From thought to sentence | ADHD Information

Yes, yes and yes. Where it was most troublesome was at work, but even at home I am ghe same way. I have ADHD and dyslexia and especially under stress I can sound like a blithering idiot. It's like the thoughts don't connect with the mouth. Very seldom can I get out exactly what I mean or want to say. Yes! It seems I can talk to other ADDers with no problem, but everyone else I have to explain and explain what I mean. My boyfriend and I get in arguments a lot because he just doesn't GET what I'm saying. Then I get frustrated because one thing I HATE is repeating myself. I still haven't figured out how to communicate and it causes BIG problems in my relationship. What a great way to express that Kamakazi, you're right it's just like a translator! I've used them before and they never translate what you really mean. Sometimes I wish people could just get into my head and see what I mean so I wouldn't have to try so hard to explain it. I get told a lot that I go on and on but to me I feel I have to explain every detail for people to understand what I am talking about. Have you ever been talking about where you heard something and you just can't finish the conversation until you think of where you heard it?... They don't care where you heard it, just that it's something you heard but my brain has to remember before I can go on.- Drives me and others nuts!yup, cant do it either, it always comes out the wrong way, or the wrong tone of voice

or something, it's like all the thoughts in my head are pictures

and when they heve to be translated in to words it gets screwed up

, kinda like if you use a free internet translater to change french to english, it all gets screwd up, words are in the wrong place.It's so comforting to hear others stories and know that I am not alone. Thanks

My problem is the other way around... especially if I have an explanation already formulated in my head.

I hear what the other person is saying, but for some reason the hearing does NOT equal comprehension!!

On medication, its worse for me, not because of the comprehension problem, BUT because now I am aware of the frustration the other person is feeling, which makes me more anxious because I know i"m irritating the person.

On top of the fact that I am actually trying to clarify things right in the moment rather than asking someone later to retell me what I just heard so that the origional person won't think I"m a total idiot!! --- anyone find that the hearing and comprehension connection a little lost in translation also?

Editing, yes, I also have the expression problem too, when it comes to explaining to someone that I'm nervous about talking too.. coworkers, boss etc.. but not my friends of family.

Sherry

kibbles00238697.5508564815I have no problem formulating sentences, but sometimes it just seems
that the words in my head go by so fast that I can't speak fast enough
because in the next moment, my train of thought has already passed.
This only usually happens when I'm nervous as well.

Even more annoying than that is that words seem to get lost on their way
out from my brain to my mouth so when excited, I might end up
confusing others by not accurately explaining the entire situation or I
might say a partial sentence and leave off. Sometimes I lose entire
sentences so for instance, say that the first sentence is to introduce a new
topic. Well for me, that first sentence is gone and when I speak, I start
with the second sentence in my mind instead. This really
irritates others.

And yea, sometimes my hearing and comprehension does get a little lost
in translation. This occurs most commonly when I'm not aware or alert
that the person is about to say something. Have you ever been talking about where you heard something and you just can't finish the conversation until you think of where you heard it?... They don't care where you heard it, just that it's something you heard but my brain has to remember before I can go on.- Drives me and others nuts!

All the time, it does drive me compleatly mad. it's like a link in a chain you cant just skip accross the gap you need to have all tha links

Do any of you have problems with getting words out of your brain into your mouth?

Do you have trouble explaining things, and have trouble verbalizing what's going on inside of your head?

[QUOTE=seeker63]
i can never seem to get my ideas and their intricacies out of my head and
into words. i have tried writing, but it is the same confounding issue- too
much to write and explain. a page or two into it, i'm frustrated b/c i can't
write it fast enough to keep up, and i just watch the train leave the
station. also, my brain does go too fast for my mouth. so i am unable to
complete sentences, i flip and mix up words, i combine words into new
unintelligible ones. also, as i get older, i have the word on the tip of my
tongue, cannot think of the word i know and use regularly.i forget what i
was saying b/c i get distracted by new thoughts while i'm trying to get it
out. my brain just switches gears or directions on a dime, and there i go.
new topic.[/QUOTE]

Yep, that's me right there. It seems that I can always think of the perfect
sentence to say in my mind. But when I actually start to say it, I forget
exactly the right words to use, as many have said, the train has left the
station. This leaves me looking like a blithering idiot. Sometimes my
pronunciation is off too? Anyone ever notice that they sometimes
pronounce words wrong here? when I was younger, I used to do that
pretty often. Now, it's gotten better.

