I can't stop thinking about thinking.

[foliodoe]

Lately this has been on my mind. I have obsessively been thinking about what it feels like to think. What it means to use one's imagination. What it means and how it feels to experience life. I've always been interested in philosophy and literature. I have always felt like it's my job or my ordained task to figure out how to summarily and totally describe reality and the human experience overall. And the tool I've been given for doing that is the ability to write. More specifically to type.

I would love to have conversations with people about this kind of thing!

Thanks

 

[Human Avatar]

Lately this has been on my mind. I have obsessively been thinking about what it feels like to think. What it means to use one's imagination. What it means and how it feels to experience life. I've always been interested in philosophy and literature. I have always felt like it's my job or my ordained task to figure out how to summarily and totally describe reality and the human experience overall. And the tool I've been given for doing that is the ability to write. More specifically to type.

I would love to have conversations with people about this kind of thing!

Thanks

NT Brains - The logical and emotional parts of the brain are developed evenly . Because of this they can Control thoughts by simply turning them on and off and moving on and never thinking about it again


Autistic Brains- due to Over Developed Logical brain The Thoughts are in control of us .We can not turn this off , we are stuck in perpetual analysis of what ever we are thinking about . This would seem to be good . But not all time .


Sometimes I hate this part of myself. I feel like I am a slave to my mind . I don’t know how to turn it off .So I exercise my mind constantly until it burns out at 50% and then I am able to at least relax for a bit , Until I wake up again and it is ready to go with all of the anxiety attached .

It is very common for Autistic people to use bad habits , drugs , alcohol ,etc etc to force a thought shut down , because endless circle of anxiety with overthinking . This is not a good strategy. Unless prescribed

 

[Luca]

NT Brains - The logical and emotional parts of the brain are developed evenly . Because of this they can Control thoughts by simply turning them on and off and moving on and never thinking about it again


Autistic Brains- due to Over Grown Logical brain The Thoughts are in control of us .We can not turn this off , we are stuck in perpetual analysis of what ever we are thinking about . This would seem to be good . But not all time .


Sometimes I hate this part of myself. I feel like I am a slave to my mind . I don’t know how to turn it off .So I exercise my mind constantly until it burns out at 50% and then I am able to at least relax for a bit , Until I wake up again and it is ready to go with all of the anxiety attached .

It is very common for Autistic people to use bad habits , drugs , alcohol ,etc etc to force a thought shut down , because endless circle of anxiety with overthinking . This is not a good strategy

I'm the same way. It feels like my brain never shuts off! And yes, I do sometimes feel like I'm thinking about thinking... it feels like my brain doesn't sleep.

I have never had issues with abusing drugs or alcohol fortunately but I am not able to sleep without meds that are prescribed to me for sleeping. If I was unmedicated I don't think I would ever sleep.
This isn't a new problem, I had to be put on sedatives when I was a teenager because I would go days and days without sleeping. It drives me nuts and I hate it. I wish my brain would just go to sleep sometimes!

 

[Slime_Punk]

It is very common for Autistic people to use bad habits , drugs , alcohol ,etc etc to force a thought shut down , because endless circle of anxiety with overthinking . This is not a good strategy

I honestly don't blame any of them, either!

I have to do vigorous physical and mental exercises everyday or else I'll go completely off the rails. Some would say I'm already off the rails most of the time (I've got the terrible sleep schedule to prove it!) but being able to burn out 50% - 75% of it is better than none!

 

[Mr. Stevens]

My mind doesn't stop, either, but I've always liked this. Any time I tried meditation I found it boring and unnatural. Kind of disturbing.

Sometimes it's hard having a lot of thoughts, if I'm not doing well. Then my thoughts seem to control me. But, if I live healthy and listen to myself, it's the opposite. I choose what to think and can direct my thoughts, if anything uncomfortable comes up, I acknowledge those thoughts/feelings and deal with them. I would hate to lose that. As a child, I had to drive 12 hours to see relatives for the holidays. To make the drive tolerable I would choose what to think, then trace my thoughts back if I got on a tangent. This helped me understand myself, along with whatever topic I wanted to explore.

 

[GypsyMoth]

Hey, I’ll reply to this later, for now I’ll just say that I’ve studied ‘thinking about thinking—there is a whole field of study devoted to it—and would be happy to share.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

the ultimate in circular thinking, have issues all the time with thinking all night give me an interesting puzzle and my mind may spend the night looking at it from every possible angle. Being retired, not an issue any longer.

 

[Judge]

My impression having been here for a long time is that overthinking anything and everything seems to be one of our more common traits and behaviors.

It's who we are....and what we do. For better and worse.

 

[MildredHubble]

Reading through posts here, I'm convinced I absolutely have found the right forum!

