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rissadc
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24 Dec 2010, 8:20 pm

This is something I have always wondered about other Aspies.

I find in my head, all of my thoughts race so fast, It's almost hard to keep up with them. As soon as I wake up, I can basically look at everything in the room in a matter of two seconds. When my eyes are closed, or if I'm asleep and dreaming, my eyes move around really fast like they do when I'm awake, looking at everything. Oddly enough I sleep with my eyes open a little bit and even if I cant see someone looking at me, I can sense it and I will wake up. People are amazed at how fast I can read things, I usually fly through the tv guide. I can multitask with my thinking and keep track of 3 or 4 conversations at once, but at times, everything I hear goes in my head and just sits there. When that happens, I cant remember anything I hear. I cant process or move numbers around in my head, so I'm horrible at math. I find it impossible to think sometimes, but yet somehow I still do things. I have trouble sleeping because my mind races at night. I can't slow it down. Everynow and then, I breakdown, because it gets to be so much, it hurts my head.

Does anyone else experience this? Or am I going crazy? 8O



conundrum
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24 Dec 2010, 8:28 pm

My thoughts race pretty quickly too, and I tend to make odd jumps from one subject to the next (this can SOMETIMES be kind of fun, until I forget what I was originally talking/thinking about :oops: ).

This is why I sometimes speak much faster than I should (i.e., than is comprehensible)--I feel that if I don't get my thoughts out quickly, I'll forget what I was saying.

So no, you're not going crazy. :)


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CockneyRebel
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24 Dec 2010, 8:31 pm

I have a hard time slowing my thoughts down, and it can be annoying when I'm trying to get to sleep.


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kruger4
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24 Dec 2010, 8:32 pm

I'm exactly the same but isn't this more an effect of ADD instead of aspergers?



pensieve
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24 Dec 2010, 8:59 pm

Earlier this morning I was actually having too many thoughts that were distressing me. They were hard to turn off.

Do you mean mind or brain?

I look at everything at once but that is my inability to select what I want to look at. I can also just stare at things up close for hours, taking in every detail.

I'm always thinking. Coming up with ideas or making connections. I'm always distracted by thoughts. Even when I read, listen to music or when someone is talking to me. That is more of my ADHD though. I watch TV by looking up at the ceiling or staring out the window thinking about things.

Sleep? What is that? :P


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Apple_in_my_Eye
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24 Dec 2010, 9:30 pm

First a neuron charges up, and then something happens and it discharges electrical impulses to other neurons. I think that's pretty much it.



Ariela
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24 Dec 2010, 9:42 pm

My thoughts move too fast to articulate them into words.



Cyd
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24 Dec 2010, 9:45 pm

A friend taught me a yoga breathing exercise that I use to slow down my mind. It works for me. I can't remember what it's called...I'll see if I can find a web page that explains it in detail but this is how I do it:

Cover your right nostril with your right thumb and breathe in through your left nostril (mouth closed) for 3 seconds.
Cover both nostrils (thumb and middle finger) and Hold for 4 seconds.
Uncover and breathe out of your right nostril for 5 seconds.
Breathe back in the right (same) nostril for 3 seconds
Cover both nostrils and hold for 4 seconds.
Uncover and breathe out of your left nostril for 5 seconds
Repeat full cycle, twice.

It's easy to remember by the count "3, 4, 5, 6" - Breathe in for 3, hold for 4, breathe out for 5, 6 times. (One cycle is two breaths. One for each nostril.)

I have also done this in public without covering the nostrils. It still worked so I guess that part isn't entirely necessary but if I'm really stressed, I do the whole show because it seems more intense. More distracting, I guess. I'll see if I can find a web site with proper instructions.



Mindslave
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24 Dec 2010, 9:53 pm

Sometimes my mind moves too fast, sometimes it moves too slow, and sometimes it moves just right. I think everyone has that problem. Of course, I've gotten so much better at verbal communication that it can sometimes be hilarious when my mind is moving too fast.



wavefreak58
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24 Dec 2010, 10:44 pm

My brain feel like it's on fire sometimes. The whole thing going off at once.


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TheBlood2pay
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25 Dec 2010, 2:55 am

Sometimes at night i have trouble turning my brain off it is like a race car running ten thousand RPM with a gas tank that can never run dry.



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25 Dec 2010, 4:02 am

My mind is a combination of images and video clips that flash in front of my mind's eye for brief seconds and appear in rapid succession. Sometimes I also go on long-winded inner monologues, but that only occurs when I've heard/read another person's first-person narrative. The words and images are very fast, and sometimes I can't make them stop. When that happens, I find it hard to sit still or go to sleep.



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25 Dec 2010, 5:54 am

You're not crazy. I think this is pretty typical for an aspie mind.

My mind is constantly thinking too and it's full of fast racing thoughts, so many thoughts racing through at the same time. I can't seem to switch off my thoughts or slow my mind down, which can make it hard to fall asleep or truly relax or to slow down to somebody else's pace of doing things. On the up side I never get bored either, because if my surroundings are boring or unpleasant I just entertain myself with my mind instead. It's also easy for me to multitask and learn new things and stay really focused on what I'm doing. I organize everything in my mind and follow my own organization and keep re-organizing as necessary if something changes. That makes me very effective and enables me to get things done fast and well, even while thinking about something completely different.

I don't scan every detail of my surroundings visually, but I scan my surroundings with my hearing and sense of smell and touch and there are certain kinds of things that I always notice visually too. I don't notice much what pictures are on the walls or how people look, but if you touch, move or use some object that I've put somewhere I'll notice. I notice every sound and smell in my surroundings.

I also wake up if someone is watching me or approaching me when I'm asleep. Apparently I sometimes talk in my sleep and can have a normal conversation with someone without them realizing that I'm asleep.



kruger4
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25 Dec 2010, 10:21 am

So what exactly is the reason that our minds are going so fast?



Mdyar
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25 Dec 2010, 11:38 am

-Someone once told me, "you have a very powerful mind." I was explaining a bit of history , and making a point, and he exclaimed the above^,(while with gesturing with hand across his temple).

-A lady once said I have a certain "picturing power",( her cognitive descriptor).

-A guy once commented: "you have the ability to see things from many different angles".

I know I'm eidetic, and I have excellent visual-spatial skills.

My thoughts don't race as in some posters above^, but my brain/mind works in an eidetic holographic fashion -- pictures, sound and scent.



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25 Dec 2010, 11:49 am

I get impatient with people for not noticing the details that I tend to notice. I see and think in detail but can't put my thoughts into words. It's like you're thinking of something and can't quite find the right word for it, except for me it's the whole sentance that needs putting into the right words. So in the end what I say comes out a bit more simple, with the wrong words used. :? I think I've always been like this. Maybe it's the Semantic Pragmatic disorder.

Sometimes when I'm talking to someone, I skip several topics in my head and end up saying something that is completely irrelevant (to them).