Do you find a certain kind of question difficult to answer?

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marshall
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05 Mar 2009, 11:34 pm

Sora wrote:
Oh yeah... being directly asked questions about things I know well but to which I'd have to list a lot of things or explain a huge context, I usually can't answer. Not at all.

I have it all in my head right the moment when I'm being questioned, but I cannot convert what is on my mind to language and speech.

Speech is a like a mono channel through which only one piece of information at a time can be conveyed.

But what is in my mind is a lot more than just 1 piece of information. I have the whole thing right now in front on my mind ready to be given to the other in some form. It feels as if there are hundreds of things on my mind!

But I neither know what to say 1st nor do I want to randomly pick or can work out what to say 1st because it might lead the other to the wrong conclusion. But most importantly, I cannot think about what to say 1st because if I do, I will forget the other hundreds of things I just thought of.

And that kinda reminds me of why I seem to have ADHD.

Masses of information right there successfully and impulsively intruding on my mind which should be a good thing, really, but dare I say I will forget it all if I'm talked to again or think of something or if it's just a few seconds passing.

Alternatively, I may have learnt a list or anything by heart and cannot remember the whole load of what I learnt by heart when I'm asked to tell because I'm just kind of distracted by... everything.

You described precisely what happens to me whenever I'm asked a question that doesn't have a simple answer.

I'm not sure it's ADHD though. I think it has more to do with how my brain processes ideas. My thoughts are rarely linear or sequential. It's all logical and connected but there's no built in hierarchy in my head. I don't naturally rank my thoughts in terms of importance and/or sequence. It's all there but accessing it in a way that's simple to restate in words isn't easy. In my brain my ideas are like trees with many branches that I can recognize intuitively in their connections, yet when I try to represent ideas verbally I can only follow a single branch at a time and I don't have the ability to backtrack.



Gremmie
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06 Mar 2009, 3:47 am

Yeh I get the same Sora... I have answers but I have too many answers and I can't seem to filter them, and all the time there is someone sitting there watching me and waiting for a response while I feel incapable of actually saying anything.
I've found the best way to deal with this if it's with someone I trust is to tell them I can't actually answer that question and ask them to break the whole thing down into several much smaller questions, often ones I can just answer yes or no to, and eventually they'll get the information out of me.



Kaysea
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06 Mar 2009, 2:18 pm

I have a very difficult time answering questions pertaining to 'how I've been' or 'what has been going on in my life/how's my job, etc.' Obviously, I mean this in the context of seeing family/old friends, in which case, they actually WANT an answer.



Learning2Survive
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06 Mar 2009, 2:20 pm

for years i could not answer the question "what's up?" but now i figured it's just like saying hi and you are supposed to say "what's up man, how've you been" in return



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06 Mar 2009, 2:32 pm

Some questions like "What's up?" were hard to answer at first. These days people may say questions similar to "How are you?" that I find confusing and a bit hard to answer. But generally in socialising it can still be hard to answer many questions for me.


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06 Mar 2009, 4:27 pm

Yes I do.

"What are you doing this weekend?"

I've been asked that several times today. The answer is almost always that I am going to the AS/autism centre I attend, and socialising with friends who have AS. But questions about what I'm doing at the weekend lead to the subject of AS, which makes them difficult to answer. I don't want to go around telling everyone.



ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
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06 Mar 2009, 4:31 pm

When someone asks a question my mind blanks, sometimes. It depends on what the question is and what the answer is or are, if there's several.



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06 Mar 2009, 4:36 pm

When people say "what's up?" as in another way of saying how are you, my usual answer is "nothing", instead of "fine", because I think they're asking me if something is up.

I get confused when people ask me to choose something, especially when people are waiting for me to answer as I do not work well under pressure, so I'm like "uuuuuum, decisions decisions" even if it's a question like "do you want sandwiches or toast?"

Also questions like "do you like *suchathing*?" as I don't know if they're offering to give me a whatever they're on about or if they're generally asking if I like something


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06 Mar 2009, 6:11 pm

MONKEY wrote:
When people say "what's up?" as in another way of saying how are you, my usual answer is "nothing", instead of "fine", because I think they're asking me if something is up.

