Would you take a pill that turned off your constant thoughts?

[ofwarren]

Please be aware that this is the Neurodiverse Mumsnetters board

As an autistic, my brain makes connections and patterns constantly and has thoughts flying through it all of the time. It doesn't seem to slow at any point and it can be exhausting at times. I expect this is even more severe in the ADHD brain.

If a drug existed that could turn off these thoughts, would you take it?

The reason I ask is because I went through a stage of trying meditation and it never seemed to do anything but one time it felt like my thoughts had totally stopped, my mind went blank. It didn't feel calming though, I actually freaked out and have never done it since!
I'm not sure I'd want my thoughts to stop or to be like those people who have no internal dialogue.

I feel like that too. Otherwise why would religious people talk about their inner life and why would meditations talk about paying attention to your thoughts or not trying to stop the thoughts letting them pass like clouds. That alll says that people have an internal voice to listen to or not listen to or pray with in the first place. It's why the idea of Pinocchio and Jimminy cricket as his conscious works because we have an internal voice that tells us what we should do but a wooden boy wouldn't have, or when people say they have an Angel in one ear and devil in the other, that's the same as saying your having an internal battle or whatever. It's all inner voice

I’m so glad this is not just me. This also explains my leisure activity/habit I formed a few years back that I started to call my Wikipedia Black Hole Friday Nights™️. Instead of going out or even watching stuff on Netflix, I’d just sit and follow links in Wikipedia entries for hours, reading learning about so many interesting topics and doing (semi) deep dives. Just me, a charcuterie plate, and my tablet for hours. Living the dream!

This is all starting to make sense now. I think I may have undiagnosed ADHD and I’d like to have an assessment this year.

@ofwarren - I haven’t read the whole thread so this might already have been discussed, but have you been assessed for ADHD?

I was diagnosed with ADHD 5 years before I got my autism diagnosis, and I suppose it’s hard to separate one from the other, and the pill you describe is my ADHD medication (it is for me anyway 😁). I prefer to keep my dose fairly low though as I find the slow slow mind a bit of a strange place to inhabit, it was a bit dull when I’d been used to so much happening in there!

It’s nice to have the option though, if I’m really stressed and it all starts moving too fast then I can take a higher dose and ground myself a little while it all slows down.

I would today.

The door to the shit room (things I don't want to think about) won't close so I'm battling hard.

If it's just random thoughts that are not unpleasant, I wouldn't take a pill for that.

For anxiety and intrusive thoughts, both me and my daughter take SSRIs and have found them hugely helpful in turning off the constant chatter of negative thoughts.

I don't get it. Are you saying that not everyone thinks ALL the time? Surely we all do? I mean, surely we all have a constant inner voice thinking thoughts, observing, contemplating, dreaming, singing, counting, considering what its seeing or noticing or remembering something or focussed on something? If you aren't thinking I can't imagine what you are doing? How can a mind be blank, be thinking nothing -effectively 'unplugged' like a computer? Is that even possible?. Even when meditating - say you are visualising colours for example, surely the inner voice is still saying ah, there's orange, ah I'm picturing oranges and apricots and etcccc Are you saying the average Jo wanders around not thinking thoughts when it doesn't need to? Is that possible? I can't imagine it? When driving a car, does the NT just think about the driving or one topic? Or do they not have minds that wonder about the passport that needs renewing, the conversations they just had, the shopping that needs to be bought, the dust on the car radio and the streak on the windscreen and the colour of the sky, the need to chew gum, trying to remember what date they need to be at an appointment, has their inbox got a new email, did so and so post on instagram etc etc etc? What IS a quiet mind? What IS a noisy mind? I'm not sure how to know any different? Other than maybe the moment you've had a few glasses of wine or have had such a full on day that you are reading a book/watching the telly and you can't keep your eyes open.

Ah now, yes, that's a good one😖 ... mine is pretty firmly barricaded these days - but I do have a 'less shit room' that gets rarely opened to examine thoughts.

No,its who I am

Um whut? Normies can turn their brain off?! 🤯

I'd love a pill! Send me the pill!

If I didn't have my own kaleidoscope mind for company it would be very quiet round here.

No, never. When I was younger I experimented with quite a broad range of drugs, and I discovered some gave me the ability to hyper focus on subjects I would never naturally be able to. The lack of background noise didn’t make those subjects any more interesting, they just made them possible.
I imagine that a drug that took away all the background noise permanently would just make all those boring, but necessary parts of life tedious. And certainly all those areas where I usually give myself allowed mental distractions would be impossible if there was nothing but the task at hand to focus on.
Anything sedating doesn’t seem to stop my brain, it just seems to slow it so I can’t keep up with the thoughts. Or it seems to produce the thoughts with infuriating slow motion.