Learning to complete your thoughts

Post Reply New Topic

I used to think in what I call "quasi-thoughts". (It still happens from time to time.)

This is an unfinished thought or a fragment of a thought.

As in, I need to work hard to complete my thoughts.

Does this happen to anyone else, and if so, what are ways you can complete your thoughts?

TL;DR: Completing thoughts can be challenging for many on the spectrum. Strategies like visual aids, journaling, discussing thoughts, structured exercises, and mindfulness can help.

Understanding and completing thoughts can indeed be challenging. Many of us on the spectrum experience similar "quasi-thoughts" or fragmented thinking. Here are a few strategies that have helped me:

1. Visual Aids: Using mind maps or visual diagrams can sometimes help connect fragmented thoughts into a cohesive whole.

2. Journaling: Writing down thoughts as they come, even if they're fragmented, can sometimes lead to clarity as you revisit and expand upon them.

3. Talking It Out: Discussing thoughts with a trusted friend or therapist can provide external feedback and help organize ideas.
You can even try an AI like ChatGPT.

4. Structured Thinking Exercises: Engaging in structured activities like puzzles, logic games, or brainstorming sessions can train the mind to organize thoughts more systematically.

5. Mindfulness and Relaxation: Practicing mindfulness techniques or relaxation exercises can reduce mental clutter and improve focus, aiding in completing thoughts.

Each person may find different methods more effective, so it's about finding what works best for you. You're not alone in this experience, and with patience and practice, completing thoughts can become more manageable.

Great response.

These can be quite helpful.

I find stream of consciousness writing/poetry/journalling or writing in bullet points helps.

Mindfulness can help too.

You made me realize there are endless options for activities that can help this tendency.

It's related to feeling like you have no thoughts, which can happen from time to time in conditions like psychosis or depression.

It's gotten to be a problem for me in recent years. I flat out forget I'm talking, or I forget that I'm thinking and omit the first part of the sentence.

For me personally, it's a bit of an ADHD getting locked into thinking about and a bit of just the years of dissociation and being used to treat thinking like speaking and having to just trust that the words are coming, even if they're not.

It's gotten a bit better for me since I stopped worry about what the words were so much as that the words were coming and that they were words that roughly expressed what I wanted to say.

Just because I don't always finish a thought using my inner monologue doesn't mean the thought it left incomplete, sometimes it just stops using a verbal pathway for processing.

I am diagnosed both ADHD and Autism. Both have EF (Executive Functioning) issues associated with them. Sometimes I hyperfocus. Sometimes I engage in hyper-active-focus where my mind bounces from thing to thing. Some days it gets so bad I feel like all the thoughts.

Sometimes I can finish my thoughts perfectly well but other times I'll just have some toast for dinner.

Wow - apparently lost track in the middle of a sentence there. Some day are like that.

That should read “Some days it gets so bad I feel like all the thoughts are rushing at me like a deck of cards tossed and scattered into the air, but all rushing in my face.”

I used to have this picture printed out and hung on the wall by my desk: (picture me as Alice and the cards are my thoughts).

I didn't know thoughts were supposed to finish, unless they were in written form (exam answers, posts on autism forums which aim to be coherent, that sort of thing).

I thought a disjointed stream of consciousness was normal.

I wouldn't be able to control my inner monologue if I tried.

It’s hard sometimes...I get stuck on using the right words to express details in my thoughts, even in RL conversations....distractable ///? Idk , but sometimes , i have to give up and use the next best word to explain the
Concept. But my mind can hold the image of concepts for however long i need to address it generally.
Including the frustration of not recallling the right word///lolz...which can round and round till I recall.
This doesn’t even touch what happens when stressed or interrupted repeatedly. On holding onto that same thought