I don't get this one--and it's used all over the place..... for me, I would never describe the thoughts in my head as constantly switching channels. Switching channels would mean that the thoughts have no relevance to each other--each thought is a complete seperate piece, with no connection. It would be like going from the cartoon network to the style channel, vs, CNN to MSNBC....

For me at least, I do have a rush of thoughts (or sometimes, no thoughts), but they are all connected in some way. Perhaps to the friend I'm talking to, my comments may seem completly random and disconnected, but in my mind, I can always find a connection to the string of racing ideas (even if they seem far-fetched to others). My thoughts are tangents of each other.

So I'm wondering, do others relate to what I've said, or are your thoughts really truly disconnected? I have a feeling that this channel switching analogy came from doctors who may have been diagnosing patients, and felt like their thoughts were disconnected?

comments?

I do feel like my mind is constantly changing, usually, the thoughts are completely connected, like I am going deeper and deeper levels into a cave or something.

The changing channels that aren't connected happens when I am talking to people.....Someone will say "Did you see ____ last night on TV", I look over at an empty bowl on the counter and reply, "Don't you just love krispy kreme's? I need to go get one. Oh, did I tell you that I ran into ___ the other day? Let's go have a cigarette...I'm sorry, what was it you were saying?"
So, I guess I do both.

I do feel like my mind is constantly changing, usually, the thoughts are completely connected, like I am going deeper and deeper levels into a cave or something.

The changing channels that aren't connected happens when I am talking to people.....Someone will say "Did you see ____ last night on TV", I look over at an empty bowl on the counter and reply, "Don't you just love krispy kreme's? I need to go get one. Oh, did I tell you that I ran into ___ the other day? Let's go have a cigarette...I'm sorry, what was it you were saying?"
So, I guess I do both.
But when you mention the krispy kremes, that thought is connected to something that you just saw--so it's not as random as it appears, right? At least for me, it would be something like krispy kremes...someone who I saw eating a dougnut--then asking if friend saw said person--then, perhaps relaizing that I need a smoke, so mentioning that--but still, I could probably explain the trigger to each thought......but from whta you say, it seems that these are, in fact, completly random thoughts that just bombard you?

People often comment on how random my comments are, but I'm pretty sure I can explain the train of thought (so I think :D )

The channel doesn't keep changing in my brain. I feel like the channel changes when it wants to, and it stays there when it wants to, and there's not that much I can do about it one way or the other.

But when you mention the krispy kremes, that thought is connected to something that you just saw--so it's not as random as it appears, right? At least for me, it would be something like krispy kremes...someone who I saw eating a dougnut--then asking if friend saw said person--then, perhaps relaizing that I need a smoke, so mentioning that--but still, I could probably explain the trigger to each thought......but from whta you say, it seems that these are, in fact, completly random thoughts that just bombard you?

People often comment on how random my comments are, but I'm pretty sure I can explain the train of thought (so I think :D )
Well, I can explain where my thoughts come from, I think they are not connected from the other persons' perspective. I don't know about you, but, even when I explain my train of thought, I still get looked at as if I have cockroaches crawling out of my nostrils or something.

I like to think of it as being "distracted" in one's own mind. Instead of being external (There was this cool... oh look, there's a squirrel!), it's (One thought... oh look, another related thought!).

I like to think of it as being "distracted" in one's own mind. Instead of being external (There was this cool... oh look, there's a squirrel!), it's (One thought... oh look, another related thought!).It is like that, and occasionally the relation between thoughts is clear for a nanosecond and cannot be expressed later.

The kid and I call this experience "Let's RUN!"...we start off making sense, then we lose that, and look at each other and say "Let's RUN!", that way we know its fruitless to ask how we got from point A to point ZYX to the 10th power.

I usually feel like there's a raging sea with assorted thoughts in the back of my mind that are not quite clear or just fly by rapidly, and then there might be several more clear lines of thought in the front of my mind, they may be related, but also they may not be, or one that may stay the same or may be changing and may or may not be what I want or need to think of.

