this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2026
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Could not be further from the truth.
I've got some awkward news for you...
Nah, they are right. I'm probably solidly on the neurotypical scale by most counts, but the best I can do is accepting those thoughts or not allowing them to derail me--typical mindfulness stuff. But I've never heard of anyone being able to just turn off thinking on command (drugs don't count).
The better analogy would be like being able to read the notification and put the phone back down.
Am I the odd one out? When I was young, my mother recognised that my mind was often "noisy", and she taught me to quieten those thoughts so I could focus. I assumed this was a normal sort of thing to be able to do, and I just had to learn because I didn't have the knack naturally.
It's not that the thoughts are like notifications, more like they fade out, a bit like traffic noise, so I suppose it's not quite silence, but it becomes just background that no longer impinges on you awareness. I won't pretend it's like that all the time, but it feels pretty natural.
Most people can learn to do this to some degree. And starting early helps. But for some, it's impossible.
As far as I was aware, being able to is a fairly normal neurotypical trait, and not being able to do it easily was more associated with ADHD, which is what my original comment was supposed to be inferring. I may be very wrong about that though, and my comment certainly didn't go over well. I hope I did not offend anyone with it, and appologise to anyone reading this who I did offend.