My brain doesn't shut off either. I like @Moogwizard analysis. There certainly does seem to be a very marked difference between ND and NT brains when it comes to logical analysis.

I have described it to people as if my brain is a computer trying to calculate Pi. It can't shut off until it's figured it out (metaphorically of course) but with some things the calculation can't be completed, so my brain is constantly in a recursive loop.

When I have multiple streams going on in my brain it can get rather distressing. I have bipolar disorder, so one of the features of that can be racing thoughts. But when I'm unwell though, the thoughts are often a bit crackers to say the least.

When I was first prescribed meds for the Bipolar, the day after taking them, boy what a difference. For the first time I could remember, my mind was suddenly quiet. I've never quite gotten back to the crazy cacophony my brain used to be and I'm thankful for that.

But right now I struggle to organise my thoughts, it's like I'm being pulled in multiple directions at once. A far cry from 10 years ago. Back then I could almost effortlessly stay focused on one thing at a time. It was like having the energy of being manic but without the muddled brain. It was wonderful. I just got things done. I miss it.

 

[foliodoe]

the ultimate in circular thinking, have issues all the time with thinking all night give me an interesting puzzle and my mind may spend the night looking at it from every possible angle. Being retired, not an issue any longer.

I'm not retired, but I'm comfortable in my work. I spend pretty much all of my time thinking about this kind of thing. Trying to make sense of it. Even though it's not even possible. I feel like there's a puzzle in front of me called reality and it's my job to solve it. I think I'm lucky that I've found ways to funnel that energy into something somewhat productive like writing. It starts to feel like a waste of time, though, because no one reads what I write except for me lol

 

[foliodoe]

It is very common for Autistic people to use bad habits , drugs , alcohol ,etc etc to force a thought shut down , because endless circle of anxiety with overthinking . This is not a good strategy. Unless prescribed

I used to love sleep because it was the only time I could get some relief from all the thinking! As life became more stressful and demanding, though. sleep stopped coming so easily. I started drinking heavily just to pacify myself. I drink way less now, but I haven't found a better way to cope.

 

[Human Avatar]

My brain doesn't shut off either. I like @Moogwizard analysis. There certainly does seem to be a very marked difference between ND and NT brains when it comes to logical analysis.

I have described it to people as if my brain is a computer trying to calculate Pi. It can't shut off until it's figured it out (metaphorically of course) but with some things the calculation can't be completed, so my brain is constantly in a recursive loop.

When I have multiple streams going on in my brain it can get rather distressing. I have bipolar disorder, so one of the features of that can be racing thoughts. But when I'm unwell though, the thoughts are often a bit crackers to say the least.

When I was first prescribed meds for the Bipolar, the day after taking them, boy what a difference. For the first time I could remember, my mind was suddenly quiet. I've never quite gotten back to the crazy cacophony my brain used to be and I'm thankful for that.

But right now I struggle to organise my thoughts, it's like I'm being pulled in multiple directions at once. A far cry from 10 years ago. Back then I could almost effortlessly stay focused on one thing at a time. It was like having the energy of being manic but without the muddled brain. It was wonderful. I just got things done. I miss it.

I wish I could take credit for that analysis. But that came from The Psychologist- who diagnosed me . He is one of the most knowledgeable Drs I have ever met to date . And up to date with all the current data and science on Autism .And specializes in help for adults.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I'm not retired, but I'm comfortable in my work. I spend pretty much all of my time thinking about this kind of thing. Trying to make sense of it. Even though it's not even possible. I feel like there's a puzzle in front of me called reality and it's my job to solve it. I think I'm lucky that I've found ways to funnel that energy into something somewhat productive like writing. It starts to feel like a waste of time, though, because no one reads what I write except for me lol

My physics thread is many years of sleeping while thinking of how the universe is put together. the clarity You get is astounding. until I joined this site, I kept it to myself, dropped a few tidbits on amateur physics sites got reactions such as who are you.

 

[Human Avatar]

My physics thread is many years of sleeping while thinking of how the universe is put together. the clarity You get is astounding. until I joined this site, I kept it to myself, dropped a few tidbits on amateur physics sites got reactions such as who are you.

I really enjoy reading your thoughts on physics.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I've been trying to get how the universe works since a teenager. every now and then I get an epiphany eventually confirmed by the pros. Great feeling when I got an epiphany that points and thereby particles could not exist
so much for particle wave duality.
When I had the stroke, I had an out of body experience, which I could not explain while it was occurring, space is cold, no oxygen so I knew I could not actually be in space, so it hit me this must be explainable by physics. As my cat woke me up, I remember thinking information is the key, not sure where it came from all I could think of in hospital was to get a lecture series on information, where I discovered Claude Shannon, and then a year later found out that Ed Witten is following the same line of reasoning. must admit Nobel prize for physics this year for nailing down Bell's theorem really gives me a warm feeling that I'm on the correct path. Lately following Neil Turok, I think He is on to something keep it simple stupid.

