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Symptoms: scattered thinking

NAS62215

Does anyone experience these things please:

Scattered thinking - difficulty holding whole concepts together in my mind, like I understand pieces of the concept when someone explains it but then it kind of disappears. I can’t grasp the whole thing together. Unless I have a picture - I am better with diagrams or pictures.

I also get kind of stuck down a rabbit hole, thinking I am right about something or really focusing on a small none important detail and it can take a while (or someone repeatedly persuading me I am wrong) for me to adjust my thinking and see a bigger picture. 

I find that I don’t always know how I feel about something until later and I can sometimes feel really muddled and not be sure of how I feel, like what the truth is.

I can see different sides of a situation but I only feel one thing at a time. Like it’s hard to hold opposing feelings in my head at the same time and see a balanced picture.

Difficulty making decisions - Like in work, prioritising. And  when someone asks a question. I want to tell them the truth and I can think of so many options and I am not always sure which one is true. I just think of the options and then I am stuck. Like when someone says get insight into your behaviour - how do you get insight? I can think of the options but I don’t know what the answer is.

I can not decide if I want to socialise. I like being with small groups of people or one to one but I get agitated if I think I won’t get my own space. I do pretty much always enjoy seeing people when I do but I get stuck either not seeing people or I get on a social role, I see one person and then feel like meeting with others. I prefer to do activities with friends or chatting for a few hours but a whole day is a lot for me. Even though I enjoy it if I have not seen the person for a while but I find I want my own space again after.

  • Some of you issues are quite similar to some of my issue and their not just Autism related. I have Autism,  Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Dyspraxia,Dyslexia and something called Aphantasia.

    Aphantasia is a mental impairment which some people are unable to visualize mental images it can vary on severity. I personal cannot create any images in my head at all however the way in which i remember location and diagrams is so complex for me to try to explain.

    these comorbidity conditions along with the Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder make it difficult for me to learn new things despite me being heavily a visual learner.

    The rabbit hole you described is the thinking, logic and attention to detail that comes with autism with the impulsivity and inattentiveness of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and no one other than someone like us understand the dysfunction is causes. 

    Individuals with both Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder have massive struggles in regulating their emotional state but what makes it difficult when you have both is that the autism side of thing can make recognizing and understanding the individual emotions difficult and makes it challenging in recognizing multiple emotions at once. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder side of the situation and the impulsivity prevents you from pausing and stop yourself acting on your emotion state which leads to the individual processing the situation later on making you feel shame because the way you've acted or questioning yourself on how you dealt with the situation usually poorly.  

    Difficulty prioritizing and organizing is another issue for both individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Dyspraxia and in some people with autism. Autism co morbid  attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Dyspraxia and makes it somewhat more challenging especially when making decisions.

    Its difficult but it is possible to recognize your own behavior when you have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder but yet again the autism makes it more challenging and i personally cant seem to get this under control either. its all about make those mental brakes and working on impulsivity. 

    Socializing the way you have described it is somewhat similar yet not very typical of individual with autism traits with the fear that come with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the impulsivity. social interaction for me is exhausting, i like and sometimes enjoy the company but the social gymnastic is drain and i personally can last about two hours before i have to leave and do my own thing to recharge. 

    I think your similar to me where you have not only Autism but also have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Aphantasia and because you very intelligent and verbal you fell through the cracks. You may just have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder what would confirm the autism would be if you experience meltdowns and shutdowns. Do you ever have sensory problems too?  

  • Whether you're on the Austism Spectrum or not if you have traits or worries and find the replies helpful on this forum then thats a good thing isn't it. There is alot of friendly opinions/advice on this website and I would say we have a lovely community just trying to help one another out.

    I am officially diagnosed and i personally find it very difficult to picture things in my mind when someone is explaining something to me so I will have to go over what the person has said a number of times to understand and try and picture in my head what they are saying.

    An example would be when my wife wanted the dining room wall knocked out to create a kitchen/diner (worrying times) and was trying to explain to me with the builder what will happen and how the new layout would be. I needed to see a plan and pictures to understand better. Also when given instructions at work if its not wrote down to follow then I have to ho over it a few times for it to sink in.

    I hope my reply helps or I may be talking about something completely different to what your question is and if so I do apologise in advance.

  • Much of this is very familiar to what I experience.

    Needing to see something to better understand it, struggling with priorities and decision making, getting a touch stuck on focusing on a small detail ... from what I gather about autism brain processing, these things would be pretty consistent with that.

    I'm pretty new to autism myself but I've been reading up on the research papers on brain processing to get an idea about this.

    I expect others might be able to better guide on the differences and overlap between autism and having autism traits.

    I haven't had a diagnosis but I figured that I have enough traits, and they're causing me enough trouble, to justify joining this forum and reading as much as I can to help me understand myself better.

    I gather that there are quite a fair few people here who are self-diagnosed but not 'officially' diagnosed and also people like you who have been confirmed to have traits but have not been given an official autism diagnosis.

    I guess it depends what you're looking for? Is it an understanding of yourself? In which case knowing you have autistic traits is a useful step on that path. If it is to get specific support then let us know.

    There are quite a lot of forum posts where members have written out their opinions on the benefits and disadvantages of seeking and getting a diagnosis. So these could be tracked down if that would help? 

  • I am asking because I’m frustrated that I have been told I have autistic traits but not autism so I don’t know if these symptoms are autism or not.