Would you consider yourself Random?

[Peace]

I have come to notice that half of the weirdness I get accused of is because of things I say and do that are just random. I often come up with a completely cool thing to say or do, but has no connection to the moment, but I cannot keep from doing it anyways. It is common for people to comment to me about being random, or where did that come from?
Sometimes it is because of my Aspieness and the difference between most everyone else and myself, but usually it is just something completely random. I really enjoy this about myself, although I don't know why. I think it is because it adds color to my world.

 

[umbrellabeach]

I think I am, a little. Sometimes when I'm in or listening to a conversation, things the other people say remind me of things that are random to them, but I can see a connection. And sometimes I say something I know is unrelated just because I think it's more interesting than the topic.
Also, when I was younger, I would write stuff like this during church:
"This is a message from the Democrats of Federal Law Republic Governmental Associations. *random noises* Oh boy! Socks! Aliens! GIRL SCOUT COOKIES! Today was very unfortunate because we ran out of hot chocolate and milk. >_< Now we shall die. So you better pass on bad grammar to make all books frown. Nobody likes the banjo. Who needs fully chapped lips when you can have partially chapped lips? My hand has never itched so bad in my life. YAY SUGAR!"
So... you tell me.

 

[Atay]

"This is a message from the Democrats of Federal Law Republic Governmental Associations. *random noises* Oh boy! Socks! Aliens! GIRL SCOUT COOKIES! Today was very unfortunate because we ran out of hot chocolate and milk. >_< Now we shall die. So you better pass on bad grammar to make all books frown. Nobody likes the banjo. Who needs fully chapped lips when you can have partially chapped lips? My hand has never itched so bad in my life. YAY SUGAR!"
So... you tell me.

Lol, I used to have a party trick in High School where I would ask someone for 1 word, and then I would talk lighting fast on tangents to that word, and then tangents to those tangents without breaks. I hung out with some odd people, so it was appreciated...I think.

A big YES to my randomness, and I love it too. I feel like life would be boring or incomplete without it. It's this function that gives us our high ability to see patterns.

Some brains activate a smaller circle of thoughts around a concept. This creates a stream-lined approach to processing that concept. From what I understand, Aspies tend to activate a larger area around the concept, allowing the brain to identify looser connections that would be missed by more stream-lined brains. However, it makes it much harder to stay on topic.

Now I'm randomly thinking about when I was dating my NT husband, and he was so delighted by my randomness because I was "the opposite of boring." Sweet memory.

 

[Axeman52]

I think I am, a little. Sometimes when I'm in or listening to a conversation, things the other people say remind me of things that are random to them, but I can see a connection.
So... you tell me.

I'm the same. I couldn't have put it better myself. I do this a lot - I know what I mean and how what I've said relates the conversation, even if nobody else does

Having said that, other times I'm just not interested in the conversation and let my imagination run away with me instead. And then if I'm suddenly expected to contribute something to the conversation it usually is completely unrelated.

 

[rollerskate]

I have come to notice that half of the weirdness I get accused of is because of things I say and do that are just random. I often come up with a completely cool thing to say or do, but has no connection to the moment, but I cannot keep from doing it anyways. It is common for people to comment to me about being random, or where did that come from?
Sometimes it is because of my Aspieness and the difference between most everyone else and myself, but usually it is just something completely random. I really enjoy this about myself, although I don't know why. I think it is because it adds color to my world.

I love the element of surprise too, and sometimes will do things contrary to expectations JUST to shake things up and keep everyone on their toes.

Other times, it's just me being me. I may do things like suddenly treat something I've been taking extremely seriously with humor and flippancy (which drives people nuts if it's in the middle of an argument, LOL!). Or blurt out "I want to go get some ice cream" in the middle of an in depth conversation. Things that upset me yesterday may not bother me today and vice versa. I may wear neutral, boring clothing all week then suddenly decide one day I'm going to dress in neons. Or wear a dress when I never wear dresses. Etc. I know there's more that drives people nuts because those close to me comment on it but I'm having trouble pin pointing it exactly...

