Anyone else have trouble logically following conversation?

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When I'm talking to someone my mind goes in 10,000 different directions. Also, I think at a much faster rate than I can talk because my mind literally jumps everywhere. Hope that makes sense. And when I try to pay attention, I notice that the slightest noise will distract me and catch my attention.

It's like in one-on-one conversations I try and focus so hard that I..overfocus and block everything else out, making me overanalyze things and such which usually leads to negative thoughts and anxiety.

And in group conversations, forget about it. If I'm not the one dominating the conversation than I can't focus. It's like my mind can't pick one person/thing to pay attention to and stick with it.

Also I process/absorb information really slowly.

I'm not looking for a diagnosis per se, but what are these traits characteristic of, and for people with experience, what can I do to help myself?

For me I have trouble following conversations because there is so much "fluff" in what people are saying. It takes people so long to get to the point that my mind wanders and then I miss out on important bits of information.

This came to mind; it describes me quite well:

Because autistic individuals have learning disabilities such as poor short-term memory, poor memory storage, and other things, they may have to blurt out their idea as soon as it is formed or they may not be able to remember it when it is their turn to speak. The idea might come and go rapidly, never to return, which makes the autistic person frustrated. Other autistic people have this same problem, and hence, they do not care when someone interrupts them to get their idea expressed.



Autistic people often lack the ability to know when another person is done talking. This becomes problematic when autistic people speak with normal individuals. The autistic person doesn’t know when the normal person is actually done talking or just taking a breath before starting a new sentence. When the normal person is, in fact, done talking, the autistic person doesn’t immediately pick it up and by the time he tries to talk, someone else has already started talking. Thus, in an autistic conversation, there is no such thing as being done. Some autistic individuals even talk until you do interrupt. And when you interrupt, they listen to you, but then just pick up where they left off when you are done.

It's from a website by one James Williams, who has Autism.
I'm a huge fan of his.

http://www.jamesmw.com/sixrules.htm

I generally dont have problems following conversations, I have problems contributing to group conversations. Its hard to find appropriete times to add comments because the conversation is going all over the place.

I have more trouble with some people than others. Some people do make conversation that logically follows. Others are more random.

That seems to be my biggest area of weakness.

I too hate all the fluff, and my mind takes these little trips about the fluff and how I feel about the fluff and the endless crap people let come out of their mouths, then I am wondering why they say so much stuff that doesn't matter, then when I try to focus on the point of the conversation, I find myself wondering how was their mind working to throw that other stuff in etc etc etc

Good case in point is those giving directions. Recently I had an appointment with someone at the college, thought they were in the same building as a class I had, spoke to another student, he said 'no, he is in facilities management, over by the football field", I must have had a perplexed look, and he asked if I knew where the football field is. I said I wasn't sure, but wasn't it north a bit. He went on to say things about where the football field was, but I zoned out, and ended up going to the department offices to get an idea how to get to the right building. Secretary starts telling me, "go out this door, go past the residential colleges" (me, blank, her "you don't know where the residential colleges are? well, you will pass them, actually I was thinking there are several areas that include buildings that are the residential colleges). Etc, etc etc
Turns out, all I had to do is leave the building I was in (facing chestnut), go west a short bit, turn left on the first street on the left, and it's right there.
After all the crap about football fields, residential colleges (which by the way are set quite a ways back from chestnut and have no signage), no mention of chestnut, going west, first road on the left, but lots of description about some parking lot behind the building I needed to go to where they sometimes park the maintenance vehicles (including a drawing of a building and parking lot and the mention of "don't go to THIS BUILDING" , it really makes me think IT'S THEM WITH THE PROBLEM
This account is usually the way I try to converse with those who like all that fluff, and I usually overdo it:)

That's not my experience at all. I become a zombie and can only think very singly think much more pronounced than if I were alone.

I answered this question on a quiz the other day:

"During conversations, you are

a. Listening
b. Waiting to speak"

I put "b".