Do you overthink things so much you don't know how to react?

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I don't know if this is common to Aspies or not, but I thought I'd see if other people know what I'm talking about.

Sometimes someone will ask me, "What did you do today?" or "What did you work on?"

To my mind, the enormity of each of these questions paralyzes me for a minute - because I have to somehow encompass the scope and structure of all the things that are entailed by them, and state them in such a way as to give a truthful and logical answer. I particularly hate such questions if I'm eating with someone, because then in addition to having to think about all that, I have to eat and talk - and it means I have to talk A LOT to tell the whole story. It usually makes me visibly tense and I prefer to answer with some terse deflection, rather than to go through all that stress.

It's worse when I am given very vague instructions at work. I feel awful if I don't get it and have to ask again, and I've worked with some people in the past who have not liked it when someone can't pick up their ill stated vague instructions and immediately know what they want.

It can all be cause for much anxiety.

Anyone else know what I am talking about? How do you cope with it?

Doctor, doctor. It hurts to talk.
Don't talk.
Doctor doctor. It hurts to think.
Don't think.
Doctor, doctor. My work is stressful.
Don't work.

I do this all the time, it's a massive pain in the arse.

yeah that is a common occurence with me someone can ask me something simple and then I over think it and end up trying to give a more complicated answer then they were probably expecting.

I feel like that when someone asks "how are you?".

hahahahaha ....Yeah. I hate surprise questions.

It took me 30 years to refrain from giving the full report when someone asked "How are you doing?". In fact, I still cringe a bit, but have a couple of stock answers that are pretty nuetral if I am not feeling well or such. You must not let them think too much, they are simply being polite.
My main problems remain in over-thinking in dating/relationships. Even at 50 years.

Sincerely,
Matthew

My answer to these questions is always "Nothing".

Oh yeah...that describes me to a T!! ! Somebody will ask me something fairly simple, and I 'read into' the question more than at face value - I think for me, it's an overcompensating mechanism for giving too short or direct an answer as I did in the past. I really can't seem to tell by the nuances or context what sort or length of reply they are looking for, and one NT manager at my old job heavily criticized me for this shortcoming, even in front of peers. It wasn't pleasant.

So, to mitigate this, I've taken to giving people a "snippet" of what I wanted to tell them vs. what I think they might be expecting, then ask "is there anything else you were looking for, or...?" or "do you want me to elaborate on that, or..?" it's difficult to remember to use this response with regularity, and even then sometimes I get the odd person who still gets sort of upset and a tad exasperated, but you can't satisfy everyone

This is a normal ASD trait. It's called perseverative thinking.

All. The. Time. (and I'm restraining myself from expounding on that)

That one's easy. the answer is either "fine", or "I'm in good shape for the shape I'm in"

All the time! People ask me what I did today, and I tell them my entire day's schedule, before noticing that they were just being polite...

I have developed coping mechanisms recently though, for example, if I am asked "how are you" I reply that I'm fine, even if I'm not, because that is what people want to hear.

I would suggest that this manager could use some human skills training themselves... Calling someone out like that in public is about the worst thing someone can do. It doesn't speak of leadership, but desperation to flex their power in front of others.

I may be an Aspie but I can figure out at least this much; that if you must reprimand someone for a misstep, you do it in private.

I am DEFINITELY like this, big time!! ! My brain gets in such a whir and I find it all so confusing as to how to answer people's questions. Including "How are you?". I am not sure if it is an honesty thing, an all-or-nothing thing, an "I am not sure what information they are seeking, so I will just tell them all of it and hope that what they wanted was in there somewhere!". It's strange, if someone asks me something, I can't perceive of anything else to say apart from to just honestly answer about all of it. It also seems to be about telling it in the perfect order without leaving detail out otherwise it wouldn't make perfect sense. Depending on who the person is, there is generally always a big pause, and then if I don't know them very well, I will say "Not much" and cut it off there, but if it is someone I know, they will get the whole speel
For "How are you?" I have learnt to manage to say "I'm fine" and then without a pause say "how are you?" straight away to stop myself from going on and on with people I am not close-ish with. Then normally they answer with whatever their answer is and I get back to what I was doing lol

Yeah but I always get rather confused because I'm not sure if they actually want me to tell them how I'm really doing or if they just want to hear I'm fine even though I'm not always fine. Do you know what I mean? I've sort of learned I should go with the latter, but it still confuses me sometimes. That leads to me often answering that question too late or too honestly.