spacing out while reading a book??

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breaking down waht you are reading and applying to your life or the world around might help. at least that is what I do

yes it happens to me too.But it doesnt worry me at all.

I have phases with books as with everything - I go through phases of really wanting to read but when I do read I either read way to fast and skip over the words to quickly to absorb anything I read...

...or I slow down to try to take it in but then get stuck on the same line or paragraph at most and something makes me get to the end of the line or paragraph and then start over from the beginning of it and it can take ages to get through just one page.

It's a real shame because I really want to read more but because of these things it's hard to continue paying attention and I have rarely finished whole books.

It's also no good for me to just read a few pages here and there with some time inbetween because I will just forget everything, making it pointless.

With movies I find it very hard not to 'zone out' even watching my favourite movies and even if I have watched them several times I can never really relay the story line to people like others seem to be able to do. If asked my favourite movie I would probably sound like a lier because I would probably appear to not know it very well at all - at least not in a generalized way.

are there any good treatments out there to cure these disorders?

If there was, there wouldn't be a WP for all of us, as we wouldn't need it.

Oh, all the time. It's very normal, happens to everyone. I secretly think all the kids at my university do this. They read but they don't read. It's worse to never realize at all.

(Btw, I know this is normal because Tolstoy described it perfectly in Anna Karenina. This happens when you're distracted by your thoughts.)

I just do something else, like write, until I feel like reading again.

I often space out while reading a book, but I don't continue reading while I do it. I often start reading and then my imagination goes off and instead of continuing to read I find myself imagining what happens next.

i once read the entire first lord of the rings book not taking in any of it
im a rubbish reader though and if i was taking it in it would of taken me yeaars

Not your fault I'm sure. That book reads like stereo instructions I tried a couple of times and couldn't get past chapter 2

It used to happen more often when I had to read some books at school. Now I read only what I like and sometimes get completly lost in a book and I love it!

This is veeerry common, AS or NT, I'm pretty sure it's a universal thing

yes. i'll "read" pages and pages and realize i've failed to actually read anything.

occasionally when i notice this i can do the same thing i do when i noticed i've spaced out on part of a conversation, and retroactively read / hear something i missed. but not pages worth - just maybe half a paragraph. (with speech i can do this for maybe one sentence. recognize someone said something to me a minute ago, then hear it. don't ask me how this works, but i do it.)

so obviously i am absorbing it on some level, just not a conscious one.

Happens frequently for me when i read a book. But then i read fast and that compensate for it so it takes about as much time for me to "plow through" a book as an NT.

Could be a sign of ADD.

For me I would say it's a sign of ADD. But the more I have been reading about Asperger's and the fact that I have Dyslexia. I'm ruling out the ADD that would make me not want to do homework. It was the Dysleixa that made that part made me not want to do it becasue it's like having a nightmare.

But sense no one ever told me about the ADD and all of the tests I had were more about my Dyslexia any ways. So yeah when reading there are times where things just get odd and I don't remember what if I just read something or not.

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Possibilities

A type of epilepsy (such as petit mal/absence/complex partial/TLE, etc.)

A type of ADHD (such as ADHD Inattentive)

Other

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Generally speaking, epilepsy medicines can reduce seizures but the epilepsy medicines are not known to really improve the ability to pay attention.

In contrast to the epilepsy medicines, the meds for ADHD (historically the central nervous system stimulants - alerting agents) can improve the ability to pay attention a little for some users (not a cure).

Classic epilepsy is not ADHD.

Classic ADHD is not epilepsy.

The meds used to treat both neurological challenges are quite different from one another:

- Anti-seizure meds (for epilepsy)
- Stimulants - alerting agents (example: Coffee, caffeine, Ritalin, Dexedrine, Adderall, etc.) for ADHD

None of the epilepsy medicines and none of the medicines used for ADHD are cures at all.

That's my understanding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_comprehension