It doesn't even happen then for me. Today I blanked on a name of a place I worked at literally 2 months ago, but there was still plenty going through my head. It was just none of it was the name I needed
My head for sure doesn't go empty when I blank on something, instead it's just "oh fuck, oh god, why did you ask me this, oh god no, please just function brain, dammit."
"It'll be awkward if you don't say anything, you've gotta say something, you just have to think of anything that kinda fits the question, is it already awkward, it's probably already awkward, I should just say that I don't know, but how should I form that sentence..."
I think the reason neurotypical people don't blank when asked a question is that they know like five things, and the answer to the questions they ask is usually one of those five things.
When we're asked a question, it's like "What do you mean by 'favorite', like my favorite recently? Or of all time?" And then we're like scanning the infinite catalogue of every single thing we've ever had even the slightest awareness of.
My answer WILL be the most correct. It may take far too long, to the point that the conversation has already ended before I know the answer. But I **will** be confident about my favorite one some time within a week or so of being asked.
It took dating someone who pointed out that my favorite color was green. She had to draw connections to the amount of green I wore, and green things I had. It wasn't like, everything green, but a larger number of green things.
People ask about favorite music/artist/song and it's so hard for me to give an answer even though I know a broader set of music than most and used to be able to name all the band members of my preferred genre.
Is this typically a trait associated with ASD? I mean, I've made my life about snowboarding. I've been to 64 different snowsports areas across the world and I can't tell you what a favorite location is. It needs so many more qualifiers for me to narrow it down. And there isn't anything in this world I've ever been more passionate about.
It would be so much easier to answer a question like "What's a song you've listened to a lot recently?" or "What was a really cool place you've been to?" but it seems autistic people are so dead set on an objectively true answer, and neurotypicals rattle off lies like they were truths that everyone knows.
Neurotypicals are used to working with incomplete information, so they just make shit up like half of the time. Hearing them explain the missing piece of puzzles can be PROFOUND. They do it all of the time, but they're not good at it.
But the one thing that does make them good at is responding quickly.
"What's your favorite song?"
Got it.
It doesn't matter if the only song they can think about is Hudson Mohawke - Cbat; that is their favorite song for now, and they WILL continue this conversation with you.
Autistic people want to find an absolutely perfect, correct, precise answer that fixes everything. And we tend to find it. But it takes a while.
And neurotypical people prefer quick and badly done rather than slow and done well.
Obviously it would be beneficial to be able to be somewhere in the middle.
Maybe this is the small talk thing then?
I remember meeting this individual one night, hanging out in her hotel room we talked music for hours. It was wonderful for me. I mentioned that I don't do small talk well, and the response was disbelief because I was able to talk about music for so long. At which point I had to explain that music is art, and we don't consider talking about famous painters as small talk but rather highly educated and cultured discourse.
I guess when I actually talk about "favorite things" I'm expecting someone to actually fucking care. Because if I'm asking it's because I want to get to know you and see if we can get deep down the music conversation path, or snowsports areas, or whatever.
You make a good point about explaining the missing pieces of puzzles. They are bad about it.
And the short answer bit, too. It's such a challenging thing for me to think about. I don't like pointless conversation, even if I find them hard to get away from. And short answers just feel pointless 90% of the time. But I suppose that would require actually caring about the missing pieces and learning about them instead of filling them in with the 5 things they know about and form their entire world view around.
Ok but even if I try to do that I gotta stare at the wall and now I’m concentrating on the wall and my breath, I still feel like I’m doing it wrong. I’m thinking I’m doing it wrong, I must be doing it wrong. Am I doing it wrong though bro?😂
I've only achieved a "blank" mind state through the brain hack of transcendental meditation. In essence, you repeat a mantra over and over in your mind with your eyes closed, and attempt to bring your mind back to just repeating the mantra any time it strays. If you can manage that for a bit, you enter a sort of trance state. It's actually very restful to the brain if you can do it.
I thiiiink that's the traditional way to meditate? I dunno that's what I tried to do based off what I heard in movies and stuff, not sure I've actually meditated though but I think a little... maybe.....
I only achieved mental blank state via hacking away parts of my personality and identity until there was none left just so I could conform to my NTpD(Neurotypical Personality Disorder) mother's BS
Sufficient to say I'm not doing that shit again.