I think I might use some kind of channel switching analogy in the last case. I might for example be in the shower knowing I need to get a move on, but I keep getting distracted by some thought. It's like someone else has the remote and keep switching channels to e.g. "What would I say to nn on bla bla" when I want to watch the "Focus on what I'm doing now" show.

Mine's more of a 'picture in picture' model.

Except, it's really more like many 'movies' instead of 'pictures', all playing at once, with me watching all of them, at the same time.

I have a million thoughts running through my mind all the time.

I am not sure if they are connected or not... one day I was the passenger in a car (i usually stare out the window forever lost in thought) but today I was talking about something... (I cant remember)

Then I stopped.. looked out the window.. and remember a horrific story I had been told, approx. 2 weeks earlier. I dont know where this thought came from.. or even how it was linked in my brain to what I had been talking about...There wasnt even anything I saw outside my window that would have helped me remember it.

After I thought about it for a bit.. I switched again.. and went right back into talking about what I was talking about before I had thought, that thought.

Then the other night... I re-remembered 3 times to ask my friend for something. I asked once.. then forgot to get it.... remembered it later (somehow) asked again... forgot.... then re-remember it again.. and said "okay lets just get it now, before I forget again"

I dont really say too much of the thoughts that come and go in my mind to other people.. I wouldnt say they are altogether distracting from what is around me..... (maybe sometimes, when they people are talking to are boring) but instead of saying what I am thinking ... I will just say "what?" and listen to them say what they were saying all over again.

So maybe it is a distraction from my thoughts. Or my thoughts are a constant distraction from distraction.

OK, So after reading these posts, perhaps my thoughts can be a bit more random than I thought they were. I do oftern try to remember something that I need to do, only to think of something completely different (and probably unrelated), or feel like I have a few half-baked thoughts that in my mind at the same time. But perhaps I get distracted by some stimulus outside? I don't know. But I guess it's not as simple as I had outlined it in my first post.

You all proved me wrong :)

i think it is definately more connected than disconnected...everything for me is somehow related...usually in some crazy tangent. i am known (among my friends) to start conversations midway through, i have no sense of small talk, and a tangent for me can last for days, weeks, or even months. i have tried (for the sake, and sanity) of my friends, or others i am conversing with, to quikly retrace my thought process if i notice that they are lost, or confused...this way they can also keep the pace with me.
everything thought i have is inextricably connected to the next, to the next, to the next.
one cool thing that i have noticed about this quality of my brain is that while others have trouble making connections between two (or more) seemingly unrelated topics, i connect them with ease. does anyone else notice this creative quality?
"random tangent girl" has come through on some serious creative think tank situations, where others failed.

Do any of your "replay" conversations in your head? If I'm talking to someone or watching TV, I tend to to have to repeat everything that is said to me to myself in my head. Does that may any sense whatsoevere? :eyebrow:

Wow! I totally do this. waay, waay, waaay too much, and all the time.

I hate it. Sometimes I instantly respond to questions.. and after I replay the conversation over, and over, and over thinking about how I sounded, what I said, what the other person said.. how I could have replied better etc.

I hate it.. it always make you second guess what you have said.

I dont normally blurt out too much that I should regret... but I find that I am always wondering about what I did say. and how people will respond to it.

I cant really define that line.

I find some numbers.. if someone calls out a phone number to another person I will replay that number in my head a few times. Not because I want the number, just because of the ...sound of the beats maybe? The rhythm of the number... i dunno.

I do the same thing with numbers and I have to spell things in my head too. I'll get stuck on a word and just have to spell it over and over.

Ugh. That happens to me with the scrolling TV Guide channel? I very seldom can remember more than 2 channels I may wanna watch until the whole thing scrolls past...and that's on meds! :faint:

I swear I have stared at that screen for 15 minutes trying to get it right...something is always in there going "Psssssst! Ya know that movie was supposed to star that other guy and his wife that left him well she got remarried and...".

