Disassociating/losing time.

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The first time `I'm fully aware of this happening to me is when I was 19. I was in the bathroom for TWO HOURS looking in the mirror, my stepdad knocked and I didn't even hear him, he finally just opened in the door and asked if I was OK. It was really weird, I felt fine as soon I snapped back into reality but I have no idea how that happened.

The second time was at work when I was about 21.. I guess this only happens to me in bathrooms, lol, but I took a quick bathroom break and had a coworker watch my register. She said I was in the bathroom for 20 minutes. I know she wasn't just exaggerating because she wasn't the type, we actually got along really well.

I also had some issues with spacing out and going into a COMPLETELY different world as a young child. I guess everyone thought I was just playing but I thought it was real, I was actually convinced that I could fly if there was enough wind outside and go inside of the television and I would ask people if they wanted to watch me do it. That all stopped around age 8, the incidents mentioned above are all I know of this happening in adulthood.

Is this an AS thing? Anyone else?

There are times when I stop interacting with outside and doesnt change position for some time. But in those times I would be thinking deep. I dont remember any loss of consciousness - if it can be realized.

You might have had a seizure. Perhaps you should consult a Neurologist.

If I did I would have had to have been standing up the entire time. I know that's possible but I felt completely normal afterward. It wasn't like I had lost recollection of anything that had happened beforehand.

Anyway, it hasn't happened in 5 years so I'm not too concerned.

This is definitely "an AS thing." It's either a separate psychiatric condition or a separate neurological condition. You may find others on the autism spectrum who have experienced this, perhaps even more than in a neurologically typical population, sure, but it's still a separate issue and one that you would do well to bring up to a doctor.

I wonder what it could be. I had all sorts of other issues as a young kid, too. I wrote a really strange poem about seeing faries in a tree and gave it to my mother when I was around 5, I told her it had really happened. Lots of things like that, and I really believed it. It almost sounds like childhood schizophrenia or something but it just gradually went away. I still had SOME issues with it until I was about 11, I guess, but I realized that it wasn't normal around age 8 so I stopped telling people about it. It got better after that, too. I think this is is around the time I started talking to other kids more and making some friends so I was less likely to go into my own world.

So this is what is going on then........


Well it happens when i'm driving , i sometimes go off in another world and don't remember the last 2-5mins of driving

I do that, a lot. I can lose 15 minutes at a time, looking at myself in the mirror. It can be very annoying.

I have a poor perception of time and I lose track of it a lot. Hours can feel like minutes, and vice versa. When I'm in the shower, I feel like I'm in there for about 10 minutes, but when I come out people tell me I was in there for 45. When I watch movies, scenes that last only 2 - 5 minutes feel more like they last 15 - 20 minutes. Not that the movies I watch are boring - it happens even with my favorites.

I'm not totally sure what i experience is the same thing completely, but I do zone out, and i do it on will most times, not automatically... Though i likely do it automatically too.

I've tried to research it a lot, compared symptoms and such with a lot of conditions.
Thing is.. I'm conscious, i'm thinking. I'm not just spaced out and mind-blank.
I can if i come out of the zone on my own remember much if not all of what I was thinking.. and i have some amazing thoughts come out of this state.

Hypnogagia <<Wikipedia entry link>>

This is what i've decided it most likely to be.

i can't say i "lose track of time" i just lose any care about time... and external factors.

Happens to me when I'm driving long distances too. I just zone out and come out of it a few minutes later. It's never resulted in an accident or unsafe situation that I know of.

I used to swim competatively when I was younger. I would do several 2 hour work outs a week. Sometimes 2 2 hour workouts a day during the summer. During these long workouts I could zone out and often do several laps including flip turns without noticing.

Totally sympathise with you there......

Years ago before my AS dx, I was almost dx with traits of DID(dissociative identity disorder or Multiple personality disorder) but that was the problem, I only had one personality. I did not "lose time" and become another person in that lost time, I just dissociated from my surroundings and the most it happened was for an hour at a time. So, I think they were just fishing for a reason. Schizoaffective was agreed upon. Depersonalisation and derealisation often go hand in hand.

Just a note, chronic and severe fatigue will make fighting it much harder. Try and make a time to just zone out when you need to. It will not creep up on you as often then. Also, epileptic auras can sound a bit like what you are describing. As someone mentioned, an EEG might not be a bad idea.

Take good care. I have injured myself quite badly by accident during a couple of significant fugues. Get some insight from a doc.

Mics

i space out a lot, but i'm with Kiley that this might be some kind of non-convulsive seizure, although what little i've read of absence seizures, it sounds like they usually don't last very long. tough call but checking with a neurologist can't be a bad idea.

I constantly lose track of time. I have to have my GPS in my car on so I can watch the clock on my lunch break...

Very much so.
Covered up by the fact I'm a researcher!

I agree with Kiley. When I was younger I had auditory seizures. I was conscious but I couldnt move, sort of lost track of time, and could hear a man and a womans voice speaking very fast so that I could not understand what they were saying. This scared me and because of my religious up bringing I thought it was demons speaking to me so I did not tell anyone until I was a teenager. It usually would only happen at night and when I was ill. You should get it checked out because it can sometimes get worse....or like me it will just go away on its own.