Edit: Clarification
Mindfulness meditation for me. I’m not sure if there’s much difference besides intent. I know with mindfulness practice I can even walk down the street with very minimal brain chatter if I focus my attention into awareness of the present moment.
In that vein, drugs are a short cut that can work, but with dangers and problems like most shortcuts. Primarily in the form of traumatic experiences in the form of “bad trips”.
The state of “ego-death” that pychonauts refer to is like a state of pure awareness with no thought.
Edit: oh yeah, there is no mantra in mindfulness. In mindfulness, you let the thoughts come if they come, but you sort of observe them while they happen like impartially, like watching some other aspect of nature, and when the thought takes its course, you just go back to focusing on your breath/body.
I think this kinda captures the only moment I believe I truly didn't think about anything. I took acid, slightly more than I'm used to, got stuck in a thought loop revolving around the question of how that trip will affect my mind in the long term, and after a while I just stopped thinking and made some food. One of the most intense trips I had. Wouldn't consider it a "bad trip" though
Edit: btw, mindfulness meditation is the only kind that works for me. If I try to focus on just one thing, or try to stop a thought when I notice it, it gets really uncomfortable and annoying really fast and it's almost painfully understimulating
Different practices have radically different effects on the brain.
And "pure awareness" in one tradition is completely the opposite of pure awareness in another tradition.
For example, with Transcendental Meditation, the deepest level emerges when the brain ceases being aware of anything at all, and rather than calling it pure *awareness* they usually use the term pure *consciousness*.
TM is absolutely easy to do. What the person you're responding to isn't TM and I suspect he never actually took the class. If he did, he should go back and retake the class (it is a free option once you take it the first time).
No, I did, I tried to describe it in a simple way for layman. Anyway I hate this reddit-style replying (yes I know where I am) so unfortunately I'm blocking you and you may not see this
My brain only briefly goes silent when it’s short circuiting due to sensory overload lol. And I hardly notice or enjoy it because I’m in sensory overload.
To be fair I simply don't believe people who say they don't have an inner monologue, I think they either are trying to be quirky or didn't properly understand the concept of inner monologue (which is fair, because describing things like this is hard, like "brain zaps", for example).
Wow, I just kinda subconsciously ignored them Cuz I didn't know what they were and didn't want to get worried. Tho I'm sorry people have, it's nice to hear that others have experienced it
Yeah it happens to me if I forget to take my lexapro. But taking it long term also gave me a movement disorder so I’m weaning off it. Fingers crossed I’m doing it slowly enough that when I fully stop I won’t get zapped lol.
This is a scientifically studied thing though? Like, trying to learn more about the different ways people learn and process information is what led me to here. Not having an inner monologue is a studied thing, and I've asked a friend about this and they way they described how they think was very different than myself. I don't often get that result when I ask someone "how they think" but it happens on occasion.
I've said before that I eat edibles.
I brushed my teeth a few minutes ago. Brushing my teeth a few hours after eating an edible, it's like the narrator is just gone. No internal monologue. I do all of those things and don't say a word to myself in my head.
But under normal circumstances brushing my teeth involves my inner monologue listing out every single step(LOTS of steps).
That’s how I am normally, sober, without adhd medication. I can’t script things, and I can’t pay attention to how I’m behaving when I’m unmedicated. But once I’m medicated, I can think things. I can think about what words I need to say, and what order I need to say them in. But I don’t have an ongoing monologue.
I can believe not having an inner monologue, even though I couldn't imagine experiencing it myself. People think in very different ways, and it seems entirely possible that there are plenty who don't have an inner monologue.
I'm like 99% sure I have aphantasia, which means I cannot visualize images in my mind. I literally cannot imagine what it is like for people who can, and people who can't aren't able to imagine what it would be like for me. But I don't lose my ability to think just because I can't conjure up hallucinations with the meat glob in my head, I just do it differently. I still know what things look like and can draw decently, I have good navigation skills despite being unable to visualize maps, I am good at mental math, and I still enjoy reading even though I can't really see the world I'm immersed in.
So I can imagine that there are people without an inner monologue who are still capable of processing information effectively. It's just different from how you and I do it, and it's not something we can understand completely because we do not experience it.
I don’t have an inner monologue.
