To ask how you think?

[IMissVino]

When I’m stressed or upset, my thoughts get what I’ve always described as ‘messy and tangled’. It’s like I can see them in my head, and they are untidy. I really hate this, so I calm myself down and ‘tidy’ them.

Most of the time, my thoughts are in neat, gleaming lines and A clearly leads onto B. It’s how I think, how I communicate and how I process the world.

I was talking to DH about this and he genuinely doesn’t understand what I mean! As in, he couldn’t even begin to visualise what I was describing and was rather stumped by my ‘so what do your thoughts look like, then?’

So, now I’m interested in if this is just a ‘me’ thing and what everyone else’s thoughts ‘look’ like. How would you describe your thought processes?

Yes, @ThorsBedazzler I do that with maps and places. Actually, my favourite types of thoughts.

@ThorsBedazzler I wish I had a mental map!

I can feel the tangles and I know that my subconscious mind is trying to sort the thoughts out. They’ll clear for a while and I’ll be more rational and comfortable and then they’ll suddenly tangle again and my brain feels so uncomfortable I’ll squeeze up my face.

Im autistic/adhd/ocd. I didn’t used to feel like that though.

'Boxes of thoughts" I love this!

It all sounds quite tense- having to organise your thoughts into neat lines? Do you think that's related to anxiety? Sounds like you've permanently got a mental To Do list.
It can help to write thoughts down so you can free up your mind?

My thoughts often wander off abstractly, I don't mind that and can concentrate on one thing while my mind wonders what it'd be like to sleep with Russel Brand or whatever.
Or I think about what other people might be doing, play back a conversation I had with someone that day, worry about money etc. I'm happy to jump from one thought to the next.

That's all a series of mental images.

I don't think I've ever felt uncomfortable about tangled thoughts. The closest I can think of is when I've had a high temperature and had horrible fever dreams or when I took LSD.

It’s not tense and I’m not an even remotely anxious person, so nope. It’s also nothing at all like having a permanent to do list and I have no desire to ‘free my mind’

It’s perfectly fine if you don’t get it. The idea of thoughts wandering off abstractly seems quite unpleasant to me!

I just have a mixture processing memories, most often recent ones, which pop up at random and then lead on to other things. Near constant internal monologue/songs on repeat/replaying or rehearsing of conversations. Sometimes it all goes quiet though and that's when my most creative thoughts pop up - so I'll be dozing or in the shower and I'll suddenly realise how to solve a problem or what to do for a work project.

I definitely have conscious thought mode and a background noise mode. I use the conscious one to purposely think about the environment I'm in if I feel I should appreciate it (eg outside space, running in the park, having a good time with family/friends). I also use this mode to try to think of solutions/strategies when I need to but I've found I can't force this. If nothing's coming I need to go into background mode and wait for quiet until something pops up. It usually does.

Ok sorry Op, I didn't mean to offend you. I meant ways to "free your mind" if you're uncomfortable with the tangled thoughts?

Clearly we're very different thinkers.

Sometimes in spider diagrams.

Sometimes in dialogue.

Always in words. Not always in English.

I find it very hard to learn from purely aural input and far easier to process written information, but I don't see my own thoughts in writing, I hear them.

@PorridgewithQuark I also process written information best. I was really surprised when I learnt that this was unusual.

I kind of have 2 types of thoughts, one I guess are the thoughts of my constant internal dialogue. That bit is like a kind of movie in my mind, usually I have the volume low, or completely off, but sometimes it turns up its own volume all by itself. I can dip in and out of that movie when I want to. Then I have what I feel are my operating thoughts, like organising day to day stuff, or planning for the future, daydreaming, or just thoughts on loads of big and little stuff. That bit is like a giant spidergram that stretches off way into the distance but kind of links back at points too. It is a crazy spidergram for sure, but I sort of have mental signposts that tell me where on the spidergram I am and what subjects are in that area. I know I sound like a total batshit crazy lady, but I kind of like my mind - it's fun to explore it. Sometimes I am amazed at what bit of information/knowledge (often useless 😁) I suddenly discover or remember I have tucked away on a rarely explored path of my spidergram.

I do love the sound of your cake thoughts OP! 😁

The idea of thoughts wandering off abstractly seems quite unpleasant to me

Can you explain why? Sometimes the best ideas pop into my head when I don't expect it? What about subconscious thought? Or daydreaming?

This is so interesting!!
I have multiple strands of thoughts at the same time, always inner voice, often a song playing too (in fact always unless I’m really concentrating) and with visual images.
It sounds messy but it isn’t.
I can be thinking of what I have to do, what I am doing, a legal point (I’m in the middle of a court case), the implications of that point, how to word it, the memories associated with the event.. all at the same time.
I always thought everyone thought in the same way but it’s obvious we don’t!

I find this fascinating, I only recently learned people think in different ways. I do not think in visuals at all, only words, as in I have a running commentary going in my head all the time, in my own voice... I think what I'm going to say before I say it, I hold little conversations in my head, when reading it is like having an audio book, I can hear them aloud in my head. I do dream vivid movie like dreams though.

Oh I'm like @Biffatcrafts .

When I was writing my first big piece of work at school (almost a mini dissertation) I spent so long typing for the first time ever that all of my thoughts were visible as though I was typing them out in my brain. It was utterly bewildering so vivid.

Now typing/working with Word is so normal I never get that. But 25 years ago it freaked me out.

Because, as stated in the OP, my thought processes are clear and linear. In much the same way as that signals anxiety and to do lists to you, the way you describe your thought processes seems like a tangled mess to me.

You sound like you’d be a fabulous team mate in a pub quiz! 😁

@tulippa hi .. we might be mind twins 😁

My thoughts are auditory, like a narrator

Oh, that’s interesting! Like all the tv shows where the protagonist is also narrating everything (I’m currently nostalgia bingeing Veronica Mars 😂).

That sounds like a fun way to think.

@IMissVino Sadly I rarely get a chance to do pub quizzes, but I love doing puzzles and logic games, and I used to enjoy watching game shows like Who Wants to be a Millionaire when I lived in the UK. 😀

@Biffatcrafts I've been on WWTBAM! 😁

Oh wow @IMissVino .. how did you do? Was it fun? I think that's brilliant, but I'm too self conscious to ever be brave enough to do something like that. You are far more brave than me!

This interesting op
Never heard of anyone describe the way they think like that
I have an internal monologue constantly like my inner head voice talking all day about things I need to do
Dunno if that's normal lol