Repetitive Thoughts -- Internal Echolalia?

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Elgee
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22 Apr 2022, 11:33 am

Please help me here. I often think things in my mind, and never realized something peculiar until I was diagnosed. I sometimes repeat the last word or few words of a thought. For example recently I was hiking and wondering if I should explore some trails I saw in the distance. I don't like to go on barren trails since mountail lions are more likely. So I thought these words, "No, it's too remote." But then I continued: "too remote, too remote." I THEN realized, Hey is this the internal echolalia of my autism?

I would never SPEAK OUTLOUD this way (repeating the last word or two words). When I speak out loud I sometimes have a tendency to repeat the entire last sentence (e.g., "The foam rolling has definitely helped the tightness. It's definitely helped the tightness." But this in't echolalia. I think it's a subconscious attempt to optimize being understood.

So my question is the thoughts inside my head. Does anyone here with a clinical diagnosis of ASD find that they, too, automatically (without consciously deciding to) repeat the last few words of a thought?



autisticelders
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22 Apr 2022, 5:38 pm

how very interesting!! ! It certainly seems like echolalia.

If you read things to yourself do you end up repeating the ends of some sentences too?


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Elgee
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22 Apr 2022, 6:52 pm

I never reread anything for the sake of repeating. Maybe because it's not my thoughts. I hope more people weigh in here.



Ettina
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23 Apr 2022, 5:32 am

Whenever I've been working a lot on studying a language I'm not fluent in, my brain starts randomly tossing out words/phrases from that language at other times. I'll be chatting with someone and suddenly think "groente" and then part of my mind is preoccupied trying to remember what that means (vegetables in Dutch, btw).



jimmy m
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23 Apr 2022, 7:07 am

Interesting question. I do not know the answer but I will take a guess.

First off if you look at the human brain you will discover that it has two sides. One on the left and the other on the right. They are independent brains that work together as a whole. There is a small region within the brain that connects these two sides. Therefore there is some communication and in general the two halves work as one.

My brain is a little different. I suffered a dramatic brain injury when I was a small child of around 3. I was struck by a large bull. I was around 20 pounds and the bull was over 1,000. So it was 50 times my weight. It was like being struck by a dinosaur. I almost died.

As I lay dying, I suspect that my right brain stepped in and took over the duties of my left brain and helped me recover. My left brain has somewhat recovered but because the two sides changed places, it is a slightly different brain. My left brain comes out during the deepest parts of the sleep cycle, REM sleep. Sometimes the two halves will communicate.

I suspect this is a common trait for sleepwalkers. A second brain decides it wants to go on an adventure and in the middle of the night takes there body on a journey.


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