It’s not that my mind is “blank”, it’s that I don’t use words for my thoughts except when I’m thinking about actual words (e.g. when reading or thinking of what to say). For instance, if I decide that I want some coffee, it’s not like I think the literal words “man, I could use some coffee”, I don’t even think that the word “coffee” necessarily pops into my head in any noticeable way.
It’s hard to describe what form these thoughts actually do take; it’s also not typically a flash of an image in my mind, which is the other thing people assume. If people ask me what I’m thinking/feeling, I’m able to use words to describe that but it’s not as though those words were bouncing around my head before they asked (at least, not necessarily).
That's my issue too. I'm not thinking ALL THE TIME, I have moments of thinking, zoning out (blank), daydreaming and playing music in my head, but the way these headlines are written it's like these people don't have any inner monologue AT ALL.
This doesn't even sound possible, even the most simple person living the most simple rural life will still reflect on things they have talked with other people, and that's already text. Maybe what they mean is just that people have different levels of mental verbosity.
I would say my mind is pretty quiet relatively often, like I think thoughts and things ofc and when I'm working I categorise my tasks and timing and all that but it's often I sit on the bus or something and when I try to remember topics I've thought about during the last 30 min I draw up a bit blank, this is not to say my mind isn't on during that time, I presume something is going on in there but I can't reach it like that
How is that possible? My brain is basicly a picture slide show, with gifs, Videos of majorly memes and fighting scenes chaincing randonly while I talk with my inner voice and Philosophy about how to do tax evation, beat someone up ore of you can blow a foreskin up like a ballon and pop it. All that while my brain DJ plays and chance randomly the song.
Mostly it results in zoneing out and BAM 20 minuts hase pass
What the actual...?!
So they can just sit there and there is *no* narration, noise, inner dialogue, music playing, vague rushing sound of lots of concurrent thought cycles, music on repeat, or all of the above simultaneously?!
I don't know whether to be outraged or sympathetic.
Idk if I’d say my mind is blank, but it’s often zoned the fuck out of reality and not much is happening in there. Certainly no words are happening, maybe some colors or vague images. People like to ask me what I’m feeling or thinking about and the answer is usually literally nothing
edit: Never mind, I just remembered I’m usually dissociating and that’s probably what that is 💀
If you want to experience what neurotypical headspace is like, just meditate. Focusing on your breath and allowing thought to just dissipate will clear you head and then you can see how the others live
The closest I can ever get to a blank mind is when I listen to a specific type of music that doesn't have vocals and sort of "untangle" the melody in my head, focusing on a single instrument's line at a time. That's part of my "get over overstimulation" emergency protocols (so to speak; I don't actually have proper protocols), and that's when I am able (if I'm successful) to swap my constant stream of verbalized and non-verbalized but conceptual information that always runs in my mind to the sound of that music. I cannot even imagine having an actually blank mind or not having a constant inner monologue/dialogue/whatever that is.
(Damn this sounds really fucking weird when typed out like this. And people ask me why I always feel like a xenomorph among normal happy humans).
Saying this as someone who has actively practiced certain mediation practices for the last 15 or so years.
For most people who say that their mind is blank, are simply not aware of what is happening in their mind.
Yes there are states like profound samadhi-bliss-emptiness, but that requires substantial practice of meditation.
Actually the mind state of bored dull experience is tremendously active. Boredom is far from relaxation. And boredom is full of vapid thinking.
To add, I think many autistic people are generally more aware about their headspace than neurotypicals. Because we have to.
Some normal people just do not have to deal with themselves much.
I've largely come to the conclusion that when someone says "meditate", what they mean is "empty your brain for a while", because nothing comes close.
I find it rather hard. For me, I can only do it on walks on secure familiar paths, like around the parking lot outside my apartment. I focus on experiencing the rhythm of my footsteps, and try not to think of words, focusing on shapes and listening to ambient noise.
I wonder if the "some neurotypicals" mentioned by OP have aphantasia. My understanding is that there are 3 brain types: three dimensional space brains, usually artist types. Inner dialog and two dimensional picture concept brains like mine, and aphantasia brains with no internal dialogs. Supposedly 5 to 10% of the population has aphantasia, though it would not surprise me if it is much higher.
Now I'm curious if these brain types have anything to do with NT or ND brains.
