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How do you deal with overclocking?

cory

Well-Known Member
I like the word overclocking because it is an accurate analogy to what happens to me. There are times I become so obsessive about some topic that I can't get the subject off my mind and feel a compulsion to keep diving into it. I incessantly think about it to the point I become mentally exhausted. It can make me fall asleep during the day or trigger migraines. Also it can cause me to creep into mania (the two states are remarkably similar). Long hikes, relaxing routines, immersion in stories (TV, movies, etc.) are some of my coping mechanisms but they don't always work. I am interested to hear how other aspies deal with overclocking.
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The most honest answer? For me, "resistance is futile". One of the reasons I was up at 5am yesterday. Too many thoughts overwhelming my ability to get back to sleep.

But in general I do try not to think too much about the future beyond the next 24 hours. Though sometimes it just doesn't work. :eek:
 
A lot of the times it doesn't work, but I try similar things like listening to music, reading a book, going outside, forcing myself to concentrate on a hobby. I was up pretty late last night just obsessing over my upcoming appointment. I got my weighted blanket, put in my earplugs, and then managed to fall asleep. I have a major problem with this because it feels like my brain is stuck in this energetic state and can't calm down and the thoughts keep whirring around in circles. It's definitely frustrating. I'm glad now I have a reason for this whereas I thought I was just going nuts before.
 
I go with it, using it as impetus to complete tasks in a day or hour or week. When I worked as a graphic designer and illustrator it was an absolute blessing to stay up for days on a rush job, others could not compete with that incredible aspie ability to finish within deadlines.

The same thing happened when I ran and cooked at a Bistro, it was an exciting/heady time, one that I miss. Now I use aspie 'overclocking' to do sports, learn something new, dance, clean, speed read a book, cook a thankgiving dinner for fifteen people and generally exhaust myself so that I don't have to think anymore.

Its so much a part of my nature, that I actually like it. By the way, thanks for putting a name to something that is so much a part of my character. Brilliant of you.
 
When I worked as a graphic designer and illustrator it was an absolute blessing to stay up for days on a rush job, others could not compete with that incredible aspie ability to finish within deadlines.

Interesting. I never thought of how or why I was able to meet every deadline ever placed before me. Quite daunting at times.

Now I do. :cool:
 
I haven't really learnt to deal with it... Really the only thing that edges it off is the fact I have to take care of the kids. If I'm not actively doing something with them, ie walking to school, reading, playing then I am obsessing over whatever my latest thing is.
 
A lot of the times it doesn't work, but I try similar things like listening to music, reading a book, going outside, forcing myself to concentrate on a hobby. I was up pretty late last night just obsessing over my upcoming appointment. I got my weighted blanket, put in my earplugs, and then managed to fall asleep. I have a major problem with this because it feels like my brain is stuck in this energetic state and can't calm down and the thoughts keep whirring around in circles. It's definitely frustrating. I'm glad now I have a reason for this whereas I thought I was just going nuts before.
I feel sleep is important in this state also. And I have hyper-sensitive hearing so I use ear plugs as well. Sometimes overclocking will not allow me to get deep sleep. I won't really dream deeply and the amped up mind will be right there when I wake up. If this happens for long periods (2-3+ weeks straight) I become unable to feel rested and my mind feels cloudy but it's still running at a fast speed. I've been in this state for the last month. I've started taking 4 mile hikes in a state park by my house ~5 days a week for the last two weeks and it has been working.
 
I go with it, using it as impetus to complete tasks in a day or hour or week. When I worked as a graphic designer and illustrator it was an absolute blessing to stay up for days on a rush job, others could not compete with that incredible aspie ability to finish within deadlines.

The same thing happened when I ran and cooked at a Bistro, it was an exciting/heady time, one that I miss. Now I use aspie 'overclocking' to do sports, learn something new, dance, clean, speed read a book, cook a thankgiving dinner for fifteen people and generally exhaust myself so that I don't have to think anymore.

Its so much a part of my nature, that I actually like it. By the way, thanks for putting a name to something that is so much a part of my character. Brilliant of you.
Mia are you saying that when you enter this (I also used to call it 'fast thinking' or 'thinking to fast') overclocking state that you are able to direct this mental energy externally and not continually harp on one particular subject? Say if some fixation about weather patters got you overclocking; then you could take that energy and apply it towards something else? I do that, have done that, but usually when I am fixated upon something I find it very difficult for anything else to hold my attention. So I'm not always able to use that energy on other constructive tasks. How do you keep the energy but shift the focus?
 
