Yes, I have these problems too. I blank out on people quite a lot. Sometimes I know that the person is expecting a response, but I don't reply, or I just say yes or no because I don't know what to say. They tell me things and I don't know what to do with the information they have given me. I don't always know the difference between a rhetorical question and one which is meant to be answered, until the person repeats the question at me, then I know they want a response.
I find it really hard to join in group conversations. I have some sort of auditory processing delay I think, because what a person says doesn't register right away and by the time I've come up with a response, someone else has already responded, and the opportunity to speak is gone. Or sometimes I thought of a response, start to speak but another person already started speaking before me, and I'm unintentionally interrupting them. It's very hard to have a voice in group conversations. They flow too fast for me to keep up and interact because I don't process the conversation fast enough, and it feels like watching TV. I hardly speak at all in group conversations. Even in one to one conversations, I tend to blank out, and I have to concentrate to keep myself all 'there' or the other person will think I'm not listening. This makes talking exhausting.
Hi amarie it is a auti trait I call it blanking out it comes from information prosessing overload. I do it all the time my mother walks up and starts talking to me without getting my attention properly and about hte time she finishes I'll turn to her and say did you say something., it drives her nuts. I think the auti mind learns to shut extra things down to focus and speed things up on whatever you are working on. The only way to stop it when talking with people is to try to stay in the moment reading them and think about what they are saying later...sorry that is the best I can do amarie
This happens to me all the time. I'm usually aware of speech, but don't hear what was said and don't know it was directed at me. I do this to my partner all the time. I'm sure you are right about this being a way our brain has learnt to deal with information. We get so absorbed in whatever we are focussing on that we block everything else out - monochanneling. And yet, when I need to focus on something for work, the smallest sound can distract me and prevent me from concentrating... it's strange how the brain works.
Yes blanking out is prosesser mind deafness it is real, with me if it is very bad I feel like I'm swimming in honey and peoples little tiny voices are shouting down a well at me from far above. The ways to prevent it are keeping social interactions small (more people = stress) reducing the amount of new stuff at one time new stuff takes more brainpower to think through (new stuff = stress), and reducing the unfamiliar by modeling in your mind, if you think through a event or people thing before hand you will handle it better and not be taken off guard, so (surprises = stress), Anything you do to become familiar with people places things will reduce prosesser mind shutdown. So I suspect living in a small town in the country is heaven for a auti. city would be hell unless you hid in a closet.
Living in a small town has its disadvantages too, because when you go out people are more likely to recognise you and want to come up and talk to you. I prefer to remain anonymous while going about my daily business in town.
I usually try to just keep to my bf, if its more than the two of us I have to decide if it's worth going or just stay home. Sometimes him and I will plan to go somewhere and then someone else decides they want to tag along and I have a full blown meltdown. It's different if I knew they were coming ahead of time, I'll either just stay home or try and prepare myself for them being there. But if its a SURPRISE tagalong, I'll freak out. Unless the surprise guest is in front of me then I shut down and come off ass a quiet ***** for the rest of the time. And if I do have to go somewhere new I Google the hell out of it. I have to see what it is exactly, what it looks like and so on so I have a whole game plan set up. Sorry if I'm rambling
I get so excited when people understand me
This happens to me too, with my partner, and I react in exactly the same way. It upsets me a lot. We plan to go out, just the two of us, and then he invites his friends to come along. If someone turns up unexpectedly, especially a stranger, I find it overwhelming and I totally shut down.
