Issues with expressing thoughts accurately?

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Kjas
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04 Mar 2012, 10:46 am

I'm not sure why I'm like this, but I am wondering if this is normal.

I struggle intensely to convey my thoughts in a written or verbal format. Verbally it's worse, but written is also ridiculously difficult.

My mind works at such a rate that I simply cannot put it down on paper or in a conversion, it's almost impossible. I tend to reach the end of my thought process, by which point I have forgotten to explain (I doubt I could keep up anyway) along the way as I can't multitask and as a result I merely come out with a very watered down version which is only a summary and it feels like I've dumbed it down and I end up explaining it at a 3 year old level.

It's incredibly frustrating because in the process, I often lose important and essential points which are usually necessary to understand the conclusion I come to. This has always been an issue for me and while it has gotten somewhat better over the years, I am still woefully inadequate in this department and it drives me absolutely nuts.

The amount of frustration I go through usually means I would rather give up on discussing a point or position because the level of frustration I would go through to do it simply makes it not worth it.

Does anyone else experience this? If you do, is there anything you have done that has improved it?


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Sweetleaf
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04 Mar 2012, 11:15 am

That happens to either when I'm writing or talking, I hate it when I am trying to just you know express my ideas and either I express it wrong in such a manner people get pissed, or it just makes no sense and if there are more people than just me they move on to more interesting people talking maybe not intentionally but yeah.


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Squirsh
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04 Mar 2012, 11:23 am

Verbally I'm absolutely terrible at expressing my thoughts. In writing I can do a good job of it, but I need to refine and redraft what I'm writing several times before it seems right. I've been thinking about reading some books on grammar as well as guides on punctuation, and reading a dictionary to try and learn new words. My reasoning for this is that if I can improve my knowledge of how to use language, the thoughts can be translated better into a form involving language.



Jtuk
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04 Mar 2012, 11:30 am

Kjas wrote:
I'm not sure why I'm like this, but I am wondering if this is normal.

I struggle intensely to convey my thoughts in a written or verbal format. Verbally it's worse, but written is also ridiculously difficult.

My mind works at such a rate that I simply cannot put it down on paper or in a conversion, it's almost impossible. I tend to reach the end of my thought process, by which point I have forgotten to explain (I doubt I could keep up anyway) along the way as I can't multitask and as a result I merely come out with a very watered down version which is only a summary and it feels like I've dumbed it down and I end up explaining it at a 3 year old level.

It's incredibly frustrating because in the process, I often lose important and essential points which are usually necessary to understand the conclusion I come to. This has always been an issue for me and while it has gotten somewhat better over the years, I am still woefully inadequate in this department and it drives me absolutely nuts.

The amount of frustration I go through usually means I would rather give up on discussing a point or position because the level of frustration I would go through to do it simply makes it not worth it.

Does anyone else experience this? If you do, is there anything you have done that has improved it?


I understood that perfectly. I have the same problem, really, really poor at that, particularly with thoughts and feelings. Far less of a problem with my interests, but even then I have a terrible habit of stalling or trailing off mid-sentence.

My therapist this week asked me to describe what I was thinking after we had discussed a few things and I was completely unable to formulate a response. It is almost as though it's far too big a question to answer in a few sentences, at other times it feels like I go into loop.. Thinking about what I'm thinking, changes what I'm thinking, so I always endup thinking about how I think, which I can't answer either.

Jason



riot_gun
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04 Mar 2012, 1:53 pm

Count me in, too. Every once in a while I'll get into a groove and I'll be able to do it really well, but I have yet to learn how to do it at will.



Cryforthemoon
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04 Mar 2012, 2:57 pm

I can never really get out how I feel or what is going on in my brain. Like a a few have said here when I try some people say it sounds like I'm whinning or I just don't know how to put it in words. Most of the times when people ask me how I'm doing I have just learned to say fine. Though at work the human resource girl I think has tranined me to say great even when I'm not.



Sweetleaf
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04 Mar 2012, 3:02 pm

Cryforthemoon wrote:
I can never really get out how I feel or what is going on in my brain. Like a a few have said here when I try some people say it sounds like I'm whinning or I just don't know how to put it in words. Most of the times when people ask me how I'm doing I have just learned to say fine. Though at work the human resource girl I think has tranined me to say great even when I'm not.


What the hell is the point of saying great if you don't feel great, then they want a story or something......fine tends to shut them up a bit quicker.


