Is this autistic thinking?

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I'm going to describe the way I think most of the time, which is in the way of what I could call a synesthesia of concepts that gets stuck in my mind as overlapping mental pictures. The pictures pop into my mind unconsciously and it is only by trying to consciously analyze the connection that I can figure out how they are related, but more often than not, I can't. So, here I go describing some of this thinking whose connections I could pinpoint:

I think of a girl I used to know who seems to only smile to make the group feel good.I link her to the concept of a person who doesn't need to be part of a group, who thinks of groups in a detached manner, as in they seem to be aware that all groups follow a pattern (just like me).
Now, I instinctively associate the word "Beerhouse"(which was triggered by the opening of a big beerhouse in my city) , which means belonging to a group, to the girl above and to..FOAM!! because laughter over a beer leads me to think of a foam( probably because of the foam that hangs by the mouth when talking fast and laughing)
Then I see on facebook a good(as opposed to badass) girl who post something about Tinder ( the hook-up application). I'm thinking, unconsciously, of the concept of "good girls use Tinder too" and two more pictures stem from this concept: the first, in which I think of the fate of all girls in Arab countries who have to cut their hair ( the keyword here is ALL and it's important because it is linked to the other images) and the second, of girls who consciously choose to do what everybody does and this, brings back the images of the girl in the first paragraph, and the foam. This way, I have three pictures overlapped in my mind: that girl, foam and a cut hair. Once again, all of them pop into my mind subconsciously and simultaneously, in this case, triggered by that post about Tinder.

I don't think this is necessarily "autistic thinking," though it could be.

I would call it "associative thinking." Or "evocative thinking." This often happens to me, and drives others crazy.

This was used in one of my favorite TV shows of the 1990s: "Connections."

Are you INTP by any chance?

Not really.

I just believe there are different modes of thinking. Some are better at associative-creative; others at logical-deductive.

Autistic thinking leans more towards the deductive at its basis.

Do you also have synesthesia? Has someone in your family been diagnosed with schizophrenia?

Since you seem into Jungian functions/mbti, what you're describing sounds typical of an NP type. Ne is divergent thinking, big leaps and connections between seemingly unconnected concepts. Ni would be the deductive/convergent type thinking.

I like to create pictures that condense whole concepts into a single explanatory image. Here is what I made for Ne vs Ni (aka NP types vs. NJ types)

Do you think this is also Low Latent Inhibition? Also, from what I've read, NP's do make connections but they don't think in pictures.

I wouldn't think so. What you're describing sounds divergent. Low latent inhibition (I had to read up on it for a few minutes) is definitely convergent. It does involve making connections, but in the scheme of things, they are linear, logical conclusions that can be objectively connected through a common denominator and hence why the person can make accurate deductions. The girl to foam to Tinder to a cut hair, etc., are only related via your own subjective thought process and not in any real objective sense.

I wish I had synesthesia. Nobody in my family has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

I don't find the thought-patterns exhibited above to be indicative of a schizophrenic thought disorder---unless accompanied by inappropriate actions.