Pacing back and forth and talking to yourself.

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12 Nov 2015, 2:31 am

I am NT, but I am kind of borderline NT; I'm just a few points away on the tests given by psychologists from ASD.

Whenever nobody is home, I absolutely love to walk back and forth, from one end of the house to the other. I normally accompany this behavior with "interviewing myself". I basically talk about my life and my views on certain things, as if I'm answering a question that somebody has asked me. I can literally do this for hours if the family is out long enough.

Now interestingly enough, I have two twin brothers who are both autistic (and they are not identical twins; somehow they managed to have the same severity of autism) and they pretty much do the same thing. They are a lot more open about talking to themselves, but they do the pace around the house thing more when I'm not there. When I walk past the bathroom door while one of them is taking a shower, I always hear a conversation going on. They talk to themselves very frequently while they are in their room as well.

So I just wanted to ask, how many of you talk to yourself, pace often, or do both at the same time? I was interested in seeing whether or not it is a common thing among people with autism/Asperger's.



Earthling
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12 Nov 2015, 2:52 am

(Notice that I'm undiagnosed!)
Just reading this has triggered me to get up and walk in circles.
Pacing seems to be a common thing among autistics.
In the shower I don't talk to myself per se, rather repeat the same music loop/sentence over and over again, 'cause I'm uncreative like that.
Otherwise I sometimes verbally respond to what's on my mind at the moment, but that's often highly incoherent in structure, hence difficult to make sense of, especially to an outside observer.
I bet there are plenty of NTs who do that too, though.



PorridgeGuy
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12 Nov 2015, 5:14 am

Downer wrote:
I am NT, but I am kind of borderline NT; I'm just a few points away on the tests given by psychologists from ASD.

Whenever nobody is home, I absolutely love to walk back and forth, from one end of the house to the other. I normally accompany this behavior with "interviewing myself". I basically talk about my life and my views on certain things, as if I'm answering a question that somebody has asked me. I can literally do this for hours if the family is out long enough.

Now interestingly enough, I have two twin brothers who are both autistic (and they are not identical twins; somehow they managed to have the same severity of autism) and they pretty much do the same thing. They are a lot more open about talking to themselves, but they do the pace around the house thing more when I'm not there. When I walk past the bathroom door while one of them is taking a shower, I always hear a conversation going on. They talk to themselves very frequently while they are in their room as well.

So I just wanted to ask, how many of you talk to yourself, pace often, or do both at the same time? I was interested in seeing whether or not it is a common thing among people with autism/Asperger's.


This sounds just like me. I do this to a very large extent. For a few hours I can quite enjoy it, actually. Often I go through the same discussions or interviews in my head several times in a row, just slightly refining and adjusting them. It can be either a discussion with myself, a fictional discussion with a true character, or a fictional discussion with a fictional character. Some discussions makes me depressed or worried, others makes me happy or excited. Although I usually don't speak out loud I often mimic and/or whispers and may sometimes burst out in laughter. Although I do this a lot more when I'm alone I also do it on the bus amongst only strangers or when my girlfriend is nearby. She says I'm cute when I do it, although I have not discussed the possibility of me possibly having AS or boardering to AS with her. I have even decided not to pursue a diagnosis as I have whatever help I need already, although I sometimes think it would be nice to know for sure.

Sometimes, these discussions can be about technical or deeply (but rigorous) philosophical topics. The technical parts is actually helpful for my work as a scientist. I am of the opinion that the philosophical is helpful for me as a human although it also cause some existential troubles. I also have wondered whether the "interviews" as you call it are a kind of practice for social situations as it means that I have thougt through a wide range of scenarios in advance (although most of them never happens in real life). A bad thing about these "inner talks" is that I can get stuck in a kind of loop, repeating (almost) the same interviews or discussions over and over again, sometimes for an entire day.

Is this what you mean? If so, yes I have it.


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EzraS
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12 Nov 2015, 6:11 am

I pace back and forth and walk in circles whilst talking to myself all the time. Lots of hand wringing too and I guess what they call hand flapping.



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12 Nov 2015, 9:51 am

Yep, I do that for hours every day (even though it's physically painful, due to arthritis). Sometimes I see homeless people walking down the street muttering to themselves, and I realize that's basically what I do, but in private. (Which makes me realize the only difference is that I have a family who takes care of me.)



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12 Nov 2015, 11:42 am

I talk to myself everyday. Most of the time I speak so quiet that it is barely a whisper so other's can't hear me. I don't tend to pace as much around the house though.



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12 Nov 2015, 5:11 pm

I also talk to myself daily, and respond to myself.

I have done this all my life, and probably do it the most at work where I am trying to solve complex problems.



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12 Nov 2015, 5:23 pm

I don't pace much but I do like to conduct a pretend interview when I can't sleep at night. If my thoughts are racing when I lay down I can sometimes break the cycle by pretending someone is interviewing me about my life. It helps get my brain off whatever activities I was doing throughout the day. My life is pretty boring so I usually fall asleep quickly :D



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12 Nov 2015, 5:39 pm

I tend to only pace when I am already standing, if I'm sitting, I'm rocking. I talk to myself often, usually out loud, and don't realize it until someone mentions it or eventually I realize someone is watching me



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12 Nov 2015, 6:29 pm

Any type of anxiety will get me to pacing, usually in counter-clockwise circles. I do talk to myself quite often but not always when pacing.



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12 Nov 2015, 8:01 pm

I like to pace back and forth when I'm bored or waiting for something, I don't talk out loud to myself, but in my thoughts I frequently simulate entire conversations with people, in my head. I think that everybody does this though, to some extent.


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13 Nov 2015, 4:35 am

I too pace around the house as well. Luckily for me, I have my own house and I am the only one that lives here. So I can be as obnoxious as I want, when it come to pacing. I like putting the headphones on and listening to music while I think. I choreograph and synchronize my whole thought process to the music and this helps me a lot with solving complex engineering problems in my head. So ya! I do a lot of pacing to help me along with my thinking process.



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13 Nov 2015, 6:08 am

SilverProteus wrote:
I think that everybody does this though, to some extent.


This is probably true, and important to keep in mind. So I suppose a natural question would be to which extent? For instance I am under the impression that it is not as common to get stuck repeating the same conversation with slight adjustments for hours in a stretch. But then again, it's hard to tell. I suppose we will not get a good answer to "to which extent".


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SilverProteus
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13 Nov 2015, 6:24 am

PorridgeGuy wrote:
SilverProteus wrote:
I think that everybody does this though, to some extent.


This is probably true, and important to keep in mind. So I suppose a natural question would be to which extent? For instance I am under the impression that it is not as common to get stuck repeating the same conversation with slight adjustments for hours in a stretch. But then again, it's hard to tell. I suppose we will not get a good answer to "to which extent".


Agreed, not everyone deals with the same level of social anxiety.


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13 Nov 2015, 7:39 am

I do not talk to myself, I plug my ears and hum.


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13 Nov 2015, 9:52 pm

pacing is my form of stimming, when i am in distress pacing is the only thing i can do.


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