Trouble speaking?

Post Reply New Topic

I guess this can be another sign telling me I probably have Asperger's...

A couple of examples:

I go visit my boyfriend, er exboyfriend, and I feel like a deer in headlights. We met on a pier and walked around and talked for a couple of hours- he was more interested in me, than me in him, but eventually we started talking on the phone a bit (long distance) then we make plans for me to visit- it was going to be five days, but I left on day two...I just couldn't talk or express my feelings. On the day I was originally supposed to leave I emailed him explaining what was going through my head saying stuff like, "I could have asked you _______ when you said _______." The list went on. He replied, "If this is true, CALL ME!" So we decide to give it another shot. We kept it going a few months, but the email and phone was always better than in person. He tried to be understanding, but I didn't really get better and I couldn't explain it. After a lot of back in forth (in my head more than anything) we ended it.

At my 5th grade spelling bee I was on stage. "Spell sufficient." My response, "S-i-g-n-i-f--i-c-a-n-t" I'm assuming I said "sufficient" beforehand otherwise they would have corrected me, I think.

I realize that I have canned responses that don't always seem to fit. So many times I walk away from someone thinking, "that didn't make sense" or "I sound so stupid".

I sometimes have a lot of trouble talking, either I don't know what I'm trying to say, or I can find the right word, or I simply can't force the words to come out....

I to have to rehearse my lines, especially if it's somewhere I haven't been before. It gets really frustrating having to practice saying "I'd like the #1 please" for 15 minutes before I get there and still not being able to say it when I get to the counter.

I was a selective mute from age 10 to about 23 (now 25), and it was hell- it wasn't just that I couldn't actually speak, it was more that my brain just stopped functioning and I couldn't even think what to say in my head, never mind say it aloud.
Now, it's getting better, but still pops up from time to time, especially when I'm stressed, or with someone I don't know well.
What's strange is that my selective mutism has gotten better since I first knew I have AS.

I also send people in the wrong directions... I put up with it. One exception was when I happened to have a piece of paper printed from google earth, I just handed it over...

OP: I'm beginning to think that I somehow have traded my "theory of mind" to a relative fluency in my speech. It's weird at the first sight. I often say blah-blah, light fluff, awkward things that are not the least appropriate. Even when I try to think in advance what I should say or write, elaborate on it, I come off as awkward. I'm very frustrated on this. It seems that this "theory of mind" is something I lack the most.

At cashiers. Oh, it was like you've written above. Now I either stick to the canned stuff or begin a conversation full of fluffs about the articles, prices, weather and such...

Selective muteness. I've a friend whose youngest son is 6, and selective mute. He speaks only to selected people, and even when he speaks, it's very quiet, often barely more than whisper (or at least I imagine so, I've never heard him speaking). At a fast-food restaurant his peers have to help him to order, after he whispered to their ears what he wanted they 'relay' his order. I'm so sad he does not speak in my presence... (just kidding).

I've found it a really hard thing to explain this issue to other people. I think about what someone is likely going to say given the situation, but if it is not what I expect or even out of the order that I expect it, I just stand there. Stuck.

I think in pictures so I have trouble converting what I see in my head, or in front of my face, with a word. So I'll stumble sometimes to find a word that fits a picture. This also means I will never be able to go on jeopardy because I would never be fast enough even though I often know many to most of the answers on the show. Also, I get nervous in front of people and this slows me down.