Anyone get overwhelmed and lost in a conversation?

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It took me a bit of time to reach the point where I could keep up but pinning a word here and there really helped me and eventually it resembled a mental map of sorts that came to mind when I met up with anyone I had recently talked with.

I just space out and take in nothing, just nodding.

I used to do exactly the same but life became more interesting when I started participating in conversations.

Yeah, I find it seems to work differently depending on the context, which leads to different challenges or issues.

At work, it seems to be more attention related. If I'm in a meeting, or something where people are talking for 30 minutes or more, I have a hard time staying focused, and my mind starts to wander. Then when someone asks me a question I sort of go into panic mode. I usually try to stall, pretend like I'm considering what they said. In reality I'm rapidly trying to filter through the bits and pieces of the conversation I've picked up to try and put together some context for what they might be asking about.

If I'm in an argument or intense conversation with my wife, it seems to be more an issue to following all the different branches. It get sort of "lost in the weeds". I get focused on different lines of thought and lose track of the overall thing we're actually supposed to be discussing. I wrote a longer post about it here.

If I'm in a large social group, I think it tends to be more auditory processing related. I can't track and filter all the different conversations going on. Eventually it becomes too much and I stop trying. I'm there, but I'm not really listening or interacting, just sort of drifting along pretending like I'm part of the group. Maybe I smile or laugh every once in a while when everyone else does so I don't stick out too much.

gamerdad,

I feel the same way. I get so lost in the conversation it is not even funny. The thought of branches in the conversation is on the point.

I don't know exactly what's wrong with me but I easily get lost in a conversation. Could it be my hearing, my English (English is my second language), my cognitive ability, my processing ability or something else? Most likely processing. I'm sure many people think I'm stupid because I often can't follow what they are saying. My responses in a conversation tend to be a bit off because of that. I do know I'm definitely not stupid but I'm sure I lack some ability that we are all supposed to have. I must have been born without it.