Difficulty getting your words out?

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Does anyone else here have difficulty getting their words out when interacting with other people but find that they can speak more fluently when they are on their own?

Also does anyone else find that their cognitive functioning seems to slow down when interacting with others, but again works much faster when they are alone?

Last edited by bumble on 19 Apr 2011, 2:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

YES, I have much difficulty with this, regardless of my anxiety level. I can't say that it's faster when I'm alone though; could just be I've nothing to compare it with.

Yes to both questions.

Yes and yes.

all the time-I get mad or upset or frustated I start to lose words and stammer.

When I have to talk to people, I feel like my brain acts like a computer right before it's about to crash. It's still functioning, but slowly and with alot of errors. Occasionally it does crash which results in me becoming frozen and speechless. I believe the psychological term for that is selective mutism. If my brain were a computer, you'd see the spinning wheel when I'm forced to socialize. On the other hand, my brain works like a top of the line computer when I'm on my own.

I was never a "verbose" aspie, and I think this is why. I can produce essays that have gotten me scholarships and good grades, but when I talk face to face I'm lucky if I can string a subject and a verb together. I also tend to scramble words when I'm tired or stressed.

Yes and yes.

Pretty much this. I can express myself perfectly through writing but face to face conversation is an extreme challenge. I have to think of what I am going to say for a few moments before I actually let it out, and then I just hope it actually comes out right.

I guess that is why I feel at home on the interwebz.

Edit: Something that always trips me up is people asking "How are you?"... I always give too literal a response, trying to work on that!

Considering my verbosity in written forms, my speaking is rather ugly. Unless I've prepared in advance, I will stop mid sentence and struggle to find a word, then rattle of a bunch of words, stop again. I tend to use words that are not in most people's vocabularies, but I'm not being pretentious as some would think, they're just the words that most closely match what I'm thinking.

If I've prepared in advance, like a presentation or something, I can do pretty good. Just don't interrupt me.

Yes to both.

I have difficulty talking to people. If our conversation doesn't allow for any of my rehearsed responses, or involves something I'm very familiar with, I usually hesitate before replying so I can sort my thoughts before speaking. Unfortunately, this hesitation is often seen as a negative. I was asked to comment on a student's poem in an English class once. I liked the poem, but I was trying to sort my thoughts so that I could give specifics. Before I could say anything, both the teacher and the student said they thought that I was going to say something negative about the poem.

As far as cognitive functioning, it is a little slower when conversing with others (see previous paragraph), but any impairment has to do with conversation. If I'm performing some other task, such as data analysis, it doesn't really matter if anyone is there or not, unless they're interrupting me.

I never talk on my own because I am paranoid that I am always being watched and heard by someone, but I really struggle to get words out when talking to people. The letters I struggle to get out are: B,A,U,S,W and probably many others.

I get this a little. Not terribly often, but sometimes I can't get words out or can't express thoughts.

Verbally expressing my thoughts in any situation is probably my weakest area as well, but I do consistently well with typing and writing, as long as things don't get -too- figurative.

[5 second pause] Well... you see here... uuugh... it's kinda like... uuummm... maybe if... I mean... you know what I'm saying? Its... kinda like that.

For me its kind of:

Ummm, yes, umm well if, um, you um, take a right, umm at the end of the ummm, ummmm, yes, ummm, oh....wait I know the word and my brain will give it to me in a minute...oh, umm, yes...no wait, yes...ummm...what was I talking about?!?!? Don't tell me....Oh yes....if you take a right at the end of the umm, road (yes that's it) the road you can umm get there umm that way ummm I think....

Ummm yes...errr nice sunny day isn't it? (I hate sunny days why did I say that?!)