Pressured Speech

[Justmehere]

Does anyone experience pressured speech or rapid speech patterns when anxious?

I have experienced this 3 times in the past two weeks. It's really intense. I get into a panic, and then all of a sudden, I go from struggling to spit any words out of my mouth at all (my normal state of being) to being able to talk a million miles a minute. I'm not talking about anything different, I simply get very anxious and then talk very fast. I can actually keep myself from doing it by doing the same things I do to calm down a panic attack, and by being very mindful of it, but it's really intense!

Describing it as pressured speech makes a lot of sense to me. It feels like sudden pressure inside to talk, to get all the words out..

Yesterday, my landlady called. (Big trigger in several ways.) I asked if I could call her back later. I didn't explain that I was triggered and too anxious to talk, just that I needed to call her back later. She was fine with it. Then my friend came over seconds later. She is a very safe friend who knows I have PTSD and landlords trigger me. I told her my landlady had called, I started to pace and talk about a million miles a minute about why I was triggered and scared.

She said, "Whoa, slow down. I know this feels so scary right now, but you are talking so fast I can't follow you. You know me and you know I would tell you if there is real danger. I think everything will be ok, but slow down so I can understand you better." It took me a few seconds, and as soon as I did slow down, I broke down into tears. I spent a few minutes grounding and then I was able to tell her in a normal rate of speech what triggered me. (We sat there until I was ok and had a plan to handle to trigger.)

I have never experienced this symptoms of talking fast before, despite having had PTSD for many years. In the past, I have struggled a lot more with dissociation symptoms. Lately, the dissociation has been going away, but now I feel all the anxiety I that I dissociating out.

My therapist says it is good progress towards finally healing. This makes a lot of sense to me, but it has been rough. Now I have this symptom and it has me very scared that maybe I'm manic or something. I have no other symptoms of mania or being bipolar. I have googled about it (I know, not the best idea) and most of what I have read indicates that people with "extreme anxiety" can have pressured speech. It's also a symptom of a lot of other conditions.

I feel it again this morning. I'm actually having to make an effort to slow myself down when talking to people. I feel anxious, but not about what I need to talk to anyone about. I am beginning to feel like maybe I'm going crazy.

I will be talking to my therapist about this tomorrow, and I will leave the diagnosis up to her. But I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this?

 

[Justmehere]

Just realized that every time this has happened, I had taken benedryl the night before (for allergies related to wildfire smoke). Maybe I should call my doctor too.

 

[franciemarnie]

When I was young, I used to talk so fast people were always telling me to slow down. It felt near impossible when I tried. I had a great deal of anxiety at the time, and also looked into being bipolar, which I wasn't.

And from a psychological point of view, I had very low self esteem and felt I had no value, so unconsciously I spoke as quickly as possible so as not to take up the time of the more "valuable" people listening to me.

But your situation sounds possibly anxiety related and/or related to a triggered situation where you have to think fast, talk fast, move fast because at some level your primitive brain senses annihilation is imminent.

I think I don't do it too much anymore because I am so tired and older and when I get triggered now, I can't seem to put words in the right order let alone get them out fast like I once did. But I do do it sometimes. Then I have to take a time-out. I get too hyper then.

 

[Mystery]

Yes Justmehere, I have experienced what you are experiencing having pressured speech. I've seen it in others who have other types of diagnostic labels, as you describe too. Having said that, I do firmly believe that just because someone displays a behaviour that carries a label as a diagnostic criteria, doesn't mean that they need a new label or diagnosis.

I don't fully understand the brain electricity or chemistry that causes it but something quite physical is going on in the nervous system when it happens I believe. The two times in particular that I had it, lasted for weeks. I was under a great deal of emotional stress both times, not just ptsd triggering events which were also occurring at the same time.. There was actually stuff going on in my life that was stressful in and of itself.

I'm remembering that you have had a particularly stressful week, recalling your recent posts. I think it's entirely understandable that you are experiencing this. Hearing how you grounded yourself with the help of your friend suggests to me that your system is just in a kind of 'overload' and that you need some support. Both times when I experienced the rapid speech I also had difficulty staying focused on one thing. My mind was jumping all over the place. Are you experiencing this too? Both times, with hindsight, I was about to have a major breakdown. How are you managing to switch off to go to sleep?

I'm hoping that you can get some more intensive support at the moment so that you can calm and soothe your system. You need a low stimulation environment when you are like that. It's really important to focus on deep breathing and relaxing your muscles and resting your nervous system. Be gentle and kind to yourself and breathe slowly and mindfully as much as possible. Thinking of you.

 

[Ketamine Dreams]

My wife (sufferer) has started to have pressured speech. It is strongly linked to bipolar disorder, but she doesn't have that. It is also linked to stimulant use, and she is on Ritalin. Idk. It's strange that it suddenly appeared.