I know that some people at work see me as "lacking of personality"
because I'm not good at expressing myself verbally. I had a manager call
me "slow" once because I have problems jabbing back if he teases me.
But inside, I feel that I have so many thoughts that I can share but if they
could just get out of my mouth! I contribute part of this to ADD and the
other half to a slight social anxiety, something created by my past that
I'm still trying to get over. This is because if I am relaxed, words just
smoothly flow out of my mouth (with an occasional loss of certain
vocabulary that I know, but can't remember). Some people can see only
one side of me: the shy, sometimes stuttering, and slow girl. Others see
the other side: intelligent, articulate, and highly emotional--I just wish
that I could show that side more often.

one more thing. The idea of thinking through imagery is new but not
completely foreign to me. But when I thought about it, I realized that I
also think with my emotions and I then use words (and imagery
following it sometimes) in my mind to interpret it. Perhaps that's what
makes me a good writer even though its hard putting down words on the
paper. I think that ,like my personality, my words are disorganized too
and I sometimes have to take an extra step to organize them or I end up
looking like a tongue-twisted idiot. mutton38701.0400578704

who really has a "good" marriage?

although, there was this time, that my hubby woke up one morning and starting talking, almost in the middle of a sentence, about a conversation we had had a couple days ago...i.e., (<yawn, stretch>...y,know, he DID say to blah blah blah blah...) And I just knew what he was talking about, and we just picked up the conversation from there, as if it was no big deal.

I feel, most "normal' people, would look at us and thing,,,my gosh, what are you two blithering idiots talking about?

My hubby has ad/hd also, and often times, he has a habit of coming to me and starting off a converstation in the middle of a sentence, and usually I can figure out what he's talking about, and sometimes I can't.

I dream a/b having a good marriage.

I know of two possible reasons for this. I'm not for sure it's an ADHD trait (maybe someone can help me out there) but I know most of us whether we know it or not have other "co-morbid" conditions in addition to our ADHD.

My daughter (has ADHD and PDD-NOS) for example, has both issues of understanding people and expressing herself. She was tested by a Speach Pathologist and was later diagnosed with (severe) "Expressive and Receptive Language disorder."

I used to always have trouble getting the right words out, especially around people I didn't know very well or if I felt rushed. It turned out that I have and "unspecified anxiety disorder".

I don't have that problem anymore thanks to the Med. Lexapro.

Sometimes I have something rolling around in my head for days before I can actually explain.

I have always been very artsy/crafty, and when I was little, sometimes I would have an idea in my head that I wanted to make, and I would tell my mom, I need, say, pom poms, duct tape, and a fish wire. And my mom, (always a very frugal woman), would be like, why? I'm not spending all that money on that stuff without knowing why! And I wouldn't be able to explain why, or what my idea was, and then if she did buy me my supplies, she would be struck with awe at the way I used them for my creation.

Sometimes, at night, I would have a very vivid dream, and I would want to tell my hubby about it, and it would take sometimes several days to actually grasp the words to explain to him what my dream was.

SO nice to hear i am not alone! I used to think i was very articulate, and my friends would always come to me for advice and say " i wish you could get in my head so when i say it it sounds that good", what the heck happened?? It definately isnt so easy any more, so i dunno why in the past 10-15 yrs. it has changed, but i hate having to try to explain what i am thinking or any of my ideas because no one seems to understand me, i either get the " yeh-uh-huh" thing or an arguement with my husband becasue he has no clue what i am trying to say or the tone sounds wrong and it is a big mess. I have been "practicing" in my head, i guess rehersing when big things come up and i need to talk to hubby about them, but as much as i rehearse, it still comes out a mess once he is in front of me. so much fun.,,

chris r

I think in both words and pictures, but I usually end up getting caught in
the middle of all that txt and imagery.yup i can type it OK but i get very frazzeld when i have to verbaly explain it to someoneIf some of us think in pictures then it could be easy to explain why our brains work so much faster then our mouths and hands. if you look at all the little details that you see in a picture and try to explane to someone who is not looking at the picture what it looks like and what is in it, information will go missing, there is to much to say, to much detail, no matter how hard you try others will not get to see what you see, add to that how quickly we think and you have a virtuly imposible situation, after all a picture is worth a thousand words!

Yes...if someone tells me how to do something I will never get it...but if they show me and I can visualize it then I can pick it up quickly; like if someone tells me directions forget it, but if I look at a map it is very easy for me to find it. I can type some of this stuff here but if we were talking face to face I would never be able to express it.

It's one of the main things that the doctors look for. In "driven to distraction" it's mentioned often - that we have trouble with thought to mouth, or a particular word, or any combination of wiring difficulties. Like one example he asked a girl about birthday and to describe the day - she said "box-giving day". I used to get that too - the particular description for a word would just not be there.

I have always been gifted for gab - but often I'll have a gap and have to run well around a word to get alternatives. The high-speed of ADHD minds helps a great deal for me.

