irishwhistle wrote:
When I have a conversation, I need more time to think in order to respond accurately (as to my actual viewpoint) and intelligently. I don't consider myself a stupid woman as such, though I do not function well at many things others do. I don't perceive things others consider obvious. There are some things, jokes and other subtleties, that it has taken me years to understand. Really, years after hearing a thing, it will click. I remember thinking recently, "Wow, it took me 15 years to figure that out." Forgot what, but still. I often ask a person to repeat themselves only to finish processing what I heard the first time just before they repeat it. I hate having to call people because I can't even begin to know how they are responding to me if I can't see them, and they tend to get very impatient with me which makes me slower. I need very specific instructions for things if I've not done them before, or if another person wants me to do something (I don't like being called on mistakes, which I find most people assume to be caused by indifference or laziness). You can imagine how long I take to follow a recipe. I have to read and reread the instructions so many times! Sometimes I think the only thing I do quickly is forget stuff.
I'm just like this. Except I don't forget stuff easily.
It feels like I'm always playing catchup with the world. Something will happen, and I won't know how I feel about it until a day or a week later, by which time it's too late to do anything about it. Or when I'm reading a thread on WP, I won't know what I think about the issue being discussed straight away. Figuring out what I'm thinking takes a lot of time. It takes me longer to process stimuli than other people. Or maybe it takes the same time, but I am just dealing with so much more information that most others.
I think we perhaps seem slow because we process things in a different order to others. Perhaps.
I don't mind being called slow, even though I know that in many ways I am not slow at all. I suppose most people's opinions just don't bother me.
13 Apr 2009, 1:38 am
