Distorted perspective of time?

[Sid Delicious]

I wasn't sure what to call this, but my cousin refers to it as 'distorted perspective of time' and that's probably quite a good description. I'm interested to know if this is an autistic thing or related to ADHD or something else. I've noticed (other people have noticed) that I don't perceive time in the same way as they do. For example, a year ago I bumped into a girl I went to university with and since we had got on really well back then I just continued talking to her the same way I had in university. My cousin was there too and said later that the girl acted a bit awkward and I was too friendly considering we hadn't seen each other in over a decade and we hadn't been best friends or anything. I've had this happen before with other people I haven't seen in a long time.

For me, however I leave a relationship is how it remains fixed in my head until I see that person again. A day could go by, or a week, a month, years, and I still view and respond to that person in exactly the same way as before, unless I get any new information (someone tells me the person actually hated me, for example). My feelings don't change towards someone just because I don't see them for ages. Once they have a set 'place' in my mind, they stay in that place.

I wondered if this is why I struggle with people constantly expecting me to text/phone them. I don't see the point unless I have something interesting to tell them or vice versa. I don't need a constant reminder that they like me and haven't changed their mind. I will assume they feel the same way unless they tell me otherwise. But I realise other people don't follow the same process and might find it weird if you act too friendly after a long break.

Does anyone else experience the same? I've heard a lot of people describe how those on the spectrum also struggle with 'acting their age' or reaching milestones at different times or in a different order. I have other problems when it comes to time awareness. Some days I can spend 10+ hours working on a project and will still be awake at 5am the next morning, having forgotten to eat, drink, sleep or move from my desk. I am aware it is either light or dark outside, but I'm too focused on whatever I am working on to care. When I've lived on my own, I've ended up sick from screwed up eating and sleeping habits because time just doesn't register properly. It's great for getting work done, but terrible for people thinking you're nuts! I've tried putting alarms on my phone to tell me to go to bed or eat breakfast, but I will turn them off on autopilot and go right back to working again!

Is this an autistic thing and how do people deal with it?

 

[tree]

I thought it was an ADD thing.

One of my relatives manages to keep track of time by
having either the tv on to a series that has half hour shows.
He can tell how much time is passing by how many episodes
have been on.
His other way of keeping track of time is having music to listen to.

I keep track of when I have eaten (and what) by writing it
in a notebook.

 

[Judge]

It doesn't help that whatever we do, we tend to be so narrowly focused. Something which I believe is an inherent factor in distorting our sense of time. That it skews our sense of priorities. Makes it more difficult to accurately gauge and schedule everything that life puts in our path.

Yeah- guilty as charged. What is or has been on television is probably my most basic benchmark for determining one day to the next. Though being semi-retired inherently puts a spin on life, or at least it has for me. I have very few "pressing engagements" on an irregular basis and just tend to fall back heavily on routines which have little importance.

Making it all difficult in general to pace my existence. Not that it matters though. Go figure.

 

[Ambi]

I experience the same thing, but I wouldn't call it a distorted sense of time - rather a lack of awareness of how others might feel different socially due to a time lapse or quality/quantity change in communication. Also, I tend to just treat people one way - I don't think or feel about them differently based on whether or not we've been in touch or how many years it has been.

As for a distorted sense of time, for me time flies when I am focused on an obsession - but I think time flies for anyone who is "in the zone".

 

[OkRad]

very innteresting. When I got sick, the first thing I noticed was time STOPPED, went to a crawl. I hear this happens in ADD, too. Time seems slower to us.

It still does. By 8am, I have already lived a week of hell and it's been only 2 hours. I fear time. It torments me termendously. I can pack in more suffering in 20 minutes than most people in 3 hours. I hate it.

 

[Judge]

very interesting. When I got sick, the first thing I noticed was time STOPPED, went to a crawl. I hear this happens in ADD, too. Time seems slower to us.

Yes! Agonizingly slow when I am ill.

 

[tree]

I remember having a very long conversation with someone
one day when I had a temp of 105º. An hour long conversation.

When I looked at the clock, I saw that 5 minutes had passed.

