Straight line thinking.

[watergirl]

Does anyone else suffer with what I think of as "straight line thinking"? By this I mean that to be efficient, I can only focus on one thing at a time and have to see it through before I can start the next.

This is being demonstrated at the moment to me, as having just come back from visiting my parents and talking about my recent diagnosis, followed by my second visit to see the Psychiatrist who diagnosed me. I have a lot that I want to think and talk about, but we are finishing off the decorating here at home and I really need to be busy doing that. The point is that I can't do both...I am either decorating or thinking about this sort of stuff......I wanted to post some thoughts about my trip etc, but need to get on, so it will have to wait a few days until I can get time to sort it all out in my head.....this is very frustrating, and as you can see it is 11.00am and I haven't started the day yet properly as I'm too distracted...........so I just thought I would ask if other's suffer this. I normally take AGES writing and editing and re-editing anything I post anywhere, but I'm just going to post this having only taken 10 minutes over it.........very rare for me!

[trekster]

Yes this is definitely an ASD trait. Unsure if this is a sensory issue or hyperfocus or something else.

[JeanneA]

Hi Samantha I agree with Trekster this is definitely an ASD trait. My son is just the same as you he can only do one thing at a time before he can go on to the next thing.

[robert7111a]

This is very interesting as I'm completely the opposite. I have so many things "on the go", virtually nothing gets finished. I put this down to dyspraxic tendencies. Just to illustrate the diversity of "The Spectrum"

[raydon]

I have this as well, it's called monotropism I think.

[watergirl]

Ah.....interesting....but robert 7111a, surely this confirms my thinking..........if I try and spread my energy then nothing gets finished, hence only able to think and act linear............comments anyone?

[Lyndalou]

I can get quite frustrated if I can't see something through to conclusion but it's something I've learned to cope with better over the years. I've always said that I can't think straight if the things around me aren't. I find I have to for instance, get the house to a certain 'standard' of tidiness before I can focus on making phonecalls or arrange activities for the children. This is a never ending battle (as anyone with kids will know) and something that my husband gets annoyed about as he can't understand why I need to keep the house reasonably tidy. What can be more upsetting is when I spend a lot of time doing something then immediately it is undone again. Then my husband will say something like 'It's a family house, it's meant to look lived in' in order to get out of doing anything!

 

I do believe however that only focussing on one thing to the detriment of everything else is a major impediment to living a full life. It is frustrating to be 'interrupted' but it is the nature of life that other things need done or require attention. It is possible to have 'straight line thinking' doing more than one thing at a time but as Robert says, then you run the risk of not finishing the things you start. I think that's a different problem all together...

[Linnet]

I can only do one thing at a time. This is very frustating as I won't start something unless I have enough time to finish it so loads of things never seem to get started as something more important needs doing when I find I do have enough time to do something. Not entirely sure that makes sense.

[watergirl]

Yes Linnet, That makes sense to me......the "more important thing" is probably less self indulgent??......I have a terrible concsience.......if I have something coming up in the way of an event, then I can't start anything in case I can't finish it....but also because I can't focus on anything until the event in question is out of the way.....anxiety I suppose. But sometimes I can be musing over a little job when there is something else important coming up, and then absent-mindedly start fiddling around without any intention of doing it.....and, hey, whadda ya know.....it's done! I think it must be to do with anxiety overall.............why am I so anxious over things that NT folk are not? It seems to connect with putting everything in boxes, orderliness etc, and having clear divisions between activities.

 

Lyndalou..........I know exactly what you mean......I live in a bit of a mess most of the time, but when I tidy up....particularly any paperwork/bills etc .....then suddenly I can think clearly again. When I get tidy then I can keep it tidy and think straight, but it's difficult to get there when other people are around messing it up.....even if you do love them!!

