P.S. At my first therapy appointment in 1972, I sincerely believed I could read minds and that all the chatter in my head was from other people. I still wonder sometimes, but I am quite certain my mind-reading accuracy rating is pretty low. I now believe most of my head noise is my own obsessive thought loops and over-analyzing.

Good Morning,arfie.....i'm afraid i am a huge mind reader....it is so bad that is has interfered with me life..

i love acting,i love the stage,as introverted as i am,i am so free when i am playing a character..anyway,a couple of years ago,i was going to an improv class,and i enjoyed doing the exercises,i made people laugh....but during the breaks,i could not talk to anyone.....i kept thinking what a freak people thought i was,and,of course,my being so "shy" made me appear all the more weird to them,i thought....so the time came to sign up for the next level,and simply because of my anxiety about those class breaks,i didn't sign up for it,and that was sad because i really enjoyed it otherwise..

i have talked here about my experiences living in this building among my neighbours,90 % of whom are completely deaf,and my feverishly trying to figure out if they are talking about me...trying to decipher their facial expressions...if it is not a smile,i get very nervous...if they are gathered in the front of the building talking,i often slip behind the building and go in through the back door..

my old GP told me the famous line,"What other people think is none of your buisness"...i can't tell you how frustrated that sorta adage made me...

But i must know!
I'm pretty sure i DO know....and it is all negative....everyone is judging me,and no one has any empathy....so now that is ME being the one quick to judgement...so...Guilt.

i even experience it in my online world...

much of it a deeply ingrained trust "issue"? stemming from being harshly bullied in junior high?

hm.

thanks for your post,arfie.still struggling with this one...

Good post and it has me thinking. Two things popped into my head while reading this, first it is awful to be misjudged or hear things about yourself from others who say things that are not true. I find this really hits home and is very hurtful. We have had enough pain those of us on DS PTSD and don't need to hear awful things from people who really don't know you. Sorry this happened to you, I know that it is painful

My old psychologist once told me that I was very intuitive and I should be using it with dating men lol. I was single for a long time and so I took his advice, and tried to focus on my body when I was with someone. I have found some people I feel my stomach totally relaxed, others there are knots. I think I just checked out most of my life and missed this. This is a gift we have from our early trauma. However, sometimes I just miss the boat :).....but in time I do pick up that gut feeling of someone. Arfie you are a wise women and I know you are intuitive too from your awful experiences, trust yourself that you know more than you think :D

PS I do also get the mind chatter and imagine what people are saying, often way off and inaccurate. Hopefully we figure all this out when we are 90 years old lol

When I point the finger at someone else, there are three fingers pointing back at me. ~Anonymous

In one of my early support groups, we challenged one another to look closely at the three fingers pointed back at ourselves. I was with this particular group for long enough that it was a recurring group topic for a number of years. I still use it when I catch myself name-calling, etc.

It was my first glimmer of the possibility that my mind-reading skills are not any sharper than the folks who keep telling what I think and what I am. Perhaps what my own "mind reading" was more a projection of what I would be saying about them if anybody was listening?

Still sorting. . .

@Musk. . . I believe I have found evidence that great minds have been puzzling this one since before we invented writing. I wonder if it is one of those spots where each case needs to be decided on it's own merits. The question may out-live us both. . .

i do not find it odd that we can read people, not there minds, I believe that trama makes you super uber sensitive to your surrounding's it self defense I think. I see things before they happen and they come true , but my dreams are like seeing everything in living color but I'm terrified to to dream , I dreamed my sister murder , I don't like knowing whats goinig to happened.

I cannot do it for myself, another defence magnesium we are just animals we adapt just like they would , I think we have same insincts but do not use them , I think trama awakens these instinks , so I think it normal after what we have experienced, people judge things they do not understand they put lables on things , how is it that they know it not real , I think it normal response so the next time therapist tells you it not real, you tell them its just instinct , of course this my beleaf , hugs minnie

I think I posted this info once ...

When I was trying to locate a therapist a few years ago I had an appointment with one that completely thought she knew what I was thinking. She asked me to picture myself as a wave. I get extremely excited because no one had ever asked me that before. So in my head I imagined my frequency and amplitude. I was a powerful force and it felt great. She then said now picture yourself in relation to the other waves around you in the ocean. I was so completely shocked that I couldn't tell her right away that I didn't picture myself as water at all. She also never gave me the opportunity to explain it to her because she kept talking so much. So she was another on the list of failed therapists.

It would really be terrible to be able to read another's thoughts... lol... I have no doubt I would have been slapped in the head a thousand times by now!!... xo

Hugs Arfie, Gossip I detest and try to avoid it. I have tried for years to research/understand Personality disorders if that is even possible. We see evidence of it in politics, but what about in everyday life? I can't diagnose anyone, but my gut feelings guide me, and that has only increased my hyper-vigilance from an alcoholic childhood, two sexual assaults (not rape) in the 90's. It is not so much naming it, as much as recognizing the behavior for me, and how insidious covert behavior can infest with lies/manipulation/abuse...I don't care what people think of me, but I know just enough to stay away from the people who seem to want to cause drama, trouble, are abusive. There is another website about PD's, they refer to family/friends with the "u" in front of the PD they are talking about. It is an informative site. We all have quirks probably in our personality, but when the quirks become abusive, toxic, destructive I want to be far away, I did move far away but PTSD followed me,trauma re-triggered/re-traumatized me. It has taken years to recognize, it is my defense mechanism, reading people to protect myself now. There is that movie line"I see dead people" from the Sixth Sense a few years back...well my line is "I see Personality Disorders"...just me, one too many times over the years, even dated a pathological liar...eek..but my gut spoke and I found him out. You are right arf, great minds will not agree, terms can be over-used, not used correctly, but the behavior red flags alert my gut to the point it is painful,and I isolate because I start to think I AM over-analyzing...or I have a sign on my forehead!!! Just my ramble, my experiences. Still sorting too!

This is a lot of sorting material. I think for me.... I try not to judge so much as form an opinion I am willing ot change upon receipt of more or new information. I dunno. Judge not lest ye be judged is glib, but seems apt. If not realistic.

I have a few different thoughts on this. I think for those of us who have abusive ptsd it is normal to worry what others might think at times. I also think it is normal for any human being to pass judgment to some extent, make jokes at others expense with intended or unintended harm etc.

I do not think i am in any way a mind reader but i feel feel peoples energy and see physical gestures very well. I also feel that when we think we are mind readers we are actually more 'experience based' readers. if we know the person intimately we can perceive what others 'might' be thinking. it is much more difficult when we do not know the person and i think initial judgements with appearance can change significantly with even the first few words or gestures. for me, even a voice.

i am with suncloud. i would not want to read anyones thoughts!!!! hahaha, i would have too sc!

I want to add, as others said, gossip is a killer. One of my lifelong battles with being bullied was gossip. i do not do it and i do not welcome it. there are very few people in this world who know everything that goes on with me and my thoughts

No doubt about it! Gossip is a killer. The only thing worse that gossiping about hard facts is gossiping about projection and/or conjecture. "I think he/she_______ because I think she/he ________."