Last time i successfully meditated, I gave myself a headache from my brain being so quiet. I don’t think my brain is wired to be quiet. I felt tense afterwards too despite the fact that I know I successfully emptied my mind. Meditation felt wrong
I was reading an article not terribly long ago by someone who’s recovering from a brain injury, describing the feeling of riding the subway where normally they’d be buzzing with thoughts and concerns, they were aware of just sitting and their mind going blank for the duration of the ride.
They were expressing dismay because their brain was not functioning the same, but that there was a certain comfort into having a mind that could actually do that, where others need meditation and mindfulness to ‘train’ themselves to empty their mind.
As someone who’s got an uncomfortably busy mind, I found that very interesting..
Never ever blank. I realized this when I got into meditation. You are supposed to just observe your thoughts and let them float away. Like not grab onto them. What I observed is that it is really loud and chaotic in my head ALL THE TIME. Doesn't matter how deeply I breathe or how long I sit in mindfulness. It's a clown car up there. And I have learned to love and accept the chaos. It's who I am and it's not bad or wrong. It's neither better or worse. It's who I am. Side note, I have learned to listen to podcasts and audiobooks all night long to sleep. Keeps me from falling into the chaos and getting no sleep. Only took me 55 years to learn that trick!
The only time I feel like my mind ever goes blank is when I go on walks while listening to music. The blankness ends whenever I encounter someone though. Stay in your houses when I'm trying to walk, damn you /hj
Literally the only time I’ve ever had a mind that’s “blank” is when my brain just kinda stops working. Idk if it’s an autism thing or if it’s just a me thing but sometimes even if I’m like mid conversation with somebody my brain will just like shut down kinda.
It happens when I stutter sometimes or just can’t find the right words to say what I want to say so it feels like my brain just gets overloaded and has to restart itself which just leaves me blanking mid conversation.
I too never understood how some people said they didn't have an inner monologue. I even have an outer monologue. You mean these people don't think?
As for the favourite song question that is so hard for me to answer. And yes that stood out more to me than the original point
They do think, however they don't speak in their head as if they were speaking in real life. They think in concepts and images. I know this because I am able to turn off my inner monologue.
reminds me of
https://www.iflscience.com/people-with-no-internal-monologue-explain-what-its-like-in-their-head-57739
(People With No Internal Monologue Explain What It's Like In Their Head)
And I just... wow.
When I draw a blank on an answer, I always tell the person I need to sort through my files. My brain files. It gets like a browser with too many tabs open in there.
I am asking you to read this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/evilautism/comments/1bfho52/ Automod hates everyone equally, including you. <3
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Can't relate on the going blank on a question at all. What I go through mentally is something like:
*What's my favorite song? Is it this? That? The other? It's a tough question. What's my favorite song today at least? Wait I don't think I listened to anything today. Yesterday I listened to the Myth album from Two Steps From Hell on repeat but I can't say that. This person will think I'm weird.*
//
What people see: 😐😐😐 "...idk..."
Literally when im on concerta, it got too quiet, i cannot hear my own thoughts which is weird but i still like analyze and think alot at the same time, but on concerta idunno, everything were like quieted down literally. Im ok 50/50 release system now and feel more human lol.
It doesn't even happen then for me. Today I blanked on a name of a place I worked at literally 2 months ago, but there was still plenty going through my head. It was just none of it was the name I needed
My head for sure doesn't go empty when I blank on something, instead it's just "oh fuck, oh god, why did you ask me this, oh god no, please just function brain, dammit."
"It'll be awkward if you don't say anything, you've gotta say something, you just have to think of anything that kinda fits the question, is it already awkward, it's probably already awkward, I should just say that I don't know, but how should I form that sentence..."
I think the reason neurotypical people don't blank when asked a question is that they know like five things, and the answer to the questions they ask is usually one of those five things. When we're asked a question, it's like "What do you mean by 'favorite', like my favorite recently? Or of all time?" And then we're like scanning the infinite catalogue of every single thing we've ever had even the slightest awareness of. My answer WILL be the most correct. It may take far too long, to the point that the conversation has already ended before I know the answer. But I **will** be confident about my favorite one some time within a week or so of being asked.
