Had a low functioning moment yesterday

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Last night someone asked me (verbally) about a movie I had just seen, and my reply was basically, "uhh, you know how the... er, Libby.... the CIA, when they... urh... newspapers... uhm... [continue for 10 more lines]." My thought about the movie seemed clear, but the resulting speech -- not so much. It seems that If I haven't thought about how to explain something in words (either in speech or in writing, though with writing you can take time as you do it, and go back and edit, etc.)) beforehand the result is a mess.

I is articulate usually in saying, but not.

And oddly, my verbal IQ is also pretty high. In high school my English teachers were shocked at my essay writing ability. It wasn't until much later than I realized it was because I tend to be verbally slow and inarticulate. (Guess that's a really mild version of being considered "low-functioning," and having people make weird, incorrect assumptions because of it.)

Some pretty funny stories in this thread.

I'm more withdrawn; I'd just wait until I figured out the sentence in my head and then was able to say it. The only downside is that in doing this you aren't processing at the moment what the other person might be saying and thus might be out of context.

It's embarrassing when you have a question but all you can focus on is the question and your turn to speak so despite the fact that you heard what they said you ask the question anyway and then realize they just already answered it and you didn't need to ask.

A couple months ago, someone I regularly get contract work from asked if I could come in to their office in case another person there needed any help, unless it would be just as easy for the other person to IM me if he had a question/problem. And my reply came out, "IM would be easier for me. I... can't... verbal..." I was quite embarrassed, but at least they didn't insist I come into the office.

I did that when I was younger, but in my teen years people started pressuring me to respond faster, and the result was faster, but messed-up speech.

This happens to me almost every time I go into town. When I'm with someone I am capable of speech, however at the level of a 6 year old.
With me it's sensory overload. I usually just speak in a slow slur and struggle to get my thoughts into words. More so than usual.

This has happened to me before, though with E-mail instead. lool.

This is a huge problem for me. When I'm around peers or in situations in which I feel like I have a reasonable amount of control, I can speak relatively articulately. However, when I'm around people who I perceive to have some amount of power over me, my ability to process things and articulate them seems to disappear. Yesterday I had an oral defense of my senior thesis proposal, and I had to talk about my plans for my thesis in front of two professors, and even though it was supposedly designed to be a low-stress situation, I ended up getting really flustered and unable to express what I was trying to say. This happens in class on a regular basis, too. It's really embarrassing - I'm a fairly intelligent person, but if you heard me talk in class, you'd wonder how I ever managed to even get into college.

Well it looks like I have alot of company on this topic!
The only way I can describe it is I know what I need to convey, but the words to communicate this are absent, so I just put something together that sounds like something Tarzan would say.

The best one of all time for me was at Wendy's fast food joint, I got up to the counter to order and I got really nervous for some reason. Instead of ordering, I asked "Does big Dave work here? The look on her face was priceless. Anyway, mom grabbed me out on line, totally embarrased, and ordered for us. I felt soooo stupid

One time, I was taking some diet pill over the counter, when I was 12. I started babbling in what seemed to be pig latin or something like that for two weeks, at least until, mom found the pills in my purse. She took me to doctor and the doctor chewed me out bigtime. Soon after a few days my speech was back to normal.

I have never gone completely mute, crosses fingers, but when I get really nervous, I become very shy, dont make eye contact with anything but the floor, and talk in three words at a time.

I often have trouble speaking in public places, even when I am with someone who I can normally speak to comfortably. For example, if I am at the grocery store with my mom and I want to say something to her, I will speak in a very low voice, almost a whisper. I don't want other customers or store employees to hear what I am saying, because I feel like it is none of their business, and I am worried that they might think my comments are silly, or that I am asking a dumb question. But then my mom always ends up yelling "speak louder! i can never hear you! why do you always mumble?", which just draws everyone's attention to me anyway. so i guess it's not a good strategy

I work in an office and i am pretty young for my age to be doing the type of work....
I am supposed to be a friendly and chipper....

well when someone calls on the phone or comes into the office, I become a toddler (vocabulary wise.)

I'll say stuff way out of order and cant think of works.... and ill need to describe what I am trying to actually talk about... i have to write out a conversation if i want to call someone on the phone, if i want to sound the least bit intelligent/coherent...

It is embarrassing... oh well.... I am pregnant right now, so i say to everyone that i have prego-brain.... so they laugh and say, OH! no problem!! !! But i've been this way my whole life. eeep

pregobrain...thats funny. I can never use that excuse cuz I am never going to have kids.
However my grampa used to say to my mom "you have diarea of the mouth, and constipation of the brain" Kinda gross visual image though.

This made my day

I get all flustered when I even have to buy something. I can't buy a train ticket, I have to use those ticket machines because I'm petrified of having to talk to someone, it's taken me two years to get a doctors appointment to discuss my posibility of having AS and I'm dreading it...

if i get really stressed then i st-st-stutter, t-t-too....

I speak like i don't speak english well. It's not even anxiety sometimes. When I am told to do too many things or too much is going on if I need something I'll say something like "food, need eat, hungry" If i'm stressed I just wont speak.

^ Same.

I keep doing this thing where I'll start off a scentence and then kinda mess up halfway through it, say if I'm trying to order a pizza with anchovies I'll go ''Could I have a pizza with... Those... Fishy guys... And... Yeah.. Uhm... Haha, fish, yeah?'' and it's so awkward I die a little more inside...
Apparantly this is also a symptom of mild anxiety caused by AS and a fear of social interaction??

its not like i am scared of talking to people really, its just when it comes down to it, that instant i need to say something, all the words get pushed into a pile in my brain and it all tries to come out of my mouth at once... words are mashed up....

then when that happens, thats when i start getting anxiety.... so it gets worse when i try to restate what i initially wanted to say....

thank god for those self checkout lines at wal-mart and online ordering