Staring trances: is this an aspie thing?

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I do this, and I have seen plenty of NT people do it too. It's usually associated with fatigue, though I find myself doing it far more often than the average Joe.

I do this as well. I often fixate on people - I think this is a stim because it helps me think.

I know it is not polite to stare at people, but there are many things in this world that do not make sense so I just decide for myself what's good for me.

I got banned from my local post office for doing this, there were two assistants present, one at the counter the other floating around wasting space.
Whilst the lady at the counter issued her requests to the floater I got fixated on the name badge of the counter dweller.
It had been a very hot day, me and heat don't go well together I often get confused and suffer major overload to the point some senses don't register.
I walked away from the counter dweller and her supervisor.
I had been given a £20 note, but could not find it for the life of me, I checked ever pocket 2-3 times and was repeatedly doing so when I came to the conclusion that the post office staff can't have given me the money.
So I went back to the counter to ask them to do a quick cash up, they were 10 mins from closing and by law have to check.
The supervisor asked me to come back the following day, they were adamant they had given me the money, I told them it was unacceptable due to me needing baby items that could not wait until the following morning, they got feisty, I blew up in their faces.
I was still repeatedly checking my pockets until I felt a note pressed against the inside of my pocket, did I now feel embarrassed, and tried to apologise for my outburst.
The supervisor banned me saying "that's your own fault you shouldn't have been drooling over her breasts".

Happens to me sometimes. I will just sort of stare off blankly, mind goes blank. Will realise I'm doing it and start paying attention or w/e again.

Wear sun glasses and people will not notice you staring at them or looking through them.

I zone out a lot (when I do I appear as if I were staring at something and don't register anything happening around me), but I'm usually actually concentrating on something within my mind.
I have, however, occasionally zoned out without thinking about anything - it's strange. Suddenly I just pop out of it due to some person trying to get my attention, but they ask me what I had been thinking. And then I realize that I wasn't actually thinking about anything at all, nor was I actually concentrating on anything in the environment.

Here's a blog article discussing autism and dissociation:

http://wonderingaboutautism.blogspot.co ... ation.html

Zoning out can be a form of dissociation.

Same here. I see things i hear things, but i dosn't register it. Just like im in my own vacuumchamber. And like You Luci, i can be brought back via direct contact...
It seems that, i get it the most on days with overloads, or stress! Both collegues and my wife had some troubles accepting it, until i got dx'd.
And when i get it, i also feel completely empty...

I do it many times.

Yep, just this - except it's usually some point between the ceiling or sky. It's precisely 'nowhere' and nicely relaxing.
I'm aware of what's happening around me but it's in another room somewhere and easily kept out of the way and in the background.

I've zoned out from time to time. I can't recall ever having a specific cause, though. The funny thing is that whenever I've attempted meditation, I've always had great difficulty quieting my mind. Go figure.

I do this a lot, usually at inanimate objects, thankfully. My mum does this and my dad says her mum did it as well, but at people. My mum gets angry with me when I notice her staring and nudge her to try to get her to stop. She has no idea she does this all the time. She's getting much worse as she gets older too.

I am always zoning out. Sometimes I get so relaxed in my zone that I drop things that are in my hand! I don't seem to have any control over when I do this, it just seems to happen. It's not the same as epileptic zone outs where the person isn't aware of doing it though.

The post seems to use a few odd examples to demonstrate dissociation. The splinter skills, inertia, and not being able to access social processing. It sounds like to me that she believes that there is a fully neurotypical brain underneath all the autistic behaviors and thoughts, and that it is dissociation that separates a few examples of autistic processing from the rest.

The pain one could be dissociation. I mean I tend to just ignore pain and act as if it's not there, and I don't feel it particularly intensely unless it is really intense. I am not sure if I am dissociating from the pain or not, though.

Interesting observation Verdandi, I believe you may be right. Funny that she labels herself as 'specializing in Autism Spectrum Disorders' and yet she may in fact have the fundamental misunderstanding you're suggesting.

As an aside, I should mention that I like reading your input, it is typically very intelligent, well informed and useful! Because of people like yourself WP has become for me a resource and not just a distraction.

Yeah, fundamental misunderstandings abound. It seems kind of common, especially from people who draw a lot from Freud (whether they're strictly Freudian or not). I think there's another school that isn't Freudian that comes up with similar stuff, but I can't recall what it's called. It was started in the 60s, and was something like the idea that DSM diagnoses (I'll avoid mental illness for a lot of reasons) are caused by psychological problems that you have to be willing to resolve and then work on resolving. There may be some value to this, but the way it's modeled basically makes it the client's fault that they have any problems at all.

And thank you. I can't really explain why right now, but you posted that at just about the right time for me to read it.