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?

My thoughts are not visual. Anything I see with my mind is shadowy and undefined and swirling.
Irl I have no attention to detail, can't draw etc.
I am, however, great at reading people, and the big picture.
I look like I'm day dreaming sometimes but really have 3 or 4 things I'm remembering, figuring out, improving.
If I get disturbed I can't recall what I was thinking about.
If left to myself for a while, can make great things happen in my mind which then translate to my life. I'm usually thinking about practical issues.

I'm a dunce and a genius at the same time.

It would be fascinating to experience how someone else thinks for a bit.

This is one of the most fascinating and interesting threads I've read on here.
I think I might be a little jealous I don't visualise like others do (except the bit about sleeping with Russell Brand, thanks for reminding me @SmileyClare!).
I have a question but really don't want to offend anyone because I don't mean it in a derogatory way in the slightest so please forgive me: has anyone who visualises like OP or differently, the nearness and order etc, ever been diagnosed with ASD?

How do you decide which line of thinking to embark upon? Do you have a mental meta-planner that assesses the possible lines of thought you could pursue and selects the best one to take?

To what extent do you have to know your destination before you set out? If you don't, you might find that your line of thinking takes you to a dead-end, or that a side-step or even a paradigm shift is required to move you to a useful conclusion. If you do, then why not jump straight there, from A to Z, rather than trotting through every letter in between?

Having read everyone else's descriptions here, I was starting to think that I was absurd and an oddity (wouldn't be the first time), but you've described exactly how I think.

The thing that some people have picked up on with me before though is how I seem to forget that what I'm thinking in my head, I'm not explaining out loud, so I could be discussing the weather with someone and the next sentence that they'll hear from me will be related to elephants. Now in between sentences, I'll have thought my way along a path from the weather to elephants, but it seems to happen quickly in my head, so the conversation will be like.

Someone: I hear the weather is to be crap
Me: Yeah. I hate rain.
Me: I wonder how long elephants live?

I think I come across as nuts most of the time. When I write, I tend to be long-winded as I feel the need to explain the connection between the thoughts.

My thoughts are like a big tangled ball of wool

I'm renowned for going off on tangents in conversation too. Meetings require a strict agenda with me.

Strangely, music moves me tremendously - so much so that there are times when I have to cut out music from my life entirely at times as it affects me so much (think screaming at the Sistine Chapel).
On the contrary though, I have been tested as to how I learn and I'm predominantly visual with kinaesthetic coming in a close second and auditory is really low. Weird really that music moves me so much!

I would describe my mind as like an internet browser on a computer, with loads of open pages. It usually functions fairly seamlessly, and I know exactly what's going on, but when it all gets a bit out of hand (like now), it's as if there are too many open pages and a gazillion pop-ups and on top of that the mouse doesn't work...gahhhhhh

Another question to OP. To what extent are you neat lines of thoughts problem-solving in nature? Do you start with a problem or question and take one step at a time, follow some question by question process, until you have arrived at an answer? If so, does that always work for you? Or do you sometimes need to jump sideways, look elsewhere, take inspiration from another line of thinking entirely, in order to solve a problem?

Or is it that your lines are not problem-solving, they are descriptive? e.g. 'I am doing this, next I will do that, followed by the other and later I will do something else'. In which case your ordered or tangled thoughts sound like they're to do with the speed at which you tell yourself your story. It sounds as though speed causes you to lose control of your narrative.

This is so interesting. Love hearing how other people think.

Personally when I'm deep in thought, my eyes disconnect a little. I can still see, but it's like the focus has moved to the inside of my head. I see pictures rather than the thoughts written out though if that makes sense. I carry memories as photographs in my head.

I also make weird associations. For example let's say I'm talking to a client at work and I get a visual of a certain street or place, that location is forever associated with that client in my head and the client will pop into my mind when I drive down that road. It can actually be kind of annoying sometimes haha.

I had a consultation with my GP about a month ago and he gave me a letter to bring with me to A&E. He's lucky to be alive. 😆
There's a whole page discussing the issue (a medication he had started me on) and the last paragraph states "Doodadoo was somewhat difficult to work towards shared management with as she moved from subject to subject too quickly" WTF????????????? Is that your fucking medical opinion DOC???????

Not offended at all! And, nope. As certain as anyone can be that I’m NT.

