Losing your train of thought

[enfp can be shy]

How often does it happen to you? (how) Do you manage to remember what were you thinking / saying? Does it bother you or make you feel uncomfortable? Do you often walk around wondering what's missing, something you seem to be forgetting (yet again)?

It sometimes bothers me, also people tend to ridicule it a lot when they observe someone acting like this - it is generally regarded as funny and silly - however, I've also noticed this is more likely to happen to professors and researchers I've met, than to the grocery store seller, or the factory worker. Perhaps it's essential part of how our brains operate, and we should appreciate it.

 

[88chaz88]

I have sort of the opposite problem. I tend to think to myself a lot before actually bothering to say something, then when I do nobody has any idea how I came to it. Yet neither do I. The train is definitely on the track but I can't quite figure out how it got there. I just know that it definitely did at some point.

 

[Morgain]

it happens to me a lot. I always have the feeling that I have forgotten something, something important that I have to take care off. If there are to many things I have to think of, I make a list, and just the act of writing it down helps me to remember it later.

I have also a hard time to remember what I was going to say when someone interupts me with a story of there own. Afterwards I don't know what I wanted to say.

It goes better when I'm in my focussed TeSi mode. When I'm in that mode, my collegue says I have the memory of an elephant but it is mainely because I write everything down. And it gets harder when I'm tired. When I'm tired it even occures that I think one thing and say something completely different. I have had some discussions with people who clame that I said something extreme ridicule while I believe I said what i wanted to say. It is annoying really. It makes people think I'm stupid...

if I think about it in MBTI terms, can it have something to do with the P over J preference? That is how I feel it. And you are right, it happens a lot with researchers and professors. I had a professor ones, who i think was INTP and he would forget his own head if it wasn't fixed. I guess it is the side effect of being extremely briliant and inovative (in his case). Your mind must be able to wonder off, off the beaden track, and with that comes a lack of connection to the "real world".

 

[MindYourHead]

I have also a hard time to remember what I was going to say when someone interupts me with a story of there own. Afterwards I don't know what I wanted to say.

That is usually when it will happen to me also.
When interrupted, it is as if someone stomps on my train of thought. Then when they are finished I feel as though what I was going to say has become irrelevant, or would now be out of context.
I am often a bit ticked off, and if asked what I was going to say I'll just say, "never mind." Even if I do remember.

My passive aggressive tendency.

 

[IndigoSensor]

I don't loose my train of thought all that often. When I do most of the time it is temporary, and I am able to find it again after a few moments. When I completly forget my train of thought though I get very frusterated with myself and will dwell on it until I find it again. Interestingly if I totally loose it, it will come back to me when I am not thinking about it.

 

[muir]

Yup

Sometimes i know that if i don't get my point over in a conversation then i'll lose my train of thought. Often i can remember again fairly quick. Usually if i stop thinking about it it will come back.

It is as if there is a little man in my head which has to run around and find the right filing cabinet then find the right folder. I know the information is in there but the little man has to find it and i recognise that i sometimes have to give him some time to do so

 

[MelodyS90]

If I loose my train of thought, I have the feeling of the thought still left over. So sometimes I just try to get in that mindset and see if I can figure it out. I go back to where I was when I thought of it, and if I was moving, I start start heading in that direction. I'll rewind what I was saying or thinking and do it again as best as I can remember. And if it still doesn't come to me, I might go over a list or revisit in my mind what I was about to do. (How I respond depends the nature of what I forgot.)

 

[whytiger]

I used to have this problem more but now it's rare. I have a related problem called dysnomia, or the inability to remember the names of things. It's pretty mild but I will often forget the names of very basic things like table, door, chair, etc. for several seconds. When I was a kid, I would often talk to people and just stop mid-sentence and stare at them while I tried to remember the word for something. Now I'm less shy about it, and I say something like "thingy".

 

[Siamese cat]

I lose my trains all the time.

