And let me ask this...when you are readingoing a book do you picture people's face when there is not a description of their face?

Weirdly, I've just noticed myself doing this recently. Not sure why the change.

I have additional thoughts but when Imy on the computer and not my phone.

The guy I talked to continues to seem really awesome. He loves cats and we traded links to cat videos. He then sent me a picture of this cool sphere with cutouts that was made of sugar. From his 3D printer.

And he likes Dr Horrible's sing along blog. But the 3d printer picture distracted from more a whedon talk.

I'm trying not to let my hopes get too high.

I don't think I picture characters' faces unless they're described.

The doctor called with my MRI results. I've got some ganglion cysts, which I'd never heard of, but I googled, and it makes sense. They're small, so the doctor wants to just wait and see for now, and continue with what I'm doing, and I'll see her again in March.

If I'm writing, I picture everything down to the smallest detail, including facial expressions.

If I'm reading, I only do it if I make a serious effort to do so.

I'm asking becauseveryone I realize I rarely if ever think about body language or facial expressions unless it's a strong emotion.

I also don't remember the hat my body and how I move and look conveys a message as well.

I'm expressive but it's more...for myself. Even though I can't see it in can feel it and picture what I look like ...but I don't really do subtle things. Like I have no half smile. I it feels weird and I swear I look like creepy Sheldon smile.

I'm pathologically observational and will note and file body language, posture, gesture, tension or lack thereof, facial microexpressions, and voice level and tone (clenched jaw, stiff mouthparts, little breath propulsion) over content most of the time.

Or conversely, purposely not look at the speaker to avoid observational notetaking and eval, and concentrate on content vs. tonality and tension.

That comes out in my writing, but I edit most of it. I also purposely omit physical description of characters, unless it will be important that his hair is red, or that his sidekick can bench 600lbs and every muscle is defined. I do tend to describe voices, or at least evaluate the auto-emotional response their voice elicits, and whether a character is still or constantly in motion (and whether she wears anything that makes noise when she moves).

I think all writers see movies in our heads, and attempt to put microdirection on the page so the reader will see the story the way we see it. I'd rather read a story that gives me only enough detail to cast and direct my own movie as the story unfolds.

This is stuff I've wondered for awhile , even before my diagnosis. But it's been hard to even think about asking questions because it touches on things that are painful and my anxiety goes off and the walls slam down.

So it's weird and fraught.

I was talking to someone from second life about this and explaining it like -= when you learn to do something and there are steps and when you are still learning how to do something you mentally run through the steps. Eventually there are no indvidual steps it's all just integrated so you don't think about --how to whatever.

But if you don't do something often or if it's tricky for you then there's still the step process in some form. Even if it's just a quick mental flash of all the steps. It takes a second but it's there. Rather than it just being something you don't really think about.

And I think that's how it is with telling if someone is sad or annoyed or mildly amused or whatever. There is a checklist of body language and facial expressions and at some point that checklist becomes integrated into "annoyed person" but I still am conscious on some level of doing the checklist.

I don't know if it's the best way to describe it but that's what I came up with today.

That's an excellent and clear explanation, askye. That's is how I feel about navigating a lot of social situations - like everyone else got the manual.

I don't think I have ever in my life seen a movie in my head, unless it was while I was on acid. I think in words, mostly, and trying to picture anything mentally takes a great deal of effort and generally results in a static image without much detail that falls to fog in seconds. Imaginary conversations are just words, maybe tones of voice. If I picture character's from books, it's a fleeting image, probably no face, maybe just a silhouette in a simple landscape.

That's really new information, -t. I can't even imagine that sort of processing. But it's good to know the differences.