When are you right now?

[Streetwise]

about 1971 always feel like a little insecure child

There's a song I remember that goes something like "where's your head at...".

I suspect that people on the spectrum are rarely present in the now and don't always fully engage.

My head is always in the future, I'm so involved in what will happen that I barely notice what is happening. Sometimes I will make a sandwich, look down and it's gone. I've eaten it and have no memory of having done so (which is always a shame because I love eating).

Or I'll look down at my hand and actually be surprised at what I am holding. I won't have any memory of having picked it up.

So my head is either 5 years in the future or in my own fantasy worlds. Is this an aspie thing? Where (or when) is your head normally at?

 

[T.J.L.V.]

I like dreaming about a purely human-controlled future.

 

[Thursday]

I live in the world I'm writing about. I love fantasy novels and believe I'd function better in a that kind of setting, where life is simpler and there was room to enjoy a quiet night.

Nowadays, nights are less quiet, more "neighbors who can't sing to save a baby just love their videoke" and life is all about knowing what people ate for lunch.

It's just not fun for me. I would have loved to live in the time of my grandparents (again, when dental care has evolved enough not to use hammers and pliers, lol).

 

[Misery]

I get the confusion aspect of this alot. Like, really often.

As I put it, I'll "blank out" frequently. It's that void, where as best you can tell nothing whatsoever happened... the period of time may as well have not existed whatsoever. Something is different, maybe I did something, but I dont remember doing it. Like the example in the first post here. It's happened a number of times while taking my stupid pills, for instance. I have quite the array of pills that I take each day. More than once, I've taken twice the dosage... on all of them at once. Fortunately, as confirmed by the doctor, none of them have any negative effects if doubled based on the default dosage (aside from making me feel like a moron). Except my pain pills: if I take two of each of those, it's like being shot with the sort of dart that tranquilizes a rampaging rhino. I try to avoid this, I find it unpleasant.

In addition, I can easily get confused at times and do very strange things. It can get very absurd/stupid. For example, there was one time I was at a hotel for a convention. I had been getting something out of the car, and then I went back to the room. I go to unlock the door... nothing happens. Try it again, nothing happens. This lasts for about 5 rather angry minutes before I suddenly realize: I'm trying to unlock the hotel room door with the car remote. There was also the time I tried to make a "sandwich" by slathering Miracle Whip onto a slice of cheese and slapping it onto a plate (???) I got all the way into the next room before I realized what the problem with that was.

Incidentally, I make a point of never, ever using the stove or oven.



It's pretty irritating. Both the confusion aspect, as well as the "why am I standing over here" sort of thing.

 

[Streetwise]

start taking vit b complex (its all the b vits in one )you lack vit b
especially take folic acid

 

[zeroninja]

There's a song I remember that goes something like "where's your head at...".

I suspect that people on the spectrum are rarely present in the now and don't always fully engage.

My head is always in the future, I'm so involved in what will happen that I barely notice what is happening. Sometimes I will make a sandwich, look down and it's gone. I've eaten it and have no memory of having done so (which is always a shame because I love eating).

Or I'll look down at my hand and actually be surprised at what I am holding. I won't have any memory of having picked it up.

So my head is either 5 years in the future or in my own fantasy worlds. Is this an aspie thing? Where (or when) is your head normally at?

Exactly the same place as yours, bud. And it's all the time unless I"m actively working every moment to keep it in check. I almost think it might be a somewhat natural state for us.

 

[SchrodingersMeerkat]

Are you referring to a song by Basement Jax?

 

[Mr Allen]

My music and movie tastes date as far back as the early 70''s, in fact I've just watched Enter The Dragon from 1973, arguably the movie that brought the late great Bruce Lee International fame.

As for my music tastes, anything after about 1988 is rubbish IMO, it goes to all that "Euro Dance" nonsense that powered most of the 90's, and annoying "Boy Bands" who have the vocal talent of a bunch of strangled cats but they "look the part"... Take That anyone? And don't get me started on THE most overrated Band to ever come out of Manchester, England, Oasis, featuring the Gallagher Brothers.

 

[Tom]

Interesting question. For the most part it wanders to and fro, occasionally passing thru the now. I can keep it in the now if needed but that is rarely needed these days.

Lately I have been hanging out around 1200 BC, during a major civilization collaspe, courtesy of the so called 'Sea Peoples'. Fun times.

 

[MrSpock]

I seem to always maintain some awareness of the now, as much as I deem necessary; this is not always socially appropriate. I am often also thinking of the past, future, or of things outside of time (e.g. how math works).

While riding a bicycle I occasionally miss a turn I need to take to get to where I am going, I'm thinking about something else. I do not run into things or fail to take the actions of other vehicles into account. I simply prioritize, and there is always much about the present that everyone ignores.

However 'in the now' you believe yourself to be, you simply cannot take everything in all at once and appreciate it fully. If a mechanic and a doctor sit together on a bench and watch the world go by, the mechanic will have an appreciation of the cars that go by which will not be recognized by most people. The doctor will observe things about people that are not observable to others, even those with better sight, hearing, etc. These things which are observable only due to specialized knowledge are by definition only observable by reference to the observer's past experience.

Is the part of me that controls the bicycle through corners truly in the now? Seems to me that he chooses his line well only if he anticipates where he will go seconds in advance... in the future. Not far into the future maybe. Using experience to predict his path, when it's all flowing perfectly the mind seamlessly blends the past, present and future together and the bicycle goes where it should. Likely while thinking about other things too.

Our bodies are stuck in one location in space. Our minds are not similarly stuck in one place in time. If we ask a question about the mind from a viewpoint that assumes such stuckness we prevent ourselves from seeing how the mind is. We have to use our minds to see our minds, it's a very tricky thing. Makes me feel incompetent rather quickly. Human.

 

[Progster]

Where (or when) is your head normally at?

Lost in space Or in the clouds, looking down.