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?

And I’m saying it’s bizarre that you’re presuming to tell me (the person who is thinking the thoughts) how I think. The fact that you don’t see that is even odder.

I love this! 🤣🤣🤣

It was fascinating. I remember the facilitator coming around and just laughing when he came to us as we fit every stereotype of yellow. No plan. Nothing. Just a party.

The blues had considered engineering works on the underground...... Lol. You actually couldn't make it up.

@Doodadoo A GOOD party, though!

🤣🤣🤣

Once we had the others to organise us all getting there lol

I visualise my thoughts and think in pictures and sort of like watching a video of what I'm thinking of. Sometimes it's words as well but mainly pictures...

I mentioned to my husband how amazing the visuals were when I was reading a book (Fairytale by Stephen King) and he looked at me like he had no idea what I meant... he reads very little and I never questioned it but it turns out he sees the words on the page and his mind doesn't translate that into a picture in his head ( mine does)... it never occurred to me that I processed information in any way differently to him... not sure WH but I assumed everyone saw pictures in their heads...

Very interesting indeed!

I wonder if that’s common amongst people who don’t really enjoy reading? They just see words and that’s not fun for them? It would totally explain how some people don’t understand how anyone enjoys reading and some people don’t understand how anyone doesn’t!

Another predominant thing that only the Reds thought of was........... a budget. Haha. Typical joy killers.

@IMissVino my thoughts exactly! My DD thinks reading is boring and when I asked her about what she sees she said the words... she's very like her dad in so many ways so I'm not surprised! I'm an avid reader and quite creative and both DD and DH are quite the opposite!

Interesting thread.

Yeah music creates visuals for me, I retain any lyrics never forget them, I also visualise movement but maybe becuase I used to be a dancer, every type of music has a dance for example, oh thats a samber, that's a cha cha, waltz, gavotte etc.

If music is playing it always overides everything, but bad bouts of illness stopped this, music made no sense and became confusing, it was horrible to experience. Glad it's come back.

The written words bookwise arn't as visual to me, I do have a problem with too many thoughts colliding to answer questions, I seem to over complicate answers.

i also find it quite weird how people answer their phone, mine must be held to the left ear otherwise I can't seem to process the information.

I recognise elements of what pp's have described, but nothing chimes precisely with my thinking.

I don't visualise my thoughts unless I'm specifically attempting to 'see' how, say, mustard and teal look together. I have to close my eyes to do this.

I have a photographic memory for places I have been, and events I've attended. Oddly enough, I've never taken pictures/photographs because they're all there inside my head - waiting to be specifically recalled or to pop up in connection to something else.

I don't have an monologue like 'Peep Show', nor do I have a soundtrack.

If I were required to describe my thought process, I'd describe a carousel, with multiple ever-renewing horses, moving at great speed. Each horse presents itself, is dealt with or put aside until another horse arrives to be dealt with or matched with horse/s previously put aside.

I don't maintain a diary/calendar but I always know where I should be and when. I recall names/faces from decades ago, and am the 'encyclopedia' in my social group when people can't recall a name/location/event.

When I'm relaxing in the bath, my mind goes into what I call 'freefall' and I receive 'inspiration/solutions' regarding problems I'm trying to resolve, and sometimes solutions to things I didn't even realise were problems!

Like others, I have lists of lists.

All my family are musicians though.
Definite pictures with songs, not just some sort of Pink Floyd light show.

Sorry-which drug caused this?

I think in words - it's quite hard to explain as I neither see the words or see them, usually, but just understand the meaning of them. Does that make sense? There's also a lot of music in there, including very persistent earworms when I am stressed. I can sometimes see music, in moving shapes and patterns. And sometimes my thoughts are visual, but not always.

I would have thought that's highly unusual; to not be able to visualise something described in text?
When reading a passage describing a windswept beach or a war zone for example, most people from a mental picture of that scene.

Some people have "face blindness" where they struggle to recognise people they know or pick them out of a crowd. I wonder if that's linked to being unable to visualise thoughts?
For example, if you're asked to describe what a person looks like, most people immediately form an image in their head.

