Questions about thinking patterns.

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Just got a few questions. Is it typical for someone with autism/AS engage in black-and-white-thinking? That's how my brain works. I'm always at either extreme, never in the middle. I'm either obsessed with something or uninterested. I'm on or off. I talk too much or too little. Too loud or too quiet etc. Same goes for my thinking. Always at either extreme. I think in terms of what's right or wrong etc.

Also, I have difficulties understanding and accepting other people's point of views and perspectives. I'm quite stubborn and it's not unusual for me to think that my way is the right way. I'm very inflexible in my thinking. I also keep thinking and obsessing about certain subjects and it's like those thoughts are on repeat in my mind. And since I tend to verbalise my thoughts quite a lot, people often think I go on and on about the same things.

Does this ever happen to you and are these things typical for someone with autism/AS?

Yes and yes. =D

Is there a name for this sort of thinking?

Thank you for succinctly describing my thought patterns...

I was a good deal more rigid as a child--I've had to learn to be a little less stubborn and to go with the flow a little more--but I can be very rigid about some stuff to this day.

This is one thing I have trouble relating to ... my mind is definately not black and white. It is rigid in some ways though. I'm utterly rigid on the universality of standards, that everything be judged by the same criteria and standards applied to the judgement of one thing must be equally applied elsewhere. If you're going to judge one group by a set of standards, I'm going to demand you apply the same set to all groups. I cannot tolerate otherwise.

I also find it very easy to switch perspectives.

I guess it's more of the way you relate to the world.

I wouldn't say my thinking is very black and white.

I can't settle on one perspective, which also means that I can't relate to another perspective. Because I have none of my own.

I don't know what's best or worst and many people seem to know.

You can't discuss anything with me because black and white is the best I can do. I usually stay vague. I don't understand how you're supposed to make things in a proper way.

People have often called me biased or unfair and I didn't know how to do it differently. Because people still expect a reaction. I don't know how to produce a coherent reaction.

I try to fit my experience into logical patterns, but that's mostly misleading.

At the moment, I'm just left with my confusion. I just don't understand things the way I am supposed to. And there's nothing I can change about that. It feels as if my way of thinking was wrong. But that doesn't make sense because supposedly all views are acceptable. As long as they fit. My views never fit so I have to acquire a different way of thinking or making sense of things.

I am the same way with the first minus the thinking.

I am aware everyone has their own views and thinks differently and I respect it. But yet I hate it when I am told how to do something, I tell them they do it then if they don't like my way. I just feel how I am doing something isn't good enough and if they are so unhappy with my way, they do it then. It's like to them how I am doing it isn't the right way so I tell them they do it then. My husband calls this the all or nothing in me and the my way or the highway. But I can say the same about them you know.

One of them sounds like OCD where you keep obsessing and they repeat in your mind, same here. I was told it was part of AS and OCD.

I don't even get to the "you do it then" part. I try to do as people tell me and fail miserably. And everyone is disappointed.

So much for the accepting other people's views part. It never helped me. All it did was make me even more insecure.

Perhaps I didn't explain it enough. I do understand that other people have different views on things and I respect that. But I often don't see why they think the way they do and if they try to convince me to think the same way I just don't get it. I'm so set in my own thinking and my own ways that I stick to it. Of course I can change my mind on minor things (such as what movie to watch or what food to eat etc), but when it comes to more serious matters that's really difficult. Does that make sense?

Also, when it comes to the thoughts on repeat it's most often my "special interests". For example, my special interest right now is Asperger's. I think about it all the time. Even when I'm working. I ponder and I ask questions about it (in my head) and then since I, like I said, tend to verbalise my thoughts I very often talk about Asperger's. And then my boyfriend says things like "I think you should stop thinking about it for a while. Maybe not completely, but not pay so much attention to it." That's an example of a way of thinking I don't understand. Because I can't stop thinking about it. Feels like I'm rambling a bit now, but do you understand what I mean?

I don't mind that, in fact, I like feedback so I can gauge how I'm doing and improve it.



I don't think of myself as rigid or inflexible in terms of ideas, but in my relationships with other people, my way or the highway is totally me. I don't mean I make other people do things, it's that I refuse to do things I don't want to do, and if they persist, then I avoid them. Often permanently and without warning or explanation. I've lost so many good friends from this, over such trivial things. But I just hate people putting expectations on me, I can't stand doing anything with other people that isn't voluntary.

I don't always get peoples thinking either and to me it's very strange. Sometimes I am still surprised about how people even think and what views they get. It is starting to not surprise me anymore about how they interpret things. I sometimes think they are so stupid and wrong because they didn't see it my way.

I got the obsessive thinking part. I was told it's OCD and that it comes from the AS. People in the autism community argue those two are two different things when it comes to the obsessing over topics but where I come from, I was told those two were the same and a component to AS. Even my autism specialist said the same thing when he diagnosed me.

Right now I am obsessed with Titanic and I think about it all the time and I didn't realize I was talking to my husband about it all the time. Then when my mother was here visiting, all I wanted to do was talk about it but I know she does not like to hear about my obsessions so I didn't say a word to her. But yet I wanted her company but I had nothing to say to her.

I'm not really surprised about the way people think but sometimes I do think they're stupid for not seeing things the way I see them. I'm aware it's probably not a good thing to think people are stupid, but it just happens.

What do you mean? That the OCD and the AS way of thinking are the same?

I really recognise that. "All I wanted to do was talk about it but I know she does not like to hear about my obsessions so I didn't say a word to her." I have to keep myself from talking about my obsessions too. People don't really seem to like it. When I want to talk about it but I don't I often get really frustrated.

By the way, I might as well ask another thing as well. I hope that's ok. Is it typical for someone with Autism/AS to repeat things all the time? Not only talking about thinking now. Not necessarily talking about routines either. I mean things such as listening to one song over and over and over again. Or watching a youtube video or a movie over and over again. Or solving a Rubik's Cube over and over again. Things like that. It's like I thrive on repeating things. Maybe that's got something to do with thinking a certain way as well?

Last edited by rebbieh on 04 May 2012, 6:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

Isn't black & white thinking a borderline characteristic?

rebbieh wrote:

I think this is a very accurate description of my thought processes.

rebbieh wrote:



This is also an accurate description of me. My husband's observation is that I seem to get the same satisfaction out of watching an often repeated movie, re-reading an often read book, or re-solving puzzles, as NTs seem to get out of a visit with old familiar friends.

I find it interesting and reassuring when others have the same patterns of thought

I do tend to repeat things a lot but with my thinking I'm opposite. I always tend to agree with the saying 'no matter how thin you slice it, there are always two sides'. I can't pick sides and believe everyone's thinking and actions come from good intentions no matter how bizarre they seem