Edited November 22, 2012 by watergirl

[Sa Skimrande]

Straight line thinking, it varies with me and I believe it is mood related, but I have noticed with regards to what Watergirl has said the issue of mess, I prefer a level of mess, it is comfortable to me, but when that mess becomes messier, I can't think and motivation takes a severe hit until the point comes where the mess is tidied up far beyond what I am comfortable with, but am uncomfortable with the cleanliness until it degrades to my level of comfort. Ideally one should maintain one's comfort by not letting the mess degrade, but as humans we are lazy creatures, we will put off what we don't need to do until the screaming end when we feel forced to deal with the issue.

 

But also in reference to Robert, I also tend to have loads of things on the go and so much around here is unfinished where the ideal would be to keep me interested I switch from one thing to the other as suits my mood and need to get something finished and I look at much of this as a production line mentality, which if I ever pull my finger out and get into business it will be a good model to follow in that whilst something is pickling in the acid or the kiln is heating up or metal is normalising, I can be engaged in other processes on other jobs and so achieve lots over a space of time instead of one thing.

 

But in relation to what I said regards mess and my need to have a production line, the work location I have at my disposal is not ideal in that there is no heating beyond the fire which is not on every day, it's dark and I need to light to think and the person that owns the location likes to work in a mess i just cannot handle through being somewhat clumsy and it's damp where my highly polished expensive and hard to get tools rust and pit rapidly and spraying with oil to inhibit rust is not conducive to the materials I like to work with, as it's not just metal, but fabrics too and sometimes exotic woods which whence stained with the wrong kind of oil, they are ruined. In short where I coud start a business, it gives me the heebie jeebies and I feel that is inhibiting my desire to get moving.

[watergirl]

Sa Skimrande..........I agree with pretty much everything you say in the first 2 paragraphs..........I can multi-task when working on a project (I revive old wooden sailing dinghies as a hobby/passion)...it's sort of "jobs within a job" then......using drying time between coats of paint/filler etc to prep the next little bit and that sort of thing.......but if I have something like say a job interview or a hospital appointment which is due in the next few days, then I find it hard to do anything much. Interestingly though, if I have managed to do all the outstanding little jobs and tidy up etc, and I have the whole morning free before the appointment, then I can do something if it either can be completed well before I'm due to leave, or if it is something that is ongoing, like knitting, for example. I think it must be to do with capacity for stress........the stress of a forthcoming event puts the system on overload, so in order to function then other stress levels must be reduced prior to the event......It's a bit like having several high useage tabs open on the pc and then expecting youtube not to buffer..........close some tabs and it'll work fine.......so if I keep the domestic chores up to date then I can cope with the forthcoming event and still function reasonably well.

[Linnet]

Watergirl, I love your comparison to having tabs open on the pc.

 

L x

[Sa Skimrande]

Water girl you renovate dinghies do you, should have had you around to renovate the old mirror I had before I jumped up and down on it, a vintage boat from the first year of manufacture, it was rotten, only in the bow section mind. I did try to renovate it and did, well the mast, rigging rudder and centreboard, even cut holes for full size oars and converted the transom tank into a locker for the seagull, I had plans for that boat, but I did not have the facilities to work on the hull and I could not drag inside my flat like could with all the other stuff and so out in the rain it degraded and one day in a fit of depression I trashed it. All the renovated stuff I passed on to a guy down the road as he was also renovating an old Mirror, but he had a garage and power tools and he was making a nice job of it too, but he also got my sails with the early registration numbers, the spinnaker and chute, but the seagull I still have as I have the use of a Walker dinghy, but that has not been in the water for a few years due to it being up the top of a hill and I don't fancy dragging it quarter of a mile back up as leaving it down on the estuary is not a good idea with the boat thieves that operate in this area, but at least the Walker won't rot.

 

But I have felt more balance when I have had a project in hand where I have fully restored three vehicles, a 1955 Series One Land- Rover which taught me my most of my vehicle repair skills, Also a 1977 Volkswagen camper with a Devon Sundowner conversion and a 2001 Chinese Pioneer 125 cc motorcycle the forerunner of the Pulse Adrenaline- it needed it those things degrade fast. But currently no projects due to being skint.