I get confused when people ask me to choose something, especially when people are waiting for me to answer as I do not work well under pressure, so I'm like "uuuuuum, decisions decisions" even if it's a question like "do you want sandwiches or toast?"

Also questions like "do you like *suchathing*?" as I don't know if they're offering to give me a whatever they're on about or if they're generally asking if I like something


I'm quite lucky with the decision making, when it comes to food. I generally eat just about anything, but I'm not a cheese fan. Mild cheddar is ok, and I prefer it melted, but otherwise I quite avoid cheese. If the offered choice has mushrooms or egg involved, however, it becomes a clear favourite.

Accordingly, my answer is usually 'whatever you're making/having'. This helps me avoid having to choose, because it takes awhile. I can easily spend 10 minutes weighing fish and chips against lasagna, the latter usually winning by a tiny margin due to pasta (yum).

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Song-Without-Words
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06 Mar 2009, 6:50 pm

I didn't use to think that I had problems answering these types of questions, but over the last decade or so its become very apparent that I do. I used to answer, "How are you?" types by telling them every detail and I wouldn't really care if they didn't like it. In fact, usually they think you're nuts and leave me alone.
I also hate for random strangers on the street to tell me to smile more. I told one guy to get run over by a bus, and then I would smile. Seemed to work....he started walking away very quickly. :twisted:

I know that those basic questions aren't really supposed to be answered....but there's some part of me that doesn't understand why, even intellectually knowing it. If you don't want to know something, then why ask. But now I just say, Fine, or Ok. I'm kind of known for telling people that I'm ok, in regards to everything. I think I've learned that you can't change the world....you can't get rid of small talk, etc.

I agree that too many choices pose a problem. And getting distracted. I go off topic a lot, as well, but seem to be able to eventually bring the conversation back to my original point.

Sometimes I tell people who I see often to stop asking me certain questions that they always ask. It doesn't work very well though. My mother still asks me if I like crackers with my soup, and I've been telling her forever that I don't and that she needs to stop asking. I try not to get upset though.

I also think it's hard to explain why I do certain things, even if I know why. There rarely seems to be just one answer for any particular problem, so how can I possibly say that I did X because of Y. And if I say, I don't know, they just think it's a cop out. Or if I tell them that I do X because of Y, Z, A, and the number 2.......then they also don't believe that either. It's very frustrating.

Someone mentioned something about how to know when kids are hungry. I was with someone once and she wanted some food, and she said it would just be a minute and left me with her baby in the stroller outside the restaurant. Well, the kid started crying........I really can't deal with the high pitched noises of crying, and the sun was in my eyes, and it was very hot out......but she said she would be a minute...so I tried to be calm, play with the child, give it a bottle. I was nearly ready to cry myself, when she came out and said that a person told her that, there was a woman outside who looked like she wasn't doing very well with her baby.
She really tore into me about how could I not know that the child was hungry. I could barely get out that she's not my baby, and she can't talk, and I tried but how can I know? Needless to say, that was a long walk back home.

I try to avoid children, especially, small babies. It's just too much.



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06 Mar 2009, 8:02 pm

Song-Without-Words wrote:
I didn't use to think that I had problems answering these types of questions, but over the last decade or so its become very apparent that I do. I used to answer, "How are you?" types by telling them every detail and I wouldn't really care if they didn't like it. In fact, usually they think you're nuts and leave me alone.
I also hate for random strangers on the street to tell me to smile more. I told one guy to get run over by a bus, and then I would smile. Seemed to work....he started walking away very quickly. :twisted:

I know that those basic questions aren't really supposed to be answered....but there's some part of me that doesn't understand why, even intellectually knowing it. If you don't want to know something, then why ask. But now I just say, Fine, or Ok. I'm kind of known for telling people that I'm ok, in regards to everything. I think I've learned that you can't change the world....you can't get rid of small talk, etc.

