Disassociation with worldly things

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I just wanted to see if other Aspies also felt this way. Sometimes it seems like the things of this world seem dull to me. It may be a reflection of my background--I've spent time in conservative religion, although I am liberal and not that religious--and I've gone ghost hunting, having several tangible experiences. So, I'm more interested in things not of this world, especially in astrophysics.

I don't mean to ramble, I am just interested to see if other people find this world and worldly things a bit boring in comparison to all that's out there, universally speaking. It's not like I live in a boring place--I live on the Oregon coast, very scenic.

I tend to spend more time inside my head than I do paying attention to the world around me at times. I don't have even the slightest hint of belief in the occult or anything otherworldly but I daydream as I'm just walking along or sitting around or something else equally interesting. There's lots of nice places to see in the world, but I'm more for intellectual pursuits and imagination than just staring at things.

Yes I get that but without the tangible experiences you describe I'm limited to what I find boring. I'm so heavily interested in otherworldly things and other intangibles that it wounds me to not have such experiences. I feel like I got screwed by the combination of extreme attraction to the occult and extreme difficulty satisfying that interest.

I'm also interested in mundane altered perception. Hallucinations, dreams, and weird perceptions that are not occult related interest me as well. That kind of interest makes experimentation with hallucinogenic drugs seem attractive to me.

I care about experiences more than everything. I would rather have the experience of having gone skydiving than my own private jet. I would rather have a life rich in paranormal experiences than one rich in physical comforts.

It's not as important as food or water but it is more important than shelter.

I'd rather be living in my head and doing things I enjoy than be taking part in worldly activities. I have very little interest in the worldly things of today.

I like to spend most of my time in my imaginary world since I find reality boring. People always say to live in the moment, to stop and appreciate the world around you. I give the world a passing glance. Everything I've ever seen or experienced in reality pales in comparison to the things I see in my imaginary world. Well, except for maybe the TV shows and movies that provide the basis for my imaginary world, but even they eventually become inferior to the version in my mind, in which everything is tweaked to suit my personal preferences.

^ This. Apart from family, animals and the environment, there is very little that interests me in this world. I am far more interested in my dreams and daydreams. Always was.

I'm glad to see that others also feel this way strongly! I'm working on a few stories that involve non-human characters, and this thing just crossed my mind. I also enjoy spending time with animals, sometimes moreso than with most people.

I think why a lot of us aspies like to live in are own imaginary world is because we have an emotional bond with are imaginary characters that we as aspies simply can't get in the real world. We can learn social skills to get by in the world. But in the end. That's all we're dong is "Just getting by.". We still lack that emotional bond that we as aspies crave and can observe in NT to NT social interactions. Because we can't get that emotional fulfillment in the real world. we simply retire in to are own little fantasy world.

I agree, I think this is very true. I was unable to establish connections with actual people, so I created characters in my inner world instead, and that seems to be very common (either that, or the complete absorption in an interest instead of people, or both).

I often don't feel like I am a part of the world at all. Everything going on outside of me feels foreign - like I am looking at the people and other things out there through a window, but not actually part of any of that or engaged with it. But then I think that is the essence of autism. Autism means "self-ism" - not self-centred, just absorbed in one's own inner world.

I am interested in very little that is outside of me, unless it is something which becomes part of an inner experience (things which work well with my imagination, like books or video games, fall into this category). I do have some interest in the metaphysical as well - I don't know how related that is, but it may be that non-physical phenomena are more likely to be of interest for people for whom life is based in "inner experience/what I experience in my thoughts" rather than "outer physical experience/what I see, hear and touch".

Yes.

I get you.

I think of higher level things, forces, balances, energy, systems, astro things on a universal scale, micro things at the subatomic level, philosophies/religion, various metaphysical concepts, & have particularly done so while under the influence of awesome mind/perception altering substances.

In much more Autistic times of my life, thinking about these things could occupy an awful lot of my time.. like, all of it.

Now not so much as I'm functioning much better again and while I do still think of these things, I don't get as deeply into contemplating them nor spend nearly as much of my time on them. I waste my time on different distractions now.

I totally agree, and I have always felt the same way. I have always had a strong tendency to seek out the extraordinary, and scoff at the mundane. The result over the years is numerous adventures with people and in environments that I am not normally associated with, and the learning experiences that come with such experimentation. There are worlds within worlds, and worlds behind worlds, that I would like to experience. What I find intriguing is the simultaneity of the extraordinary and the mundane.

That makes a lot of sense and I agree with it completely.

That’s a little different for me. I have an emotional bond with my imaginary characters, but I never daydreamed because I was on my own. On the contrary, even in the first daycare I was sent to (age 2-4) I would go to the fence in the back of the area in order to dream without interruption. I didn’t want interaction with the other children, I wanted my own world.

