Brain "malfunction" feeling - do you get this?

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I get this really weird feeling in my brain. Like when I was once asked about empathy and how I would react to a certain situation, and my brain can't compute what it's meant to, even if someone explained to me the correct empathic response to a situation my brain blocks off and cannot register the explanation.

This is quite hard to describe, it's NOT a psychological thing, it feels physical. It's like there is a literal blockage in my brain and it can't work out the thing (whether it be an empathy-related thing or another thing that we have trouble with as Aspies). I can literally feel this sensation like the thought process won't travel through because there is no linkage or the linkage is insufficient or damaged. And the more I try the more it won't, it's like a brain shutdown in that area or a no-man's land, and it can actually make me feel really panicky as I can't do it and it's like someone has put a wall there and I can't get over it. I am awful at maths, and I can get this feeling if I try to understand a mathematical concept too. It's an unpleasant feeling, to the point that I then consciously shut down the thought process about the subject matter because I can't bear the feeling of it not going through.

Am I a freak of nature or does anyone else get this?

Occassionally I experience something related. It's not when I'm talking with people, rather, it happens when I'm reading. All of a sudden I realize that I just can't understand what the sentence is about. If I examine the contents of it, words and grammar, I find there's nothing wrong. Separate words are understandable, even pairs of words. But the big picture evades my mind. This happens both in English and Finnish (my native language), and eventually the awkward feeling dissolves and everything is clear.

That sounds like something my daughter has (she has AS). She said it also happens when she hears people talking on TV.

I can relate to what you are saying about the maths.

For me some concepts just do not compute, it feels almost like chasing a ball around in your head but it just will not go the right direction and down the hole. I can read and re-read articles about psychology, the words just become a blur and nothing gets through.

It sounds like you then become stressed due to the fact you do not feel in full control, which I also understand. I don't really have a strategy to share I'm afraid.

This may be similar, I don't know. it happens usually when something unexpected happens in conversation. I don't even have the wherewithal to express my confusion by saying something like, "wait a sec, could you say that again?" My brain gets hung up trying to process the input and can do nothing else. Like you say, it's as if there's a blockage. Like the rails traveled on by my 'train of thought' have been greased and it's a steep hill that has to be climbed.

Yes, I can relate completely. I've been told by others that my mind works with the speed and efficiency of a steel trap, at least most of the time. But when it comes to thinking of what others are thinking, I just can't do it.

It also may be something organic. One of the techniques taught for secular-type meditation to clear the mind of thoughts is to tell yourself to think about anything. When I try it, I draw the same kind of blank as I do when trying to understand others' viewpoints. Since the meditation technique tends to work for NT's, it is undoubtedly part of brain structure. My guess is that this "blank" for us is extended into other areas, such as ToM, empathy, and such.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I think you described it very well. I agree it is a horrible panicky feeling, especially if someone is putting pressure on you to give an answer or something.

I wonder if its some kind of signal from your brain. I'll try and explain...

You know when you are doing a crossword puzzle, and you get stuck on a clue. Then you give up on that clue and move onto another clue. Then while your thinking about clue number 2, the answer to clue number 1 just seems to magically pop into your head, out of nowhere. Its because all the time you have been thinking about clue number 2, your subconscious mind has been working away on clue number 1 and has come up with the solution.

So I'm wondering if this brain malfunction is your brain saying to you "Right, us consciously thinking about this is going nowhere, so I'm going to block off all conscious thoughts to do with this problem. You need to think about something else, and let the subconscious do the work"

By the way this is not backed up by any kind of science, so don't take it too seriously. Its just what it feels like is happening in my head.

I know what you mean, I get that one too but that's a slightly different one to the one I mean. The one you mean I think is related, because it might be the same part of the brain or something. It's like you need longer to work out the meaning, a time-lag sort of thing and if people move ahead in what they're saying before you've properly registered the thing you didn't get it, it gets really confusing because your brain is still stuck on the thing you didn't understand. I'm sure it must be related, but the one you describe isn't necessarily a total block it's a delay in comprehension (although you can feel more and more blocked if they are talking on and you didn't catch up because you sort of panic).

