object blindness?

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i'm not sure what to call this, but object blindness seems to be the most descriptive term.

sometimes when i am looking for a particular object in a cluttered area - a drawer, a cluttered counter top, my desk, etc. - i am not able to 'see' it. it seems like i can see every single object except for the one i am looking for even though most of the time i know that it is there. but if i can close my eyes, relax and think about what i am looking for, i can find it when i open my eyes again. it's like someone put it back when my eyes were closed. i can recall this happening to me since my early teens, and it happens maybe only about once a month.

sometimes, however, i don't know that it is happening. recently, in a meeting, i was looking for a box of cookies that i thought should be in the middle of the table but i couldn't see them so i asked where they were. everyone just looked at me strange and said, 'they're right there' - and, sure enough, there they were, right where i though they should be, but i just couldn't see them until some pointed them out. embarrassing!

anyone else with similar experiences?

Yes, this sort of thing happens to me.
Thank you for telling me about the method of closing eyes, relaxing, thinking of the object, and opening the eyes.

My husband says I do this especially when something needs to be picked up. He doesn't understand how I can just "ignore" certain things. He forgets that my brain is usually working on some problem in the back and focusing on walking and breathing at the same time in the front. So, I usually honestly don't know what he's talking about because I was too focused on something else to care about whatever his petty little thing is.

Of course, it's often said, "that was an autistic moment" rather than the traditional, "if it were a snake, it would have bit you", when my son and I do these things.

Yes, occasionally. What's more common for me is, if I'm asked to look for something, I visualise it, and won't see a different object which fits that description even if it's right in front of me, all I'd notice is what I think the object looks like. An example: if my wife asks me to get her out a shirt with roses on it, and I visualise a shirt with a large print of two roses on the front, I'll go straight past the shirt with a pattern of many small roses on it - it didn't match what I visualised in my head, so I won't process it as what she asked for.
But what you described happens to me occasionally, also.

I have a huge problem with this. I did it a lot as a child too.

I do this sometimes, but more commonly, someone else asks me where something is, and I'm so worried I won't remember correctly I don't remember where it is, then after they leave, I do, heh

Or someone will ask me where something is, I know I've seen it, but can't find it, then later on I not only see it, but realized I walked past it 100 times before and didn't really notice it was there, though after that moment, ask me 1 month later, I'll know exactly where it is

Once I spent about 15 minutes looking for something.
As it turns out, I was holding it all the while...

I used to have this happen to me all the time as a child. I'd be looking for a toy, a homework assignment, or a cassette tape, and just wouldn't be able to find it. My room always looked a little cluttered, so my parents constantly accused me of being too messy. As for finding the objects I looked for, my parents offered to "help" me (actually using that word) by scooping everything up and throwing it in the trash, so that my room would look neater. Needless to say, I've become a compulsive packrat, even now as an adult.

Another way my object blindness plays out is not being able to find my car in a large and/or crowded parking lot. I once wandered for nearly 30 minutes. Among my friend, I manage to turn it into a joke, by saying "Dude, where's my car?" (a reference to the movie of the same name) whenever I have trouble finding it.

I once put my groceries in the wrong car.

It happen to me all the time.
I am a carpenter and use a box for the tools.
Looking for a screwdriver, nail punch, scraper whatever.
Is not in the box, must have left it in the car, go to the car is not there.
Look in the box again, is not in the box, must be lying around on the Flor, search the Flor is not there.
Look in the box again, is not in the box, must I have left behind in the workshop.
Well I will use the other one even if it is the wrong size.
Go to get it and the one that I was looking for is in the box.


Next time I will try to remember to close my eyes and relax. If it works will save a lot of money to my clients in wasted paid time.

ARGH! this happened to me last nite; i knew exactly where my tv remote control was, i did not move it, but i couldnt find it, and i know its still in the room where i saw it. I am sure i will see it later on tonite. so bizarre...

myspace.com/mikegeorgemusic

Happens to me all the time

Yep. Just yesterday, me and my 10-year old finally found the memory card we thought I had lost.

The day before yesterday, we picked up the memory card and a game at home and I took him to my office. By the time we got inside my office, the memory card was gone. We looked everywhere.

Yesterday, we came to my office and there was the memory card sitting on the table behind my desk. I don't know how we missed it.