Is this normal for those on the spectrum?

Post Reply New Topic

Almost all of my thoughts are conscious and internally verbalized (majority of the time) or visualized (at times when I think of mathematical or scientific concepts). I am aware of all of my inner thought processes. It's even the same in regards to intuition, when the inner verbalization occurs at roughly the same point as the internal feeling.

I think it's normal for everyone, isn't it?

It's hard to say, really, because as soon as I start thinking about how I'm thinking, maybe that changes things.

Usually the only times I internally verbalize things is when I'm imagining that I'm talking to someone. If I'm thinking about thinking, then I imagine that I'm telling someone how I think, and therefore use words and sentences in my head. Or I might be pondering a certain topic, and imagine that I'm explaining it to someone. It's not rehearsing; I have no intention of saying those things to an actual person. It's just me interacting with my imaginary friend, I guess. Ha ha!

Other times, I get pictures and movies in my head. Often there is nothing. Like, if I'm in the kitchen washing dishes, sometimes I'm just washing and looking out the window, and having no thoughts at all.

Planning and organizing is a different kind of thinking. I can't really tell you what I do in that case. I don't think I visualize or verbalize (internally) in that kind of thinking. I try to, but I get muddled. I can think about things somehow, but it's hard to hold a lot of stuff in my head at once, and see a whole sequence of "this then that" events. I can see little details. Like, if I try to imagine myself performing in community theatre (something I'd like to do, but am not prepared for), I can imagine standing on a stage, and see the scuffed-up wooden grain of the floor, with little bits of masking tape on it. But I can't visualize all the steps I'd need to take to get myself ready for such a thing. My mind is mostly a blank, with just little snippets of specific images.

I should mention that I'm not diagnosed with anything. I'm not sure if it's appropriate for me to call myself an aspie or not, but I feel more AS than NT. I relate to people on this board (particularly the women my age) more that most NT people, and score in the "aspie" range of all those online tests. So, I suppose I'm perhaps on the mild end of the spectrum, for what it's worth.

Sounds like me but I don't visualize anything (I don't "see" concepts in my head at all). Part of the reason why I can't tell left from right, etc. I have to use my hands & "feel" by gesturing & talking to "see" the picture. Hearing your thoughts in your head sounds normal for someone on the spectrum to me.

I thought everyone thought like that. I remember when I was younger (maybe three or something) being frustrated because I had thoughts that I had no words for. And I remember when I was older (about ten) being shocked to discover that I had a complete narrative going on in my head all the time. It came to my attention when I was having a row with my Dad. I flounced up the stairs, and slammed the door. Thing is, as I was doing it my internal narrator was saying, "M turned her back, ran up the stairs, and slammed the door. End of chapter."

My Dad spoiled it by opening the door, and saying, "don't you talk to me like that young lady." I remember gawping at him utterly bewildered, because he'd ruined my chapter! Didn't he know I'd just thought the last line of chapter... whatever?

That's when I realised how structued my story line was, and when I asked other people, it turned out that nobody else did that.

I've not met anyone else who dreams in French with Russian subtitles either. My brain is weird, even at rest.

OK, I'll try to sort this out, but it may not make sense.

First, I think internal narratives are common, and not particularly aspie. That's part of the zen mind quieting thing, to shut off the linear narrative and let associations float, and not link them. I also wonder how many people talking on cell phones actually made a call.

But (I hope I have this right) our neurology has a sensory processing bandwidth problem, but a thing/language trunk line, so the sensory information is uploaded and post-processed by the parts of our brains with better wiring. This results in the delay problem, and also creates some cross-talk/interference that makes us hear our brain working, like when you have two (analog) phones on the same cheap unshielded cable, and you faintly hear the conversation on the other line.

Elderwanda said:

I do this too and I am always amazed at how fast the dishes get done. It's like I zone out and when I come around again the dishes are all washed and I don't even remember washing them. It's pleasant.