It's interesting that some process information better by reading written words. Surely that varies? With an abstract concept like the theory of gravity then id find a written description easier, for something like changing a tyre I'd rather watch an instructional video on You Tube!

I'm not sure anyone fits into a neat category when it comes to thought processes.

I can’t grasp what you mean. Are you good at math? (I’m not).

I am hyperphantasic, so have very clear images in my head. My memories are mostly visual, but I think they aren't all, given how certain smells can bring back memories. I sometimes remember where something was written on a page (useful in exams, or if I forget a shopping list.)

I also have an inner monologue, except it's like a dialogue, mentally talking through things with someone - that someone changes depending on the subject and stuff. It's not actual voices in my head, especially as I'm the only one who is talking. I guess I mentally pick someone suitable to bounce ideas off or something.

Overall, my thoughts are like load of ribbons running in parallel. One of them always has music, which mostly I'm not really aware of, unless I get it as an earworm, but otherwise I can sort of pull it up - it's currently a tune used on some TV advert. If I'm focussing on something at work or whatever, I can usually keep that band topmost, but the others are still there, and might be things like, "oh, I want more meetings with D his voice is gorgeous to listen to," "must pick up milk on the way home," "what am I going to get L for Christmas?" "do marsupials ever hibernate?" and all sorts of random stuff.

Some bands will rise to the surface more easily, especially if they're worries, like "what if the car needs something big fixing when it's MOTed?" and when I get stressed, things flip up and down between the layers of ribbon too quickly and there is a risk of them tangling - which is mostly different from random connections between seemingly unconnected things in my head and tangents (which I've sometimes been known to voice in conversation with people, if it seems interesting, which confuses people...)

I would have thought that's highly unusual; to not be able to visualise something described in text?
When reading a passage describing a windswept beach or a war zone for example, most people from a mental picture of that scene.

Current estimates seem to be around 4% of people are aphantasic and another 13% or so have poor ability to visualise, but research in this area is comparatively new, so we mostly just don't know. It's thought there could be a genetic element, so it might be that in some parts of the world, numbers will be higher or lower, but we simply don't know yet.

It can be very difficult to think about how you think, because the very act of doing so changes the thoughts, so you have to sort of creep up on them from the side so they don't notice. Very Schrödinger in that way.

I think you only tend to become aware of it when other people make remarks about you (like me skipping from the weather to elephants). I do recall having a conversation at a group and one girl saying that she can't see memories. I think we were all a bit baffled and left scratching our heads.

Abstract concepts are really difficult for me to grasp. Physics was my nemesis. If I can't visualise it, I can't understand it.
When you think of the amount of threads here which require diagrams, I'd say that it's pretty common actually. If there's details which I can't grasp the layout of for example, my brain gets flustered so I just have to leave those threads.

I've often considered that I can't imagine things that I haven't seen/experienced. Like in dreams. I tend to dream with images of places I've been to, and people I know if you get me.
I've wondered about babies. Since they have no substantial memory pile, what do they dream about?

Or dogs? Lol.

The brain is the final frontier.

I “hear” my thoughts in my head. Sometimes it’s just one, when I’m busy it’s like when all the kids are talking to me at once (which happens a lot with both thoughts and kids). I have to pick which to focus on and kind of tune the others out while keeping an awareness of them in case they say something important.
When I’m stressed I tend to have even more, and the stressful ones whisper away determinedly and won’t stop. Sometimes there’s added whimpering/ frustrated “aargh”s.
I can’t visualise anything, ever: objects or thoughts!
Its strange to see how different thinking is for everyone.

Oh, and reading! I love reading! I think it might be in part that when I read the only things I hear in my head are the words I read. It doesn’t matter that I can’t visualise: when I see things they’re described in words in my head anyway, it’s how I make sense of seeing!
i struggle to follow films though. I have to hear the “spoken” description of what’s happening in my head, and the words of the characters. Plus if an actor is in a scene wearing different clothes to the scene before I don’t recognise them unless I’m expecting them to be there so I can get half an hour into a film before I realise it’s the same character, which is confusing.

I think someone upthread described having music in almost exactly the same way, so you may have a mind twin!