How does YOUR mind work?
 

Ever since I was a little girl I wondered if my mind works like no one else's. LOL! Now that I'm older, and have discovered world-wide message boards ;), I know that's not true. But I still wonder if others think the way I do.

I used to ask my mom what she thinks about and she always looked at me quite perplexed. Usually she was thinking about what she was going to do next or what she was doing in the moment.

Me? My mind is all over the place! And it's never quiet.

Here's an embarrassing fact only my soon-to-be-ex knew. I have conversations in my head! It's ridiculous! And my facial expression often goes along with whatever dialogue is playing out in my mind. I'll mentally rehearse a conversation with another person, be it a conversation I intend to have, have already had or one that I fantasize I'd like to have.

For those curious, I am undiagnosed ADD, but so very ADD. :dizzy: I love this about me, actually, because I am never bored. But sometimes it's awfully hard to concentrate.

So I wonder...how quiet is your mind?

Yes!

lol! I do that too sometimes, or other times my mind wanders off and I'll end up thinking about something that has absolutely nothing to do with anything going on around me. My expressions change with my thoughts to and I always end up catching people giving me funny looks or asking me what I'm thinking about. It gets really awkward when my facial expression has nothing to do with anything going on at the time but people just assume it does. Other times it's just embarassing. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid and I think I never grew out of it. XD

Glad to know I'm not alone. lol!

This got me in trouble when applying to grad school. You'd have to know me to know how truly insane this was, but let's just say I was an unusually good girl in college. I never drank, ever. Drugs? Tylenol, maybe. ;) I had a professor write a "letter of recommendation" and because I was a good girl, I sent it unopened because that's what we were supposed to do. After my 10th rejection or so, in tears, I finally called one of the schools. She read a portion of the letter and the professor somehow played it off that I was stoned or hung over in most of her classes! Me?! I think it's because I probably found her class boring and my face was probably reacting to things other than what she was saying and perhaps I came off as stoned hung over. :dizzy:

Anyway, I replaced her letter with another and BAM! I got accepted to the very next school.

I have conversations in my head all the time, actually I day dream and have conversations in my head that I wish would actually happen with certain people. Mostly comes to me when I'm driving and listening to music and what not.

My mind is all over the place as well, I can go from one thing, to the next and back to the thing that I was talking about before like I never stopped talking about it to begin with. I hardly concentrait on one thing, and when I do and I'm totally focused once I'm out of that focused area good! haha I'm glad I'm not the only one who can have a conversation in here head. I believe it's more common then we realize though.

I do that all. the. time.

I was convinced only I did that. :lol:

:o I thought I was the only who did that.........

hmm interesting rly. I do exactly that to the point i m too bored to have the actual conversation in reality. Sometimes thats bad , lol
my mind jumps from one thing to another to the point i need to actually take notes to remember some more important things.

I do this too! All.the.time., and about everything.

I've been having conversations with my dissertation committee in my head on an hourly basis this week - I hope they ask me the questions that I'm having no problem answering in my mind, but I think that's unlikely! LOL. The actual conversations never go the way they do in my mind...

hahaha i do this too

I have ADHD, my brain goes all over the place, all the time. I too have conversations in my head and cause people to look at me funny. Sometimes I will forget that I didn't actually have the conversation with someone and then say something to them like, "when I told you about ...". Then they really think I'm nutty. That's ok, at least I'm not boring.

The best is when you're at the gym with your iPod cranked up in your ears and your having a conversation in your head with 2 or 3 people and you blurt something out in your outside voice. That's happened to you too, right? *I hope* LOL

I can daydream like this for hours and hours and hours! It's a relief to see others lay claim to it as well. The only things that can shut the conversations off for me is piano practice and studying gemstones under a microscope. :D

Yes!! Flute practice I have found completely frees my mind! I've been playing more often lately because I have got to stop the current track my mind is on. It's not healthy! :dizzy: It's got to be something I can sink my teeth into though. Playing the same-ol' worn out piece doesn't cut it.