[watergirl]

Glad you like that comparison Linnet........I see myself very much like a pc with similar logic as well

 

Sa Skimrande...........yes, old sailing dinghies ......have owned a huge number....including several Mirrors.....the oldest being number 36, from the first month of production. I know what you mean about having a project in hand too.........although I find it difficult to focus on everyday jobs if I have a major job to do on the house for example, I feel better if I have one of my obsession projects ongoing to focus on mentally when I'm stressed about something.....just thinking about boats helps usually, and also acts as a carrot to help get the boring stuff done...........the trick then is to not be tempted to leave all the "must do" jobs in order to do the pet ones! But then I have my partner to keep me focussed, which is probably a good thing.

[robert7111a]

I can't "do" linearly - i.e. one thing at a time. The nature of my work (in particular) requires that I do/read/research many things at once. This is why I have several writings of notes (for various topics) on the go. Like Sa Skimrande, I have various "production lines" all at different stages of "production/remediation". Like at work, I have several "tabs" open on the PC as I have to jump from one to the next. At home, I can do this to suit the mood.

 

Sometimes I do wish life could just operate on a linear process so that I can just worry about one thing at a time

[Mannify]

Sometimes I can be totally singular in my thinking. I'm like that when writing essays. My last module of my degree didn't really do this to me, but the previous two did - I would get such a strong sense of 'flow' while writing an essay that I'd feel almost trance-like. It wouldn't occur to me to eat, and I was even in danger of wetting myself . And while I was in that state I would write things that were above my usual cognitive ability while not in 'flow'.

[watergirl]

Interesting...........I also get heavily involved and do the trance like concentration thing too..........I just wrote a long post on here re something else which I edited a number of times prior to posting...took me ages.....and then had to dash upstairs to the loo,..... so that demonstrates it perfectly, lol. But I wouldn't have been able to focus to write that post if I had someone coming to the house later, or had to go out......I'd have delayed it until later......any event on the horizon messes up my focus.

[Mannify]

I was always wetting myself as a kid because I just wouldn't leave what I was doing - even up in my teens .

[robert7111a]

I find it hard to focus at times due to easy distractibility (i.e. the ADD element). Especially in my house where there are too many distractions! I have the attention span of a flea. If I am doing serious study, I need dead silence and four bare walls without a window. Oh what I'd give for linear straight-line thinking ... lol

[Sa Skimrande]

I was always wetting myself as a kid because I just wouldn't leave what I was doing - even up in my teens .

 

I used to have that problem when I was concentrating on making something, I would get so engrossed in what I was doing time flew by and I discovered I had just continued working not stopping for food, drink, sleep or anything, it is the way I can get sometimes, it is like my own world where everything is ignored except what I am interested in and toilet stuff, I would put it off until the screaming end.

[Mannify]

Hey, but it's so nice to be on a forum where we can admit this stuff, isn't it?

[Sa Skimrande]

I am an open book mostly and places like this I do have reign in my honesty as I am very aware some might not like it and furthermore I wish not to be the cause of making this website a spectacle for the popcorn munching lurker spectators who are watching everything we say for fair means or foul for lurking is an education for many websites, forum activity is like a veritable soap opera.

 

Now I am registered on a few other websites which cannot be accessed by the lurker and on those I am very honest.

[Mannify]

Well, I'm glad you remain on this one, Sa Skimrande, anyway

Edited November 24, 2012 by Mannify

[Sa Skimrande]

Thank You !

[watergirl]

Hmmm...........you both make good points there.

I hadn't really thought of the wider lurking audience, I tend to think that only a few people have access and all are nice people.......not neccesarily true though I suppose. I'm not too worried about sharing my thoughts and revealing some personal stuff, as I'm not very likely to meet anyone face to face, and my identity is fairly safe. It was one of the things that came out of my dx as to how I give out too much information......can't seem to help it really, but I'm more concsious of it now.

Having said that, there is a forum totally unrelated to this topic, where I post and meet face to face, and it wouldn't take a genius from that one to identify me on here.................and I'm sure there are a few Aspies on that site from some of what is said............and I have indicated to them I have problems (so they are pre-warned for meeting up) so on the whole I suppose it doesn't matter anyway.

 

Sami.