Does it ever feel like you can't stop thinking?

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Yes it can get really annoying but it's fine as long as I remember to control the direction of the thoughts as they tend to go bad places if left to their own devices. The best thing about them is I can't remember the last time I was bored and time flies very quickly.

L-theanine capsules really help to slow them down enough to sleep.

Include me in this club. I have such a hard time getting to sleep because of it. It's also hard having conversations because the thoughts are distracting, even when I don't know what it is I'm thinking. It's like my neurons are just firing off with no coherent thoughts involved.

I'm also one of those people who has trouble falling asleep because of a babbling mind. I have had a strange neurological experience a handful of times in my life and I'm wondering if anybody else has had similar. Maybe once every 5 years or so, I've been trying to fall asleep and my mind has been yammering on nonstop. Then suddenly I see a blue flash in my mind and hear a "zzzztttt" sound and then I feel calm and fall asleep shortly after. Anyone else?

Yup. I think it's why I've always been prone to insomnia; I think intensely and become a little hyperactive.

It would be cool to lose the ability to think sometimes.

That's why as a kid I couldn't sleep until exhaustion knocked me out.

My boyfriend says I tend to be like this. I get stuck on one thought and have a hard time letting go. I think my obsessions work the same way. I just think and think and think. It can be really damaging if its a negative thought loop, as I tend to be emotionally sensitive.

I asked this question at the last asperger's meetup I attended and the therapist said everyone has this. I tried to explain further that the thoughts never end, are not within my control, and there's often music playing and "videos" start playing when I close my eyes. She brushed it off but a diagnosed aspie in the group said this is more common in autistic people.

This subject comes up over and over in AS forums so I think there is something to it. I think NTs experience this but not to the degree or the sometimes never ending basis that AS people do.

As far as getting to sleep goes, I've learned to let the uncontrollable thoughts take their own direction and I fall asleep. The trick for me is to cease purposeful thinking that is under my control. I can't stop music from playing but I can switch the song if the current one is particularly annoying.

A couple years a go I had a night when I went to bed and there was nothing going on in my head except for my own consciously controllable thoughts. It was unbelievably peaceful to have a short time to be able to think of nothing.

I never stop thinking, but I see it as a blessing because I can come up with a lot of ideas for my books. I used to come up with silly ideas for inventions, but I never wrote them down so I've forgotten about them. I actually think one of these inventions I thought up was invented by someone else a year later. That happens a lot.
I used to find it hard to sleep, but I tell myself a story and eventually I fall asleep.

Having an incessant voice in your head with a constant stream of thoughts is probably the most common affliction that exists, as most of the planet suffers from it. People don't really consider it "bad" because it happens with almost everyone, but it is still dysfunctional. Some people encourage turning the thoughts positive with conscious effort, which I guess is good, but the real key to inner peace is silencing that inner voice. Everyone can do it, no matter how many excuses they come up with. It takes a long time and a lot of meditation and conscious re-directing of attention, but it CAN be done, and those first few times you succeed in shutting your mind up for a few minutes are glorious and wonderful. Check out the book "The Power of Now," by Tolle Eckhart, for a guide on how to make your mind stop its never-ending chatter.

I don't know if I ever really stop. I get my best ideas in my sleep, I'll wake up in the middle of the night with an awesome solution to a problem at work, and have to jot notes down so I don't forget, then I can usually get back to sleep. Otherwise, I'll obsess over trying to not forget it and never get back to sleep. I also have extremely vivid dreams, so I know my brain is active.

.....can
ANYONE stop thinking?

I'm serious, can people really do that?

(And if you did, wouldn't it be hard to start again?)

I have the same quality. A lot of people I know can spend hours not thinking. About anything. I try to imagine that, and the closest I get is thinking about how much I'm not thinking, which doesn't exactly count. Even though my thinking can annoy me sometimes, though, the idea of not thinking about anything, the idea of me just being blank, terrifies me enough to be glad for my hyperactive brain.

I know that my mind isn't going to stop thinking, so why not put that motor to good use? I try to read as much as I can, or try to focus in into artistic endeavors.

It would be nice to shut it off every once in a while, but hey, I'd rather use it if I can't use it.

I can stop the verbal part of my thinking at will. The deeper thinking continues, however.

Not so much lately, but there have been times my mind is going a mile a minute and I can't sleep because I can't turn it off. I've learned some supplements have a natural calming effect on the mind/nerves, and that helps.

i can never get to sleep for at least 20-30 mins at night because i can;t turn my brain off.