do you ever feel "stuck inside your own head"?

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This is often how I feel. It's like I can't really respond to the world around me in a spontaneous way, because I'm so engrossed in fantasy or something. It tends to come and go, so I don't always feel like this. It's also really off-putting to bystanders (family and such) because my facial expression looks "blank and confused" when I'm doing this; I look like I'm in my own little world because I actually am.

Two terms that come to mind are: autistic fantasy, and maladaptive daydreaming.

Ever felt like this?

Yes. Even when I'm with other people, I'm more interested in my own fantasies and thoughts.

I can very much relate to the phenomenon, but I've never felt "stuck" inside my head. It's where I want to be. As AP says, it's more interesting to me.

This is exactly the issue I've brought up with my psychologist as it's quite distressing to me at times. Sometimes I'll blank out for a few moments without really thinking anything but most of the time I'm completely engrossed in my own thoughts or fantasies. It makes me feel like I'm missing out on life as I can't 'connect' to the world around me.

I've noticed it gets worse the more external stress I have, so it could be working like maladaptive daydreaming as a form of avoidance. Apparently avoidance is a big issue for us on the spectrum.

Sometimes I wonder if it's a subconscious reaction to sensory stimulation (though I believe my sensory issues to be minor) or perhaps tmi in general? Either way, it points to it being an avoidant behaviour.

I feel like this often. Also, I often have to force myself to speak. I know that forcing out a sentence will make someone go away and not notice me, but staring in silence will cause unwanted attention from "normal" people. They are likely to call an ambulance, convinced that I've suffered a stroke, and that bothers me. I really just want to sit and stare and live in my head and be left alone.

I just found a name for what it's actually called; it's called "inertia".

https://autisticality.com/2014/11/10/inertia/

Autistic inertia is common but little-known and poorly understood. It lies somewhere on the borderline between catatonia and executive dysfunction.

Inertia doesn’t mean laziness, or not wanting to do things, or procrastinating – although it can look like all of those things. But sometimes it also looks like mania, obsessiveness, or even a burst of motivation. Because inertia just means difficulty changing state, and that original state can be anything. T

This finally explains the 'apathy' I've been experiencing on and off for my entire life, I just didn't know it had a name, and I'm so glad I found this, because it's a great description . At one point I thought this was actually 'avolition' and I was developing schizophrenia, but now I'm glad to know that's not likely to be the case.

Anyone else here get this?

I'm extremely stuck inside my own head. A few times, I have almost been hit by a car or even a train because I forget about the outside world. That's how serious it is. It's like I'm imprisoned in my mind and I can't remain aware of what's going on outside of me.

Occasionally I am alert and aware of the people and things around me, but usually I am completely disconnected. I have to fight through constantly in order to reach reality. It makes it difficult to interpret what people are saying, because I keep drifting in and out of the conversation. And it makes people feel like they can't get through to me, and I can't get through to them.

I refer to it as my "extreme introversion."

It's a weird one for sure.

I worry sometimes that I may have some sort of disassociative disorder as I had quite a difficult childhood.

I know for a fact that everyone spaces out no matter their neurotype but I'm sure I do it more than what is considered 'normal'.

I tend to be on autopilot so have avoided gettting hit by cars but I have managed to go to far when aiming for a destination or have made a mess of whatever I was meant to be doing at the time.

I'm sure I read an abstract somewhere for a study that found those with ASDs 'space out' more than NTs but it doesn't seem to be an oft talked about phenomenon in the community.

Haha it's got a name and everything! I do this all the time, I like the phrase I'm extremely stuck inside my own head cause that's how it feels. I'm obsessed with myself Every afternoon I get my daughter afternoon tea and go and stand in the kitchen, play with my hair and think about the million things that happened that day, or whatever my mind feels like drifting to. It's like an out-of-body experience, like the short time you float between awake and sleep where your senses are still awake but your consciousness is drifting in the cosmos.
It's quite frightening how deep it feels sometimes, I can easily sit down and forget tea is on the stove, or the washing stopped an hour ago, or it's 3.54am and I forgot to eat dinner.
I go through stages of having really intense fantasies about my ideal future experiences, It's like I can feel my surroundings by touching them in my head. It's so real to me sometimes I feel disappointed when I come out of it.

Does anyone find that listening to music through headphones makes it more intense?

Not really. I am a quiet person, but I am always observing what's going on around me, usually what people are doing and saying. Even when I was a kid, I was quiet but never in my own world. I felt like a fly on the wall, watching everyone and listening to everything.

To be honest, I'm usually not "in my own world", but I always seem to dissociate without even realizing it. This is a problem, because I just have blank expressions in my eyes and people just take it the wrong way (sometimes even snicker because they they think I'm not "present"), but I usually am? In the sense that, I am aware of people's reactions and whatnot ... it's just sometimes my mind just goes elsewhere (I don't know where exactly) once someone starts talking.

The dissociating does get worse when I notice reactions from people. At that point, I intentionally dissociate just to cope with the situation.

I do have a "fantasy world' but I rarely think of it in public. Moreso just at home, before bed/waking up, during showers, etc. lol

Yesterday I got properly stuck for a moment. I sat down on the floor and I was just staring at the coffee table. My mind was totally blank and when I tried to move or speak I couldn't make myself do it; the connection was there but it was too weak if that makes sense?

I do go into my own world a lot generally speaking. When I'm at work I find I shut myself down a bit, so if anybody speaks to me it takes a while for me to register them, and then a little longer to respond. I think I have an 'away with the fairies' look anyway, though, because people often say I seem confused or like I haven't taken on board what they're saying when actually I have been listening.

I've been dealing with this for the last 3 weeks. I finished a lot of things that had to be done and then just collapsed. But, now I am stuck worse than before.

I've re-isolated. I won't go out unless it's an emergency. And, I am having trouble just making appointments with the VA let alone some other thins that are a real bummer.

I don't want to deal with the conflict that may pop up and I'm just stuck now. All I am doing is working on the computer and doing research. But whatever grounds I gained on the going out are now lost.

I have felt like this for as long as I can remember.
School was most difficult as the harder I tried to focus on their boring voice the less I could and the more I sunk into my own personal fantasy world.

I'm still like this.

Do I ever not feel like that? Well, perhaps half a century ago with the help of various substances. Worst thing is, we are stuck inside our own heads.

Autistic inertia and self obsessiveness is a huge problem with me.
I realised this again when trying to put down my life on paper for an application, and wondered where the hell I've been for the last decade. Which is a bit disconcerting. I just don't have an answer for what I could possibly have been doing except for being trapped in my own mind.
But I think some of this is outside force. Having had to devote so much attention to "fitting in," regulating your every movement, lack of movement, expression, tone, vocabulary choice, gestures, appearance, etc. On and on. It can make one very self conscious after a while. You're constantly thinking about yourself because you've been conditioned to do so to avoid looking "weird."
It's not absent-mindedness lost in fantasy worlds for me, more shut off from the greater world because I am too internally focused with my thoughts and managing myself.
The inertia. Ugh. I describe this like walking through wet cement. I just can't get out of it dragging me down.

Ugh. I hate this "look busy" requirement. Why can't people just mind their own business? It's so intrusive. I even got this today, in a department store with a relative who got sidetracked looking at something and I'd kept walking a while before I noticed, so doubled back a bit and waited for her to catch up. An employee stopped, looking at me simply waiting for someone else to catch up, and asked me "are you alright?"
I was until you decided to bother me, yes. Grr.
This is part of the reason I like being alone - I don't have to be hypervigilant and act the way people expect me to act, or else they'll interfere with me.