 
Support Wrong Planet Awareness!
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
AutisticMalcontent
Toucan
Joined: May 30, 2008
Age: 21
Posts: 250
Location: In the annoying and painful realm of reality :P
|
 Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:24 pm Post subject: The ability to think- Do slightly autistic people have it? |
 |
|
Yes, I know the above title looks stupid and for the most part seems like a rhetorical question. However, let me explain, and it might make more sense to you who read this.
First off, I can't start a discussion without a proper introduction, my name is the AutisticMalcontent, and I am a 21 year old male who has diagnosed P.D.D-NOS. Having P.D.D-NOS isn't really that bad, except for the ocassional fits of anxiety and the lack of understanding concerning people's emotions and body language. But I digress, so onward with my question.
What I am about to say probably doesn't make much sense, but I will say it anyways, I feel like I don't have a cognitive ability to think mentally. This sounds weird, but let me put it into terms that might make sense. When I learn stuff, I don't think about it when I register it, it kind of automatically comes to me without thinking about it. It is kind of like my mind is blank, that I have trouble envisioning things in my mind, such as imagery or certain memories, but I can just pull out things off the top of my head without much thought, like facts, figures, concepts. Even as I type this, I'm not thinking about what to say, I'm just letting my hands run loose on the keyboard. It is a very odd feeling, knowing things without thinking about it. Neurotypical people have a internal thought process about what goes on, but it seems I am lacking of one.
My question, therefore, is do any of you feel the same way I do, to have trouble mentally seeing images or thinking words in your head, but you can autmotically know stuff spontaneously without even thinking about that much? I read somewhere that a psychiatrist came up with a theory of how autistic people lack "the theory of mind". I don't know, maybe you guys can help me out. Thanks! |
|
| Back to top |
|
ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
Phoenix
![]()
Joined: Jun 19, 2008
Posts: 1762
Location: US, midmap
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:56 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Hm. Maybe what happens is the thoughts just flow. This question is a difficult one. I am not sure if this is different from everyone else. It's hard for me to imagine someone contemplating an entire paragraph before actually typing it. Do some people really do that? |
|
| Back to top |
|
Anemone
Phoenix
Joined: Mar 18, 2008
Age: 43
Posts: 790
Location: Vancouver, Canada
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:00 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| It sounds like whatever thinking you're doing, it's so easy that it happens automatically and therefore doesn't need to be conscious. It doesn't sound like it has anything to do with theory of mind (which is so easy, most people never notice themselves doing it). |
|
| Back to top |
|
ShawnWilliam
Phoenix
Joined: Aug 27, 2008
Posts: 1462
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:30 pm Post subject: |
|
|
well, I've tripped out on mushroms many times.. and i tell you, if your brain hits the right wave, it's like surfing and you start talking and you can't stop, and you dont 'comprehend' what you're saying, you just speak without thinking.. there is no more thinking, you are saying what your brain WOULD be thinking.. now that is one kickass experience. As long as you have a listening partner  |
|
| Back to top |
|
demoluca
Phoenix
Joined: Nov 17, 2007
Posts: 581
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:23 pm Post subject: |
|
|
You think. it just sounds like it's in imageless, wordless concepts.
_________________
.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•. |
|
| Back to top |
|
DW_a_mom
Phoenix
Joined: Feb 23, 2008
Posts: 1251
Location: Northern California
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:44 pm Post subject: |
|
|
It sounds like a more subconscious level of thinking.
I have that most noticably when I tell my children stories. They take on a life of their own. It's almost like the story chooses to tell itself, and I'm often very surprised to hear the direction my own story is taking.
But I am sure I am thinking and inventing that story, none-the-less.
Oh, but I am mostly NT, if that makes a difference (my son is AS).
_________________
Avatar copyright DW's Studio |
|
| Back to top |
|
Aurore
Dingo Lycanthrope
Joined: Dec 07, 2007
Age: 18
Posts: 1192
Location: North Carolina
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 4:26 pm Post subject: |
|
|
You are thinking - you're just not NT thinking. Sometimes we just 'arrive' at things mentally. Temple Grandin wrote about this process; basically the difference is that autistic thinking is often associational instead of verbal/procedural. So you're thinking, it's just a whole different level and kind of thinking.
It can be really helpful for me sometimes, I know sometimes it seems like I've just pulled a fact out of nowhere and I think, 'wow.' But it can also hurt. In math classes they used to get mad because I wasn't able to show how I got to the answers.
Does that help at all? 
