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?

It's funny that some of you mention music. I'm actually listening to music at the moment as there's a weird beeping noise coming from some indeterminate location lol. I don't 'think or see' music. It gives me an emotion. As distinct from a thought.

Which is why I'm so susceptible to it and it changing my mood possibly?

Doesn’t music impact on everyone’s mood?! It had honestly never occurred to me that this might not be the case, but I suppose there must be people for whom music does nothing.

I'm probably at the extreme end of it. Music (and lyrics) can literally make me want to boogie and it can also make me feel like shit. It has taken me a long time to figure out that listening to 'sad' songs when I'm already sad, is going to land me in suicidal territory!

They've actually done studies on the impact of music in supermarkets or department stores on the behaviour of shoppers. Fast music tends to have people rushing around. More sedate, music, tends to have shoppers who will browse for longer.

I've not noticed music in shops recently. But Lidl/Aldi's model would probably require techno and Waitrose might have some classical I'd imagine lol.

If music was a feeling, this would be me when I go into Lidl.

And this would be me in Waitrose

😆

I cant think or see what my own children look like inside my head. I have no chatter in my head but do think in words, never pictures or visual words. I can look at my cat right now - close my eyes and I can't think up an image of her. I can tell you she's got a splodge on her nose, what colour she is - but I can't get a visual in my head.

When I'm trying to figure out a problem, it's very rational and orderly thinking.

I dream a lot and can change dreams as they are happening.

This is so interesting! I was reading the whole thread, struggling to relate to any of the posts (seeing moving images in your head!?!), but then your posts are exactly what I experience.

I can’t visualise at all - I struggle to even visualise my husband or my mum, just a quick flash. I am a writer by trade and a big reader. I struggle to follow film and tv - have to have the subtitles on and read them (but no hearing issues). Like you, when I describe things it’s words in my head I’m describing.

My thoughts are like a spoken inner monologue in my head. Words which I hear my (inner?) voice saying. Sometimes when I’m wfh alone I’ll say them out loud.

I’m not artistic (drawing/painting) but I can write good description. I just find it easier to google an image of what I’m describing first (can’t really hold it in my mind’s eye).

I wonder what it all means!

🤣🤣🤣

Yes, this is a more extreme version of what I have.

I am also a very rational/organised person.

Word-thinkers unite!

I have a headache when I know I have something to do on my to do list.
mu right temple feels cramped underneath and the feeling doesn't go away until the task is complete.
for example, I shoved boxes under my bed when I was sorting out the cupboard. I had a headache for months until I sorted under the bed.

Part of tidying a room is tidying under the bed or the sofa for me.
it is overwhelming at times.

Kon Marie, minimalism seemed like a good idea to make my home more organised so I could stop having headaches BUT now I see everything I put in the black bags to the charity shop and I can "feel" the full bags, unsorted, just chucked in a big pile at the back if the charity shop in my head under my skull on my right side too.
I can't ever fix that.
I think maybe Monica is like that from friends. When she came to tidy Ross's girlfriends house who is very messy? I can't sleep knowing about it!
Funnily enough my house is always a mess! I never have time to tidy everything and go to cup board organisation too often!

So thats the to do list part of my Brain.

I'm always thinking or singing or reciting TV shows in my head (I watch things over and over again. I hate new TV shows or films or music)
actually, thinking about it, I hate new people.

I hear stuff sometimes and it's shocking how clear I hear in my head vs how fuzzy outside. Especially as I'm going a bit deaf in one ear.
I see things too, fuzzy round the edges and memories are brought back every day. I think I probably think mostly in memories.

I remember as a child I would rewatch videos over and over in preparation for a long trip, so I wouldn't get bored on the way. I'd watch Simpson episodes in my head. Still do now.

"nothing at all"

Funnily enough I was very late learning the time on an annologue clock or map reading/ navigating my local area. I leant how to do that at age 14 I think, now I'm very good at navigating and just know where to go.
I also can knit intricate patterns from my mind BUT I can't follow a pattern. I have to make up my own in my head.
I find knitting and doodling patterns very calming. Especially knitting as it's 'accomplishing' something rather than doodling which doesn't help anyone. I hate watching TV, I always need to be ticking something off my list. I usually bring a washing pile in the sitting room to watch TV. But that's just a mom thing I'm sure.

@InBlue so interesting that you’re a writer. It’s my dream job and all my teachers always encouraged me to write. Like you, I seem to have talent for description, but unlike you I cannot come up with a decent storyline 😂
I wonder if there’s a connection to thinking style. I also cannot draw and suspect this is in part because I cannot hold an image in my head.

oh yes I can't see faces. Just bodies. I can see photographs of faces but I can't see a face.

