Help, I forget Words!

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Well basically, since I got on this site I've been feeling a little better about myself. I'm not the only one that has these quirks that may or may not go along with Asperger's. I've now been calling my friend who's NT. I've never been a good talker on the phone because of this problem. Although she's understanding, I still tighten up when chatting with her. It's always been hard for me to carry on a small chat. I'm good on topics but not so with small talk. However, I think I might be improving a little bit. Okay, when I carry a small conversation, I start forgetting simple small words. Yes, I have a weird way of talking and she's been good about that. It's these small words I forget that's annoying. I wondered if anyone else has this problem. Do you think it may be due to Asperger's or plain ole nervousness? Is there some things you do to cope with this small problem?

You're not alone... I'm sure it happens to many people all the time... that's where the idiom "on the tip of the tongue" sort of evolved from. I've always had this problem and it gets worse the further I am away from my chosen topics and the more stress I'm under. Hell I remember when particularly funny event I was in college with my roommate sitting next to the window as we both attempted to study... I wanted to ask him to close the window... but for the life of me couldn't remember what it was called... it wasn't a tip of the tongue thing where I knew the answer... it was just gone... I could describe the window but didn't have a name for it.

This doesnt' happen regularly but does happen often enough that I've gotten used to it.

I just get around it by expanding my vocabulary to an obscene level... so that if I forget one or two words, I still have a few more that stand in it's stead.

I am always losing nouns, especially proper nouns, and it can take as long as three days to find the word again. I can remember having that problem in kindergarten, and age 55 still have it. I often wonder if anybody will be able to tell when I come down with alzheimer's.

I have this problem too. I think for me it is nervousness.

In high school, I was going to compliment a guy's patent leather coat - it really looked nice. I couldn't remember "patent leather" and said "plastic" instead. Hoo boy, did he get mad. He accepted my apology when he saw I was really embarrassed. I formed complete sentences in my mind before I spoke for a long time after that.

I think most of this is due to anxiety...especially when in situations that you find uncomfortable. Anxiety can make people do things they normally wouldn't do...and forgetting words is one of them. Sometimes people don't even realise that they are anxious at the time and start putting this down to crazy neurological disorders [...yes, i have talked to someone who did this. ]

I wouldn't worry about it as it happens to a LOT of people...completely common.

i always forget words or say the wrong ones. earlier i said fish instead of rice, how did i manage that?!

I forget words, or get tight. Its like the words reel inside my head but i cant say them out loud, thats why typing is so much fun. Trust me you are not alone in this, and its ok.

do it all the time lol

I have found that when I forget words, the main cause for me is that I am trying to hard to have all of my vocabulary at the front of my mind at once. When I remind myself that one doesn't need to consciously think of words to remember them (usually the reverse works much better), I can usually rebound rather quickly.

Could be more due to nervousness than to AS.

That' why I really prefer IMing to phoning. It's so much better.

I can totally relate. One of my quirks people mention is the way I'll use a long, multisyllable word instead of something simpler, which I do mainly because I've forgotten the simple word, but can recall the big word. If I can't think of any word at all, I begin to stammer. Sheesh, I wonder how people ever carry on conversations with me! Even more insane, I spent years interviewing rock bands for a living. I hated transcribing those tapes because it meant I had to hear myself stammering all over again. Funny thing is, the bands almost always wound up liking me and I became friends with a number of them. Probably because although I was awkward, I wasn't some suit or record label toadie.

-J.

Me, too. Mostly nouns. I thought about going to a neurologist about this but the way they mishandled my seizure disorder makes me hesitate. I think it might be connected to AS and temporal lobe activity, because isn't that where language is processed?

I experience this frequently. In my mind I know the word or concept Im trying to convey but the word is always atthe tip of my tongue. It's like the word is so close in my mind but I just canrt speak it... sucks as I cant always express what I want.

At a loss for words topic

I start handflapping when I forget my words. I have been this way since I was a kid.

It is like my mind runs out of images, so the words stop. I think in pictures, then translate into words.

With regard to Sally's mistaking "rice" for "fish":
Different types of dyslexia can cause this, but only when the word in question is being read. Since these words are being used in verbal conversation, they go through different pathways in the brain (thus not caused by dyslexia). I've noticed this effect to be most common when I cannot speak fast enough for my thoughts, so I'll skip words that are necessary and just say the bare roots of what message I am trying to convey. Needless to say, nobody understands.

In a 1993 paper in Scientific American called "Simulating Brain Damage," the authors present an amusing (but quite sad) anecdote:

Another interesting bit:

I'm sorry if that was long and unrelated...I'm writing a paper on this right now and it is tremendously interesting. Oh, and I'm not implying anyone here has brain damage--the authors were talking about mimicking neurological disorders with computers in an effort to find effective ways of rehabilitating them.

Ugh, I rehearse conversations in my head and still sometimes drop words. I try to pause and lower my tone of voice, but I end up grabbing at air as if I could pluck the word out of it.