Situation Awareness

[savi83]

Hi everybody,

When I get involved in a conversation that I'm really interested in I get like a tunnel vision where I'm unable you pick up on things around me.

Does anyone else suffer with this or done anything to improve their situational awareness?

 

[Progster]

Yes, it's hyper-focus, a state of being totally immersed in your thoughts and how to get them across to others that leads to oblivion to your surroundings. The only way to break it is if someone interupts the conversation and tells you to stop talking or something, or the others leave the conversation... no conversation lasts forever, and this will eventually happen.

I dont really 'suffer' from it - actually I really like engaging in conversations that really interest me, but rarely get to do it. When I do, I talk too much and I'm like a steam train that once you start it, it won't stop. However, I can sometimes get frustrated with people when they won't listen, try to shut me down, talk over the top of me and won't let me finish.

 

[Suzanne]

Yes and then, jump when someone comes along and taps me on the shoulder; generally, my poor husband who needs to catch my attention, but I am too absorbed in what I am saying to even see him and thus, that embarrasses him, when I jump

 

[OkRad]

Yes. I don't even know who else is listening in..............even if they are standing right next to me and the other person!

 

[OkRad]

Yes and then, jump when someone comes along and taps me on the shoulder; generally, my poor husband who needs to catch my attention, but I am too absorbed in what I am saying to even see him and thus, that embarrasses him, when I jump

I hope you don't mind that I thought that was funny! I can picture this!

 

[WereBear]

It's because we often really do want to exchange information and ideas, but the rest of the group is just making "conformative noises."

For instance, someone mentions something appalling in recent news, and now everyone gets to signal how appalled they are. Which is fine. But I have found that it is unseemly to discuss it in terms of the forces involved which brought it to this point; this is too fine-grained for most people. They want to hear "the shooter was mentally ill" and close that box.

 

[Beguiling Orbit]

Consider getting a Watchminder. Developed for ADHD, you can program it to vibrate and display the message "PAY ATTENTION" every few minutes. For you, that could mean to pay attention to your surroundings.

 

[fairy_girl]

It depends if I get enough sleep, but for the most part I do have good situational awareness. If I get too focused on one thing that I like then my awareness goes out the window till I finally finish my task.

 

[WereBear]

I once had a pot of water boil dry -- a 5 gallon pot. It wasn't until the hot metal smell filled the apartment that I realized...

So now I can't leave the kitchen if I put water on to boil, and I got an electric kettle.