Autistic People Don't Daydream?

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Is that not daydreaming? I've always considered that daydreaming. What would normal daydreaming be then? Is it limited to just some kind of made up fantasy or something?

Last edited by Marybird on 01 Nov 2012, 4:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If asked, I would say that I daydream. However, I do not know if the way I daydream is the typical way or not. My daydreaming is definitely analytical in nature. I often analyze past conversations with people or even prepare for future conversations and interactions. I, also, spend a lot of time analyzing and integrating things that I have read. I don't know if this is normal daydreaming or not. I do know that my daydreaming is not based in emotion or fantasy which I suppose could disqualify it from being labeled as daydreaming.

this sounds like my daydreaming, but with some emotion thrown in.

Seems there are a few of us who consider daydreaming very analyitical and in depth thought. I get the feeling that NT daydreaming may well be different. It would be interesting to hear how any NTs on the forum would describe their daydreaming in comparison?

In one of the articles I read about this one of the questions asked was 'what goes on in the autistic persons head while daydreaming'. I'm also wondering what goes on in an NT's head when they daydream.

I just want to point out that this study is over 6 years old and a lot has been learned since then. But, did you notice that people assume autistic people don't daydream because the process is different? It's like saying that you don't fold your laundry because you fold it left to right while 99% of people fold it right to left. No escape from NT 'social-ism' even in science.

I don't get it. Why would you daydream staring at a cross? Is it a christian cross or more of a plus sign like the red cross? I'm an atheist and don't want to be looking at that, plus wouldn't I be focusing on their dumb experiment instead of entertaining myself in my mind?

Plus I'm claustrophobic. I had to do a PET scan recently and I had to keep my eyes closed the whole time because if I had opened them and the top was too close I wouldn't have been able to stay in there. At least it was open at both ends. The mri looks worse. No way I'd be daydreaming if I'm flipping out over being in a mri.

Not true for me.

This.

This too.

I thought it was a common trait in Autistics to daydream, according to this site.

By the way I daydream an awful lot. I daydream when looking out of the window on the bus. Does that mean I'm not Aspie?

This seems to back up what I am thinking about AS daydreaming.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/43418.php

In the mind of an NT, parts of the brain called the Resting Network fire up when daydreaming and switch off when not daydreaming. This Resting Network seems to process social and emotional daydreaming by the sounds of the article. They found that in the autistic brain, this part of the brain neither fired up to full power when daydreaming or shut off when not daydreaming and instead kept churning away at a low level regardless. Meanwhile, the daydreaming aspie is often thinking about more rigid scientific/analyitical things than the NT.

I am certainly no neurologist but it would seem to make sense that a part of the brain that analyses social interaction is constantly running since there is a greater need to analyse that which does not come by instinct.

I daydream a lot.

How do you focus on something when you are day dreaming?

Do you mean aspies and auties dont daydream?

Or just low functioning auties?

Because I got crap all of my childhood for daydreaming too much all of the time.

Indeed I thought we were autistic exactly because we were too inside ourselves.

I've probably spent more time in my life daydreaming then doing any other single activity-including sleeping.

Lately my daydreams have often involved my avatar demonstrating that this is clearly a daydream.