It's not the hearing thats the problem, it's the listening! If i'm not 'focused' on what someone is saying, familiar with the topic, or in a noisy enviroment, everything changes! What did you say? the tortises will be delivered on wimpday? You need a flabbergast for a wingding? HUH! And trying to explain what you 'heard' is usually worse! I have developed a 'vocabulary' of memory in pictures which needs translation, but I'm also trying to comprehend at the same time! I try not to think, it hurts![QUOTE=repairman] It's not the hearing thats the problem, it's the listening! If i'm not 'focused' on what someone is saying, familiar with the topic, or in a noisy enviroment, everything changes! What did you say? the tortises will be delivered on wimpday? You need a flabbergast for a wingding? HUH!

[/QUOTE]
Exactly! This is me...I feel as if something is MAJOR wrong. Hearing has been tested, & I was told mine is equivalent to a 30 yr. old or better! (It is supposed to be exceptional) ****The same thing happens- I hear everything....kids playing, dogs or cats outside, traffic noises, birds, television, etc.
Everyone thinks I'm exaggerating when I tell them what I think I heard them say!

My husband and I went over to my parents' house this weekend. On the way home in the car he remarked that he sees why I have trouble communicating. Communication between my family members was/is always sometimes non-verbal. He would say something to my mom using nouns/verbs etc. and she would hear something else. Then a light clicked on.

I have always joked with my husband that I communicate mostly by mental telepathy. I say 2-3 sentences of a paragraph and the rest is in pictures or mental t. He's not the only one I do it with. People sometimes look at me witha blank look and I ask them if I went off and left them. I've always described it as my brain moving too fast for my mouth. In my head I've already said the rest of the sentence/paragraph but in reality I stopped speaking mid-sentence only to pick up mid-sentence in another paragraph.

I realized that growing up I learned to 'read' people. I picked up their body language, tone of voice, facial expressions along with the grunts and few words/sentences we did speak and formed a whole paragraph/idea. Husband found that enlightening and then laughed that in his family they communicated with 'words'. Hmmm. Interesting concept!

BTW, I strongly suspect that at least one of my parents has lived with ADD all their life.

Sometimes I have thoughts that don't come out with words.From thought to sentence.... there's a concept. Sometimes I say words that come out without a thought. Yeah, I flunked spelling in Harry Potter 101

Shoulda made this a pole.

A barber pole.

God you all sound like me! I can talk forever but I find myself repeating things. I really struggle to explain something to someone if under pressure! In an arguement, I mix all my words up, stutter and get even more annoyed! I also understand instructions if they are shown to me. I have a visual mind, I see things in pictures! If somebody explains something to me then I forget within five minutes what to do or where to go! Strange!

The only way I can get my thoughts out are by writing them down. I am currently writing a book and it comes to me so easily. I am a fast writer and that is good as I manage to keep up with my fast thoughts.

YES! YES! YES!

Especially during confrontations...I begin to stutter, and then I usually collapse into tears. People hate it and I've been called weak and immature when it happens. Nothing makes me feel more stupid.

Dabonbon

[QUOTE=Dabonbon]

YES! YES! YES!

Dabonbon

[/QUOTE]

Yep me too. Then I lay awake at night thinking of all the things I should have said. I burst into tears during a job interview once because I just couldn't talk. It was HORRIBLE. Obviously I didn't get that job.

LOL, yes. One of the first signs for me was the loss of vocabulary
articulation. Words I knew and used, I could not say nor pronounce any
longer. Very unsettling to say the least.

yes. in fact, not just yes, but HELL YES!

i do lots of thinking about big issues- politics, justice, world hunger, democracy...

i can never seem to get my ideas and their intricacies out of my head and into words.

when i do try to speak them, and i get the 'well what about...' type questions, i can't respond even though i had the thoughts that addressed it. words fail me.

i have tried writing, but it is the same confounding issue- too much to write and explain. a page or two into it, i'm frustrated b/c i can't write it fast enough to keep up, and i just watch the train leave the station.

the thing about thinking in pictures had never really occurred to me. i just recently realised that i was thinking in pictures, and that without really being aware of it, i was translating for myself. this could be a part of the problem.

also, my brain does go too fast for my mouth.

so i am unable to complete sentences, i flip and mix up words, i combine words into new unintelligible ones.

also, as i get older, i have the word on the tip of my tongue, cannot think of the word i know and use regularly.

i forget what i was saying b/c i get distracted by new thoughts while i'm trying to get it out. my brain just switches gears or directions on a dime, and there i go. new topic.

[QUOTE=sonya_h]

Do any of you have problems with getting words out of your brain into your mouth?

Do you have trouble explaining things, and have trouble verbalizing what's going on inside of your head?

