Brain freezes when processing verbal instructions. Why?

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I don't know why but I often find it very difficult to process verbal instructions. Today I've been studying physics with a couple of people from my class. I think physics is rather difficult and I have a big exam on Monday so I'm a bit stressed out. Anyway, at one point when we were solving physics problems I was supposed to write on the blackboard while they read out the problem and the facts etc. I just couldn't understand/couldn't hear what they were saying. I had to read the problem on my own to figure out what I was supposed to do. When they read it it was like my brain just froze. It's far from the first time something like that has happened. I very often need to read things in order to understand them and if someone reads me something or gives me instructions (no matter what it's about) I can't focus and my brain freezes.

Another problem I have is that if I don't fully understand something I can't really move on. I get stuck on something and unless someone explains it to me very specifically I'll eventually give up and instead of moving on to the next physics problem (for example) I get completely distracted and end up doing nothing. Because of this I ask a lot of questions and when studying today I think my two classmates got annoyed with me. At least that's what it seemed like at times. I also think at least one of them sometimes thinks I'm stupid because I don't process things the way she does and because I get distracted so easily (she said some things today which made it sound like she thought I was stupid). I'm not stupid. I think my brain gets overwhelmed or something.

Anyway, it often makes me feel useless and depressed. On top of that, the guy working in the university cafeteria where I bought cutlery today said something using sarcasm. I completely missed it and responded in the wrong way which was rather embarrassing. Sometimes I'm good at detecting sarcasm but other times I'm completely useless.

Are these problems typical for someone who has AS and/or AD(H)D and/or anxiety and/or depression? Do all people have these problems? Why does my brain freeze when trying to process verbal instructions? Not really sure why I have such a hard time with it.

EDIT: Fixed mistake.

Last edited by rebbieh on 10 Apr 2013, 12:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It's definitely an autistic trait. I have auditory processing disorder which goes under my language difficulties which is associated with problems such as these.

Visually based thinking? Could that make it easier to read and understand than to hear and understand?

Ok, but is it possible to have these problems without having auditory processing disorder?



No, I'm not a visual thinker. I'm a verbal thinker (as far as I know) and I have a hard time visualising things in general. I thought about writing about that in the original post as well but I didn't.

I have the same problem too
verbal instructions go in one ear and right out the other but If I read it I never forget.

I exprience the same things, too.

I find it so much easier to understand instructions when I read them. I can't follow verbal instructions unless it's said very slowly. I believe it has something to do with the logical structure of what's being said by the other person. Unless it's very logically structured, I get stuck with figuring out the logic, get lost and can't continue following.

I also have the habit of not moving on when I'm stuck in something that I cannot understand. I find it very uncomfortable to leave something unclear. I worry it might affect my understanding of other things. I feel I have to understand something perfectly before moving on. If you do persevere in that way, you will actually end up understanding the subject far better than others. But it could also overwhelm you and make you give up. That's my experience.

Also I have the experince of being regard as stupid because of the above habits. Those habits do make me seem stupid to other people. But when we get the exam results, they realize I am not stupid.

I think it's likely, yes.




I believe you have a hard time with it because it is an essential skill to have. Seems like one should be able to listen to and understand verbal instructions right away, right?

Your brain freezes because it perceives details instead of wholes as the "normal" brain does it.

Your brain is designed to understand every word in the sentences being instructed verbally. But it is not designed to put those words together to a meaningful whole. Your brain focuses a lot, but on insignificant things instead of what is important; that is the meaning of the sentence, not what words are being used. That's how the autistic mind works.

In order to "Work around it" you have to view life more subjectively, and less objectively. This has to be done consciously because your mind isn't designed to do it (naturally).




This is typical "Black-and-White" asperger-thinking:

"Either I do it all, or I do nothing."

"Either I will do it to perfection, or I won't do it at all."


Combined with the desire to know about everything (i.e. "truth is what's important" instead of "what I necessarily need to know is what's important")


Both of these thinking-tendencies are due to the detail-oriented mind of yours.

And no you're not stupid if you have aspergers (by definition).

Your brain really does get overwhelmed. Unlike your classmates your brain has to deal with all information it receives part by part. Your classmates' brains put the information together to a larger whole. Your brain is likely good at handling all these pieces of information. But in a usual environment there are so many details that even a great detail-oritented brain will get "overheated".


To change the situation,

you need to learn how to consciously turn the details into a larger whole.
To do this you need to view the world subjectively instead of objectively.

Or said in other words:

You need to be more convinced that the 'subjective' truth around you (subjetive because it is distorted by your survival-desires) is the reality, and that the 'objective' truth (objective because it could(!) be much less distorted by your survival-desires) in your head is not reality.

Or formulated differently:

Be more convinved that the world around you, distorted by your survival-desires, is reality. As opposed to believing that how your mind interprets the world around you is reality.

This is the basic difference between autistic and non-autistic brains.


It corresponds to e.g. believing that,

"my life is a tiny, quite insignificant, piece in the history of the universe." (detail-oriented thinking)

vs.

"my life is hugely important, even in the perspective of the infinity of the universe." (whole-oriented thinking)


It's much easier to process verbal instructions when thinking in wholes!!

Last edited by qawer on 10 Apr 2013, 1:17 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Do you have attention deficit, sensory issues?

I also suck at verbal comprehension. You can tell me to do the same thing a million times but until I see it done, I have no clue what you're talking about. When instructions are verbal, I must write them down or my brain doesn't get it.

Yep, that's pretty much how my mind works. Things are good or bad, right or wrong, all or nothing, true or false etc. I want to know everything about things I'm interested in and I want to understand everything (not just accept that things are the way they are) about things I need to learn or I feel like I won't learn it.



