Parallel and single threaded processing

[Wheel1975]

This is pretty well worked out in my mind.

I need to polish it with help.

[SubtleMuttle]

The phrase caught my mind. I think in images; so here's why:


When I try to focus my mind on just one thing, it's like a single thread.

a single thread snaps very easily.

I usually let it snap because the strain of the unnatural concentration is painful.

But doing things where I have to concentrate on more than one thing- no prob (if I'm interested ). The threads line up in paralell and the string they make is stronger.

Don't know if that's what you meant or not!

[Wheel1975]

I think you have at least two different, valuable and separate ideas going here.

too much strain on a resource breaks it. I agree.

doing more than one thing at a time I see in practice as a way, an alternate way , to block distraction by saturation.

If i have one thing i want to get done, and i don't want to be distracted, i have to get all my kids doing things that absorb them, that occupy all my "inner observers" so they don't notice interesting things to be distracted by, because they aren't being asked to wait idly.

does any of that speak to what you were intending?

could you say more about what you think is going on for yourself, in more detail?

Thanks for your posting!

[SubtleMuttle]

Yes. I agree.


A lot of it may have to do with personal interest, and past experiences too.

Without interest, givin to one's disposition and history, sometimes it won't matter how complicated someting is- that alone won't hold someone's attention.. especially people with AD/HD and other LDs. There has to be a reason to care- or why not just let the threads snap?


I'm ALWAYS distracted when I don't enjoy what I'm doing any more. Or if I'm nervous. Is this a coping mechanism that's meant to promote self-indulgence- or could it have a purpose to ultimately drive me to do that which I enjoy.. making me more knowlegable of such things by experience... which would possibly prevent me from deciding to do things with my life that would untimately make me unhappy and unfulfilled?

Just musing, thanks!

[Wheel1975]

I'm not sure about the desitination, but I enjoy doing the best i can to see what role various biases play in various environments.

So, was there a time some time ago, when being steered away from things i do poorly and toward things I do well would have worked to my advantage and that of the society I was in?

Has the environment charged to alter the value of the role, or the mechanism of it?


If you pull the thread farther, I'll be interested to see what unravels!

david

[SubtleMuttle]

I think my thread of thought has unravelled for now, at least! I'll come back; and hopefully other's will offer thier ideas, too

[SubtleMuttle]

What have you worked out (she asks as her train derails at the station)?

[Wheel1975]

I think people with ADHD have a one thread, multitrack mind.

People without ADHD have a multithread, one track mind.

A person with ADHD will draw examples from all over the place to support a central single theme.

A person without ADHD will get lost doing that, but not be tripped up doing socially stupid things, planning to be in two different places at once, etc.

[SubtleMuttle]

That makes sense to me. That would also explain how people without ADHD would find many things that people with ADHD do/say to be innapropriate- because they don't see the connections.


I believe there is much validity to what you have said, thanks for explaining!

[zzzatwheel]

When you have ADHD, you have the market on non-sequitors cornered. If I had a dime every time I had to explain the 4 or 5 steps my mind took in what seemed a mere nano-second to others, to link two ideas together that seem totally unrelated to everyone else present. My experience has been that others have automatically assumed the most negative spin on my comments ("I can't believe you just said that!") and when I explain my thought process, assuming they have asked me and not just assumed I was rude, they never appologize for thinking the worst of me. And it is usually in front of others to boot. Has this happened to anyone else? I wonder what Emily Post would say on how to address the affrontive behaviour of others...

[capri]

Yes zzzatwheel I have done this more times than i can count. People give you that look (the one that means you just said somthing way out of context) and you have to go back and explain where it came from.
They are quite to be derogatory but when it comes to appologising they just dont see the need.

It's like thanks for the input just dont be so different about giving it next time.

It does have its uses though, really good ones somtimes. I can look at a problem with new eyes and somtimes see a way round or over it that doesnt appear to others because they are thinking only in terms of the subject at hand.

Like a plumbing skill that, with slight alteration, works for an electric problem. I mean leccy flows like water doesnt it?