It took dating someone who pointed out that my favorite color was green. She had to draw connections to the amount of green I wore, and green things I had. It wasn't like, everything green, but a larger number of green things. People ask about favorite music/artist/song and it's so hard for me to give an answer even though I know a broader set of music than most and used to be able to name all the band members of my preferred genre. Is this typically a trait associated with ASD? I mean, I've made my life about snowboarding. I've been to 64 different snowsports areas across the world and I can't tell you what a favorite location is. It needs so many more qualifiers for me to narrow it down. And there isn't anything in this world I've ever been more passionate about.
It would be so much easier to answer a question like "What's a song you've listened to a lot recently?" or "What was a really cool place you've been to?" but it seems autistic people are so dead set on an objectively true answer, and neurotypicals rattle off lies like they were truths that everyone knows. Neurotypicals are used to working with incomplete information, so they just make shit up like half of the time. Hearing them explain the missing piece of puzzles can be PROFOUND. They do it all of the time, but they're not good at it. But the one thing that does make them good at is responding quickly. "What's your favorite song?" Got it. It doesn't matter if the only song they can think about is Hudson Mohawke - Cbat; that is their favorite song for now, and they WILL continue this conversation with you. Autistic people want to find an absolutely perfect, correct, precise answer that fixes everything. And we tend to find it. But it takes a while. And neurotypical people prefer quick and badly done rather than slow and done well. Obviously it would be beneficial to be able to be somewhere in the middle.
Maybe this is the small talk thing then? I remember meeting this individual one night, hanging out in her hotel room we talked music for hours. It was wonderful for me. I mentioned that I don't do small talk well, and the response was disbelief because I was able to talk about music for so long. At which point I had to explain that music is art, and we don't consider talking about famous painters as small talk but rather highly educated and cultured discourse. I guess when I actually talk about "favorite things" I'm expecting someone to actually fucking care. Because if I'm asking it's because I want to get to know you and see if we can get deep down the music conversation path, or snowsports areas, or whatever. You make a good point about explaining the missing pieces of puzzles. They are bad about it. And the short answer bit, too. It's such a challenging thing for me to think about. I don't like pointless conversation, even if I find them hard to get away from. And short answers just feel pointless 90% of the time. But I suppose that would require actually caring about the missing pieces and learning about them instead of filling them in with the 5 things they know about and form their entire world view around.
I don't think that anyone's mind is *normally* blank, but a lot of people can just not think about anything at all if they choose to.
It’s like holding your breath, but in the brain
Ok but even if I try to do that I gotta stare at the wall and now I’m concentrating on the wall and my breath, I still feel like I’m doing it wrong. I’m thinking I’m doing it wrong, I must be doing it wrong. Am I doing it wrong though bro?😂
I've only achieved a "blank" mind state through the brain hack of transcendental meditation. In essence, you repeat a mantra over and over in your mind with your eyes closed, and attempt to bring your mind back to just repeating the mantra any time it strays. If you can manage that for a bit, you enter a sort of trance state. It's actually very restful to the brain if you can do it.
I achieved it by making my mental feedback mirror whatever I was presently hearing
I thiiiink that's the traditional way to meditate? I dunno that's what I tried to do based off what I heard in movies and stuff, not sure I've actually meditated though but I think a little... maybe.....
I only achieved mental blank state via hacking away parts of my personality and identity until there was none left just so I could conform to my NTpD(Neurotypical Personality Disorder) mother's BS Sufficient to say I'm not doing that shit again. Edit: Clarification
Mindfulness meditation for me. I’m not sure if there’s much difference besides intent. I know with mindfulness practice I can even walk down the street with very minimal brain chatter if I focus my attention into awareness of the present moment. In that vein, drugs are a short cut that can work, but with dangers and problems like most shortcuts. Primarily in the form of traumatic experiences in the form of “bad trips”. The state of “ego-death” that pychonauts refer to is like a state of pure awareness with no thought. Edit: oh yeah, there is no mantra in mindfulness. In mindfulness, you let the thoughts come if they come, but you sort of observe them while they happen like impartially, like watching some other aspect of nature, and when the thought takes its course, you just go back to focusing on your breath/body.