My mind is really busy too. It's crammed with thoughts that go through it rapidly. I can't turn it off, and it makes me become distracted when I'm supposed to be paying attention (like in church, or when I was in school).

I also will just start singing while people talk to me. lol. They sometimes get annoyed, but I'm still listening. Usually.

Not only do I have conversations in my head, but I also daze off, and will sometimes realize (when I was in school, and now during church) that I have absolutely not been paying attention at all.

Also, when I write or go deep in thought I make a weird purring noise or "play" with my fingers (I can't describe it). I twist and bend them and my wrists, and they sometimes ache, but I can't go deep into my thoughts unless I do that.

So ... yep, none of you feel bad about being different. lol.

LOL -- I think this is one of those things that everyone does but no one talks about. Well, we talk about it but in our head to our imaginary friend! haha

My thing lately has been daydreaming that I won the lottery. I play out scenarios about how and when I quit my job (very evil) and how I am going to surprise my family and friends with checks. And when I a hear a song being sung by a woman I pretend that I am that singer putting on a concert. And usually my ex-boyfriend will be in the crowd with his new girlfriend as I'm up on stage looking thin and sexy. Think Fergi! haha

:lol:
I am usually too distracted by my music to have a head conversation while I work out, but I often find myself mouthing the words to the song when I get really into my workout... and would not be at all surprised if I've actually sung out loud on occasion. :o


Many of my head conversations take place in the car. Sometimes I'll get somewhere and realize I don't really remember the drive, making turns, etc. ...and hope I didn't run any red lights!!

LOL@ the conversation thing! I totally do that. I'll come up with these fantasy situations and then play out what I'd say and what the other person would say. :lol:

I have conversations in my head all the time! The great thing is, no matter what, I'm always right!

Same here. I'm a thinker, and like to think on a variety of things. I enjoy mulling them over, thinking about two sides (or more) to the story. I can cry or laugh just by the things I think about.

I'm pretty sure that's why I don't watch TV. It's mindless, it's boring, and I really don't care what stars can dance or who wants to be a singer.

I hold the political beliefs I do because I thought them out... I don't rely on any news outlet to tell me how to think, nor friends or family. I vote what makes sense to me (and right now, NONE of them make sense!)

It also leads me to debate my faith, and that does drive me nuts. I see bad and come to the conclusion there is no God. I see good; and the stars and the moon, the sun, the seasons all perfect, and conclude there must be God, everything can't all be random particles.

I'm not trying to make a statement over politics or religion, just how my thinking plays into it all. It seems some people just blindly follow whatever CNN or FOX says and don't THINK for themselves, or they just follow whatever their parents raised them to think as far as God goes.

And there's a million more things I think about, too, not just God and politics!

Oh, what a topic. This thinking keeps me up at night, too. I have a CD I play sometimes which helps me go to sleep by telling me exactly which body part to relax. I'd love to shut off my mind, occasionally, and think simply on the surface and no deeper. On more than one occasion my husband has told me, "You think too much!" and not necessarily does he say it in a complimentary manner...

Thinkers Unite! :hug:

RetroChick - I am just like you! I find TV so unbelievably boring, and I almost never watch it. Maybe the odd indepedent film or documentary type piece, but that's about it. I think about so many things and can see both sides and that can make for lots of thinking!

I also do the conversation thing, although in my case a lot of the time in the car the conversations are out loud. :o

Goodness. Are you me? :D

Sadly, my mind these days is a record stuck on a loop going "you're fat, eat more. you're fat, eat more." When I do manage to unstick the record, it explores a lot of extremely abstract and cathartic territory, mostly through enjoyment of music and nature and things of beauty. It doesn't like complex math problems or thinking about important stuff that needs to get done, but I'm OK with that. Daydreaming and planning fantasy vacations is fun for now.

When a friend of mine was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she asked me about my fiction writing. Basically we decided that the difference between being a writer and being bipolar is that I trust the voices in my head not to hurt me.

