Losing The Ability to Read While Stressed

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When I get stressed, which is quite often, I lose the ability to read sentences. I can still pick out individual words, both simple and complex, but I just cannot read them in conjunction with each other.

Does anyone else have this problem? If so, does anyone have any coping techniques that work for them because it's really interfering with my ability to do my University work.

:/

Yes, I have this problem, although I do not think as frequently as you do.

The best thing I can recommend is rest when it happens.

Yeah I can relate to the reading issues. But I don't have a mind for school at all.

I would spend hours trying to understand a paragraph. Often rereading and finding im not even paying attention to the words or taking anything in. Most of the time I would just sit there and stare at the page for a long time. Focusing was very difficult, still is....I cant even learn programming because im to slow at reading and taking in the information. Visual learner here.

Even though I absolutely love science...I am understanding now that I am better suited at creative things like art and media.

Actually, if you can work out your limits where the stress causes your reading to shutdown, you might be able to manage your reading time more effectively, with more breaks to rest and destress.

This page may be of assistance to you:

http://everything2.com/user/Zifendorf/writeups/shutdown

Yes try the above

And no I don't have any coping strategies because I was always nervous and nothing worked to focus properly. forcing myself to focus got incredibly stressful and I would often pull my hair and tense up, clench my fists, rub my head furiously...yeah do a lot of nervous stuff that did not help.

Excellent! Thank you. The article was very useful, I've bookmarked it.

This was particularly usefully



It explains a lot. I noticed when I experienced full shutdowns, but I never considered partial shutdowns to be responsible for some of my issues. Particularly loss/partial loss of vision & language.

So, autism, my life explained.

I think I experience something similar. When I get too stressed out, like you is far too often because of Uni work, I simply can't study at all. It's impossible. I end up reading a paragraph, but the words might as well read "fish coke laptop fries" - it just doesn't make any sense. I also find that my concentration goes too, and I find it hard to even read for a certain period of time; it varies from 5 - 20 minutes. I don't really have a coping technique as such. I just find that I have to stop, because there's no point in me trying to read as I'm not taking anything in, and the more I try, the more stressed out I get. It gets into a vicious circle though, as I can't read because I'm stressed, because I can't read I get more stressed out, and so I continue to not be able to read!! I guess I just stop what I'm doing, try to calm down/do something else, and when I feel that I'm able to read again, pick it up from there.

I think this paragraph from http://everything2.com/user/Zifendorf/writeups/shutdown is pretty useful for me:
Receptive language shutdowns happen when a person loses previous ability to understand some amount of receptive language. Sometimes it only happens in one sense, so that someone can read but not understand speech, or vice versa. Sometimes a person may be able to understand speech with a regular rhythm, such as music, but unable to understand ordinary speech. Sometimes it involves all language coming in from outside, regardless of the sense or the way the language is happening. Text looks like meaningless garble, or the person may be able to read aloud the words but find no meaning in them. Speech sounds like noise or what Donna Williams calls blah-blah, or the person may be able to understand a few individual words but not put them together. Words in general come in, but they feel like they hover around in your brain finding nothing to connect with. Receptive language shutdown doesn't necessarily imply expressive language shutdown, which can lead to interesting situations like writing complicated articles on shutdown while being unable to read them. These kind of shutdowns can resemble the receptive aphasias.

What are you studying at University if you don't mind me asking, and how far through your course are you?

At primary school, I never struggled with anything, except one. Every Friday, the teacher would bring out the SRA box - a box filled with hundreds of cards, each with a story or article on one side and questions on the other. The questions were about the details of the passage and about the grammar, etc. We had 15mins to complete each card, then move on to the next one. I was in such a panic about trying to complete it in 15mins, that I couldn't read properly. I seemed to be watching the time and not taking in anything. I never completed any, in the given time. The cards were split into colour groupings, based on their difficulty. Most people were allowed to do a few of a colour, then move up to the next level, but I remained on the bottom levels, having to work my way through each and every card, before the teacher would move me up. I still remember their incredulous expressions. I was in the top group of 4 kids, had been reading from 3yrs, and they couldn't understand how I couldn't do this, like everyone else. Even the kids who struggled with reading were way ahead of me. I absolutely hated it, but I'm sure I could have done it fine if the pressure (the time limit) had been off.

BA Sociology and I'm a in my first year. I've noticed these problems since I could read (a partial factor in my attendance at college being <40%). But it's only recently that I've been expected to do amounts of reading that outstrip my functioning stress levels.

Although I suppose this is what first year is all about, trying to get to grips with all of the things required of you.

My father had this problem. We don't know if he had AS, but we know for sure that he had a lot of traits.

I can't read something which I'm not interested enough in. If it's something to do with a special interest of mine, I'm the second fastest reader I know (after my mother, who can just look at a chunk of text, and take the information in). If it's a really long piece of text about something which doesn't interest me that much, I just can't read it, It's almost as if I'm getting double vision whenever I look at the text (the fact that it's long has something to do with it, because I don't like reading, and the amount I have to read puts me off).
Maybe you have problems with reading when stressed because you can't focus enough?

Last edited by JellyCat on 10 Jan 2013, 5:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Wow! SRA cards. We had them here too. I hated them because the stories were boring. I don't remember a time limit, but we had to do a certain amount of them every grading period, and I always wound up trying to do all of mine in one day.

I sometimes lose the ability to read in times of extreme stress. Usually I can't look at a word without reading it but when I'm in that state the letters lose their associations. They might as well be bird tracks.

Oh, good - I'll look at that article, too! I just want to add that I call this experience: "The words peel off the page." I can't hold them down. There is no way I can read. I back up and try to go over it and there is nothing that I can grab.

Ahh okay. I'm in my first year too. (Technically I should be in my third year as I had a gap year due to health reasons in between year 12 and 13, and I did first year BSc Mathematics last academic year, before chaning to BSc Biomedical Sciences this year).

I can read, I know that, but when I get stressed out or tired, I just simply lose the ability to read/take anything in, and be able to concentrate. Do you think what I said just now and in my other post is related to Autism or can NTs experience this too? (I'm suspected AS, but not confirmed).

My current job is stressful...which makes it harder to focus on task...which makes me more stressed.....

My sister has not been able to focus and settle down to read a book when stressed out.
Sometimes i can focus and get lost in books, as of late i can't settle down to read either.
My gf, NT, never reads books

As an Aspie, my brain usually blanks out when I'm stressed out, causing me not to understand anything that I read. Hmm, some of my ex-classmates (all NTs) faced the same problem too. A teacher advised them to de-stress first before reading anything. If de-stressing doesn't work, the teacher suggested trying to make yourself as calm as possible. Read slowly. Use a ruler to guide your eyes or read aloud if doing so will help you focus on the text better.