 

[Knower of nothing]

I'll meet you in the hell of linguistics soon then. Language appears as a tool first, but it becomes glaringly obvious it's a limitation later. In my world-understanding I try to stick to 'value' as that idea can at least be confirmed without language yet still contains the only important conclusions we can ever make (by definition).

 

[GypsyMoth]

Hi @foliodoe, I love your topic! So, here's what I hear when I read your post:

Lately this has been on my mind. I have obsessively been thinking about what it feels like to think.

Good! You've just joined the ranks of many a fine mind who made a career out of thinking.

What it means to use one's imagination.

You might like aesthetics.

What it means and how it feels to experience life. I've always been interested in philosophy and literature. I have always felt like it's my job or my ordained task to figure out how to summarily and totally describe reality

Then you're interested in metaphysics

and the human experience overall.

and anthropology, possibly philosophy of mind.

And the tool I've been given for doing that is the ability to write. More specifically to type.

You know, Nietzsche struggled with a severely debilitating illness for the second half of his life. When he wasn't bedbound, often all he could do was drag himself upright and jot a few notes. And look at all that he wrote! So if you've been given the ability to write, I do hope you use it. It's a very special ability and not many follow through and actually use it.

I would love to have conversations with people about this kind of thing!

Thanks

Sure, I'd love to talk. I might not engage in any serious debate with you but I would be happy to share with you some generalities about what philosophy is and some ideas on how we might go about thinking about thinking. Just, I will not sit here and tell you, "it's like this...," because that's not what philosophy does. Rather, philosophy evaluates and weighs claims, and asks questions. ( Philosophy is not quite like pop culture has painted it--as being pure debate among polarized factions. But rather, it's more like entering into a discussion with a tender lover. There's a lot of give and take and trying to understand the other side even before you evaluate the ideas you think you hold. And, the rewards? Innumerable. I can't think of doing anything more satisfying than fully researching a position, letting it challenge you in return and framing a suitable reply of a caliber worthy of someone reading it. Putting your thoughts out there to be read in return, to be treated with the same dignity and respect as you treated other's thoughts, it's stepping into a continuous discussion with people of all kinds, from all ages, with the intent of knowing ourselves better.

Have you read any philosophy? Who have you read and, may I ask, what were your thoughts about it?

 

[Shevek]

I've heard thinking about thinking described as a platform problem. It does present unique difficulties. Sometimes I notice myself lauching into a sentence while still fishing for the right words in my my memory. I don't like having to throw in an "umm" to stall for time, and sometimes have to settle for ill-expressed sentiments.
Sometimes, when I am having trouble getting to sleep, I get startled back awake when my sense of hearing shuts off. The sudden silence is strange, but so is the lack of any electronic "pop" that I usually get with silence.
On the big picture things, I think that most of what people consider rational thought is rationalization pasted on to decisions that are imposed by chemical signals from the pre-verbal parts of the brain. That is a very big topic we might explore here.

 

[GypsyMoth]

I've heard thinking about thinking described as a platform problem.

Fascinating. This is a new idea for me. Could you describe what you mean by 'a
platform problem'?

It does present unique difficulties. Sometimes I notice myself lauching into a sentence while still fishing for the right words in my my memory. I don't like having to throw in an "umm" to stall for time, and sometimes have to settle for ill-expressed sentiments.
Sometimes, when I am having trouble getting to sleep, I get startled back awake when my sense of hearing shuts off. The sudden silence is strange, but so is the lack of any electronic "pop" that I usually get with silence.
On the big picture things, I think that most of what people consider rational thought is rationalization pasted on to decisions that are imposed by chemical signals from the pre-verbal parts of the brain. That is a very big topic we might explore here.

That's a very big topic. How might we narrow it down?

 

[Shevek]

Fascinating. This is a new idea for me. Could you describe what you mean by 'a
platform problem'?

That's a very big topic. How might we narrow it down?

I think I read it in Robert Persig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," but my copy has wandered off. Other usages of it refer to difficulties with thinking being limited by the options currently available, but I think there is also an aspect like the troubles that a fish has in imagining water as not the only kind of the environment.

To decipher the chemical signals that direct so much of our energy and attention, I have been looking at behaviours that seem to occur in a wide variety of cultures, and also in the animal kingdom. This is at odds with the modern fashion for assuming that humans are uniquely lacking in instincts, being totally programmable, with no limits imposed by the hardware, or platform, that our thoughts run on. Will we get shut down for re-examining the old debate on Nature vs Nurture? It was cancelled, not settled, when I was pretty young.