Lack of a thought process

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I am writing this post to see if anyone can relate. I honestly believe that I don't have a thought process inside my head. What I mean is that I don't internally think and have words that go across my head. I often find that words come out of my mouth, without me cognitively thinking about it, almost as a reflex.

It is like having a blank mind and looking at things without thinking about them. I can make some observations, but that is about it. For example:

Let's say that someone gives me a set of directions on how to do something verbally. I often get confused and don't understand. But if I see it visually, or if the directions are very specific, I understand right away.

I wonder if other aspies have the same thing, where they don't have a in-depth cognitive process, and where certain things come to them. If I knew there were others like me in this area, it would be of great comfort.

I would assume that you are a visual thinker? ie - you have a very visual memory and think primarily in images?

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Words

ADHD
ADHD Inattentive
Alertness
Apraxia
Brain injuries/concussions
Central auditory processing disorder (CAPD)
Cognition
Constructional apraxia
Dyspraxia
Internal Dialogue

Mental images

Perception

Subtle epilepsies (Petit mal/absence/complex partial/TLE, etc.)

Thought (No thought, shallow thought, medium thought, deep thought)

Other

There are educational books available like Nerves In Collision by Walter C. Alvarez, M.D., a How To (understand) Hyperactivity book about ADHD Inattentive by C. Thomas Wild, and a Remarkable Medicine book by Jack Dreyfus which go into this whole idea of what is a thought process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alertness

http://www.neurologychannel.com/
http://www.sportsconcussions.org/

Asperger
Autism

and so on

Every now and then there is a blank where there are no thoughts. Sometimes there are thoughts and sometimes not.

I can't have anyone explain directions for a task to me. I need them to step back, tell me what to do, and let me actually DO it.

Done any other way, and I cannot remember how.

To me that sounds like you're primary/strongest mode of thinking is visual rather than verbal. I hate verbal-only instructions for the same reason. If I'm not already 90% familiar with what I'm supposed to do, verbal instructions usually confuse the hell out of me. I've always learned best by example.


I think there's a difference between having no internal verbal thoughts and having no thoughts at all. I think the verbal type (internal monologue) is just the most obvious kind. I.e. remembering a walk in the woods or something; how it felt: humid, warm, crunching leaves under your feet, etc -- that isn't fundamentally verbal. Or, visualizing how some 3-D objects fit together. Or, instinctual feelings, and so on. If there's no internal monologue, but you're doing more than staring at a wall, IMO there's probably thoughts that are occurring, just maybe not verbal ones.

Ever since my health probs/burnout/whatever-it-is my brain tends to get tired easily, and my mind has a lot less of an internal-monologue. But I can still function and think (well, usually). It's more like "form and feel," than verbal, for lack of a better description. And it feels perfectly normal (though it does make it harder to put thoughts across to others, since the words aren't associated with the thoughts on-the-fly).

I agree. It's sounds like AutisticMalcontent thinks visually. I'm the exact same. I also get confused when people try to verbally explain directions and when I give directions, I don't remember the name of streets, so I have to go with the person (if it's not that far). That doesn't mean that you don't have thought processes. It just means that you respond to visual stimuli as opposed to linguistic stimuli.

Perhaps you are just hyper aware of your thought process and it isn't what you imagined a thought process might be like?

I don't actually think in words or pictures when I'm simply thinking to myself or reasoning. My internal processes present in a way I can only describe to the outside world as an abstract sensation. A sense of correct and incorrect, logical and illogical.

Despite having a high verbal IQ, I have a difficult time translating my thoughts to words I feel are sufficient to express them, and my ability to process verbal directions is actually very poor.

I process text and visual images perhaps 1000 times more efficiently than spoken instructions.

I feel like this aswell, for the most part. I attribute it to my ADHD.

I have a vague notion of what you're referring to, because I used to be a visual thinker. Something changed at puberty though, and I became hyper-verbal - words suddenly meant a lot more, and I don't remember as well all the experiences I had before that point.

nearly exact same thing dude
i've lost the internal monologue over puberty for some reason and i don't know why, whenever i try to use words they just feel clunky and weird, and forcing myself to think about things is quite an effort but pays off in the end
it does show up when i do that for some reason, but only as a vague thing

for the people saying visual, what if you can't visualise? is your thinking purely conceptual in that case?

My internal monologue usually doesn't run to determine conversational responses. Normally I have a 3rd person, past-tense narration in my head, but when I'm talking to someone, it generally goes silent so I can think out loud.
For you, it sounds like you don't have a verbal monologue, but that's OK. It just means that you don't process in words as a default. From what you've said, it sounds like you're a visual thinker, so your thoughts form as pictures rather than words.

Thanks for the post "AutisticMalcontent."

Isn't this an odd thing? I was exactly the same way until somewhere toward the end of high school. I then started practicing more step-by-step thinking and it turned into a nice extra "thinking" tool for me.

But although I am somewhat "visual" I'm actually, overwhelmingly "kinesthetic." (I learn best through direct contact and "doing.")

I see everyone as having a huge repository of information/action called "The Unconscious." This idea is old and generally accepted. This is the part of your mind where you store things such as "The next time I play "scissor, paper, rock" I'm going to choose scissor."

And the next time you play "scissor, paper, rock" you may remember and choose "scissor" or you may (here's where it gets tricky) instantly and automatically, select the choice you'd previously decided upon, without thinking it through step-by-step. This is more akin to instinctual behavior where it's easy to react, without thought, to perceived dangers. This is your unconscious reacting for you the way it should.

I don't want to loose my ability to think in either manner so I practice to not fall into "one mode" thinking. I believe many people use both forms of thought interchangeably, but most just do so automatically and without conscious control.