Word retrieval getting worse?

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I've always had some problems remembering words from time to time, but recently I feel like I'm forgetting the words I need much more often, especially when I'm at home.

I'm not sure if I've started talking more in general, especially at home, and that I just haven't noticed before but I feel like it's getting quite bad. I've had problems worse than this with chatting with people, or previously being quite anxious but this individual words. For example, I might say, "x was at roller derby tonight and she started to skate with her (elbow) pads on her knees" and I won't be able to remember elbow.

When I'm at home I like to use repetitive phrases or slightly altering structured phrases but when I'm having more 'free' conversations I tend to get really blocked up. It's really quite noticeable, and sometimes when I've finally got around or given up one sentence, the immediate next sentence gets skewered too.

Does anyone else experience this or know what it might be?

I'm having problems in that, as well. I figured it was just a facet of getting older, though.

That may be so, but I'm only 19.

That's a great topic I definitely blank out on retrieving certain words from memory. I know exactly what I mean - I think in patterns and pictures and I can even see the thing I want to say, but the word won't come. I'm autistic and almost 58 and it seems to happen when my feelings interfere with thinking of the right picture for the word. Some words make me really tired or frustrated to think of, like 'get dressed', because of the zillion times my parents pushed me to get dressed as a kid I guess, lol. Well, no, not 'guess' - I'm autistic and I remember it all in awful detail. Those words for.example drain the energy right out if me, even to just think them. So when I want to pull up those words, instead of the picture of pulling on shirt, shoes, and pants, I instead get pictures of frustration and wanting to stomp my feet. Then the word I really want won't come to me despite my best efforts and I just stand there looking blank, lol. And the words I have trouble spitting out - the ones that bother me - keep changing.over time. Honestly I have a deep resentment about speech. I don't much trust it and NTs scare me... I was married to a deaf woman and before that was engaged to another. I've liked sign language since I was a kid and they put me in deaf school to teach me to get along with other kids. I never seem to get the problem of knowing what I want to say but not having the sign for it, like can happen when I speak.

I have the same exact problem! I find it is happening more frequently lately. Just yesterday I could not think of the phrase 'bus pass' - my arm even made the swiping motion as I tried to think of it, then I came up with 'debit card' first, long before the correct 'bus pass' finally popped into my head!

It must be funny to an onlooker when I make the motions of an object, but can't think of the name of it! I don't make the motions intentionally - it must be a subconscious method of trying to make word retrieval easier or something. Another example of late is I couldn't think of the word 'lighter', but there was my hand in a fist with the thumb acting as though lighting a lighter

I know I'm 38 and gettin' on up there, but I've had this problem for years

I think most word retrieval problems are caused by anxiety.

I know mine is.

I'm getting older, too. I'm 54.

I've always had problems with word retrieval, which was always worse when I was nervous and often when I had to engage in public speaking. If I thought too much about what I was saying, then I was more likely to muck up what I was saying. I think the trick is to prepare well before you give a talk and then to let go and rely on the Cerebellum taking over the function of speaking rather than the conscience thought process doing the talking. For example, if you listen to a fast talker like Robin Williams talking to an audience, I don't think he's thinking about what he's saying. It just comes out.

Hello! I was wondering if word retrieval problems was related to ASD, and by this thread it seems a good chance that it is.

I think that perhaps my word-retrieval has become slightly more of an issue during my 20's, and I've heard of others having their ASD symptoms becoming a little more pronounced in adulthood, so it could be related to that. Another issue I can think of is that as an adult, you start coming across more words more frequently that you don't use regularly as a child...

So don't worry about it, just try to stay calm, and remember to bail-out on remembering a word if in conversation if it's taking more than a few seconds, as it could severely disrupt the conversation. Try instead to express the concept using other words, and maybe mention that you can't think of the right word, and the person you're talking to might be able to help.

I have the problem that sometimes I can't remember a word, and I'll stop mid-sentence for 5+ seconds trying to remember it... Another issue is that I completely forget what we're talking about, and while the other person is talking to me I am instead racking my brain for the right word or phrase, and I don't hear anything they say to me.

If you practiced using words in school and no longer do, that's why.

I have problems with word retrieval too, as well as forgetting what I am saying in the middle of talking.

I always half-joke that I'd be afraid of having early-onset Alzheimers if I hadn't had this problem since childhood. I have always had it, as long as I can remember. (I just can't remember specific instances, it happens so often.)

Yes, stress makes it worse. But, I still have problems when I am relaxed and in the comfort of my own home, talking to my family.

I also make motions acting out what I am trying to say.

A lot of times, my family can guess the word I am looking for. Other times, I stand there hammering or going through the alphabet (sometimes that triggers my memory.) It can take a while. Sometimes, I have to completely abandon what I was going to say. Sometimes, if the word is a noun, I have to describe it instead of using the word. One time, I needed the word "pen" and said, "You know, a thing you write with and has ink in it."

My verbal thoughts get lost when intercepted by my own random thoughts or by interruptions from other people.

I think this is one reason I prefer to write.

Other people I know whom I suspect to be on the spectrum also have this problem.

If this gets worse with age, I'm going to be in real trouble!

It could, very well, be an ASD thing----I'm 53, and I've been doing it all-of-my-life. I, also, have forgotten what I was saying, in the middle of a sentence----it's like my "needle" skips, or something.

nerdygirl: i connect so much with what you just said. I also go through the alphabet! It's weird how we both came up with that strategy. I also do it when trying to remember peoples' names. I have also wondered about early onset alzheimers, but figured it was just that my brain doesn't seem to work like most other peoples. My girlfriend says that I "mix up my worms".

Stress makes it worse for me but I get it even on my own when talking to myself. I even get it in my internal monologue believe it or not.