A quick walkthrough here: I have never been able to bond with anyone outside of my family. There was a girl living next door to me when I was 2-5 years old. We played together more or less daily and our mothers thought it convenient because we lived so close so they’d put us together. I was fine with it, but when she moved away after all those years, I didn’t miss her at all or care that she moved. When we moved just before I turned 6, a girl in our new stairwell was a distant relative and we met the first day I was there. For a year we played a lot but when I started school the fall one year later, she pouted and told me she didn’t wanna play with me. I just said ‘okay’ and never asked again. In retrospect I guess she was jealous? Some children actually do look forward to starting school. I didn’t question it or feel anything about it. In school it never occurred to me that I should take an interest in the other children, and I didn’t. The only reason I was there was that school was mandatory. I couldn’t wait to get home to my life and toys, and later pets. Some years later there were some children and later on teens I liked well enough and had fun with in school, but no one I desired to spend time with beyond that. The few times someone talked me into doing something after school, I didn’t find it all that enjoyable. Not terrible, just nothing to desire as it didn't give me much. In adult age I find myself unemployed so there are no co-workers in the picture, but I’m sure not interested in befriending any acquaintance or neighbour I have.

I have never felt any need to socialise. To me, real people are completely uninteresting. I think I can count on one hand the individuals I took an interest in, and mostly because they were connected to some obsession I had. For instance when I was 11 going on 12 I became interested in the history of the Jewish people, which turned into an obsessions about Judaism. As a result of my obsession I became interested in becoming friends with a Jewish girl in my school. A decade later I became obsessed with the military and then I came to admire a neighbour who was an Army officer.

I have always been one for daydreaming and I always get lost in my own thoughts no matter what I do (read, listen to music, watch something). I suspect I might have ADD. I think I might have socalled ‘maladaptive daydreaming disorder’. My inner world isn’t there because of lack of interactions in the real world. If anything, it might be somewhat accurate to say that I don’t give the real world a chance because I enjoy my inner world so much, and the people I saw around me in school and see in my neighbourhood are so common I nearly yawn just seeing them. When I actually do see them, that is. I’m not interested in people so I tend to not notice them at all when I’m out. Unless they’re loud and pull me out of my thoughts that way, in which case they annoy me. If they don’t I’m not likely to notice them more than I notice the buildings I pass or the road, just part of the scenery. I find mainstream very boring. Sometimes I have been out somewhere with my mother and we have met some acquaintance of her, and they have chatted for what seems like years, and I feel my brain glazing over because listening to them is so mind-numbingly boring.
Other than those I’ve taken an interest in due to obsessions, and those I saw in school, there are only two people I have genuinely noticed my entire my life. One is an older woman living nearby who was very kind to me at a time when I really needed it. The other was a woman a little younger than me who for some reason came off as very cool, she had a charisma that made her stand out in my eyes, so I wanted to get to know her. It went pretty well but she didn’t live here for long before she was to serve elsewhere (she was in the police). That was about 5 years ago. I haven’t seen anyone interesting since.


Yeah, sometimes I feel like I’m on standby mode. There but not there, like I’m turning myself off. An example is when we’re making dinner. She’ll do something in the kitchen, and after doing whatever I have done to help, I stand there waiting. Maybe she has cut sausages for soup and tries to push them from the cutting board and into the casserole, and struggles with holding the casserole and moving the sausage bits at the same time. I see what’s happening, and I see that it’s hard, yet I just stand there. I’m not indifferent, I’m not trying to have her beg for help, I’m not too lazy to give her a hand. It’s like there is a part that isn’t switched on in me, so she has to say that she needs help. It just doesn’t occur to me that I must either take the casserole or swipe the sausage into it. She’d snap at me “help me for crying out loud!”, but once she realised that I don’t do it intentionally, she just calmly says “Can you hold it?”. I’ve gotten better at it recently, knowing what she expects and needs but in any new situation I’d start at scratch.
Sometimes it’s like I see everything through a bubble and react from afar.


That’s the case for me too. I very much enjoy books, movies/series, comics/manga/manhwa and video games that appeal to me.

Very interesting, Skillpadde. While I am Christian, and white (European) American, I have been very interested in Sikhism. Besides being a very peaceful and open-minded faith, it also talks about other worlds, other realms, beyond this one, and that strongly attracted me to it.

I do form a sort of connection with imaginary characters when I write. My current work involves doing a lot of environmental work for a Native American Tribe, and doing a lot of historical research for them. This requires delving into the dark parts of American history, the horrible things that none of the history books talk about. So a bit of scifi-fantasy creativity transports me away from what can be a very grim reality.

I'm actually working on a creative story right now that helps me go somewhere else, mentally. I love the characters. And I will be cat-sitting for my supervisor next week. I love her cats!

Human society is insufferably banal and repugnant.
The non-human world and the intellectual world are ineffably splendid.