 

[dragoncat16]

I have often worked for hours without getting up or eating or anything, but I am usually aware of the passage of time. Sometimes, when I haven't looked at the clock for a while, I'l guess the time, and I'll be right within a minute or so. I also don't need to use an alarm clock. If I need to wake up a a certain time, I can do so within minutes of the time I waned to wake up. It's not as if I try to do that, but I guess experience has taught me to be aware of the passage of time, because I wasn't that good at it as a kid.

The thing I am not good at is predicting how long something will take me to do, which is why I have so often worked at the same thing for hours without taking a break of any kind. I have a sort of obsession with finishing a task once I have started it. I guess it's kind of like OCD.

 

[Flinty]

I used to have a distorted sense of time, but now I have a distorted sense of time.

Kidding aside, I have a very accurate sense of time these days, though that wasn't always the case.

 

[xudo]

Yes, I can get very focused on something to the point of not eating or realising that I've been doing it for many hours. I also have trouble with realising how long ago things were, in the sense that I still sort of think that 2007 wasn't that long ago and am then reminded it was a decade ago.

 

[wight]

Relationship thing... I don't know. I'm sort of the same way, but I have so few people I talk to that it doesn't come up often.

Task orientation/business and time "distortion" is pretty normal. Time being "slow" when your sick or idle and "fast" when intently focused, is a trick our mind's play on us. I think everyone experiences this, ASD, ADD, or otherwise.

 

[Gritches]

I used to do the same thing with the hyperfocus, what changed for me is the realization that the quality of my work as well as my mood improves significantly when I've had enough sleep and food, especially protein and complex carbs. For actually not getting lost in time, it may sound obvious but I started wearing a watch and stayed dedicated to eating and sleeping at the same time every day for aforementioned reason. It feels stupid to have a "bedtime" at my age but that plus cutting back on caffeine and not having it after a certain time of day helped me stay on a 24-hour cycle. I feel like one of those obnoxious healthy-lifestyle people writing this, but yeah, going off on a mental tear for 2-3 days straight oblivious of the passage of time was terrible for my physical and emotional health, had to make a change.

 

[Streetwise]

I wasn't sure what to call this, but my cousin refers to it as 'distorted perspective of time' and that's probably quite a good description. I'm interested to know if this is an autistic thing or related to ADHD or something else. I've noticed (other people have noticed) that I don't perceive time in the same way as they do. For example, a year ago I bumped into a girl I went to university with and since we had got on really well back then I just continued talking to her the same way I had in university. My cousin was there too and said later that the girl acted a bit awkward and I was too friendly considering we hadn't seen each other in over a decade and we hadn't been best friends or anything. I've had this happen before with other people I haven't seen in a long time.

For me, however I leave a relationship is how it remains fixed in my head until I see that person again. A day could go by, or a week, a month, years, and I still view and respond to that person in exactly the same way as before, unless I get any new information (someone tells me the person actually hated me, for example). My feelings don't change towards someone just because I don't see them for ages. Once they have a set 'place' in my mind, they stay in that place.

I wondered if this is why I struggle with people constantly expecting me to text/phone them. I don't see the point unless I have something interesting to tell them or vice versa. I don't need a constant reminder that they like me and haven't changed their mind. I will assume they feel the same way unless they tell me otherwise. But I realise other people don't follow the same process and might find it weird if you act too friendly after a long break.

Does anyone else experience the same? I've heard a lot of people describe how those on the spectrum also struggle with 'acting their age' or reaching milestones at different times or in a different order. I have other problems when it comes to time awareness. Some days I can spend 10+ hours working on a project and will still be awake at 5am the next morning, having forgotten to eat, drink, sleep or move from my desk. I am aware it is either light or dark outside, but I'm too focused on whatever I am working on to care. When I've lived on my own, I've ended up sick from screwed up eating and sleeping habits because time just doesn't register properly. It's great for getting work done, but terrible for people thinking you're nuts! I've tried putting alarms on my phone to tell me to go to bed or eat breakfast, but I will turn them off on autopilot and go right back to working again!

Is this an autistic thing and how do people deal with it?

