the written words in my head isn’t enough to understand what is being said.

I always wondered if this has anything to do with autism. It seems like I am much more easily distracted when reading than other people. I always had hell on those standardized tests where they made you read a passage and answer questions. When I get nervous my internal monologue and imagery is easily interrupted. I can literally read an entire paragraph without processing a single meaningful thought.

I thinx in pictures and words.

when I actually do think...

I think in patterns. I'm always looking for patterns in things, it helps with diagnoses, and making associations with similar situations. I do think in words, but not text... sometimes pictures, especially when someone goofs up with words. If it's a big enough cluster-@#$%...I may use it in a picture...

I do do that bit where you think about what you're hearing, and then miss something, though...

oh! I had a friend with Tourette's syndrome that did this . . .
read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourette_syndrome

Coprolalia (the spontaneous utterance of socially objectionable or taboo words or phrases) is the most publicized symptom of Tourette's, but it is not required for a diagnosis of Tourette's. According to the Tourette Syndrome Association, fewer than 15% of Tourette's patients exhibit coprolalia.
People with Tourette's are sometimes able to suppress their tics to some extent for limited periods of time, but doing so often results in an explosion of tics afterward.[5] People with Tourette's may seek a secluded spot to release their symptoms, or there may be a marked increase in tics, after a period of suppression at school or at work.[13]

Tics are described as semi-voluntary or "unvoluntary",[12] because they are not strictly involuntary—they may be experienced as a voluntary response to the unwanted, premonitory urge. A unique aspect of tics, relative to other movement disorders, is that they are suppressible yet irresistible;[13] they are experienced as an irresistible urge that must eventually be expressed

I don't, I think verbally. My husband thinks visually and finds that drawing/painting helps him detox/empty his brain. I'm not sure about my son, I think he thinks visually too.

I don't have the picture thing either, but I do sort of run a movie of thoughts that I have a running commentary with myself, I don't know if thats normal, or do others have the same thing.

i think kinda like that foxman hehehe and I get distracted by own thoughts that can laed to other thoughts completely unrelalted and there goes the conversation out the window, i make people mad this way

Blimey. Could be.
I had considered Tourettes years ago but wrote it off because I am able to keep these thoughts inside, just about.
I quit my job at Walmart because some of the time when I was reading out the offers on the microphone, a stream of obceneties was running through my head. I was terrified that one day I'd end up swearing to the whole store.
Thanks for the info, I shall look into it further. Though I don't have tics, as far as I'm aware but I do stim.
Edit: Could be vocal tic disorder. Related to tourettes but when motor tics aren't present.

Last edited by wellywomble on 30 Mar 2008, 10:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ditto.

I think in pictures, do not visualize words (maybe why have such a hard time spelling!) but really I thought this was because of one of my associated conditions Dyslexia.

Also Ditto....
marshall wrote:
"It seems like I am much more easily distracted when reading than other people. I always had hell on those standardized tests where they made you read a passage and answer questions. When I get nervous my internal monologue and imagery is easily interrupted. I can literally read an entire paragraph without processing a single meaningful thought."

Last edited by asplanet on 30 Mar 2008, 10:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ditto....it makes most reading at least somewhat slow and cumbersome for me most of the time. Very frustrating....an exception is when I read out loud to someone...then I am able to focus my intent and interract more with what I am reading.

I have a strong leaning towards visual thinking. If someone asks me where something is, I see a picture of where it is in my head....also alot of the creative ideas that I am often inundated with, are often visual, even though I might often have a hard time mapping them out on paper or manifesting them in real life....for some reason.

I also have alot of musical associations...where there is inner music playing that goes along with what I am doing, and I will associate certain tasks with melodies that I make up.

There is also the internal verbal monologue of course..it helps sort out and identify the visual ideas.

...but my visual thinking can often distract me when trying to pay attention to verbal dialogue and whatnot outside of my own head....

Whenever I have had to take notes from a meeting or verbal lecture, I have ended up dooding all over the pages...likesay...I would have half the page for the notes and the other half for the doodles....it has been the only way I have been able to stay on track at all in those situations.

I never had a problem with each individual word, and I could read out loud from the page, no problem. My issue was that I couldn't make my eyes track the right side of the page when I got to reading. I could read all the left hand side but couldn't force my eyes to track the right hand side of the page. I did a LOT of inferring by context.

has anyone ever heard of THIS???

Merle