I can't remember what My children looked like as babies. just see a photo of them as a baby that's displayed in the house.

Can I ask those of you who have more vivid thinking (not sure quite how to describe it) whether you are good at remembering peoples' names when you meet them?
I am utterly dreadful with names. Awful.

I am too busy in my brain, taking them in so to speak.

I would also be a really shit witness to a crime as I'd just about recall race and gender and an approximate age, but if you were to ask me whether a thief wore glasses, or had a moustache, or the colour of the clothes they were wearing, or even hair colour, I wouldn't be able to tell you. What I WOULD be able to tell you, in minute detail, is precisely how they behaved, what their demeanour was and I'd even venture a guess at what I thought they were thinking i.e. whether they appeared scared etc.

Again, harking back to that assessment which was done at work about me, one of the phrases which stuck out, was 'In general, Doodadoo is speaking in general'.

I think someone above mentioned it, but I tend to see the bigger picture rather than details. Therefore, my memories of someone are not detailed?

Can I ask those of you who have more vivid thinking (not sure quite how to describe it) whether you are good at remembering peoples' names when you meet them?

Visual thinking goes from aphantasia (no mind's eye) to hyperphantasic (very visual, almost lije real life

I am at the hyperphantasic end of the spectrum. I'm usually pretty good at remembering people's names. If I ever get them wrong for some reason, I will really struggle to remember the right name ever more, so mostly I make an effort to try and get it right first time.

I wonder if I'm hyperphantasic?

I can remember and visualise almost every inch of people/things, and can see them in my head. For example, I know what all of my friends teeth are like, and can easily conjure up an image of them. Or an item of clothing, or a car, the texture of my parents rug, or anything really.

People have also said that I 'notice everything.' I do, but I don't have to try to do it, it just happens.

Maybe I'm really odd!

Can I ask those of you who have more vivid thinking (not sure quite how
to describe it) whether you are good at remembering peoples' names when
you meet them

I'm also terrible for name remembering and visualising faces, one of my children utterly unbelivable at it though, she's often pointed out things in family/friends which they themselves didn't know (unsymetrical feature or such) she's an exceptional artist and I think she would have made a great plastic surgeon, the details are rediculous and mocks me for not understanding. 😂

Not grat at math, directions etc, can be prone to ocd, colours annoy me, colour has to be right with clothes or decor, I can attribute colour to most things even music, mood is a given obviously.

I can't watch tv if subtitles are on, too distracting, I do love music that have lyrics that tell a story so if the lyricist has a brilliant imagination, that I love (probably why I love Donald Fagen so much). When I was younger I leant how to type at college and I'm sure other people may agree that when I was speaking every word or conversation I had got transferred into the keyboard in my mind, I was unable to stop it.
Also no to the describing of what someone wears, say if you were to identify someone not good with that, but yes to their mood or expression.

God it really is difficult thinking about how you think, brillaint thread.

I've noticed cops are like that lol!

Not all of them mind you! But, shit, they're observant!

I always come out as a red in these things, I've since learnt it is because of ASD, I get seen in certain ways because I am so literal and can come across as abrupt. My thoughts are defintley aligned to the greens and yellows.

I don't see pictures in my mind but I do dream a lot.

Really interesting. Are you in a managerial role? The 4 reds out of the group were all project managers.

It's interesting actually, that the department was comprised of A Head of Department, Deputy Head of Department, then 5 managers of 5 different components within the team and 5 project managers and then the engineers. There were 2 women out of 30 (I was one). And 26 had a degree in engineering.

The yellows (which is where I partied) were the Head of Department, the Deputy Head of Department, Me and another guy whose role crossed between IT and engineering.

The Reds were all Project Managers, so they were managing teams of builders on-site etc, planning, overseeing but office based at that time.

The Blues were all engineers and one cost analysist lol.

The Greens worked in roles which involved a lot of diplomacy.

We had very happy top level management which gave the other engineering managers (extremely senior in their fields) the freedom to be their own bosses in a way?

Big boss and deputy dawg were also chartered engineers and yellow!

We organised the party on the beach!

It was part of our exercise afterwards to meet with our opposites on the spectrum. My two opposites were very quiet guys. One was the cost analysis guy and the other was an engineer. They liked quiet and solitude. I like noise and activity. We had to meet to understand how best to work with each other. It was really useful actually to understand how other people work.