I remember a quote about the Masai ,an anthropologist said a Masai man had been convicted of a crime! but he become almost suicidal because he thought he was going to prison for the rest of his life !as he had no concept of time and couldn't understand, it would be for a very short period ,obviously in the Masai culture time is marked differently .
It could be completely cultural or based on a belief .

 

[fairy_girl]

I try to keep track of time by following along with what day all of my TV shows are going to record ahead of time and by what my IPhone's day says.

There are days where I would get so focused on my interests and school work where I would barely sleep and eat. It does seem like time does go by very fast when you are interested in something too much and there is no stopping it.

 

[Sherlock77]

In the short term... I can be doing a task and get completely lost in it, in most cases at a large event that I'm photographing, that goes all day. Without hardly realizing it I can go all day, on my feet, almost never really stopping, even my brain is constantly turned "on" observing things around me.

I know myself well enough to know that I do it, and I dislike waiting in a long food line halfway through the day just to get some food... What I do? I often eat a large breakfast before I go somewhere, then I put small snacks in my camera bag and a water bottle or two, for a quick bite at any given point in the day.

Long term you ask?... I'll mostly relate this one to my photography as well, something I've been doing for over 10 years, I can look at some photos I took as far back as 2006, and I can still recall specific things about the photo, if it's street photography, the encounter or conversation I had... Or turning that thought around slightly, I'll look up a photo I remember very well in my head, and be surprised that it was taken five years ago, when it seems like it was just one year ago...

 

[SusanLR]

I am the same with relationships.
Unless something is presented that would change how I feel, it doesn't matter the length of time since I last saw them, I'll still feel the same and think of them the same, and inbetween I don't have the urge to constantly stay in contact. No need to text constantly, send e-mails one after the other, or special occasion cards.
And I hate talking on a phone.

Other time oddities:

Sometimes, when I haven't looked at the clock for a while, I'l guess the time, and I'll be right within a minute or so. I also don't need to use an alarm clock. If I need to wake up a a certain time, I can do so within minutes of the time I waned to wake up

I've never used any type of alarm to wake up by, still I will wake up at the time I have pre-set in my head.
I found a trick that works for me and it works like an automatic alarm clock from sleep.
If I want to awaken at a certain time I must look at a clock just before I close my eyes to sleep and think to my brain "wake me up at 9:15" (example).
Go to sleep and my eyes open awake at the time I preset in my brain before sleep. But, I must look at a clock before sleep for this to work. What that has to do with it I don't know. But, it works.

As far as time in general, I always said I wish there were no such thing as a watch.
I want to sleep when sleepy, eat when hungry, accomplish what I want for the day. Hate deadlines,
and appointments.
But, the world doesn't run that way. All I can do is keep
the appointed times to a routine or on necessary only basis.

 

[NothingToSeeHere]

Wow you pretty much exactly described how I experience relationships and perceive the (to me rather odd and pointless) need to keep in contact with people even when you have nothing to say. I don't think it has anything to do with perception of time though, but more to do with something being off with perception of of how others change over time maybe? Or something like that. I'm entirely aware of how long it's been since I last spoke to my high school best friend (almost 10 years), and I know that a huge amount has happened over that time and that we've both changed a lot as people, but I still very much consider her one of my best friends, and if I happened to meet her I'd no doubt speak to her exactly as I used to.

 

[booknut]

The days really zoom by for me. I barely remember the last two years. It's just a hazy blur. I swear 2017 just started, but its ending. I feel like I just get up just to go to bed again.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

What you are describing is the same for me. From my perspective, I do not "miss" people,...so, unlike someone else who may say to themselves, "I haven't talked with this person for a while. I will give them a call or make plans for a visit." For me,..."out of sight, out of mind",...not good for maintaining a relationship. I too, have had multiple situations where I meet someone after a long, long time,...and I pick up just like we had never separated. Meanwhile, the other person, not understanding what is going on, may actually be hurt that the relationship wasn't maintained,...and how dare you just assume you can ignore that fact. So, at some level, I have to be very conscious and think this situation through before walking up to this person,...and not let my "mind blindness" get the better of me. I have lost count of how many times someone, usually my mother or my wife would say, "How would that feel if I did that to you!?". My typical response is, "Well, I wouldn't,...that's my point." Of course, that response gets them even more angry.