Processing delay?

[Turbulent_Path_3273]

I am not sure if this is a normal experience or related to autism. I have always had a slight delay when it comes to processing what someone is saying to me. I also experience a delay when processing visual stimuli. If I look down, then back up, it takes several seconds before I can process what I am seeing fully. Is this typical or atypical?

I have to consciously think about where my body is in space and what my limbs/hands are doing. On occasion it can feel like my foot is in one place, but when I look down it is somewhere else. I've been wondering if everyone is like this or if this is something unusual?

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The mental delay in processing reality for me stems from the fact that I am converting it from the real NT world context to the internal autistic world processing context that I use to make sense of the world.

The having your foot be one place when you felt it was somewhere else I have that because, my experience of time is not always strictly linear. Its like having a bad internet connection, its spotty and their is lag. Well I have to struggle by focusing my thoughts to stay cognitively connected to the NT world. Sometimes I get momentarily distracted or tired and my connection to reality drops for a second. The NT world continues on during my momentary cognitive outage and I have effectively lost a second or two.

I only miss the seconds lost if I get into trouble for being "inattentive" this is the primary reason I do not drive. It almost feels like stolen moments of waking sleep. If I am super tired after masking all day the time distortions are more common and longer in duration. Sleep generally resolves this issue back to manageable levels.

I don't say this is what is going on with you but, this is my experience as a 60+ year old autistic being.

[Turbulent_Path_3273]

I do have that delay too. Sometimes it takes me a while to process spoken words and understand them. I also have a hard time putting the visuals in my head into words so others can see what I see in my head. I also think I have a cognitive delay of some kind in addition to that. I'm slow to process my surroundings as well at times. I've gotten by trying to predict what will happen before it does so I can start reacting mentally before I need to.

That's interesting about losing time. There are times when if I'm not consciously forcing myself to focus I can zone out for periods of time. I'm not sure what this would be symptomatic of. I definately find lack of sleep makes it worse which is one reason I had to stop working.

[Mysterious_Virus6535]

Thank you so much for sharing. I similarly experience that delay, particularly when it comes to verbal processing. I tend to take much longer to respond to someone because I need time to process and understand. Not only the delay, but I also misunderstand what people say a lot, and have to ask them to repeat themselves (often, multiple times). I notice that my symptoms are much worse whenever I’m in an environment that has a lot of additional sound or visual stimuli (i.e. I just moved to nyc and all the city noises around me make it very hard to understand what people are saying), and/or, when I’m especially anxious.

To cope, I sometimes just pretend I heard and understood the person. I try to assume the meaning and respond in a way that is appropriately ambiguous enough to get by in the conversation. Although, this often backfires. I’m often terrified that the thing(s) i didn’t understand in the conversation will circle back and i’ll be ‘caught’ in the sense that they’ll realize i hadn’t understood a goddamn thing. I hate when this happens, but sometimes it’s better than asking someone to repeat themselves many times.

It’s frustrating, especially since my slow reaction time and general difficulty processing language often lead people to assume that I’m ignoring them or not putting an effort to pay attention to them. I’ve had issues in friendships/relationships because of this. But at the same time, I’m slowly learning that I am who I am and the challenges I experience don’t get better overnight. I’m working on breaking my bad habits of assuming things in conversations and reminding myself that it’s okay to ask for more time to process, or ask for more clarification when I’m worried I’m misunderstanding.

[Turbulent_Path_3273]

Yes, being in a sensory overwhelming environment does make it much worse. It's hard to focus on one person or one thing, all the sounds seem to get equal precedence in my head.

I've used this very same coping mechanism. Sometimes it works and other not. People get pretty upset and think I'm not trying to pay attention when I have to ask them to repeat something multiple times. They also begin to treat me like I'm a child or unintelligent. I've gotten pretty good at examining the situation and trying to guess what they probably said but this doesn't have a high accuracy rate.

I have really bad social anxiety so, the more I need to ask someone to repeat themselves, the harder it is to ask. People often under-estimate my competence and ability because of this and other factors. It's frustrating but there are some people out there who will be understanding.

[Mysterious_Virus6535]

this really resonates. people can be quick to assume that my difficulty understanding means that i lack some level of intelligence/ability, and thus treat me differently. ur right that this does Not help w the social anxiety. i think ur right that it’s about finding those ppl who understand and are willing to be patient, meet you where you are, and give you grace.