Lonely people's brains are different due to excess of imaginary social contact

Re:Lonely people's brains are different due to excess of ima... by 00deadbeef on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @03:18PM (#25434651)

I’m on the autism spectrum and I harness this ability to have conversations in my mind to improve my social interactions. I simulate all kinds of permutations of events and branches of conversations. When I get the chance some of these get tested in the real world and the information I gather from that is fed in to my next round of simulations. Ten years ago I couldn’t socialise at all. Now I can pass as normal in a lot of different situations. I think I’ve managed to build up some kind of subconscious model of how other people work.

Even when I’m not actively doing this, my thoughts take the form of conversations.

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Re:Lonely people's brains are different due to excess of ima... by jrsdav on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @04:31PM (#25435512)

Ditto for my partner. She is constantly doing exactly what you described, and has diagnosed ASD.

I wouldn't say her inner dialogue is centered reminiscing or longing, which is what the article mentions in this study about those who are lonely; more so she's constantly running a post mortem on every social interaction she remembers to build a more robust "model" about how people work.

Before she was diagnosed, this tended to veer more towards paranoia and constant second guessing of herself, and often resulted in a feeling of loneliness.

Post diagnosis she is much more comfortable with these thoughts, and has used mindfulness practice as a means to stop herself from obsessing when it goes a little too far.

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