This sounds exhausting. My thoughts and memories are just there. I don't have to pull them from anywhere or line them or untangle them. I just think. It's sound rather slow to have to untangle, line them up, pull from different areas of your brain etc
Maybe I'm just not that deep but if I want to think of something I do, if I want to visualise something I do. There isn't a process, it doesn't look like anything

^

That's what foolsandtheirmoney said, and I am exactly the same.

I'm amazed to hear about all this!

Fwiw I'm a fairly organised person, I call myself 'mentally organised' but am nowhere near neat and tidy with stuff. I bet the OP on this thread is really neat and tidy.

I'd love to have ordered thinking. My thinking would be better described as chaotic I suppose. Apparently I'm an ideas generator (or some such fluff). In terms of work, I need people who land me back onto planet earth working with me lol (that is not my opinion - that's the conclusion of another study done by a workplace lol).

My brain gets exhausted flitting around the place. I have to be very careful to engage in repetitive tasks requiring my utmost concentration (for me that can be cleaning or going to the gym). It takes me out of my head if that makes sense.

If there are multiple options, I’ll just do all of them. I don’t think a line of thought can ever be a dead end, I can’t imagine what that would be like.

What you’re asking about seems to be problem solving - working towards useful conclusions, etc. I was describing how I think - which yes, is how I problem solve - but it’s also just how my mind works at any point in time. I’m not really looking for useful conclusions most of the time.

That's pretty close to how I operate too!

i used to work as an accountant & be able to retain a lot of information, moving from one clients accounts to another's. Lots of meetings, phone calls, instant recollection of multiple details etc

but now that's all been replaced with thick fog, I can't remember any 'data' or just 'life' stuff and I certainly can't work through things in my head.

I've always been an 'on paper' thinker. I need to write things down, make lists, rewrite lists. The lists themselves are not important, it's the act of writing it down that untangles & calms my mind.

Then I think you're only imagining your thoughts to be in a straight line. It sounds as though you're simply describing a sequence of experiences, one following the other at a pace you find comfortable, not lines of thought.

If there are multiple options, I’ll just do all of them. I don’t think a line of thought can ever be a dead end, I can’t imagine what that would be like.

^

Can you do other stuff whilst you filter through? Like washing up or whatever? Is the thinking in the background?

Thought-wise, 'doing all of them' is jumping around.

Ah, I wrote my first response to you before I saw this.

And, no to all of that. What you refer to as a sideways jump/looking elsewhere/skipping a step is just the next logical step to me. My thoughts being linear doesn’t mean that they are about just one thing or stuck on one track, just that they’re in clear lines.

It’s also nothing to do with speed. Most of the time, this is all happening in split seconds. Like I said, things get ‘tangled’ when I’m stressed or upset, which doesn’t happen particularly often.

You are correcting me on my description of how I think? That’s…very strange. Thank you for your input.

What I'm saying is that I think your 'straight lines' are something you superimpose over your thoughts after you've had them. It's experiential. When, ideas-wise, you're actually twisting and turning all over the place.

Are you really creative? You sound super creative. 😁

I'm trying to interrogate your use of words and concepts, including 'thought' and 'logical' and 'line', in order to understand what it is that you're saying.

I'm postulating what you might mean, based on what I've understood from your writing, to gain your reaction, thereby discover more about what you did mean.

I don't believe we all mean the same thing by 'thought' or 'line of thought'.

We did have a really fascinating department assessment/workshop thing where you come out as blue, green, red or yellow. I think there were 30 of us in the department (predominantly engineers). We were given cards with statements on them and had to hand them to our colleagues for whom we thought the statements were true. I didn't notice that the cards were all different colours, but they were lol. In any case, I came out as yellow (along with only 3 others from the 30). The next part of the workshop was that we were all sent off into our groups (according to colour) and tasked with organising a work day out. It was utterly fascinating to see the results. My yellow friends and I organised one helluva hoolee. We had champagne, cocktails, we were on a beach, we had salsa music etc. etc, hula skirts... you get the picture.
The sort of opposites to us were blue (the engineers). They had extremely detailed well, details! They hadn't thought of music or anything.

The reds (associated with leaders usually), had extremely regimented rules. There were times to be there. Etc.
Greens (the diplomats), had thought of everything including whether to invite spouses and they even considered the dietary requirements of vegans lol.

The point of the exercise was to show that each person contributes something. While our party would have been one great party, none of us would ever have made it there as we hadn't considered a venue or how we'd get there or anything. We were just thinking PARTAY!!!

Strangely not! I'm full of bullshit ideas though! Does that count?