Aren't we the normal ones for noticing everything??

I swear, to God, I could still hear my brother and cat, while I sleep.

My mind is playing tricks. Unless I have ESP.

Here is another curious effect.

If you are close to burnout your depth perception can change.

Now if am mostly recovered, I noticed my living room looked different, slightly larger, but also more 3D.

I thought this was crazy but looked it up. It does appear to be a real thing. Stress changes your perception.

Did you notice that the colour balance between each eye is not the same?

My right eye has a red bias and my left a blue bias. It is minor, it doesn't affect colour vision or anything. But things viewed with my left look slightly colder than my right.

I first noticed if 45 years ago. It has not changed. You don't have exactly the same mixture of colour cone receptors in each eye. I think your brain is maybe supposed to ignore it, rather than notice.

You remember what is important to you at that time.

If you are in threat mode, you will remember things that look dangerous. If you are in pattern matching mode to try to fit in or it's just your intrinsic way, you will remember things that stand out as unusual.

If you were expending all your effort on talking and organising your thoughts, you probably won't remember what the other people did. Especially if they did nothing that stood out.

With people I think there are three options:

1. The did what I expected, so nothing to record.
2. They did something unexpected but I understand it and know how to deal with it, gets noted for a short while then deleted 
3. They did something unexpected I don't understand, I don't know what to make of it, it gets logged. I can then recall.it for weeks,  months, or sometimes decades. I have certain things from the last 40+ years that get looked at from time to time.

My diagnosis caused me to replay things from 30 years ago. But I don't remember what I said yesterday.

Memory is based on need.

This has got me thinking, I love noticing things, and think I often see/hear things others may not. However, my mum often asks me how people reacted when I'm describing a conversation to her. I can never remember! Maybe because I was too busy trying to make eye contact or thinking about what my face should be doing to pay attention. Or maybe we all just notice different things. You could probably sit in front of a blank wall and still never notice everything about it! And everyone would probably notice something different about that same wall!

I've got a double dose of it, being autistic and an only child as this is something only children do a lot too.

I think it's not just that others are unobservant, but that they're proud of it and feel the need to ridicule those who are more observant than them. 

One thing it's good to remember is that places like GCHQ do value our observational skills, pattern recognition and thinking outside the box, so just remember the next time someone tells you off for being to aware, that they'd never make the grade at GCHQ and other similar places vital to our national security! So there!

Honestly, it drives me nuts when I notice something nobody else does and I'm told I'm wrong despite the fact that they can't perceive what I've already perceived until much later

SJ7 said:

he has heightened level of sight/hearing", "he notices all the sounds, the wind, the flag moving, the stares, the heat of the sun, etc..."

I mean... doesn't everyone??

No, I don't think so, really. I've always been amazed at how little most people seem to observe. I suppose they must see things, hear things etc., but automatically filter most of it out as irrelevant. If we don't do that, perhaps that's a reason that environments can sometimes feel overwhelming?

I wouldn't change the ability to really see - it can be wonderful to notice so much, sometimes, like the moment the first flower opens, the heaviness of raindrops, the changing trees through the seans, the happy games of lambs at this time of year. Being able to observe well in environments that we enjoy is a great joy, I think

Yeah

Yeah I always think Why!!

Thanks, Stuart333 , that's helpful.

I think that is supposed to be less about the mental map of the world and more about the lack of awareness of where the body is in relation to it; a proprioception issue, rather than a visual one.

I am mostly the opposite. I move precisely and quietly, which has been commented on, and place cups almost silently. I walk on my toes quite often when barefoot it just in socks. So it can cut both ways, which I didn't realise till a year ago.

Indeed. And that's why I don't try to lobby the poo bag into the bin from 5m away. I am rubbish at throwing...

i hate poo bags in trees also when theres a doggie bin right under it

More the rabbits and other wildlife rather than the poo bags!

That visual acuity is enjoyable, I think!

Taken2Heart said:

For a neurodivergent, it isn't status we want - its understanding and safety.

100% - well said

I think we're all experts at noticing the elephants in the room and naming them, much to the discomfort of the NT's in the room.

I think it's more the social aspect. 

Neurodivergent people struggle with it (not always but there may be underlying hypervigilance going on) so we sit back, we learn we watch we match others way of doing things. We do this to survive and we do it to be 'normal' which means we are stuck in survival mode to fit in so we notice everything. We notice red flags, we notice the shift in the air literally and figuratively. 

For NTs. They clocked social cues right away. They clocked how to perform and they navigate their social and immediate surroundings. What matters to them is status and hierarchy. If they're doing fine they don't notice anything else it's safe and nothing more needs to be focused on.

For a neurodivergent, it isn't status we want - its understanding and safety. If we don't have those things we will continue to notice alot and the world looks very unsafe all the time.

One way I've looked at it as I'm shouting in a room that the room is on fire and everyone in the room looks fine and carry on. It's distressing to us sometimes and that can make us, the outlier, unreasonable. 

I could be wrong. But as I'm learning it all myself I've come to realise that most people have had the luxury to relax and follow social norms, something I can't do because I've clearly not been doing that well at all. Same patterns means I fall into the same issues. NTs don't like addressing the elephant in the room I think. Because it would force them to admit it benefits those who don't quite care for other people. 

I always thought door frames, chairs, counter tops and bed legs just had it in for me. They sense weakness particularly when I'm tired! Often the ADHD swerve (it's a thing, trust me) doesn't get it quite right and that piece of furniture that I'm just going to avoid seems to suddenly get in the way!