do other Aspies have trouble with mental focus?

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I sure do. The thought stops get in the way, especially.

When a psychologist saw me one of the main things he said he heard were the thought stops. I haven't heard of others refer to "thought stops" here yet.

What are thought stops?

And what kind of problems do you have with focus?

I can focus on one things for hours, days, weeks at a time, and have a hard time shifting to something else. Sometimes my focus just shifts around from one thing to the next until I find the next thing to focus on for long periods of time.

If I'm doing something love, I focus to the point of ignoring everything else.
If I'm trying to do something I dislike, I usually can hardly focus at all. This is a big problem for me. And ridiculous.

Last edited by Luci on 21 Jan 2011, 6:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The exact same thing happens to me.

AHYUH!

But then, my situation isn't fair to put in the mix since I just discovered I'm also severely ADD.

To be fair, I have ADHD too. It's apparently present in quite a few people who are on the spectrum, so I don't know that it matters.

I did forget to say I can focus on things I love and not so much on things I don't.

I certainly have this problem. I tend to get completely focused on one thing at a time, usually for a few days at a time. If I'm lucky, what I'm focused on is something that needs to be done. Otherwise, it is very difficult to concentrate on what needs to be done. It just seems so tedious and boring.

Focusing can be a real big ....




Huh?




Wah?

Does anyone know just how prevalent attentional disorders are in those with asperger's/autism? It seems so common as to be almost ubiquitious.

My focus is never very good. I'm so easily distracted. To keep myself focused and get things done I carry a to-do list everywhere with me. It takes away a lot of fun. When you have stuff like "do laundry", "call sister-in-law" on it that doesn't seem so bad, when it get to "play games with kids", "have sex", "watch a relaxing movie" on the list you can tell I'm too tense about this focus thing.

"thought stops" huh, never heard of it so I went and googled it and pulled this

Boy you got to love the internet, aways good for a chuckle or two , somehow I don't think this is what he was talking about. I have noticed that I bounce between my wife complaining that I concentrate so hard that it give her a headache to be around me to, having to stop periodically at work and forcing myself to consciously remember what I was doing. If thought stops is realizing that you've forgotten what you were doing, thinking or saying then I do that too.

If that's it, happens to me often.

"Thought stop" makes me think of the times when trying to say something and the words stop because I can't process what is next in the stream. Like the idea is there in my head but the words take a momentary break.

Done it at least twice today. Sometimes I feel like I get lost in my own home. I can't remember where I was headed or what I was planning to do when I got there. Usually I just end up in a room and forget what I was going to do in that room, go back to where I started and maybe repeat, maybe get the original thing done.

I've read three whole posts in this thread. Skimmed the rest.

Focus is not happening today. And yes I do have ADHD too.

This happens to me a lot. I get up to go do something, forget midway, and end up doing something entirely different. Like laundry. I was supposed to fold laundry hours ago, but I got distracted. I've tried keeping lists and things to keep myself on task, but to me, that just makes me feel even more stressed. And then I start feeling deprived, like I won't be able to do the things I want to do. Well, either that or I just lose the list or forget to look at it. Ugh. Haha. At least I still have my sense of humor.

BTW, I have ADHD too.