Ugh. That happens to me with the scrolling TV Guide channel? I very seldom can remember more than 2 channels I may wanna watch until the whole thing scrolls past...and that's on meds! :faint:

I swear I have stared at that screen for 15 minutes trying to get it right...something is always in there going "Psssssst! Ya know that movie was supposed to star that other guy and his wife that left him well she got remarried and...".

you are not alone. we have digital cable and i can go to the guide and proceed at my own pace

you are not alone. we have digital cable and i can go to the guide and proceed at my own paceThat was one thing I loved about dish, that guide did not move and could be preprogrammed. If it suddenly popped into my head "Hey tonight is the night that show comes on ya wanna watch" I could preprogram it to change hours in advance.

Yep, that was great, because I have missed more good programs by simply forgetting them than I could begin to count.

When Im watching TV nothing interests me, I just keep flipping the channels. I guess thats how my mind might actually work

The Kid insisted I post this for her:

To her it feels like she is trying to use the computer yet pop-ups keep invading the screen.


Crazy

I like to think of it as being "distracted" in one's own mind. Instead of being external (There was this cool... oh look, there's a squirrel!), it's (One thought... oh look, another related thought!).The Kid specifically asked me to tell you HF that this is Spot-on ;)...she understood it completely!

Crazy (mom to some really cool kids)

Ugh! I Always replay conversations in my head.

Over, and over.

Even ones that havent even happened! Say I'm going to talk to someone the next day about something I'll obsessively think about how the conversation will go. Then I will replay it over and over with different endings/begingings.

This is one of the sole reasons I have trouble sleeping, I just replay peoples conversations in my head A BAZILLION TIMES!

Dunno if this is a normal thing or what, *Shrugs*

Sometimes when I'm thinking about something (Or a conversation, grr) All of a sudden I get the feeling that my head is shouting at me, like...My thought volume knob has just been turned up a notch, just for a couple of seconds. Anyone else get this?

I guess I have it both ways on that. Sometimes my mind just bounces around, and other times it's like the remote is broken and I can't change the channel. Does anyone else hate the crawlers at the bottom of the screen of the news channels? I don't care what is on the TV, if there is a crawler on the bottom, I cannot stop focusing on it, then I completely tune out everything else on the screen and the audio too.

Sometimes when I'm thinking about something (Or a conversation, grr) All of a sudden I get the feeling that my head is shouting at me, like...My thought volume knob has just been turned up a notch, just for a couple of seconds. Anyone else get this?
Yes. Especially when said conversation is boring. If I am not interested, I am not engaged, and "OH, look, another interesting thought!" compounded byt that ADD ability to see anything and everything as inter-related.


Does anyone else hate the crawlers at the bottom of the screen of the news channels? I don't care what is on the TV, if there is a crawler on the bottom, I cannot stop focusing on it, then I completely tune out everything else on the screen and the audio too.
Yes, sometimes, and other times no. If I am trying to see what's on TV and the stupif informercial on the TV Guide channel creates auditory distraction then I have to look, even when its rubbish. That guy who keeps blathering about "pounds of impacted fecal matter" :eek: never fails to distract me!

Crazy

I guess I don't have it so bad then, I would rather hyperfocus on a crawler than the oxy clean guy

I guess I don't have it so bad then, I would rather hyperfocus on a crawler than the oxy clean guyLOL glad I made ya feel better today Rusty! I cannot admit to hyperfocusing on the "colon cleanse" dude, I will freely admit that his rhetoric can and does become a brain "pop up" at the most inopportune moments. One mention of John Wayne in a casual conversation and my mind leaps to "impacted fecal matter". Makes it hard not to bust out laughing, let alone carry on a conversation! :faint:

I guess I haven't seen the "impacted fecal matter" one, but when that oxy clean guy comes on SCREAMING my brain short circuits.