I agree that too many choices pose a problem. And getting distracted. I go off topic a lot, as well, but seem to be able to eventually bring the conversation back to my original point.

Sometimes I tell people who I see often to stop asking me certain questions that they always ask. It doesn't work very well though. My mother still asks me if I like crackers with my soup, and I've been telling her forever that I don't and that she needs to stop asking. I try not to get upset though.

I also think it's hard to explain why I do certain things, even if I know why. There rarely seems to be just one answer for any particular problem, so how can I possibly say that I did X because of Y. And if I say, I don't know, they just think it's a cop out. Or if I tell them that I do X because of Y, Z, A, and the number 2.......then they also don't believe that either. It's very frustrating.

Someone mentioned something about how to know when kids are hungry. I was with someone once and she wanted some food, and she said it would just be a minute and left me with her baby in the stroller outside the restaurant. Well, the kid started crying........I really can't deal with the high pitched noises of crying, and the sun was in my eyes, and it was very hot out......but she said she would be a minute...so I tried to be calm, play with the child, give it a bottle. I was nearly ready to cry myself, when she came out and said that a person told her that, there was a woman outside who looked like she wasn't doing very well with her baby.
She really tore into me about how could I not know that the child was hungry. I could barely get out that she's not my baby, and she can't talk, and I tried but how can I know? Needless to say, that was a long walk back home.

I try to avoid children, especially, small babies. It's just too much.


I'm ok with crying babies, for a very short time. The problem is that I make that time longer. It's one of the reasons why I no longer have my daughters. When a baby begins to cry, I know she has a need that requires being addressed. However, I have to resort to trial and error to find out what it is, every time.

If I get it right quickly, everything is fine. If not, the crying upsets me and I need to get away. I rapidly begin to lose the ability to think of more options to try, and sometimes go back to ones I've already tried. I used to hand my daughter over to an equally flustered mum, and wander off.

Situations like this would usually be resolved before long, and therefore objective judgment tells me that such difficulties wouldn't really present a major long term problem. However, I also fully recognise that it is a definite inability to cope, and understand the recommendations of that residential parenting assessment unit, and the subsequent removal of my daughters. 3 times, I have been to these places, and hit all the same pitfalls. 3 times, I lose a precious baby girl.

Sorry for bringing down the mood, but I resonated with what you said so much that I hit my own raw nerve.

On a lighter note, it made me a better person, because I always compensate negative with positive. The lack of anaesthesia in my own life just urges me to be more altruistic. Don't know why.

((((hugs))))

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dougn
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06 Mar 2009, 10:54 pm

MONKEY wrote:
When people say "what's up?" as in another way of saying how are you, my usual answer is "nothing", instead of "fine", because I think they're asking me if something is up.

I always answer, "Nothing" or, "Not much" to the question, "What's up?"

"Fine" is what I would say in response to e.g., "How are you?"

It never even occurred to me that one might say it in response to, "What's up?"



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06 Mar 2009, 11:25 pm

LuckyBunny wrote:
I have found that if I'm asked questions in a certain way, I find them almost impossible to answer.

If I do something wrong, and somebody asks me 'Why did you do X?', or 'Why didn't you do Y?', I find this kind of question difficult. I get this regardless of how well I know the process which led to such an action/inaction.

Also, something I've noticed through comparison of my posts here against conversations/posts elsewhere:

Here, the discussions mostly already exist. Somebody makes a post about a particular trait/experience, and others come to post their own experiences. I have recognized a lot of traits here that are overtly present in myself.

However, when faced with the direct question 'What do you see in yourself that makes you think you have Asperger's?', I struggle severely. It's a direct question, to which I know the answer(s), but I still can't answer it.

I can easily pick all applicable answers from a list, but to provide those same answers without the list is tough.

Does anyone else have this difficulty?


I'm very much like this with certain things, including your example about why do you think you have AS. My mother is famous for asking me questions that fall into that "difficult to answer" category. I think mostly what makes it hard to answer is when it's something to do with myself or my kids. I want to be able to explain my answer in a way that people won't misunderstand, because when people misunderstand, it causes me a lot of stress.