To wonder what it’s like to have a quiet mind?

[GrumpyWombat]

I’ve been referred for an ADHD assessment and I think I’ve only just realised that not everyone has a mishmash of constant thoughts/dialogue going on in their brain… I’m becoming quite overwhelmed when it comes to tasks at work and at home and it’s playing on my mind a lot. I do thinks like Google answers to questions I’m thinking about a lot, I have to play a game while I’m watching TV and still find my mind wandering. Getting to sleep if I’m not absolutely shattered is hard work. I’ve been on anxiety meds on and off for 16 years…

I don't think I know anyone with a quiet mind?

Most people have constant running dialogues and songs going on.

My mind is very quiet. Barely thinking at all!

See I thought this…but then I’m pretty sure my husband has a quiet mind 😂😂😂

I'm not sure many people have a completely quiet mind, it's just that some people are better at rising above the endless chatter and just ignoring it. Not letting it matter.

My DH has a quiet mind, I imagine his to be an empty room with a frog in the corner that occasionally ribbets.

Mine is shouting constantly but DC both diagnosed with ADHD so suspect it's inherited. I can only go to sleep listening to something otherwise my mind just whirls.

That makes sense!

I think it's completely normal.

There's been threads on this before and just about everyone has a 'noisy' mind.

It's just how minds work.

I have gone through phases and I think I know what you mean. My mind is far from quiet, I think all the time but when I'm in a good phase like now, thoughts come and go one by one and I am very present. It's not quiet but much quieter than times ive experienced. There were phases where it's been a mess and it's awful. It's only when I started really trying to relax and deal with stress that I realised the difference. I don't have ADHD just some stressful periods that I probably didn't handle so well.

Mind is not quiet. But it has been broken by the internet

I'm like you, OP, and suspect I have adhd. Sorry, no help!

It's lovely. I've had phases of it, and phases of awful rumination, OCD, ADHD. I think it was hormonal because it was always when I was pregnant. I could just sit on the couch and relax, not thinking or worrying about anything.

Some people definitely do have quiet minds. It must be quite peaceful.
It was only a few years since I started to understand how different our brains can be, for example, when I read, for me it's barely any different to watching television, the story just plays out in my brain. A friend told me that for her it's hearing her own voice as if she's saying the words aloud. Hence I love reading, she doesn't.
A work colleague once told me that while a couple of us chat regularly throughout the day, she feels she has nothing to say to start a conversation. I think this is what having a quiet mind is, peaceful until something external snaps you out of your peace?

Same here. I have tried things like mindfulness, and it impossible for me.
A few people in my life that have ADHD have pointed it out to me, but one things I really struggle with is life admin (prob due to ADHD), so filling in the forms seems like a mammoth task.

i think having constant noise is normal - thinking, evaluating, specific topics, random thoughts constantly running . If you can't control and focus when you need to at work or similar, maybe you have an anxiety disorder or ND?

I have a quiet mind.

Sometimes too quiet.

If anyone asks what I'm thinking, I sometimes say nothing because generally it's all too complex to explain how one thought led to another and another until it's just too random sounding to explain.

It’s something I have thought a lot about recently. I had a autism assessment and the assessor also thinks I have add and could possibly benefit from some drugs, the assessor said I might find having a quite mind a bit scary, but it would enable me to concentrate on one thing better. I am looking forward to finding out.
however a colleague who has autism and add said the drugs made her autism symptoms spiral and she now prefers not to take the drugs as the add helps regulate the autism.

i don’t know how I will feel if I’m not thinking of 50 thousand different things!

@FleetwoodCam yes! My husband says I think of the weirdest things. He doesn’t even notice half of the stuff I think off.

I don’t have an internal monologue, so it’s very ‘quiet’ in my mind. It was only a few years ago that I learned this isn’t the norm!

I have heard the same about meds if you have both autism and adhd…I suspect I might do 🥴 I’ve also heard they can dampen people’s creativity.

Unless I'm actively worrying about something particular, I'm lucky to be able to fall asleep very quickly. I just think about something pleasant or imagine being in a beautiful, peaceful place and I drift off within a few minutes.

When I'm awake, though, I seek constant stimulation. Doing something that requires all my focus, reading, listening to music, podcasts or audiobooks, watching YouTube. Sitting in absolute silence with nothing to 'do' would probably make me fall asleep.

What is this like? I imagine someone staring off into space.

@opsiedaisy Imagine having to explain the trajectory! So I was thinking about someone I went to School with but haven't seen in 20 years and remembered her dating someone who had a ford escort, which led me to wonder what would have needed to go wrong for me to become a prostitute, if I had become one and fell pregnant would I have kept the baby, and if I did.....so what am I thinking? Erm, nothing...

Maybe it helps to think of getting some distance from the mind instead of "quieting" it. Some like to go above, observing and letting go of thoughts (think laying leaves on a stream). Others go below, into body and breath...which with time and attention do quiet.

Well.

In the summer one of my favourite things to do is sit out in the garden with my cats on my lap and listen to the birds. I can do that for at least half an hour and sometimes a whole hour goes by. Occasionally a thought will drift in - maybe one of the cats will feel heavy and I'll think I need to move.

I do have a busy mind sometimes - if I'm planning something - eg at the moment I'm planning a kitchen renovation and I'm wondering what colour to paint it.

I easily lose things from my conscious mind so I forget things easily so I have lots of black boards and notebooks around to remind me.

I've heard other people say they're thinking of 50,000 things at the same time which I don't really understand because I usually think about one thing at once.

The thought might get interrupted eg if someone shouts or whatever but then that's a new thought.