Becoming non-verbal?

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I am just wondering how often verbal people with autism become non-verbal as adults? Or does it never (or very rarely) happen?

I've been told by someone who knows their stuff that, in the absence of medical conditions, it "generally" doesn't happen.

I fluctuate from completely nonverbal to somewhat verbal to verbal enough to get by.... but I'm no chatterbox, ever.

Sometimes I am more talkative than other days. But I think that is true of most people regardless of being autistic or NT. At the school where I teach, I share a room with another Title teacher. She likes to talk a lot when I'm in there. Some days I talk ok with her, and others I wish she wouldn't talk because I don't want to talk. But I can't imagine myself ever becoming nonverbal to the point of no talking. As SuperTrouper mentioned in her post upon what she heard from "someone who knows their stuff," it is not likely that a verbal autistic would become nonverbal.

It's possible for at least some autistic people to lose skills (sometimes over and over again - Jim Sinclair described losing "how to read" several times). Unfortunately, professionals seem unaware of or don't take autistic burnout (adult regression, sudden decompensation, etc) very seriously.

I have periods from a few hours to a day or so at a time where I am not able to speak, and often I am not able to speak clearly or have a meaningful conversation, although I've always been like this. I am nowhere near Supertrouper as far as having verbal difficulties goes, although they do seem to be worse over the past year. It may just be I am paying more attention.

not talkin for a while is common but losing ability to talk would be weird

Well, I wouldn't call it weird, per se. It's just another trait of my version of autism. I don't call it "weird" when an Aspie never stops talking...

i meant like for a long time. i guess stress depression or anxiety might do it temporarily yeah.

I was non-verbal as a child, as an adult experiencing a degree of regression I can feel it creeping back...

...my regression comes as a result of unemployment, due to unemployment I've lost all my friends so apart from my boyfriend I have limited interaction with other people, in fact if not for my boyfriend I could probably go weeks without talking to anyone (wow, that's depressing). But I do notice when I'm amongst other people I'm a lot less verbal, when shopping for groceries I'm completely non-verbal.

It's not that I don't want to talk or a loss of skills, it's more like that I forget...I remember the feeling as a child, it wasn't that I didn't want to talk or didn't understand language, I just didn't understand how to talk, to physically open my mouth or how to have conversation, I didn't know the feeling of talking or the feeling of being driven to talk. Get what I mean?

I don't think I'd ever become non-verbal again, because now I know how to talk, how to actually open my mouth and make words, but my verbalisation could drop as I forget how to have conversation.

I am frequently non-verbal. Can only communicate through gestures, monosyllables
and grunting. Even when I am very verbal, my speech is marked with odd stops in the
"wrong" places, as my mind translates the ideas into words. Writing is much easier
for me because I can stop and think at any time and edit what I want to say


to demonstrate,
let's in this post put a carriage return
whenever there was a long pause in my thinking"

I'm aware of someone who lost speech in adulthood (30's IIRC). Apparently that "autistic catatonia" condition is involved. I don't know any other details, though.

Lily, that did hapen to me when I was in my early thirties, before my neices got diagnosed AS and I had NO IDEA what the crap was wrong with me.

I had a total burnout, where I could barely speak at work. Wass lots of social pressures I couldn't understand / cope with. I cook for a living, so speaking is optional, but eventually I lost the ability to read as well and had to quit working. Spent couple months on the porch, staring into space. "not thinking," in words anyway. Creeped out the roomates pretty good.

But I came out of it eventually, so to speak. A few years down the road, I fairly functional. But maybe I'm just better at not making friends who want to pressure me into "telling them what I think" all the freaking time.

It is incredibly frustrating though, when someone asks what you're thinking/feeling, and you're thinking nonverbally. "Deep, gritty, maroon" as a color thought is generally not an accepted mood that people want to discuss.