Does that mean I'm stupid if I don't have Asperger's and I still have these problems (I'm not diagnosed yet though I'm waiting for an assessment and the professionals seem to think I have it)?



Well, I will get assessed for ASD and ADD (ADHD-PI) so I guess the professionals think I have attention deficit. I know I have a hard time focusing on things I don't find interesting and I easily get distracted by sounds, movement and my own thoughts etc. Not sure if that's due to ADD or something else (I've also got depression and several anxiety disorders so perhaps my attention deficits could be caused by that).

According to the psychologist who decided I'm going to get assessed I have sensory issues as well. I agree with that. I'd say I'm especially sensitive to sounds. I'm also sensitive to touch when I get anxious and/or stressed.

EDIT: qawer and NateRiver, I also do things like turning off the music when I need to write and sometimes read things (now for example). Otherwise I get overwhelmed/brain freezes again. Is that common as well? Also, I should add that I don't have problems with all verbal instructions, but a lot of them.

I have similar problems. I can't seem to understand anything when under stress and if I don't understand something it affects my understanding of everything I'm told after that. If my chemistry teacher teaches the class something that I don't understand, I begin to believe I'm going to fail the class and can't concentrate on anything the teacher says. I have to have her explain it to me after class. I realized last year that the people around me seem to understand what's being taught faster than I do, but they also make worse grades than me which caused me to come to the conclusion that I just think slower than other people. Perhaps I just understand the written word better than the spoken word as several other people here have said. I do prefer having subtitles on whenever possible.

I have a lot of trouble with verbal instructions, and I stop processing them when someone gives me a list of such instructions.

I suspect it has to do with auditory processing and/or working memory. I have terrible verbal working memory, and as soon as I try to hold onto one instruction, the rest just sort of vanish into nothingness. It doesn't have anything to do with details vs. whole, black and white thinking, or subjectivity vs. objectivity.

I have the same problem as you(following verbal instructions) and it's incredibly annoying, it makes me feel stupid at times. I have no problem with following verbal instructions when the explanation is short but when its a long explanation i get completely lost and forget half of the instructions.

qawer,

You seem to approach advice from the perspective that people can choose to stop being autistic and view things in an NT manner. How exactly do you suggest such a thing? I am aware, for example, that I view things in terms of details and that if I want to integrate this into a whole, I need to build such a view out of the component details. I can't simply decide to view something as a whole, I have to work at it. Such advice seems to recommend a significant amount of cognitive overhead.

Also, I think everyone views things subjectively. If someone claims to be objective they're deceiving themselves, everyone else, or both. It is functionally impossible to view reality "objectively" because being alive and capable of thought is itself a subjective experience, by definition.

I agree with you. no human can be objective, because they are human.

With the subjetive/objective terminology I'm just trying to explain two different thinking styles.

The reason I call it subjective is because you relate things in the world to your own life. For example, when you view life "subjectively" one could find you saying: "That red colour is beautiful." Viewing the same red colour "objectively" one could find you saying: "That red colour is lighter than dark red". But it's likely you would just think this instead of saying it, because it might appear obvious to most people. So you don't feel like you have much to say in general. A common aspie-complaint: "I can't small talk, I have nothing to say".

With the "objective" view you don't relate things in the world to your own life as much. You don't involve your own opinions in your thinking and statements. You don't consider whether the sun is beautiful, just that it is hot and shiny. When thinking objectively one is in some sense less aware of one's own existence. To focus attention on the important things/thinking in wholes (like processing verbal instructions) one has to become more aware of one's own existence - because then you will only focus on the things you need, for instance what your classmates are telling you, not what words they are using to deliver the message.

It's a weird phenomenon, but with autism one has difficulties with being completely aware of one's own existence - or at least that's the effect of having autism (maybe the world seems so overwhelming because you view it in details that you "forget"/doesn't have energy to yourself in all that chaos).



I agree that people cannot "cure" autism. It's permanent, there's only coping techniques. It surely will not work in the case of classical autism.

But asperger people usually have a "hidden" NT-side to them. To process verbal instructions better one has to "unhide" that NT-side.

A technique I use to do this is by thinking:

"I should only care about two things in life: (1) What am I to do today?, and (2) What am I going to do in my future days in the calender? There exists nothing else than this in the world, only things that are related to one of the two categories!!"

I'm not saying you should be selfish. I'm saying you should be aware of your own existence and that you should relate everything in the world to your own life.

This should be the point of departure for everything. One should relate everything to one of these two categories. "I'm hungry" -> goes to category 1. I have an exam in 3 days -> goes in 2 but affects today where I have to read for that exam, so it also goes into 1.

If you view a soccer game. Is it important what size the ball they are playing with has? Likely not, because it has no importance to your own life. Is it important what teams are playing? Yes, perhaps if you're a fan, or maybe just because you can discuss the result with a friend.

This helps unhiding the NT-side. It's not easy, but this is how NT's "get" those skills: they have always related everything in the world to their own lives automatically. Autism gives other skills where it's an advantage to "forget" your own life (like mathematics, art etc.), but it doesn't give those verbal skills.

I was going to say this too. While poor auditory processing is common in autism and is a hindrance, I think working memory is the main issue here. When instructions are written down they can be referred to as often as necessary. When a list of instructions is given verbally they must be held in the working memory in order to be followed, which is impossible for many/most autistic people because theirs can only hold one thing at a time. Therefore, usually we will grasp at one and the rest will disappear.

OP, hopefully if you receive a diagnosis you will be able to better explain this to people who don't understand that your brain works differently to theirs, particularly teachers,