I think this kinda captures the only moment I believe I truly didn't think about anything. I took acid, slightly more than I'm used to, got stuck in a thought loop revolving around the question of how that trip will affect my mind in the long term, and after a while I just stopped thinking and made some food. One of the most intense trips I had. Wouldn't consider it a "bad trip" though Edit: btw, mindfulness meditation is the only kind that works for me. If I try to focus on just one thing, or try to stop a thought when I notice it, it gets really uncomfortable and annoying really fast and it's almost painfully understimulating
Different practices have radically different effects on the brain. And "pure awareness" in one tradition is completely the opposite of pure awareness in another tradition. For example, with Transcendental Meditation, the deepest level emerges when the brain ceases being aware of anything at all, and rather than calling it pure *awareness* they usually use the term pure *consciousness*.
I’ve tried, but holy crap it’s hard to do.
TM is absolutely easy to do. What the person you're responding to isn't TM and I suspect he never actually took the class. If he did, he should go back and retake the class (it is a free option once you take it the first time).
> transc It doesn't sound like you ever took the actual class, because what you describe isn't TM.
No, I did, I tried to describe it in a simple way for layman. Anyway I hate this reddit-style replying (yes I know where I am) so unfortunately I'm blocking you and you may not see this
There's always some crap happening in my head. I've got default dancing amogus living rent free right now
My brain only briefly goes silent when it’s short circuiting due to sensory overload lol. And I hardly notice or enjoy it because I’m in sensory overload.
My mind is never empty………….until someone speaks to me
Mine can go completely blank when people talk to me 😶
Exactly
To be fair I simply don't believe people who say they don't have an inner monologue, I think they either are trying to be quirky or didn't properly understand the concept of inner monologue (which is fair, because describing things like this is hard, like "brain zaps", for example).
Are brain zaps when you're like withdrawing and Everytime you move your eyes it feels like you got a little shock
Yes, It's that, but I have never taken SSRIs, I have no idea why it happens to me (once) every few months. Maybe it's related to stress or poor sleep.
Surprisingly it’s a fairly common symptom of anxiety.
Wow, I just kinda subconsciously ignored them Cuz I didn't know what they were and didn't want to get worried. Tho I'm sorry people have, it's nice to hear that others have experienced it
Yeah it happens to me if I forget to take my lexapro. But taking it long term also gave me a movement disorder so I’m weaning off it. Fingers crossed I’m doing it slowly enough that when I fully stop I won’t get zapped lol.
Yes, it’s that! It’s so weird to explain to someone who haven’t had that before.
I hope I never have to feel those again. I'm a little dizzy just remembering the last time I had them which was 8 or so years ago
This is a scientifically studied thing though? Like, trying to learn more about the different ways people learn and process information is what led me to here. Not having an inner monologue is a studied thing, and I've asked a friend about this and they way they described how they think was very different than myself. I don't often get that result when I ask someone "how they think" but it happens on occasion.
I've said before that I eat edibles. I brushed my teeth a few minutes ago. Brushing my teeth a few hours after eating an edible, it's like the narrator is just gone. No internal monologue. I do all of those things and don't say a word to myself in my head. But under normal circumstances brushing my teeth involves my inner monologue listing out every single step(LOTS of steps).
That’s how I am normally, sober, without adhd medication. I can’t script things, and I can’t pay attention to how I’m behaving when I’m unmedicated. But once I’m medicated, I can think things. I can think about what words I need to say, and what order I need to say them in. But I don’t have an ongoing monologue.
I can believe not having an inner monologue, even though I couldn't imagine experiencing it myself. People think in very different ways, and it seems entirely possible that there are plenty who don't have an inner monologue. I'm like 99% sure I have aphantasia, which means I cannot visualize images in my mind. I literally cannot imagine what it is like for people who can, and people who can't aren't able to imagine what it would be like for me. But I don't lose my ability to think just because I can't conjure up hallucinations with the meat glob in my head, I just do it differently. I still know what things look like and can draw decently, I have good navigation skills despite being unable to visualize maps, I am good at mental math, and I still enjoy reading even though I can't really see the world I'm immersed in. So I can imagine that there are people without an inner monologue who are still capable of processing information effectively. It's just different from how you and I do it, and it's not something we can understand completely because we do not experience it.
I have aphantasia, but I still talk to myself in my head (or there ar words in my head, which have meaning). I just prefer talking to myself out loud.
