Trouble following complex information?

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I seem to struggle a lot with complex information, like instructions that have too many sub-components to them, but trying to explore why just shuts down my brain. This is most visible in math and logic (I am taking a math course and struggling a lot). I also tend to shut down very easily when I can't figure something out, and I'm not even sure why that is either.

This is how I feel trying to do complex problems (these are nonsensical, there is no answer):
A and B are C, if you remove C from A you get D, A and D are CB, but CB is not AD. Or in a literary sense, an example would be: John walks to the store then back home, then he goes to the airport but stops at the store again. He then goes home but on his way home he stops at a river. Where will he go next if he is not going home?

Those are fake but they show perfectly how I felt in school when I was younger, and how I still feel now in a lot of places, where everyone just magically produces an answer out of nothing and I'm sitting there stuck trying to figure out what's wrong with me as I get berated for being too slow. I want to know if anyone else understands this at all or if it really is some kind of intellectual disability, being too visual. I am still capable of understanding a lot of complex information but only if it has some kind of underlying pattern behind it or if it seems logical to me. Examples of this are geological formations, migration patterns, many aspects of Astronomy, things that are less verbal and more physical.

Sounds like an executive function problem. I have it too and so do many other people on the spectrum.

It's so frustrating when it causes you to perform at less than your actual intelligence.

Yes. It's like sensing chaos, except it can be translated into something verbal, yet couldn't seem to 'reach' it because something is missing...
Imagine catching multiple balls for an 'info', and yet your arms are already full of it. Then there are many who's still throwing it at you. There are some balls that are relevant, and some balls are irrelevant -- and you don't know how to distinguish between the two.
So not really missing, more like there's something you had caught, and it fell off. You asked that person to throw whatever fell off, only to get annoyed for obvious reasons.
Or it's something you had touched, yet you didn't catched it, because your hands are already full. Or, nevermind with being full, you didn't saw the ball from the beginning because you're already too busy holding and catching other -- and you caught something irrelevant, then ponder if this is the one you're looking for while still having to catch more balls.

The only fighting chance of a work around I have with this is make a table or a picture out of it and enough time to connect those seemingly scattered dots. Or ponder about it, study it, until I get the concrete visual or abstract spatial form of the info as to where this could go.
But I can't exactly ponder about this without a paper to look at because, well, I dunno -- I'm still tracking my body, how it should move and the space around me, the time and place, things I'm currently keep sensing even if I don't want to sense it, then ponder things I have to do if there is something I have to do if it's a need or a chore, etc.

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I can do this but not in verbal or written form. I need visual aids--a map, diagram, very simple flow chart, etc.

The worst is when they give a long demonstration of something I've never tried before. I won't remember any of it. If they demonstrate something I've already attempted, then I can put it into context.

The best way is if they walk me through doing it myself, while I write my own step by step instructions. Using other people's instructions is fine if they're detailed enough.

I definitely relate to this.

I get lost if I don't understand the language, or I may feel I can skip over boring parts of a story. If I'm interested, I focus in on the new parts of the problem close enough to not overwhelm my short-term memory. Once I have that pattern, I can focus on other bits, and finally how they mesh.
However, I can't do this if I'm tired or anxious. I can't do it as well as I did before watching a lot of 'net. It takes a special effort to get over the "I can'ts" where I've failed before, but often enough, something else I've learned helps me get through.

I have trouble with spoken instructions that have several components to them. I much prefer to have things written down so I can refer and re-refer to them as needed.