_________________
"The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls..." |
|
| Back to top |
|
Angnix
Velociraptor
Joined: Nov 02, 2007
Age: 26
Posts: 456
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 4:31 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I think both ways I think, heh, I think. Anyway, I can easily visualize stuff in my mind, but sometimes I just pull facts off the top of my head without thinking about it much. I think I have good recall for things that are interesting to me. For example random fact about a plant called fall dandelion thats rarer than the common dandelion. I told my brain "random fact" and there it was.
_________________
Strange mix of bird/Sonic obsession... I like the Flickies! |
|
| Back to top |
|
lionesss
The Queen of not your typical kind of jungle
Joined: Aug 22, 2008
Age: 33
Posts: 1013
Location: not anywhere near you
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 4:36 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I definitely visualize things may times but other times.. it just comes to me, can't explain it, it just does.
_________________
I was told that I have PDD-NOS and ADHD- in other words, mild AS with a history of speech delay. I personally think its best to say that I am just plain under the spectrum! |
|
| Back to top |
|
cybershooter
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: May 03, 2008
Age: 35
Posts: 40
Location: London, UK
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 4:54 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Aurore wrote: |
It can be really helpful for me sometimes, I know sometimes it seems like I've just pulled a fact out of nowhere and I think, 'wow.' But it can also hurt. In math classes they used to get mad because I wasn't able to show how I got to the answers.
Does that help at all? |
I had trouble in school with Maths because I couldn't show my 'method' for working out the answers. I would think about the problem and work it out, but I mostly couldn't explain how I'd worked it out, except geometry where it's easy to show the steps.
AutisticMalcontent, one thing you need not worry about is not thinking! You're very obviously engaging in it (unless you're a clever AI program that's fooling us  ), so you really needn't be concerned about it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
anbuend
Oak-Type Autie
Joined: Jul 06, 2004
Posts: 3302
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 5:13 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| cybershooter wrote: | | AutisticMalcontent, one thing you need not worry about is not thinking! You're very obviously engaging in it (unless you're a clever AI program that's fooling us ), so you really needn't be concerned about it. |
I suspect a lot of autistic people who claim they don't think, or didn't used to think, are/were really thinking in the above way, and believe that the only kind of thought that counts as 'real thought' is conscious, reflective thought.
_________________
"We may seem in the gutter from up there where you are but maybe you don't know we still see the same stars." -Donna Williams |
|
| Back to top |
|
Averick
Calculateurre of Chaos
Joined: Mar 06, 2007
Age: 29
Posts: 2127
Location: in the trenches..
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:08 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Well, I kinda understand where you are coming from... Except when I would conceptialize something for the first time, whether or not from school, I'd have to relearn it again for myself just to fully understand the full constraints of such.. Like in reading a book for example, when the author describes how the room looks and you don't know the proper meaning of the word, and you totally prescribe the wrong thing entirely to idealize, I'd think that would be common with us, if I'm explaining it right at all...? |
|
| Back to top |
|
2ukenkerl
Phoenix
Joined: Jul 20, 2007
Posts: 4860
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:12 pm Post subject: |
|
|
AutisticMalcontent, I actually thought about this myself. I'm going to have to stop thinking about that. I say that I am a "hunt and peck" typist, but that isn't 100% true. As I type now, I look down at the keyboard sometimes. I use BOTH hands. So what is odd? I am not really thinking about the words AS I type, but almost after! Basically, I try to sound out the words hitting the screen. I am not looking at the keys ALL the time, and not looking really AT the keys I use. My hands move almost without my thinking(in any obvious way). I am certainly NOT determining WHICH hand should type, or when! When I read earlier, I didn't "verbalize". NOW, to a fair degree, I don't. If a word looks odd, or I haven't used it in a while, I will look it up.
Frankly, I don't know how the autistics that speak of an internal monologue, etc... handle it. I would go NUTS! |
|
| Back to top |
|
NeantHumain
Phoenix
![]()
Joined: Jun 25, 2004
Posts: 3717
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:19 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| I always took this automatic, unconscious thought to be the norm and not just for people with Asperger's syndrome. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Electric_Kite
Toucan
Joined: Aug 21, 2008
Age: 33
Posts: 268
Location: crashing to the ground
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:28 pm Post subject: |
|
|
"Theory of Mind" isn't about you thinking, it's about making accurate guesses about what other people are thinking.
It seems to me that you confusing certain qualitative properties of the act of thinking with thinking itself. As far as I can tell, most people experience the sensation of 'thinking' as being like having a voice in their head speaking. If they have a thought like one of yours, they might say it's not thinking, but an intuitive 'shine' or summat. But it's thinking. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
|
