Do any of you “space out” when you are programming or cogitating?

Thats just thinking. It is easy to think when you aren’t processing everything around you. I don’t think people are having coherent thoughts during an Absence Seizure. If it is happening like 50 times a day, then see a doctor but probably not worth worrying about. I would recommend you don’t look up any health related articles if you are having minor symptoms of anything or you will become a hypochondriac. I had a very bad year of constant health anxiety and it almost ruined my life.

I've always done that. When I'm concentrating on something I just tune out the noise of the outside world, sometimes for hours. People who know me know not to interrupt me because it's extremely aggravating to be pulled out of it. I suppose it looks strange to someone else, seeing me in what appears to be a catatonic state.

But there's no history of epilepsy in my family. Also as I understand it, an absence seizure blocks activity in the brain, so you'd get nothing done during an episode.

Are you saying you're able to perceive things or process your code during these moments? From what I can see in browsing around, the term itself seems connected to a straight up loss of consciousness.

I see that absence seizures are also mistaken for not paying attention, or daydreaming. But really, these are petit mal seizures yielding significant EEG measurements, do I have that right?

If so, that's got to be quite a tempting overlap for a latch-on self diagnosis when other terminologies aren't bringing the needed satisfaction. Especially if it seems like there is some deficit in the overall subjective work outcome. I hope that access to EEGs is pretty straightforward.

I had an EEG done by a professor of neuroscience (for insights into how my brain lit up during various tasks) and it didn't seem like it had to be anything super clinical, so, fingers crossed for those who really need to get those graphs checked out and discover what's behind the lapses.

In my case the professor challenged me to work on using my frontal lobe more, because I use the back side of my brain gobs, I guess. I did a lot of work on correcting the connections so to speak, and I have to say it has helped a lot. I also developed my own meditation technique to build on the fact that I have more ready access to the non-frontal stuff and I find it really relaxing.

To me, what you describe is just flow state [0].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

I used to have absence seisures, until today I thought it's nothing to worry about (well, I still think there is nothing to worry about since I sometimes experience 'normal' absence seisures). From that experience I can say, in my case, this has nothing to do with spacing out when processing some problem. When I have absence seisure my brain is basically doing nothing, I fly away for couple of seconds until I realise what happens and then I'm back again.

Pretty sure absence seizures are a stoppage in brain activity undetectable by the individual but visible on a PET Scan.

I do experience deep thought, where I can be thinking about something that is maxing out my short term memory and if someone interrupts with their voice, I have to ask them to repeat what they just said. Also very frustrating for me as it takes considerable time and focus to return to that state.

Yep. I will spend hours thinking about some sticky logic with my eyes unfocused and rolled upwards like I'm doing math. No epilepsy in my family.

That state has several names: "Flow" or "In the Zone".

It's when you have a whole, interlocking bunch of ideas in your head at once and can visualise how they work together. It often takes an hour or more to reach that state. Sometimes many hours can pass 'in a flash' while in it.

Its a common situation. And a famous depiction: https://heeris.id.au/2013/this-is-why-you-shouldnt-interrupt...

I do that a lot when thinking, always have. I learned later in life that I have celiac disease and in hindsight I believe that to be related.