Oh my gosh, I love this! As a writer myself I completely understand this. This is what I mean by living in my head. My characters talk to me and sometimes I feel quite crazy. :dizzy: It's all that creative personality I guess.

I'm constantly asking my husband "did I say that already?" because I go over and over and over things before I actually say them out loud. Then, I'm not sure if I just said it and repeated it. So far, I don't think I've said anything twice in a row but of course maybe he just isn't listening. I repeat others things too until I drive my beserk.

I also have conversations in my head. So does DH.

I am diagnosed as ADD/ADHD, but I wasn't diagnosed until I was 26. When I was a kid I got bored very easily, only instead of going, "I'm bored" I'd zone out into my own little world or just get up and do something else. I was always talking, doodling, humming, tapping or moving. My imagination was endless. I was always thinking. This lead to being very creative. I can draw, sing, knit, sew, paint, sculpt... if it has anything to do with creating, I love it.

As an adult, a lot of the hyperactivity eased up, but I still had the attention span of a gnat. With some things, I can hyper focus. Video games, very complex "fun" things, physically active things; these are all things I can hyper focus on. I can get lost for HOURS in a good book or sewing project. I usually don't break focus until my body starts getting stiff or tired, or someone actually breaks through the "wall" between me and the world around me. Other things, like talking on the phone, watching TV or even brewing a cup of tea doesn't hold my attention AT ALL. I flat out HATE watching TV. I have to apologize a lot to people I'm speaking on the phone with because I'll randomly zone out. It's not that they are boring me, I just... I dunno. It makes me feel so bad, but I can't help it, it just happens.

I also tend to interrupt people a lot, or just blurt things out. It's generally because I just thought of something that oftentimes has nothing to do with what we're all talking about. This has led to so many embarrassing situations I can't even begin, LOL. I'm a very funny person, I am really good at making people laugh and I have a lot of friends, I'm just awkward. Really really awkward sometimes. ;)

I'm medicated now. I'm on Concerta. When I first started taking it, it made me tired. I'm not gonna lie, I thought for sure I'd lose weight and thought "YAY!!!!" but that didn't happen. It does help though. My husband can tell if I didn't take my meds that morning. Today I was late taking them, and he teased me because I reheated my tea 3 times before he finally reheated it for me a 4th time and sat it in front of me. LOL.

My mind doesn't stop thinking, even when I'm drifting off to sleep. I lay in bed and shake one foot (tapping it) until I fall asleep. It doesn't RACE or anything, I'm just always thinking.

ADD also makes me talk my head off too. :o Sorry. LOL

I do this CONSTANTLY. It drives my DH nuts.

Pint Sized, you just described me to a T. ;) Only I am yet undiagnosed. I do not need to go to a doctor to get the diagnosis...I KNOW! I could if I wanted meds though.

I am quite adept at nodding and smiling at all the right times. In fact, I am so good at it that I don't even know I am doing it! There are times I actually want to pay attention and I'll realize I've been nodding and smiling for the past five minutes of a conversation and am now totally lost.

And hyper focusing? Heck yeah. I get particularly hyper focused when writing. There is no breaking my concentration. I never realized that was an ability most people do not have. It's a gift, really, and sometimes it comes in handy. It's also something teachers do not understand. You often hear nay-sayers saying things like, "Johnny's not ADD, just spoiled. He can certainly focus on things HE'S interested in." Well yes...because Johnny is ADD! :dizzy:

Eliana, the meds really help me out. They help me focus. A misconception is that they will "tone down" your personality, but they don't mine. My husband and friends tell me my personality actually shines through more now than before, when I was always stressed about being late, losing things or just being unorganized. Don't get me wrong, I'm still unorganized and I still hate doing housework, but it's much easier to make myself do it all, if that makes sense. :D

Oh wow! Sign me up, I do that all the time and have to catch myself with the facial expressions.