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Gut feeling / gut instinct

Ice Swimmer
over 1 year ago

People talk about having "gut" instincts or feelings, about people, situations, choices.

I rarely get these but instead consciously work through all the different aspects to reach a conclusion. This affects me when choosing food to eat or off a menu, to the extent that I avoid making a decision and go without (unless social niceties necessitate otherwise - stress point).

I am very wary of new people and need 5 or 6 longish meetings before I can form an opinion. Studies say that for instance in a job interview the interviewer makes a decision within a minute or so.

I will mull over purchases of clothes, shoes, house decorations for a long time, deciding if I need them, can I justify spending the money, is there something more suitable, is it the best colour, texture etc.

More expensive or more technical things, I spend months researching and struggling to decide as I worry that I haven't got sufficient information to make a solid decision.

Overall, I find decision making incredibly stressful. If I am rushed I will ruminate for days after, about the "what if".

I have searched the archives and see no-one mentioning this, so could this be an aspect of my autism, or just my personality?

If it is an autistic traits has anyone got any pointers for reducing the stress?

Parents
  • over 1 year ago

    I wonder if it's more about whether one is a top-down or bottom-up kind of thinker.

    I don't know if it's an autistic thing. I don't feel particular "anxiety" over some decisions. I know I lack foresight. I think it's more that I need to assess ALL the detail before deciding. Because of this, I don't seem to ruminate or regret things like other people I know.

    I'm trying more to go with the flow / gut instinct. For some choices I decide if it really matters or not. For small decisions like clothes, everything matches and I have one pair of general footwear. For eating out, once I've read the whole menu 500 times and whittled it down to 2 choices, I just pick one because whatever I choose is a treat and will probably be nice. If it's not I'll have forgotten about it by tomorrow. If i get distracted by other options after a decision, I am firm with myself and say "no I have made the decision now".

    There's a lot of unecessary choice in the modern world. Have you heard of Buridan's Ass? The hypothetical donkey who starved because he couldn't decide which bale of hay to eat.

Reply
  • over 1 year ago

    I wonder if it's more about whether one is a top-down or bottom-up kind of thinker.

    I don't know if it's an autistic thing. I don't feel particular "anxiety" over some decisions. I know I lack foresight. I think it's more that I need to assess ALL the detail before deciding. Because of this, I don't seem to ruminate or regret things like other people I know.

    I'm trying more to go with the flow / gut instinct. For some choices I decide if it really matters or not. For small decisions like clothes, everything matches and I have one pair of general footwear. For eating out, once I've read the whole menu 500 times and whittled it down to 2 choices, I just pick one because whatever I choose is a treat and will probably be nice. If it's not I'll have forgotten about it by tomorrow. If i get distracted by other options after a decision, I am firm with myself and say "no I have made the decision now".

    There's a lot of unecessary choice in the modern world. Have you heard of Buridan's Ass? The hypothetical donkey who starved because he couldn't decide which bale of hay to eat.

Children