The one I mean is like a physical barrier there, like it's an incomplete section of my brain that doesn't work at all (whereas there are other parts that work better than average such as my memory and attention to detail etc).

And the weird thing is, I have really strong interoception (awareness of internal organs and sensations) so I keep questioning if I am actually sensing/feeling my brain's inability to use that route of it's neural circuits or something.

I can relate. I've had a reading comprehension disability in the past, so that may be part of it.

I might have Auditory Processing Disorder, so this happens all the time with people talking. I'm given a question, I don't understand it, so I go "What?" Before I get a repeat, I finally start understanding the garble that was in my brain and I'm like "Oh, wait, yes!" It must seem weird for that person that I take a while before I can process it.

Also, I can't process what I'm feeling. Someone asks me what I'm feeling and I'm stuck. To resolve this, I always say "Okay," or "Fine," even if I'm not. I have no problem in processing what I'm doing.
I have to think hard to determine what I person is feeling and even then I sometimes get it wrong.

Does that (steel trap) mean quickly? I find some expressions confusing! I deduced it must mean that by the remainder of your sentence.

It's a horrid feeling, I find it pretty unbearable and it can feel overwhelming. It's sort of like if you lost nerve sensation in part of your leg, so you could feel the top of your leg, and you could feel your foot, but all the middle bit was numb so it felt as if no signal was getting through. I feel like hyperventilating just thinking about it. There are downsides to having such a sensitivity to your inner body.

Empathy is a big one for me as I did score very low on the EQ so that was a fitting example I gave, and if people persist in trying to explain something to me about empathy or something else that gives me that feeling, I want to make them stop because it's like putting the wrong region DVD into a DVD player or something. It's like you want it to work, but it won't and there is nothing you can do to make it. Like when two wires have come apart in something multi-functioning and electrical and the related part of it stops working until they are rejoined.

I wonder if as an adult, your brain can be trained into filling in the circuits in that area...

@foxfield: I think your example is the similar one as OddButWhy explained.

Is that typical AS? I experience that sometimes. It used to frighten me.

Whirlingmind, I was told I had a mind like a steel trap primarily by exasperated teachers and a couple of girlfriends. And it did little for my grades--or love life, though it has served me very well professionally.

I find it exasperating too, as I don't draw blanks with ToM issues alone. I frequently do the same thing with math. I put myself through college working as a land surveyor, which meant I had to be able to work with math well. Through torturous effort I did manage to improve some, but it never came naturally to me the way it did for the best surveyors.

What I do now is concentrate on what I am good at, and try to let the rest be. Unfortunately, that's not always possible. For me, it's something I've always had to deal with, and likely always will.

Yes, that's it. Although sometimes understanding is not only delayed, it never arrives.

I get this feeling when I'm asked a question I don't want to answer, but I think that happens to everyone.

I'm dyscalculic, so naturally I'm bad with math. (i.e. I reverse numbers like dyslexics reverse letters)

Whirlingmind, I was researching a specific kind of memory a while ago and your feeling reminds me a lot of what people with brain damage would say when asked to remember something that they couldn't (due to having a part of their brain destroyed). They would pause and say it was like a total empty blank. So it seems intuitively plausible to me that you are actually feeling a lack of brain machinery to deal with certain information.

I think I might get a similar mind block as you when I try to intuitively sense how others perceive me-- feels like the front part of my head has frozen and become blank and clear as ice and the nothingness could stretch for miles. I can use other methods to compensate for the blank (like reasoning very carefully about how I would feel in that situation) but it feels like I am taking a brain detour, like taking the long way around to my thinking destination, or something. You might be able to create similar "brain detours" if you work hard on figuring out the steps of conscious reasoning you need to do to empathize or do math. I think this is what a lot of autistic people end up doing especially with the social stuff.