While not responding

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Me too, I had to think about it for a minute

The comic was from http://www.xkcd.com/ and not made by me. Just wanted to clear that out.

In most cases when I don't respond, it's usually because I'm having a debate inside my head of what I should do in that situation. I'm basically forming an operations model of a sort. This results in a pause that may seem like ignoring or them I even decide not to respond and let the situation advance on it's own or I open my mouth with nothing coming out. I very rarely truly miss it when somebody is talking to me, atleast if they mention my name, as I'm sometimes nearly paranoid about things like that.

Last edited by Keoren on 25 Nov 2007, 8:34 am, edited 2 times in total.

I'm fixated on something else.

Interestingly enough, I had two hearing tests in primary school due to the fact that I didn't acknowledge the teacher as she was talking to me, my ears were fine. I didn't know I was ignoring the teacher at the time, I was far more interested in whatever it was I was thinking about.

It's not just an AS thing, it's a spectrum wide thing.

I'm usually thinking about what I should say. Sometimes I'm concentrating on something else. My Mom always seems to enjoy starting conversations when I'm in the middle of doing or thinking about something else. It always takes me a little while to realize that she is actually speaking to me. When I'm having an overload I often can hear that people are speaking to me, but can't register what they are saying.

I also loved that cartoon! That is the kind of thinking that goes on in my head all the time.

Lots of times my instinct is to just say "uh-huh, uh-huh. Yeah." even if I don't know what they're saying/ don't care. most people don't seem to care as long as they think you are listening. They'll then leave and if they ask me about it in the future I just say "oops. My memory is eluding me. Jog my memory again, what was that?".
Or... I look behind me and say "Oops, I forgot how late I am. Gotta go!".

I'm like this too. I've started feeling bad about it, actually, because people keep saying, "I just told you that, remember?" or at the end of a story, I have to ask, "Wait, who was it?" It's embarrassing.

Also, I'm a writer, and when I'm at my computer working on a story or something, my family knows not to bother me because if they speak to me, I don't glance up from the screen, I just say, "Uh-huh, how about later, I'm in the middle of this." I don't mean to be rude, it's just that I consider it rude for them to interrupt me. It can go both ways...

don't always have something to say. What really gets me is when I get long, complicated sentences with changes of topic, inferential logic, absence of pronouns (things are everywhere, but where are the people), etc. I'm still processing topic one when topic 10 comes out of their mouth.

I'm tempted to get myself a card printed:

1. I heard you say something just now.
2. I am presently utterly unaware of the meaning of your words.
3. I am fully aware that you are desirous of my attention.
4. Just at the moment, I am busy doing something.
5. If what you are speaking about is not life threatening, would you please be patient, and I will get around to you when I can.
6. If what you are speaking about is a life threatening situation, please hit me, quite hard, and I will give you my attention.

I should get myself a card that reads:

"Ring and wait"

or

"Leave a message after the signal"

I'm either focused on something, I hear the person talking to me but it doesn't register until I've effectively ignored them.
Thankfully the person that talks to me most often in person is my Mother and she'll just keep talking until I say "Wait...what?".
Then she'll sigh and repeat everything she just said.
She does the same thing to me. She'll be focused on something and won't answer me.
She also kind of has an automatic response she sends out when she's not listening, but she wants you to think she was. So I'll go "Are you listening to me?" she'll go "Yeah!" and I'll say "Are you lieing" and she'll says yeah and I'll repeat what I said.

Other times I just don't know what to say to the person talking to me, or I've zoned out.
At a party type thing my boyfriend took me to on the fourth of July I zoned out while stimming, I guess, and totally forgot I was even around people until my boyfriend touched my arm and it was like I was jolted back into reality. I guess I had been rubbing my wrists together so much his friend asked me if I needed calomine(I don't think I spelled that correctly.) lotion. haha

The same thing happens to my Mom, she'll just zone and forget anyone is around.

When it's people in public, I have the normal first responses to them. After that I just don't know what to say...so I normally try to respond and it just comes out "Eh" or "Oh" or "Okay". They eventually stop talking to me. heh.
In those times it's just cause I don't know what to say to them.

Or "please hold while we try to connect you, our operator is busy at the moment"

"to use ring back...."

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!! !! That's the perfect one for me!

I usually don't say anything because I'm not sure of the response they're looking for. It usually depends on the situation and speaker, but a lot of times I'm not terribly interested in what the person is saying so instead of saying "fluff" I say nothing at all.

And me!