First, let's take the sensation one has when coming out of the sauna, especially if one has stayed in there for a bit too long. Your head feels empty, and the thoughts just don't go anywhere. You cool off pretty fast and your mind comes back to more or less normal. I feel a bit like that every morning when I get up. It's not exactly the same but the lack of drive feels similar. It's also similar to how, with MS, one's body lacks the ability to move and act without conscious direction. I have to stay concentrated on almost every move I make. It's tiring and annoying, and perhaps most of all, it's slow.
Normally during the day, this effect gets gradually worse. Medication offsets it a little but nowhere near how much some things can worsen it, particularly temperature. In short, heat is bad for me. Drinking and other ways to cool down work but there is no way that I know of that is really practical in normal life.
The inability to stay on course without active guidance is the crux of the problem. As a developer my immediate reaction would be to say it seems like some sort of feedback loop is broken. I have no idea if that is what is actually happening, though my understanding of software models of neurology suggests to me that it might be at least partially true.
For those who aren't into engineering, think of it as a musical instrument that depends on resonance. Imagine your train of thought is like a chord that keeps on ringing out - remove the resonance that keeps the instrument ringing and the sound dies off very quickly. Some things can keep my thoughts on track by coupling back and keeping my mind moving in the same direction. Conversation is probably the most effective attention feedback.
The way I can't stay on topic is the main reason I have a lot of trouble completing the things I want do. I can't finish the line of thought as I'd like to. It's impossible to understand unless one experiences it first-hand, just trust me: it's impossible. I've come to realize this may be pretty close to what kids with attention disorders must experience - and the thought of that makes me cringe.
I was going to try and find a free-to-use picture of a guitar as an illustration but since we're on the topic of chords... well, somewhat on topic... let's have this instead.
I recall reading somewhere that The Chord is E major on four pianos simultaneously. I have no idea whether that is correct. It always bugged me a little that the song didn't keep going all the way into the inner groove. It should have but that final seconds of the record was a confused jarring mess of voices and noise - which did indeed continue into the inner groove. Sort of meta-wrong, which of course is entirely as it should.