I don’t have an inner monologue. It’s not that my mind is “blank”, it’s that I don’t use words for my thoughts except when I’m thinking about actual words (e.g. when reading or thinking of what to say). For instance, if I decide that I want some coffee, it’s not like I think the literal words “man, I could use some coffee”, I don’t even think that the word “coffee” necessarily pops into my head in any noticeable way. It’s hard to describe what form these thoughts actually do take; it’s also not typically a flash of an image in my mind, which is the other thing people assume. If people ask me what I’m thinking/feeling, I’m able to use words to describe that but it’s not as though those words were bouncing around my head before they asked (at least, not necessarily).
i'm the exact same!!! you described it perfectly, wow!!!
I don't either. I mean, there has to be SOMETHING going on in there
I do not always experience inner monologue. Often my thinking is nonverbal. Patterns, kinetic sensations, colours and such things.
i honestly can’t tell if what i have is officially an inner monologue or if i just. yknow. think using words bc how else do i think
That's my issue too. I'm not thinking ALL THE TIME, I have moments of thinking, zoning out (blank), daydreaming and playing music in my head, but the way these headlines are written it's like these people don't have any inner monologue AT ALL. This doesn't even sound possible, even the most simple person living the most simple rural life will still reflect on things they have talked with other people, and that's already text. Maybe what they mean is just that people have different levels of mental verbosity.
Hyperfocus but without a target. Ouch.
Actually that is what one would cultivate in zazen meditation.
I would say my mind is pretty quiet relatively often, like I think thoughts and things ofc and when I'm working I categorise my tasks and timing and all that but it's often I sit on the bus or something and when I try to remember topics I've thought about during the last 30 min I draw up a bit blank, this is not to say my mind isn't on during that time, I presume something is going on in there but I can't reach it like that
How is that possible? My brain is basicly a picture slide show, with gifs, Videos of majorly memes and fighting scenes chaincing randonly while I talk with my inner voice and Philosophy about how to do tax evation, beat someone up ore of you can blow a foreskin up like a ballon and pop it. All that while my brain DJ plays and chance randomly the song. Mostly it results in zoneing out and BAM 20 minuts hase pass
What the actual...?! So they can just sit there and there is *no* narration, noise, inner dialogue, music playing, vague rushing sound of lots of concurrent thought cycles, music on repeat, or all of the above simultaneously?! I don't know whether to be outraged or sympathetic.
I'm disgusted.
Idk if I’d say my mind is blank, but it’s often zoned the fuck out of reality and not much is happening in there. Certainly no words are happening, maybe some colors or vague images. People like to ask me what I’m feeling or thinking about and the answer is usually literally nothing edit: Never mind, I just remembered I’m usually dissociating and that’s probably what that is 💀
I doubt this is true for many. This is what mindfulness really is after all, teaching yourself to switch your mind off.
Try having DID too, it's like a circus. Having someone playing songs in your head 24/7 sure is fun
If you want to experience what neurotypical headspace is like, just meditate. Focusing on your breath and allowing thought to just dissipate will clear you head and then you can see how the others live
The closest I can ever get to a blank mind is when I listen to a specific type of music that doesn't have vocals and sort of "untangle" the melody in my head, focusing on a single instrument's line at a time. That's part of my "get over overstimulation" emergency protocols (so to speak; I don't actually have proper protocols), and that's when I am able (if I'm successful) to swap my constant stream of verbalized and non-verbalized but conceptual information that always runs in my mind to the sound of that music. I cannot even imagine having an actually blank mind or not having a constant inner monologue/dialogue/whatever that is. (Damn this sounds really fucking weird when typed out like this. And people ask me why I always feel like a xenomorph among normal happy humans).
Brilliant
Saying this as someone who has actively practiced certain mediation practices for the last 15 or so years. For most people who say that their mind is blank, are simply not aware of what is happening in their mind. Yes there are states like profound samadhi-bliss-emptiness, but that requires substantial practice of meditation. Actually the mind state of bored dull experience is tremendously active. Boredom is far from relaxation. And boredom is full of vapid thinking.
To add, I think many autistic people are generally more aware about their headspace than neurotypicals. Because we have to. Some normal people just do not have to deal with themselves much.
