Standing in front of the cupboard like a lemon...

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(What lemons have to do with it I don't know as I don't look like a lemon). But anyway. I often get this. I go down to the pantry to get myself some breakfast. So I start to get myself a bowl from the other cupboard, but then suddenly realized I m holding a plate, so I walk back to the cutlery cuboard, put the plate back and get a bowl (Which is easier if one wants to have some breakfast cereal)... And I put the bowl on the top of the draining board (So if I tip any of the milk it will not matter. My Mum insists.. Haha! I am well trained!), and then I go back to the pantry and just stand there. Mind blank! Grrr! What the... What am I doing? What was I going to do next? I can't think of anything!
So I retrace my steps back to the (I just had mind blank then trying to think what to type next!). Ah. I retrace my steps and go back to the bowl and think "Ah yes" and I go and complete the task of making myself some breakfast.
Sometimes though, I can retrace my steps back to what I aas doing ad get no clue of what I was there for, so I lose the entire "Thing" of what I set out to do.
Is this just something everyone gets or is it specific to autism, or is it something that autistic people are more likely to get then others are?
While I have heard autistic people get mind blank and oh... Don't I get it! Haha! (Other people tell me that I'm getting old but how come I was getting it when I was young?)
I am intregued.

I get exactly the same thing all the time. I thought it was an executive function things, a glitchy short term memory that just wipes itself out at random times

Do you find you need to go back to the place where you first thought of whatever it is that you were doin to try to "Recapture" the thought. It can be so annoying when you get to recapture the thought, then go back to the room, cupboard or pantry etc and then go into another mindblank situation! Now that drives me nuts! Haha! Not forgotton once, but twice! Thankfully I have not had that often. But it is soo "GRRR!"

That's why some of us stick to routines and get discombobulated when there is a change to the routine. And even with a structured routine I still need reminder post-its around the place.

My youngest brother says I have certain ways that I keep to and need others to do the same. I assumed it was common sense! So these are routines?
Examples like always keeping my keys in one pocket and my wallet in the other so I always know where they are. If unlocking the barn doors, the padlocks have to be put in a certain place (I find this annoying when one of my brothers opens the doors as I can never find the locks after and they leave and expect me to lock up after them. I don't think like they do so I can't re-trace their movements. I keep telling them exactly where to put the locks or the keys etc. There has to be order).
Though my bedroom sometimes gets messy, I alaays have certain places where I keep things. If my Mum cleans my bedroom I have to get everything out again to find things, and it ends up worse then before. It takes ages putting things back where I can find them again!
Are these routines?

Or is it more like another thing I do.... Where if I have something on my mind to do, like taking something in one hand to somewhere it needs to go, and someone interupts me and wants me to take more things, I will do the first task first and then go back for the other things, even though I am going the same way for the other things. I often need to take several journeys when other people just do the one journey and take everything... And they look at me daft!

I find once I have worked out what I am going to do and how I am going to do it, I have to keep to that, and if some orher tasks need doing, I have to go back to do them later, where other people would have done them in a single journey.


I remember once (Which was the toughest job I have ever done) I had a job as a postman. We would sometimes get leaflets to deliver while we put the post in. These would throw me off so much, that often I would do the rounds first and after I had delivered the letters, I would do the whole lot again just to deliver the leaflets in my own time because doing the two things at once sometimes threw me. Ususally I was ok, but sometimes I had to do the whole thing twice to get the leaflets done.

Last edited by Mountain Goat on 11 Oct 2019, 10:03 am, edited 1 time in total.

Not to say you have it, but, some dementia patients, are like that

Oh dear! They are like what? (Sorry. My sense of humour. Must be hard to have dementia).

I do this constantly, generally because my mind is elsewhere. There's really only room for 1 thing in there!

I'm also heavily routine based. My pockets always have the same contents, my before-work routine is the same, my meds are always arranged the same to help me remember which I take when, it's always the same when I get to work, lunch is 2 variations...

When I first heard that autistic people had routines I didn't really understand, hence why I assumed that I didn't do routines. I also assumed everyone would do the litttle things like checking every car door to make sure it is locked even though the car has a remote locking system, and doubly checking the handbrake, while leaving the car in gear and turning the steering so if the car did move it would not go anywhere.... And doubly or even triply checking every house door and window etc before we go out even though I just saw my Mum locking the house front door.... Usual stuff I assumed we all did in life.
Is wierd when I find that what I do is classed as a routine. Other little things like driving the car back and fore to make sure it aligns perfectly in the car parking space when my Mum says "Leave it where it is. It is fine"...

A little OCD? I know people with OCD who do that.

Funny you say that. My youngest brother says I have OCD.
It is actually CDO if you put it in alphabetical order.

That happens to me, it can be very annoying.

Yes. It is amusing looking back at the event(s) , but at the time when one is desperately trying to get out of the mind blank and get ones brain to remember what it is that one is standing there for.... Frustration comes to mind!