Oh, another thing. Sometimes I like to argue the opposite point of view even if it's not representative of my opinion at all just to see what the response is. Especially if it's controversial. Then when my experiment is done I ditch. That also frustrates people if they've gotten good and heated up about it. I suppose that's trolling now that I think of it... Except I don't do it online.

 

[King_Oni]

According to my girlfriend I'm quite random... up to the point where most of the time she does not have a clue how I made a certain link of something I said or did and to some extent I might be unpredictable. However, I'm not a health hazard to someone, lol. I'm aware enough what I am doing and aware of not doing really stupid and dangerous things when others are involved (on my own I might, but that's a different matter I guess).

Perhaps it's more that I tend to be a bit impulsive and at times erratic... though all in all that could be qualified as "random".

It often leads to the most surreal conversations with me that to some people don't make a lick of sense.

I think in that sense I do have an issue that I sometimes need to put on my "normal" face. And that actually is quite hard for me at times. I kinda live on whimsy and random situations. However, it doesn't make me less serious. I can take care of things, I just tend to do it in my own way that is 100% non-professional (and therefore, more fun for me).

I think that written communication, as I do on this forum makes me a bit less random and more "to the point" as means of communicating. Me and verbal communication is pretty much totally unhinged, full of random references and wordplay for no other reason than being enjoyment.

 

[Judge]

I used to up until my adult years. Guess I received one too many dirty looks and overt criticisms being accused of changing the subject...something like that. Or the "Where did that come from ?" response.

Usually I just attributed it to my mind racing faster than my mouth. Exacerbated by a love of trivia I suppose. At one time my mother threatened to take away my collection of "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" paperbacks. LOL..I used to enjoy recalling what I read. Really odd stuff too. Kind of a twisted version of the Guinness Book.

 

[stanmgk]

I'm very random. Sometimes, in a conversation, I'm thinking about anything else and I say something random. Then, everyone looks at me and that weird silence begins.

Being random is helpful. Sometimes, when I want to start a conversation with someone, but I don't know how, I say something or do something random.
Sportster, I do the same. I'm random even when I try to explain my randomness. Things leads to another in my brain. and the "output" is something very distant, but related.

 

[Keith]

I sometimes think my mind has ADD. I will start thinking about something and then fifteen minutes later I've gone through so many completely irrelevant thoughts that I stop and try to wonder how I got there.

 

[Cogs Of My Cranium]

Random is a word that is thrown my way very very often, not from men but from women. I don't consider myself random. If one just thinks a few steps more they will see that my topics have some relatable threads to them. Random seems like such a flippant word to me. It's not a label that suggests that the other person has given much thought to me or my words.

 

[Berianireth]

I've been told that I'm random or abrupt. It's because I will think of something and then have a hard time figuring out when to say it, so it comes up later. Sometimes I even get reminded of things I was trying to figure out a long time ago during another discussion, and I'll decide that's my cue.
Most people aren't really offended as far as I can tell. I've probably become less irritating and awkward in recent years though because I let more things go. I just don't understand why my thoughts are so much more difficult to work into conversations!

 

[SyAn]

I am not random at all, but do accept that I may very well appear to be - what I do and say connects very logically in my mind, though admittedly not obviously to others, since audibility may consist of serialised verbal screenshots of my thought races.

 

[May Black]

I've been told a lot in the past that I lack logic, which I feel is completely wrong. Everything I do and say is perfectly logical and connected to the subject to me, my logic just doesn't seem to go well with most people.

Some brains activate a smaller circle of thoughts around a concept. This creates a stream-lined approach to processing that concept. From what I understand, Aspies tend to activate a larger area around the concept, allowing the brain to identify looser connections that would be missed by more stream-lined brains. However, it makes it much harder to stay on topic.

Now I'm randomly thinking about when I was dating my NT husband, and he was so delighted by my randomness because I was "the opposite of boring." Sweet memory.

