Published on 12, July, 2020
does anyone else experience thoughts in what I can attempt to describe by comparing to a web? I am wondering if anyone knows of any software that can help me to get my thoughts down and make sense of them.
it could be possible that my thoughts seem more of a tangled web when I am feeling bad. When I am feeling good, my thoughts dont seem troubling.
Right now, and often times when I feel stressed, my thoughts (or at least I notice that my thoughts) feel incomplete. like lots of thought loops that get forgotten and remembered in different parts. Like, the reason I feel bad is obscure but occasionally I remember hints and I wish I could make sense of it all. the smaller thought loops join together to become a part of bigger thought loops, and there are different levels of thought loops. they can be categorised by different things such as urgency, importance, emotional attachment, etc.
often my thoughts are not in words. I do not have an inner monologue which I heard that lots of people have. my thoughts are more like concepts... often paired with a feeling or memory. I wonder if this is one of the reasons I find it hard to communicate socially, because the thoughts I have are not really in words, so its a lot harder to try to come up with words on the spot to join in a conversation.
I wish there were a software or a technique that could be done on pen and paper, that can help people like me to make sense of their thoughts and mind state. something like a visual network type diagram where I can plot down the different thought loops and different levels, with the ability to make connections between one another when I need to. the problem is, I think it would need to be beyond 2 dimensions, if that makes sense? either that or I just cant wrap my head around visualising this software until I see it. I do find it hard to imagine things before having seen them, but I also feel like the thoughts can get so complex into a web which seems multidimensional, and im not sure what kind software could be used to log and track such complex ideas. I call them complex ideas because of the way that the thoughts are interconnected, but I am referring more to the complexity of interconnectedness than the actual thoughts themselves.
I am just explaining it to see if anyone else has a similar experience with their thoughts? or to see if anyone knows of a software or trick that can help to decipher the thoughts?
I just want to know how I am feeling and what my problem is. thanks
You could have a look at mind-mapping software. There are many many versions of this kind of tool. Most of them allow you to create a hierarchical graphical model: start with a thought; break that down into smaller thoughts; break each of those down into even smaller thoughts and so on. Simple, but really quite powerful because you can rapidly dump your state of mind and then come back to it later. As you start to get things organised, you can simply move one "thought" from one place in your tree of thoughts to another.
Some mind-mapping tools also allow links between branches of the tree which gives something more like the web you describe.
Some of them even extend the model into a 3D space, exactly as you describe.
I'm a huge fan of lists. They help me to organise and of course I also derive the expected autistic pleasure from ticking off things. But I've also found mind-maps to be incredibly useful. Some problems don't lend themselves to linear lists and I find mind-maps work better.
I use iThoughts which is cross platform: Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android etc and can be made to sync your maps between all platforms, if you have a foot in each camp.
oh wow, that sounds awesome, and just what I was looking for! I'm happy that somebody invented that :) Im going to check it out, thank you!
I am also a fan of lists and have a bullet journal that I keep really neat which I mainly use for 'to do' tasks and checking them off is so satisfying haha.
Glad to help. If I start to feel a bit overwhelmed I used to turn to lists to help me try to capture my mental state and get back to some sense of order. Then I discovered mind-mapping, and it works soooo much better, at least for me. I can pretty quickly "get calm" by emptying my over-working brain. Sometimes in no sense of order whatsoever. Literally a "brain dump". That calms me down immensely and quickly. Then I can come back a bit later, and start to re-order things.
Sometimes that order is just an end in itself - quite relaxing and satisfying - a bit like old-fashioned colouring in. Other times it's actually a solution to a problem.
Ultimately, everything usually goes back into list form so that I can just get it done and tick it off. YMMV, but maybe this will help you. Hope so!
Agreed. There is something very satisfying about using a real pen and paper rather than a tablet and digital pen. I do this too, sometimes.