Conversations and repeating things in my head

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When I go out very often my mind will create conversations and situations and I would have a dialogue in my head and imagine what I would do in a particular situation. I also repeat things that I found funny in tv or videos in my head and to me doesn't seem like normal behavior. Is it just me or does anyone else experience this? Are these symptoms of another disorder or asperger's?

I can't answer your questions, but I do this a lot and relive conversations even in my mind's eye.

There's nothing wrong or right with that. neutral. Lots of people repeat conversations etc though

Same here.
I've seen it as a sit-com trope, at which point I figured it's probanly normal to some extent.

I've been interested in this question as well, as it applies to me too. I should start by saying that I'm a lay person on the topic and may be wrong.

From what I've understood, many (all?) people have some sort of dialogs in their head (internalizing I think it's called) which may help us figure out what to say in certain situations. In fact I saw a video of Tony Attwood about Schizophrenia-misdiagnosed aspies on YouTube just a day or two ago, where he said that NTs learn to internalize at the age of 3-4 whereas aspies first learn it around 11-13. Maybe that's why we notice it a bit differently?

Moreover, introverts seems to think dialogs through more thoroughly though (which has obvious advantages as well as disadvantages), so I don't think that part is related to AS itself but to introversion. Admittedly, all inner dialogs may not seem to have a practical purpose like this. Some may be deeper philosophical argumentations, for instance, which perhaps doesn't count as what Attwood calls internalization?! However, I guess thinking a lot in terms of dialogs is still related to introvertedness, and introverts' thought process.

The repetition of thoughts, however, seems to me more related to AS or at least AS traits. Another thing which I've understood is related to AS traits is a "controlled imagination" where you kind of plan ahead what you're going to imagine, rather than a more instantanously inprovised imagination (I don't remember the correct names for these kinds of imagination). Of course it's a continuum, but these are the extrema. There was an aspie-related online test for this somewhere. Don't remember what it's called.

I often find myself pacing around repeating sequences of thoughts, or reasoning, that I've has several times before. When I'm finished I often start over again on the exact same lengthy reasoning, perhaps slightly altered 5 or 10 minutes down the path, and I know it in advance that when I get there I'm going to imagine that part differently than the last time. So I guess it's fairly rigid and arranged. However, I don't feel I have little imagination, quite the contrary, I often come up with original ideas in my work as a scientist that I've thought about long and hard. I suck at improvisation, though, and some times I may be stuck repeating the same reasoning in what seems like an infinite loop (actually only several hours) without being able to stop. That's actually bothering me. For your reference, I scored on the "arranged imagination" extreme of the mentioned test, as opposed to most tests where my score is not on an extreme.

I've been doing the exact same thing for ages and have also wondered if it's normal.

I do it all the time. I think it helps me plan out or imagine things ahead of time so I can decide what is appropriate to say. Also, my mind never seems to stop so perhaps it needs something to do at all times. I also have music or phrases repeating in my head quite often.

I used too before my OCD got treated.

I used to think mine was OCD-related, but now I'm not so sure. I had therapy for OCD ages ago, and was on meds for awhile. Didn't make a difference in symptoms. The therapy only taught me not to let my fears turn into ridiculous compulsions and it worked. One suggested I have Obsessive-Compulsive personality disorder, not OCD. I just think it's part of my natural personality though, not a disorder. I have always been this way.

Yes, that is why I am an excellent programmer. I create algorithms and architectures in my head. Then, I replay them, debug them, optimize them, .... Finally, my finger take over and it all comes out as code.

The same process applies to almost all of my daily life. It is a good thing as long as it doesn't take over.

I do the same thing - to prepare for social situations - a pre-programming

Same here. I'd like for it to pay off outside of programming more often though

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