I find that with me, if I don't break the cycle of 'overclocking', I too get headaches and/or stomach aches. I tend to use visualization to overcome it. For instance, I picture myself in a wide open field of knee-high grass with just a touch of wind stirring it. There is a stream just out of sight, but I can still hear it running gently over the rocks in the streambed. I'm lying on my back looking up at a blue sky with wispy clouds in it. (Yes, this is my 'happy place'.)Then I just repeat to myself: "Relax. Relax. Relax." over and over. My mother taught this to me when I was a child to calm myself down enough to function in school. I don't know if it works for everyone, but you're welcome to try it next time you start 'overclocking' and see if it works. Obviously, you can pick your own 'happy place' that calms you. I won't insist that you use mine. Besides, if everyone uses my field it will start to get crowded! Hee Hee Hee!
 
cory,

Until you mentioned it, I had no idea that I actually did that. For me, the obsessive thinking patterns give me energy that I can either devote to an interest at hand or to a physical manifestation of that energy. Like you it doesn't always work, especially when I can't sleep at four in the morning.

I learned to do this early, when my Father taught me to box to defend myself, and later further developed it in tae kwon do.

If you use a metaphor of punching with your fist as the obsession, your arm and shoulder as the energy that you have for the interest, then the punch itself is that interest made physically real, and the punch can be controlled.

All I can think concerning this is that the punch functions in much the same way as controlling overwhelming anger, which requires a great deal of energy to manifest. But then you can use the controlled anger in a physical fashion to hit a punching bag.

Don't know if that quite explains how I do this. I'll have to consider it for awhile.
 
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Apparently, I don't experience this
state of mind. How dull and unfocused
this makes me seem, in comparison
to those who do.

I think, but I don't obsess.
I assign myself topics to think about
at certain times when it will be
convenient to think about them.

This is the way I manage to be as
marginally productive as I am, by
taking time to think, on purpose.

I don't know what it would be like to
be thinking....all 'zoomy' and wearing
myself out that way.
 
So I'm not always able to use that energy on other constructive tasks. How do you keep the energy but shift the focus?

There are instances in peoples lives where they are interrupted or have to do something else in the moment. Somehow we are able to switch from one task to another in exigent circumstances. So the ability to do so is there, switching focus from one thing to another.

It's highly likely that in situations such as the 'iron man' competition moving from running to archery requires a great deal of physical and mental control. Would think that the same thing happens when someone switches focus from one sort of class to another subject in the next class. It must be that if you do it enough, it becomes second nature.
 
As for telling stories, being a former Marine myself, they tend to resemble something Major Benson Rutherford Payne would tell.
 
cory,

Until you mentioned it, I had no idea that I actually did that. For me, the obsessive thinking patterns give me energy that I can either devote to an interest at hand or to a physical manifestation of that energy. Like you it doesn't always work, especially when I can't sleep at four in the morning.

I learned to do this early, when my Father taught me to box to defend myself, and later further developed it in tae kwon do.

If you use a metaphor of punching with your fist as the obsession, your arm and shoulder as the energy that you have for the interest, then the punch itself is that interest made physically real, and the punch can be controlled.

All I can think concerning this is that the punch functions in much the same way as controlling overwhelming anger, which requires a great deal of energy.

Don't know if that quite explains how I do this. I'll have to consider it for awhile.
I think I understand what you are explaining. The shoulder and arm do the work which is the mind working fast on its own, and the punch is the action of consciously directing it. One thing that works for me is to daily do something that clears my head from whatever event/person/situation, etc. initially got me going. Like meditation. Then I can focus the excess energy where I want.
 
All of my "projects" are accomplished in steps. I find it easier to break away upon the completion of a step rather than in the middle of one.
 
This was once something I experienced. Mostly creative and research activities, but also long runs or bike rides late in the night.

Middle age has dulled this for me a bit, and I have long been fascinated by dreams, and I have extremely vivid and entertaining dreams, so I very much enjoy sleeping.
 

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