Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who gets this.  Even when I'm concentrating on something or trying to figure something out, even when praying to my HP I get so off track.  It might be because I'm under a ton of stress, but I feel like my mind will just start taking off on its own. 

Actually I'm the same. I'll jsut start zoning off and thinking about so many things but I just have a low attention span. When I was in school and the teacher would teach I'd understand everything and I'd learn but yet I'd zone off and be in my own little world where I fantasize about things and just think of all my problems and all that. I really think I just have a really small attention span and thats why I do that.

This is actually pretty typical, I think it happens to everyone, but it could cause problems if it's happening all of the time.  Constant racing thoughts could be a sign of schizophrenia.  But it could just mean that you're under some stress, or maybe need some more sleep.  Sometimes this happens when I'm reading.  I'm read a whole paragraph with my eyes, and then when I'm done I have no recollection what I just read.  I think it's just day dreaming.

I agree with poodler it could also just be a low attention span. I'm the same way. But I know people who never ever have this and are always alert. I have a friend who could read a whole chapter in our history book and understand everything and not zone off. I read about 2 paragraphs and by the third my eyes are reading but my brain is in a whole different world.

You are totally not by yourself, I can just be at work, and I can't even do my job at times. I will get so fixated on an issue in my life, even imagining other people's responses and creating elaborate scenarios of what will happen in the situation, this stuff runs through my head like it is actually happening and I will experience real emotions because of it, even anger and fear and tears in some cases. It's real.. and it's very common. It comes from fear and frustration of not being able to deal with situations head on and isolation for long periods of time from the people in our lives who mean the most to us.The best remedy is to have daily contact if even just a short phone call to say hi, with the people we love and who love us. We are not meant to be alone, we need intimacy, not talking about physical kind, and lots of it, a regular communication and bond with someone. For me, that person is God. I can go to Him with anything and soon I have a clear head and feel at peace and the racing thoughts are gone.. that's how I do it.