Do people who are autistic have cognitively erratic minds compared to those who are non autistic?

Very interesting indeed.  Again something I've mentioned far more online, than with any (mental) health professional. Too many times mentioning things that got trivialised or ignored by those 'professionals'.

Thank you for this link. It helps explain why so much of life is exhausting.

The bit about random thoughts of things from years ago is also interesting, as I often wonder how I have got to a particular thought about a problem from a long time ago.

I have times when it's like there are 20 TV Channels on at the same time, each showing a different programme,each vying for my attention. I can get so overwhelmed at such times , and my anxiety level  rockets up.

There's an interesting article on autistic thinking / cognition here:

Embrace Autism - Autism & disorganized thoughts

It is not just you sir.