I have no sense of time. :/

I have to wonder if anyone here can relate to this, and I know it certainly isn't unheard of- after all, just look at all the wikihow's there are dedicated to time management and developing a sense of time.

It's weird. I don't understand how people can have a sense of time. I mean, for some people you can just stick them in a room without a watch or any method to see what time it is and they can tell you the exact amount of time that has past. I don't get that.

For me- an hour and thirty minutes can feel like ten minutes. It's bizarre. I remember when I was on a trip with my old school once, and I was told that I had ten or so minutes to spare so I should just go back to my room (we stayed overnight there for a few days) and I did, but it was hard for me to predict just when to leave the room.

So, when I finally did decide to leave the room I saw that nearly everyone had left their rooms and I panicked. I quickly went down the stairs and it turned out that I'd completely missed the activity session that I was meant to go to. As I got to the activity room someone told me off frustrated "How did you manage to miss the whole one hour and thirty minutes of lesson? There's only a few minutes left!". I almost felt like replying "WELL THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR TELLING ME TO GO TO MY DORM ROOM WITHOUT A FREAKING WATCH OR CLOCK ON THE WALL!" but instead I think I just muttered some apology and went to the other lesson which luckily I was on time for.

It was a really confusing time because it genuinely felt like only ten minutes had past.

Also, there was a time when I was doing work experience, and I was told that I only had ten minutes to go, and I was sat setting up a tombola (making tickets for one) and then the person that told me that left. Then someone else came in and asked me if I wanted a hot drink, and I told them "sure, I've got ten minutes to spare" and I was corrected "No, you've actually just got one minute". So, nine minutes must've gone by and it felt like a few seconds since the first person left. :eusa_doh:

And then, there was that time I ended up having PE twice because time made an idiot of me. You see, I was daydreaming in English one time, and I had PE afterwards. I wasn't really listening, and the bell rang so I assumed it was the end of lesson but it was actually just the late bell. Now, this usually wouldn't have deceived me if it were not for the fact that our class were being sent to the school's library on this bell.

So, I left with the others and thought that they were just going the long way around (I forgot about what they'd said about going to the library) and I thought I'd take a short cut because I thought that they were just going to next lesson. So I went down to PE to be met with a rather confused PE teacher. I was a bit surprised that no one else was there, but I put that down to just being early by taking the "short cut". When I told her what year I was in, she said that my group had already left to go swimming but that I could join her group for the lesson. So, I did. I joined their group which was made up of students from the year below. I played tennis, not realising that I was meant to be in the library.

I then realised as my actual group entered the changing rooms whilst I was getting changed with the year below that the teacher had mentioned going to the library. "So that's where I was meant to be!" I thought suddenly, whilst almost kicking myself. My PE teacher and the PE teacher for the year below then had a lengthy discussion, pausing once in a while to ask me questions. In the end, a conclusion was met. With a smirk my PE teacher said "Well then...I guess you're going to do PE twice today", which I replied to with a dramatic "NOOOOOOO" which one of my friends laughed at. :bang:

And this kids, is why you don't daydream in class.

I think I'm getting better. I can tell when five (and sometimes ten on a good day) minutes have past, but anymore than that and I'm lost.

I'd say that I'd be lost without a clock but even with a clock I have the ability to still mess up. :eusa_doh:

For example, sometimes the numbers seem to switch around for me and I'll see 4:41 and panic because I think I'm late but then look back and see 4:15 and realise that it must've been 4:14 not 4:41. :eusa_doh: DAMN YOU BRAIN! This happens a lot when I walk up to the train station. I'll walk in and see 4:41 and think that the train is about to pull in and then I'll get closer and see that it's actually 4:14 and I've got time to kill.

I took me a while to learn how to read an analog clock, and even now I occasionally mess up on it. I hate when people say "Oh it's a quarter to...." and give measurements like that, I know a quarter of an hour is fifteen minutes but it takes me a moment to think about what time that would be. :bang: It'd be 45 minutes past something, I know, but to me it'd just make more sense to say it like "3:45" than a quarter to four. Particularly if you're going to start saying it like "three quarters past three o' clock" because if I'm in a rush and I have to stop a figure out what you mean by that, then I'll waste more time than if you just told me that it was "3:45" (as if you were reading a digital clock). :eusa_doh:

Ugh. :dry:

 

I have to wonder if a sense of time is something that can be learned, or something that some people have and some don't. Or perhaps it's a bit of both? hmm... I know that for some people it just seems to be innate, something which seems quite alien to me.

I know that there are quite a few conditions that cause difficulties with time perception, however I didn't know about the connection it had to Aspergers. I guess you learn something new everyday. I know that it has sometimes been associated with conditions like dyslexia- having a dyslexic father, I often get people asking if I'm dyslexic. I'm not. I have no problem with reading,writing or spelling. However, I do have some difficulties that are sometimes associated with it- like my lack of a sense of direction and time. The only time I have difficulty with reading is when I'm tired, that's the only time I make silly mistakes when it comes to words.

However, when it comes to numbers- even when I'm fully awake I tend to make silly mistakes. For instance- I'll start reading one question say two times eight, and I'll skip to another without realising say six times three and I'll end up with two time three. :eusa_doh: I don't really get that when I'm reading words though. I'm also prone to putting + by accident when the question says X, something which annoyed my maths teacher to no end. The thing is, there's nothing wrong with my sight- it's just my brain I think. :eusa_doh:

This, among with my difficulty with time is why it has often been suggested that I might be dyscalculic. This has been suggested by others, and I had a teacher send a request to talk to my personal tutor about it. Unfortunately, nothing has come of this. It's just been forgotten about and left. It's difficult to find somewhere willing to come up with a diagnosis. Although, I do have to wonder if there's much point now. My maths exam has been and gone, and all I can do now is wait for my results back.

Then again...I'd just like to know why I'm like this, I know getting some sort of diagnosis probably isn't going to affect much at this point but it's just that I want to know whether the people who have suggested this to me in the past were right or not.

I know that my relationship with time tends to be seen as an odd one, that's why I wondered if anyone could relate. It'd be nice to know that I'm not the only one bumbling through life. No offense to anyone who can relate to this. :icon_wink

A psychology major, ey? That sounds pretty cool. I know a few people who took psychology (I didn't personally) and although they think I'm weird we get on quite well. Anyway..best leave my post here. :icon_redf Me and my ramblings. :eusa_doh: