not seeing things right in front of you

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Like, I go into the kitchen today and notice this very large fern in a pot on a stand in the kitchen. Really pretty and attracted my attention. I thought my roommate had just brought it in and put it there. So I say, "Wow! What a beautiful fern! Where did that come from?". And she replies, "It has been there all winter. You mean you only noticed it now?"

And the answer to that was "Yes." And this kind of thing happens all the time.

Is this an autistic thing, or is this my ptsd brain damage or something else?

Wondering if others have this phenomena occur. ?

When I look for something, it is frequent that I miss the item, which was right in front of me!

yup.

Don't know if it's an autism thing but I do that sometimes.

it seems an autism spectrum thing at least.

I only mostly get this problem when somebody points at something for me to get, and I can't see it anywhere. Once somebody was saying ''look, there's a red drawing pin right there, pick it up before someone treads on it'', and I looked down right by my feet and didn't see a red drawing pin anywhere. They pointed to where it was again and said ''there, right by your feet''. By then I began to feel silly, and I looked again and couldn't see anything. Then I see something else small on the floor and I picked that up and said ''you mean this?'' and they said ''no, it's right by your feet''. Then after concentrating on scanning my eyes up and down the whole area where I was standing, I finally saw it and picked it up. To be fair, the carpet was red too, and from their angle the metal part might have been glinting more in the light than it was from my angle.

I space out a lot, so it's hard for me sometimes.

I do this constantly. I hone in on whatever it is I need, and the rest is filtered out as kind of irrelevant noise. Unfortunately, if that something is moved away from it's spot I have a heck of a time finding it. Whenever my husband does dishes I can't find a d#mn thing.

Doesn't it happen to everyone? Sometimes I show something clearly visible for me to my NT friends and it can take quite a lot of time before they realize what I am pointing at. And I have seen it happening also between two NT people so I doubt it is just an aspie thing. Different people are just paying attention to different things and they don't see something they are not "in a mood" to see. For example I can always see (and hear) a flying airplane and my mom always see people details. Our conversation while we are walking the town looks like this:

- Mom, look. An airplane! It must be starting from Cracow.
- Where do you see an airplane?!
- It's right above us, don't you see it?
- Ohh... I see it now. I didn't pay attention.

then a few mins later:

- Kate, did you see the haircut of the girl that just passed by us? Maybe you get your hair cut this way too?
- What? There was a girl passing by us? I didn't even see her.
- You and your aspie brain...

Aspie brain? For real? Didn't she miss an airplane a few mins earlier herself? AS got nothing to do here, except the choice "airplane > people".

You people have been describing what happens to me all the time. I often do not notice an item that has been there for years.

This example is a variation of what we have been talking about. There is a fixture with two switches. One turns one light outside, the other switch turns on a light inside. The fixture has been there literally for decades. I pull the wrong switch ALL the time.

I would not think most NT's would not see something that has been there for years.

all the time

Had this problem since childhood. When I would go on an Easter egg hunt, I would find almost none. I have developed a system so I don't lose things like my wallet and keys. Always a challenge when the Missus loses her glasses.

Guilty as charged. I tend to miss the little stuff especially at floor level for some reason.

Yes all the time!
If someone asks me to get something for them I come back empty handed most of the time.
I can never seem to find the item that was described to me, even if it turns out it was right in front of me.

This is also why I want people who borrow stuff from me to put it back at the exact spot they got it from, because it can sometimes take me hours to find it again if they don't.

I do this frequently: My friend has told me that many times I have walked right by her or even stood right beside her and never noticed she was there. She doesn't take it personally though because she knows I'm not trying to ignore her; she finds it amusing.

I'm totally oblivious to things