This is extremely interesting. One of the things I fell in love with in my boyfriend was how he could always follow my line of thought, no matter how outrageously far away from the actual subject I'd stray. I had never experienced that kind of connection with anyone before. We have this beautiful way of communicating with each other, where we can use isolated words instead of a sentence, or even just make a certain sound and it will make perfect sense to both of us based on something we had talked about sometimes years ago. It is so delightful.

Other times, it's just me being me. I may do things like suddenly treat something I've been taking extremely seriously with humor and flippancy (which drives people nuts if it's in the middle of an argument, LOL!).

Sometimes in a middle of an argument I can come to a sudden insight that what I'm arguing about really isn't important or that the whole thing is just plain silly and start laughing.

Oh, another thing. Sometimes I like to argue the opposite point of view even if it's not representative of my opinion at all just to see what the response is. Especially if it's controversial. Then when my experiment is done I ditch. That also frustrates people if they've gotten good and heated up about it. I suppose that's trolling now that I think of it... Except I don't do it online.

My boyfriend pretended he was republican around his family for a while.

I am not random at all, but do accept that I may very well appear to be - what I do and say connects very logically in my mind, though admittedly not obviously to others, since audibility may consist of serialised verbal screenshots of my thought races.

You lost me.

 

[DogwoodTree]

Like SyAn said, my thoughts and ideas aren't random at all to me...I can always track exactly how I got to that thought. But my assumption is that my thoughts will always appear random and useless to others, so I just don't share them. Sometimes, if someone asks me questions and digs enough to convince me they actually want to hear what I have to say, I can talk confidently about the subject of my thoughts and go all over the place with my ideas. But I rarely trust that people actually do want to hear what I'm thinking about. Haven't decided yet if the problem is that my thoughts are that useless or if other people just aren't fond of thinking that deeply about things.

 

[Zjezdzaj]

My Aspie and ADD mind is incredibly random and all over the place at times. I’m convinced that within an hour of waking up I’ve thought more thoughts than most people go through in a day. Thoughts and ideas kinda pop up in my head and I just feel like I have to run with them. The funny thing is that I can be completely silent for an entire day (while my brain's working in mach 5) and then suddenly start babbling about tacos or something.
When sitting along with colleagues at work during break, and after having been near silent for hours, I can suddenly blurt out things like “Do you know what werewolves and steering wheels have in common? I do.”
My mom usually laugh and says “You’re funny.” My colleagues I divide into two groups; the group that laugh, smile and play along with my randomness (I like them) and the group that roll their eyes and groan in annoyance (I don't like them).

 

[clg114]

The way I understand it, the difference between the Aspie mind and the NT mind is how our brains work. We proses information differently. In any given situation, what makes sense to us does not to a NT. Not having social driven priorities can make a big difference in how someone see's things. A coworker once told me, "You don't say much, but when you do, you say the strangest things!

 

[Vanilla]

Guilty. I'm always saying things, which sound so awesome in my own mind, but those who are closest to me are honest enough to tell me that I can be so random. It never seems random, until they've pointed it out, or explained it. In some cases though, I notice how random it is once the words leave my mouth, though by then it's generally too late to take it back.

 

[SameStars]

Possibly, because the connection between subjects only makes sense to me. Also, sometimes I blurt out answers to conversations I had that day or even weeks before.

 

[SyAn]

. . . way of communicating with each other, where we can use isolated words instead of a sentence, or even just make a certain sound and it will make perfect sense to both of us based on something we had talked about sometimes years ago. It is so delightful.

Ah, people like that are rare, and when it happens it's just bliss

You lost me.

It's like my thoughts are racing cars, but what people see of the whole race is restricted to what happens at the pit stops, they don't see what happens between pit stops . . . does that make sense?

Haven't decided yet if the problem is that my thoughts are that useless or if other people just aren't fond of thinking that deeply about things.

Same here - I often get the reply "I never really thought about that", and I am totally flabberghasted; how can they not? Or am I just utterly weird?

I really like Atay's proposal that Aspies engage a large area of thought around a concept and therefore make connections that may not be visible from within smaller circles.

 

[Randomperson]

What do you mean nobody likes the banjo?! BANJOS ARE AWESOME.