I've largely come to the conclusion that when someone says "meditate", what they mean is "empty your brain for a while", because nothing comes close. I find it rather hard. For me, I can only do it on walks on secure familiar paths, like around the parking lot outside my apartment. I focus on experiencing the rhythm of my footsteps, and try not to think of words, focusing on shapes and listening to ambient noise. I wonder if the "some neurotypicals" mentioned by OP have aphantasia. My understanding is that there are 3 brain types: three dimensional space brains, usually artist types. Inner dialog and two dimensional picture concept brains like mine, and aphantasia brains with no internal dialogs. Supposedly 5 to 10% of the population has aphantasia, though it would not surprise me if it is much higher. Now I'm curious if these brain types have anything to do with NT or ND brains.
Last time i successfully meditated, I gave myself a headache from my brain being so quiet. I don’t think my brain is wired to be quiet. I felt tense afterwards too despite the fact that I know I successfully emptied my mind. Meditation felt wrong
I often don’t have an inner monologue; it’s quiet in this autistic space thanks
I was reading an article not terribly long ago by someone who’s recovering from a brain injury, describing the feeling of riding the subway where normally they’d be buzzing with thoughts and concerns, they were aware of just sitting and their mind going blank for the duration of the ride. They were expressing dismay because their brain was not functioning the same, but that there was a certain comfort into having a mind that could actually do that, where others need meditation and mindfulness to ‘train’ themselves to empty their mind. As someone who’s got an uncomfortably busy mind, I found that very interesting..
Never ever blank. I realized this when I got into meditation. You are supposed to just observe your thoughts and let them float away. Like not grab onto them. What I observed is that it is really loud and chaotic in my head ALL THE TIME. Doesn't matter how deeply I breathe or how long I sit in mindfulness. It's a clown car up there. And I have learned to love and accept the chaos. It's who I am and it's not bad or wrong. It's neither better or worse. It's who I am. Side note, I have learned to listen to podcasts and audiobooks all night long to sleep. Keeps me from falling into the chaos and getting no sleep. Only took me 55 years to learn that trick!
Different meditation practices have radically different effects.
The only time I feel like my mind ever goes blank is when I go on walks while listening to music. The blankness ends whenever I encounter someone though. Stay in your houses when I'm trying to walk, damn you /hj
Literally the only time I’ve ever had a mind that’s “blank” is when my brain just kinda stops working. Idk if it’s an autism thing or if it’s just a me thing but sometimes even if I’m like mid conversation with somebody my brain will just like shut down kinda. It happens when I stutter sometimes or just can’t find the right words to say what I want to say so it feels like my brain just gets overloaded and has to restart itself which just leaves me blanking mid conversation.
I too never understood how some people said they didn't have an inner monologue. I even have an outer monologue. You mean these people don't think? As for the favourite song question that is so hard for me to answer. And yes that stood out more to me than the original point
They do think, however they don't speak in their head as if they were speaking in real life. They think in concepts and images. I know this because I am able to turn off my inner monologue.
does humming a song with your mouth technically count as your mind being blank because you’re focusing on humming instead of internal monologing?
reminds me of https://www.iflscience.com/people-with-no-internal-monologue-explain-what-its-like-in-their-head-57739 (People With No Internal Monologue Explain What It's Like In Their Head) And I just... wow.
When I draw a blank on an answer, I always tell the person I need to sort through my files. My brain files. It gets like a browser with too many tabs open in there.
Huh, guess I'm the weird one cuz I do this pretty frequently. It's very relaxing to just shut it all off for a bit.
Gods it must feel like being dead 😳
It felt like that when I was on SSRIs
it's like king crimson to me. literally feel like time has skipped after someone wakes me up from a blank-out.
Meditation or hypnosis can do that, but it’s tough to maintain.
Ah yes, the good ole, "deer in headlights" panic mode for my brain. Lovely
what.
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Can't relate on the going blank on a question at all. What I go through mentally is something like: *What's my favorite song? Is it this? That? The other? It's a tough question. What's my favorite song today at least? Wait I don't think I listened to anything today. Yesterday I listened to the Myth album from Two Steps From Hell on repeat but I can't say that. This person will think I'm weird.* // What people see: 😐😐😐 "...idk..."
My mind only goes blank under pressure in social situations or job interviews type thing
whenever i dont have an answer boh me AND my subconsiounce goes "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
Literally when im on concerta, it got too quiet, i cannot hear my own thoughts which is weird but i still like analyze and think alot at the same time, but on concerta idunno, everything were like quieted down literally. Im ok 50/50 release system now and feel more human lol.