Thinking

[Astray]

Okay so I'm really rather odd and something has caught my interest but I can't quite get enough information to make a full judgment on this, so I'm asking on all forums I goto to see if they can help me fill in the gaps. To get a fuller picture even

No matter how tired I am or how early it is from the morning. I wake up until the moment I sleep there is always a voice going in my head. Thinking would be the accurate term, but the problem is I can never shut it up. It just continues and continues, every waking moment it is racing away and some times there will even be 3-4 threads of my own voice (all identical but some how I can tell them apart and make sense of them).

I have had people in the past to tell me to stop thinking and they act as if they can shut the voice in their head up and just have complete silence in their heads. I've also discussed it with a friend and he seems to be able to do the same. Just completely shut it off if he likes.

So this leaves me in the position where my experience (on and on, never stopping) is at odds with people who I have discussed it with. They claim they are able to stop this and yet I seem to be completely at odds with this. People often say I seem intelligent and it's making me wonder if rather than being smart by my own merit, I am "smarter" by the merit that I cannot stop thinking, so I am constantly thinking situations through, reading more to add fuel to the fire and basically am not -smart- but cursed which leads to intelligence.

So HJU goers, I ask you this. Can you stop thinking, can you just shut off the voice in your head and I'm the weird one or do I know two really odd people who can?

I should point out it's been 48 hours since I slept, I am absolutely exhausted and words are difficult to use correctly, so I may not be making much sense.

 

[VengeanceGOD]

There are people who can do that, but they're guys who've been meditating all their lives. What I tend to do when I can't stop thinking and can't go to sleep because of it is imagine my mind as a big empty space and focus on that until I fall asleep.

 

[MaraJade]

This is not common in so far as most people can shut it off after a certain point; you're not just the oddball out. When I am particularly focused on something or in a state of mind that requires a lot of thought - like having to get ready to teach my students, or talk to professors, and most/when I have to write papers, there are times I can't shut this voice off for days. It just sorta switches topic in these states, and I've learned to just cope with it b/c after a point, I can shut it off or it shuts off.

And it's not just thinking...For example, when I read new material or have to think about stuff for writing a thesis, I think nonstop about whatever xyz material. It's the same when you have a problem or some matter and you have to think through it. I also experience this if I try to sleep after watching a movie or reading something that makes me think.

I've found that if I don't indulge it, I end up thinking about it until I fall asleep - like 3 hours later, or I dream about it. So, I find it helps to do, watch or read something completely opposite in nature and material from whatever it was that made you think in the first place. Talking it out helps as well if there is someone on hand to help you out with that. After watching The Prestige, good but depressing movie, I ended up watching Bleach to fall asleep.

 

[Judge Faiz]

I'm not sure if I can shut my brain down per-say. But there will be times when I'm asked what I'm thinking and it will literally be nothing.

Now when a song gets stuck in my head...THAT is when I can't shut my brain down and my inner monologue is just SCREAMING at the music player in my brain to shut the hell up!

 

[Bolt]

Yeah... I hate how women always want to know "Whatcha thinkin' about?" and you spend the next 20 minutes explaining how it is possible to think about nothing.

 

[Mega Ranger]

I have that problem too. here's how I deal with it. you give it a task, and I mean a bull brain power task. in my case being a PR/Toku fan I put myself in the story in costume. involving plot character fight scenes twist etc, you play them out and do nothing but focus on the story in your head with your eyes closed, sooner than you think....ZZZZZZ, but don't be expecting that just keep the story going no matter what. OH and don't move, that'll reset everything.

 

[She-Ra]

I take drugs.


Seriously, I had/have problems with anxiety and I couldn't get my brain to slow down enough, my doc prescribed Lorazapam or something, and it turns your brain to a nice foggy state so you can't focus on every thousand passing thought and sleep peacefully.