Autism Blindness (not noticing things)

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Does anyone else experience anything like this?

I can go through periods where I only see the one thing that is in front of me and don't see anything else.

Some examples. If someone I care about is sick, my mind will focus 100% on that at all times.

I will not be able to watch TV, Won't notice the trash is full. House is dirty. Car is dirty. Lawn needs mowing. Not eating/shower properly. You get the idea.

It is like that one thing consumes all of my attention.

It can happen with anything, good or bad.

Conflicks are especially bad. One small conflict and my mind will get stuck in a visual loop for weeks.

It can also happen with personal interest and things I enjoy.

I feel it could be related to fixations/hyperfocus?

It is like a blindness or tunnel vision of the mind.

Yes - Hyperfocus, Tunnel Vision, Attention to Detail.

I live in minutiae.

Sometimes multiple tunnel visions / minutiae at once without a filter.

If my mind is occupied with something I am worried about, my ADHD symptoms can become worse and I can even fail to register visual objects in my environment.

Either getting very distracted by having certain thoughts or emotions and 'entertaining' it.

Or by being very stressed and too tired to bother and would rather just end whatever it is...

... Or, competing senses in some cases; which is a type of overwhelm, though not based on thought but relevant to sensory processing and attentional resource limit.

... Also in my case; being drunk.

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Yep. That's how my dad described my childhood special interest with dogs: tunnel vision

If I'm looking for something and the thing doesn't look like I'm imagining it, i don't see it.

For example if my partner asks me to help her find her glasses and I'm imagining a pair of glasses i won't see the glasses case that has her glasses in. I'm not thinking about what I'm looking for I'm just matching images.

Regarding tunnel vision. During one of the burnouts I have been through where my spacial awareness can be effected, I had to walk through a fairly crowded busy pedestrian street in the town near where I used to live and due to nurves I was trying to hold my breath (Sort of... When one breathes in and decided to "Go for it!") and walk through fast. I saw the people turn into tunnel walls and sort of curve around in my vision like an actual tunnel as I quickly walked through. I have never had that before and never had it since. The people formed a visually smooth tunnel without any gaps. Yet I knew in reality they didn't as they were randomly standing or walking... My mind that had focused on a straight through route, in the fear of heading down the pedestrian street filled with people had turned them into a tunnel as I focussed straight ahead! It was a strange experience.

Other people notice things I don't, and I notice things they don't. It's probably true of all individuals, but maybe not to the same extent. I suppose who is disabled depends on which noticed things are important, and that depends on the things. Sometimes I've noticed important things that others have missed, other times it's been the other way round.

In addition to "tunnel vision" I also tend to ignore or forget about things I see everyday. Post-it notes on just about anything seem to disappear after a few days. I also have issues with object permanence, where thing I don't see I will eventually forget about completely. I've often bought multiple items forgetting that I already have one or more put away somewhere already.

I have even forgotten food in the microwave because I go off and do something else while food is cooking and once the light goes off, it just gone. I've forgotten to eat more times than I can count and come back the next day to find it still sitting in the microwave.

Yep. For me, I think of it like out of sight, out of mind. It can be as simple as forgetting a pot of water I have boiling on the stove because I left the kitchen, to forgetting other people exist because I'm busy doing my own thing, whatever that may be. I'm generally oblivious to what's going on around me, because I'm hyper focused on what I'm doing, trying to remember, whatever. I miss so much because of this kind of stuff.

I live in my head. The whole world could go up in flames around me and I'd barely notice.

That describes me also.

Monotropism is one of the main defining feature of ASD, no?

An old friend of mine, let's call her Chrissy passed away in March. That's all that I could think about for three months. I had a 2 track mind. Chrissy and which episodes of my favourite shows are going to be on MeTV this evening? I didn't get any housework done.

What is the question?