Especially if someone is asking me to explain something that I never had to think through but understood intuitively, or if I'm interrupted while speaking, or after a longer isolation and periods of not talking I start losing trains because my mouth and my thoughts never work at the same pace (I think much faster than I speak), or if I am just plain tired. It bothered me, but I often remember later, so my trains, though late usually arrive at the station.

And yea, people used to give me funny looks because of it, but that's not the only thing because some consider me weird, so it stopped bothering both me and them.

 

[NeverAmI]

I lose my trains all the time.

Especially if someone is asking me to explain something that I never had to think through but understood intuitively, or if I'm interrupted while speaking, or after a longer isolation and periods of not talking I start losing trains because my mouth and my thoughts never work at the same pace (I think much faster than I speak), or if I am just plain tired. It bothered me, but I often remember later, so my trains, though late usually arrive at the station.

And yea, people used to give me funny looks because of it, but that's not the only thing because some consider me weird, so it stopped bothering both me and them.

*Pushes shopping cart full of Siamese Cat's lost trains*

 

[Trifoilum]

yeah, it happens a lot...even by me myself. Not a good feeling

 

[GaiaGraha]

It happens to me constantly when I don't take my adderall. lol. I have majors ADD. MAJOR.

I think that is happens to ENFPs because, from what I have observed from ENFPs (my twin sister is one, I dated one, and I have had several as friends) tend to have a kind of natural ADD or ADHD, because they are so in their environment and so open-endedly focused on possibilities, rather than on the concrete.

 

[ceri]

This happens to me alot. What I usually end up doing is the action i was doing before (which i remember... go figure) and try to re-think my way to the lost thought. Sometimes that doesnt work though, so I give up and hope that I remember/re-think it.

 

[TinyBubbles]

oh yeah this happens to me a lot, it takes a concerted effort to remain focused. when i'm not under obligation to do so i let my mind wander.... far more fun that way

 

[enfp can be shy]

btw, I asked because I was watching this analyzer who is very deep and knowledgeable person, but often loses his own train of thought; it's funny for me to watch, because I pay close attention and could tell him where he was, and he can't remember... however, then I realized this happens to me too, and seems to happen to many people.

This happens to me alot. What I usually end up doing is the action i was doing before (which i remember... go figure) and try to re-think my way to the lost thought. Sometimes that doesnt work though, so I give up and hope that I remember/re-think it.

The optimal approach for me also: backtracking. And when it doesn't work it leaves me shivering with emptiness; hate that feeling to know just lost a thought (or a melody). But usually it works! - which i find even more intriguing

The train is definitely on the track but I can't quite figure out how it got there.

That's quite interesting, it seems it's all about arrangement between which part we focus on consciously and which part we process automatically. I wonder what type of thinking is required to be able to do this (i admit i couldn't, even though i would enjoy trying):
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajUQzQ1pd_s"]YouTube- Oskar Nilsson Novemberskölden SS4 2009 Onotat[/ame]
Basically one must achieve perfection which is beyond the limitations of (slow) consciousness, because if one begins reasoning about it, he's dead.

 

[dark_angel]

I lose my trains all the time.

Especially if someone is asking me to explain something that I never had to think through but understood intuitively, or if I'm interrupted while speaking, or after a longer isolation and periods of not talking I start losing trains because my mouth and my thoughts never work at the same pace (I think much faster than I speak), or if I am just plain tired. It bothered me, but I often remember later, so my trains, though late usually arrive at the station.

And yea, people used to give me funny looks because of it, but that's not the only thing because some consider me weird, so it stopped bothering both me and them.

^^^This

I have also noticed that when I have the blues then it is worse.

 

[bamf]

I lose my train of thought all the.....

 

[TurtleTrooper]

I probably would, but my thoughts are usually instantaneous.

Trust me, I would know.

I do forget what I was thinking about sometimes though.
And I lose my keys all the freaking time.

 

[under skies]

Story of my life.

But sometimes it helps, anyway, because I'm usually off on a tangent. So, then, when I lose my train of thought, I just go back to talking about what I was supposed to be talking about.