Technically speaking, what is it when we 'space out'?

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When we as Aspies space out what is going on in our minds? Is it a form of resting or sleeping? Or just thinking and not letting the rest of the world get in the way of our thoughts?

I think it could be anything from a type of seizure, to being overstimulated and dealing with it by spacing out, to just having a special interested take over our attention span and making us miss what people are saying or what is going happening.

When I was in school, my teachers called it "daydreaming". Example: "Stop daydreaming and pay attention". I heard that a lot.

Doesn't everybody do this? When I was talking to my friend in the bus stop the other day, after a conversation I looked at my watch and said, ''the bus is late today'', and I didn't say it too quietly or at ''the wrong time'' or anyything, and about a minute later he frowned and said, ''the bus is late today'', in the same tone as I used, as though he had said it first, so it's obvious he didn't seem to know I said it to him just a minute ago. And I noticed a lot of people do this, whoever they are (which is partly what triggered off my social phobia).

Unless with Autistics it's a different sort of thing?

Last edited by Joe90 on 15 Apr 2012, 3:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sometimes I am daydreaming when I do it, other times I am kind of mentally blank because I am tired, and am not really thinking much of anything.

Well, it appears we are referring to two entirely different things at the same time. I daydream. What some other people are describing appears to be a type of seizure.

I think it's got to do with what you're pointing your attention at. If you've got your intention pointed internally rather than externally, then you're "spacing out".

I think maybe you could even see it on an EEG--alpha versus beta waves, or something of that sort. One is "relaxed, calm"; the other is "actively thinking". You can tell which one somebody is doing by looking at their brain waves. I bet the "relaxed, calm" one would be the one you see when we "space out".

I give up:-

Space Out, Space In. You can drive a car while spacing out, you can do work while spacing out. Its when your in 'automatic' mode.

When driving you will be at your destination & not be able to remember the journey.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/space%20out

There are a couple different ways I space out. There's the kind where a special interest is holding my attention so much that nothing else comes through. That would really be hyperfocus, though. The other kind, which is what I think the OP was referring to, is when my brain just seems to literally stop taking in information. For instance, someone could be talking to me, and I suddenly realize that I've missed at least a full sentence or two of what they were saying. My mind wasn't necessarily wandering, but nothing was making its way to my conscious mind either. Does that make sense?

I space out a lot while walking down the street. When I wake up, it's like no time has passed, but I am now all the way down the block from where I was before. I dunno if this kind of thing is a seizure. I also hyperfocus for hours at a time, and it feels like a much shorter time, but unlike on the sidewalk, I know what I am doing when I am hyperfocusing. I am usually working on something. With the space out on the sidewalk, I have no idea what happened during the unaccounted-for time or how I got from point A to point B.

I suspect 'spacing out' for the Autistic means taking a brief or long visit to 'the inner world' THAT an untold number experienced as a child.

It's a frozen state, as if locked in suspended animation, or a cryogenic pose; sleep YET awake in your sub-conscious.


*Just an opinion and should be taken as such


TheSunAlsoRises

I don't get why you are calling it hyperfocus:-

Tones of people do it. Example:- Someone playing a computer game & they mother shouting they name over & over again. Because your attention is on playing the video game. Your also going to lose track of time.

Just like someone in a conversation & someone shouting look out, look out. When an accident is going to happen. Even if they is noise happening that shows an accident happening. Your also probably going to lose track of time.

If the environment is not stimulating for you, then your attention is going to be elsewhere. Your going to lose track of time, when your doing something your enjoying.

( Hyperfocus may also be regarded as a psychiatric diagnosis, as a distraction from reality, when it is considered as a symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism spectrum disorder. )

Spacing out to me is like a glitch in visual and auditory processing. I don't seem to hear words but I see images but I don't compute what they are. It only lasts a few seconds though. It's common and happens more frequently in ADHD than the average population. Maybe it's the same with autism. It happens during day dreaming too but you have no idea what you were doing in those seconds.

Absence seizures are a whole different thing. You lose awareness, even consciousness. They can go as long as 30 seconds. People can injure themselves while they have them because they are not aware of anything. I tend to lose an hour of awareness from a seizure. Complex partial.

I've been distracted from reality for 8 months.

Hyperfocus to me is like a sudden trigger of an euphoric state and complete focus on something that comes out of nowhere really. It's never really on that important stuff too. For me it involves digging around to find something I haven't cared about for 8 years but right now I just gotta find it. It's all my energy and attention wasted on simple unimportant thing. Oh, sometimes I can turn it towards cleaning or something that actually needs to be done, but usually it's something just popped into my head. Maybe an idea and for the next 6 hours that all I'm going to be focused on.

Maybe that's extreme vitamin E induced hyperfocus but spending all day on single topic that isn't really as common to be called a special interest is what ADHD hyperfocus is about. A lot of people with ADHD are addicted to videogames that they don't get much else done. In someone without ADHD they at least have the chemistry to get important tasks done if they switch their focus.

I'm fortunate I'm so bad at videogames. My problem is forums, TV shows and arguing on Facebook.

I sPace out by retreating from reality. I don't miss things I just let everything happen without me. I go into an ultra relaxed state where I take a back seat while passing through the world. I interact , I walk and talk, but I bserve these at a distance. I helps me deal with stressful situations that my head can't deal with.

No siezure or anything just a coping mech.

What do you call someone, who is sat on the floor not moving & is in a Alpha state?