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Poll Does PTSD Influence Your Verbal Communication?

Does PTSD Influence Your Verbal Communication?

  • Yes - Only when symptomatic

    Votes: 250 89.6%
  • Yes - But not enough to effect me

    Votes: 21 7.5%
  • No

    Votes: 1 0.4%
  • Never really noticed

    Votes: 7 2.5%

  • Total voters
    279
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Yes!

Forgetting names, words, falling back to stupid descriptions of the word I cannot come up with.
"you know, the big yellow and blue thing, that brings you from one city to another"? "you know, the thing you can sit in and read a book while travelling?"
- You mean the train? ( Yes!)
Arggh!


I do that all the time. It drives my husband crazy. He is often trying to help me find something and he will ask me what I am looking for and I usually can't find the word for it so I try to describe it and end up with a stupid description of it. I honestly didn't realize that was part of PTSD, I always just thought I was ditzy or stupid sometimes.

Thank you for sharing!
 
I'm a supervisor who often has to give pretty detailed technical instructions to staff and when I am symptomatic it comes out something like this,

"First, change the. .. um. . .you know. . where the user gets prompted. . .yeah. . .check that, if that doesn't work then thirdly, go into the. . .you know, the interface screen. . .and check on whether the service is running, if it is running then. . .<7 second pause where I frantically try to figure out what I was talking about>. . .where was I, oh, well if that isn't running then just contact me. . . <which wasn't what I was going to say, but maybe I'll remember by then>
 
Wow, it really is uncanny how common this is. I, like so many, struggle horribly with this sometimes, and I used to be particularly articulate (a good public speaker and trainer at work) and very able to debate, negotiate and otherwise engage in high level verbal exchanges with a whole range of people.

Thesedays... it's hard to say good morning sometimes, both because of oddly terrified awkward emotional reactions that seem to go along with speaking, and because sometimes the words just aren't there, or are only there slowly and sporadically, or don't seem to be the ones I was wanting.

And the more stressed and/or emotional I am, the more I can almost literally feel my throat constrict, as though something is holding the words in, even if I can mobilise my brain enough to come up with them.

It's horrible, humiliating, both personally and professionally, and very very distressing.

I put it down to general cognitive disorganisation, extreme fatigue (haven't slept properly for years or much at all for almost 12 months), extreme anxiety and stress and just general struggels to stay grounded in the present and on top of the pace of the world around me.

It makes me want badly to hide away and be a recluse sometimes.

Maddog
 
I'm a supervisor who often has to give pretty detailed technical instructions to staff
Oh my God! I can't even imagine being in that position! I haven't been able to do much work-wise in a few years, but oh man! How do you maintain authority or respect as a supervisor when your words come out as gobbledy-gook? And trust me, this is asked as someone who is quite fluent in gobbledy-gook.
 
Zef, thst is SO me. Exactly. Hubby is very literal, and also is in a bit of a passive aggressive pet over this whole situation. So he will stand there and totally pretend he doesn't understand. This used to cause me a lot of anxiety in the past. Now I whip out my phone and draw the thing I meant. That gets him going guessing at least and turns a stabby situation into a joke.

My kids love the game, because I just fill in nonsense words like "armadillo" and keep going. If they couldn't figure out what the armadillo was, they ask, and I have usually remembered the word by then.

A coyple select friends know what is going on. I just stop and say, "Scuse me, I'm a little wiggy [insert brief reason] and have the vocabulary of a five year old."

For people who don't know, I just blame it on my meds. Topomax does cause brain flatulence.
 
Now I whip out my phone and draw the thing I meant. That gets him going guessing at least and turns a stabby situation into a joke.

My kids love the game, because I just fill in nonsense words like "armadillo" and keep going. If they couldn't figure out what the armadillo was, they ask, and I have usually remembered the word by then.

Bachall,
Those are great ideas!! I just might steal them for my own use. :)
 
I've noticed that when I'm stressed, I struggle to remember words. When I'm "triggered" it's worse and I start getting stuck mid-sentence which makes me shut down more. I also don't remember details about stressful events. One time I recorded an argument with my husband and when I listened to it a few days later, it was like listening to someone else. Luckily, the things that I said made sense and I agreed with myself. :-)
 
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