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stumbelina
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04 Mar 2012, 6:30 pm

I have this problem. I feel like I cant explain or get my point across.. I am much better at writing stuff down. I constantly feel stupid. Its like there is a bad connection from my brain to my mouth. Its so frustrating.



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04 Mar 2012, 6:35 pm

I have problems with eggspressing my thoughts through speaking too.

With writing, I can see the letters and words appear, so they are easier to organize to describe my thoughts. With speaking, I can only see or sense the non-verbal thoughts themselves, so I find it hard to match words to them. What I say is always inadequate for to eggspress my thoughts, and I never have enough time to work out the words and arrange them in an order that others will easily understand without access to my thoughts themselves.

There used to be a time when I could not organize words to eggspress thoughts in writing either, so I really could not tell anyone much of anything beyond the functional communications, which I learned to speak in the 8-10 year old age range. It was so frustrating when asked a question, because you just know that there is not enough time for you to organize the words to speak, and there is a long pause while you are either trying to organize the words or panicking about this difficult process, and you just have to resort to something like "I don't know" or something that you said earlier that is pre-organized for you to spit out but is not eggsacly relevant and not at all insightful. It would be helpful for me if I could just type instead of speak.



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04 Mar 2012, 8:35 pm

I never have any problems exstressing myself.

Drives me freaking nutz.


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Zephri
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04 Mar 2012, 8:54 pm

I have problems with this all the time, it's very frustrating and irritating when someone asks you to explain something like how you feel about something or someone and you try hard to describe it, explain it, or only draw a blank and can't put it into words. Then they then dismiss you because you don't have a good enough explanation, and find this grounds to stomp all over you because of it.

Also happens in stores when I need something and can't explain to the person what I need, or when talking about some subject I like and know in my mind exactly what I'm talking about but can't freaking explain it in words then get blown off for "Not knowing what I'm talking about" even though I probably know more about the subject then they do.

Very very irritating, and even worse when people you love do this to you.


Oh and hello everyone....



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04 Mar 2012, 11:38 pm

Our current modes of language are all very approximate. I'm not sure why. I could say 'to save time' but that doesn't really explain anything.

Language generally works well enough for me, but when I come upon a truly new experience I realize just how limited it actually is.

Inaccuracy when using our current languages is inevitable.



megymegan
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04 Mar 2012, 11:44 pm

Always. Both in writing and when speaking. It's very very frustrating, because I feel like I could be talkative and outgoing if only I knew how to express what I'm thinking!

Leads me to withdraw most of the time because I KNOW I won't say what I mean and it might come across wrong/not as I meant it to. So I'm often perceived as quiet/shy, or sometimes as "bitchy" (several people have told me this on different occasions so I'm not just making it up!) when really I just... don't know how to express the things I'm thinking.

EDIT: Sigh.. even reading what I have written now - it doesn't look right to me. These words are not what my thoughts are. I don't know how to change it to say what I mean. It doesn't look like what I'm thinking. I can't even explain myself properly. :oops:



nerdymama
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05 Mar 2012, 12:02 am

I think its difficult to communicate my thoughts a lot of the time because I tend to group concepts that are undefined. There are no words to describe this particular thing or concept but its something I understand very well because I have observed it or thought about it often enough. I think maybe I store information in undefined chuncks and when Im talking to someone and am expected to explain myself its difficult to determine where to begin and to figure out which pieces are relevant. Its not like you can just stop and explain that whole undefined concept in detail and then just continue on with the conversation like nothing happened.

^^^I dont know If I explained it well..

Its hard trying to explain things that there are no words for....



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05 Mar 2012, 12:02 am

Due to excessive child abuse and manipulation done by my parents even i suffer from this process infact I am not able to think what I am doing and what the consequence would be. I cant process outcomes generally because I am not aware of the world and implications it would have in long run.
For a longtime i could not analyze what I am and what type of people i should socialize with. Then now i slowly understand what I am, how the world is and what type of people i should avoid and whom to socialize with.
Its not necessary to talk with everyone and anyone its always good to have limited social life. I remember when i was in college i would go roaming all over the college and start talking with anybody and everybody i was desperate for social contact and made a big fool out of myself.
I cant express what my mother had done with me, i used to continue talking with her even after she did dangerous and life threatening things with me.....
Its very important to understand how this world functions and if you dont understand it better to avoid it and sit inside your shell atleast you are safer there :duh:


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