Do you NOT space out?

Post Reply New Topic

Many - or perhaps most - people with Asperger's do what is called Spacing Out. I guess most
know what it means - if not, there is another debate on the subject a few threads above this one
where it is described. I'll rather not try to describe it myself, for I have never experienced it.

My question now is - one of the below:

Do you NOT space out?

Have you ever spaced out?

If you believe you don't have this experience, have anybody that you know told you that you
did space out (maybe you think they were mistaken, or you weren't aware that you had been
spacing out)?


I have a friend who space out a lot. We are never together for a few hours without it
happening, often more than once. My friend is an aspie like myself, but we are
very different in this respect. I have never had spacing out experiences, though of
course I can be preoccupied or have moments where I just sit in my own thoughts.

No. I space out frequently, and even more frequently I look like I'm spaced out, even when I'm not.

I space out all the time.

People who don't space out are weird.

I'm hardly ever NOT spaced out. Gives me problems in school, since I am often spaced out while the teacher is giving us directions.

I do not space out as far as I am aware.

Of the people I met in person, all of them do it in different degrees whether they're normal or not, autistic or have AD(H)D.

You're about the first person I read about who also says that she doesn't space out.

I've been told I've spaced out, but it didn't turn out to be true in those situations. People have thought I spaced out when I had trouble to immediately react due to my autism or when I chose not to react (and they didn't catch my hand signal to pause) while I was busy with something else.

I suppose I do not knowingly experience spacing out because I can't shut out stimuli that I am aware of. Obviously as I am able to function this way, my brain is basically capable of filtering out unnecessary information.

But out of all the visual, auditory, olfactory (so on) stimuli that make it into my conciousness, they always do. They don't randomly pause when I am busy, when I am distracted or when I concentrate, I am aware of them all the time.

That's probably why I don't scarily space out the way all the other people do.


(Let's call ourselves a fancy name to describe a new category of a super rare species of people who don't space out!)

I space out, yep.

I recently realised that I space out a lot. But I am kinda worried about my doing it. I mean - isn´t it merely the trait of a schizophreniac?

it's just a label, SoftKitty. it won't become anything else if you call it differently. it only matters when it's messing with your ability to function in a society (when you have to get the right meds for your condition). I don't think spacing out is a loss, it's more of a gift in a boring and yet intrusive reality.

I don't space out as often when people I know are around. If I'm talking with someone I'll focus on the conversation and that will distract me from what's going on inside my head unless the conversation gets boring.

Other than that, I space out all the time.

If I am spaced out and overwhelmed with negative emotions at the same time I can appear very unstable. I'll be pacing back and forth very quickly while seeming like I'm not even there and making facial expressions that suggest I'm in immense pain. I'll look up at the sky periodically. My fists might be clenched or my hands might be doing something else that makes me look scary. If I was crying at some point my mouth will continue to spasm as if I were still crying even when I stop. I look like a crazy person and I'm so spaced out I don't even realize it until I wake up from my spacy world.

Luckily I don't appear that way when I'm spacing out normally. It only gets weird looking when I'm in a lot of distress and spacing out at the same time.

I space out sometimes. Sometimes I start thinking about something that interests me, but other times it's an obsessive-compulsive type of thought; for instance, getting distracted by a sign in the background and counting how many syllables are in it, repeating the sentence over and over if it's an odd number of syllables... things like that.