[/QUOTE] are you jokin? i found this site somehow[QUOTE=sassee] [QUOTE=Dabonbon]
YES! YES! YES!
Especially during confrontations...I begin to stutter, and then I usually collapse into tears. People hate it and I've been called weak and immature when it happens. Nothing makes me feel more stupid.[/QUOTE]Yep me too. Then I lay awake at night thinking of all the things I should have said. I burst into tears during a job interview once because I just couldn't talk. It was HORRIBLE. Obviously I didn't get that job.

[/QUOTE] Hey Sass,

But then after I've thought of all the great repartee's I coulda come back with, I go back and rekindle the argument...

David0-

(The Ejected One)

I have never been on meds. I am signing up for a drug study to see if it can help. I am sending all my friends the list of tendencies to help me figure this out. I have the mildest case of the three kids in my family. The two boys were dyslexic and very hyper. My daughter says I have 15 out of 17 of the characteristics listed. I am hoping meds will help me be a little less off the wall.

I have been lucky that my ADHD is rather mild compared to others. My son is a wreck off his meds and all the family is a wreck because of it. I am more understanding that my non-gifted husband. there days when I reach my limit like this week while he is in a washout period so he can participate in a drug study. Maxes out of Concerta and Addera is not working.

I have been very successful in my life because of the ADHD, but it is hard when you can't sleep, and you're driven like a motor to do do do. I tend to think of my ADHD a gift that makes me unique and sometimes cursed. Non-gifted people do not understand.

Do meds help any of you with this problem? This is one of the things destroying my relationship with my ADD DH.[QUOTE=sonya_h]

Do any of you have problems with getting words out of your brain into your mouth?

Do you have trouble explaining things, and have trouble verbalizing what's going on inside of your head?

[/QUOTE]

YES!!!

[QUOTE=repairman] It's not the hearing thats the problem, it's the listening! If i'm not 'focused' on what someone is saying, familiar with the topic, or in a noisy enviroment, everything changes! What did you say? the tortises will be delivered on wimpday? You need a flabbergast for a wingding? HUH! And trying to explain what you 'heard' is usually worse! I have developed a 'vocabulary' of memory in pictures which needs translation, but I'm also trying to comprehend at the same time! I try not to think, it hurts![/QUOTE]

Me too!

Yes, it helps me. The first time I took my medication I thought my hearing had improved!! It wasnt til later that I realized that I was able to filter out converstations and focus in on only one at a time.

The other thing that totally floored me is how quiet my mind had become... it was like walking into a room that is so quiet and peaceful, that you just have to stop momentarily and enjoy it.. ahhhhhhh. I felt that calm within myself, and still do.. its really kinda cool. its not that I don't still have all sorts of thoughts and ideas, but its like my mind finally got out of overdrive!! And I could control whether I wanted to go 90 to nothing in my thoughts or if I wanted just to relax and focus on one thought... and yes, actually verbalize it to where others understand.

Of course there are times where I come up with something totally off the wall, but, it seems I can actually explain how I got there, when I get ,umm "that look"

Sherry

SO MANY THOUGHTS

SO MANY WORDS

HEAD FULL OF JOURNALS

BUT THE CONNECTION

TO THE MOUTH

HAS A SHORT CIRCUT

ONE MORE THING........

WORSE STORY TELLER

TOO MANY WORDS AND DETAILS

LOSE TRACK OF WHAT I WAS SAYING.

FRUSTRATION!!!!!

i'm 20. only one close girlfriend. huge social axienty. always felt like i could never carry a coversation. it was a huge battle to conversate with anyone. weather it be a stranger, co worker, a date, small talk, long convo, WHOEVER/WHATEVER, it was always a battle. i felt like i had so much depth and i was so intellectual YET everytime i opened my mouth nothing but the sound of a complete idiot came out. which led to the feeling on complete self doubt - why am i so stupid? what can i not carry on a conversation for the life of me? it's like everything that came out of my mouth was pre-meditated. i worked out the words and arangements in my head before saying them. but once they were said, nothing but pure RAMBLE. i always came across like i was someone with no depth, no personality, no opinions. i always wondered how majority of the peers around me could make small talk like it was nothing. things that would come out of their mouths seems so smooth, so aligned, like listening to a well composed musical. i always wondered how people could go on and on about a topic that seemed so pointless and meaningless. how can these people talk so mindlessly? why cant i? now i KNOW. it's cause im a brighter star than most. the ADHD STAR. the star that outshine the other little stars in our sky. =)

I am glad I do not suffer alone. I tend to get the words out of order because the thoughts are racing through my head. I often don't hear the mistakes because I have moved on to the next thought. My friends are good natured and just chuckle and understand.

I find when I am tired or really under stress speaking/communicating is difficult. I can't find the words and lose my thoughts mid sentence, especially when there is the slightest disruption.

LORD HAVE MERCY!!! like the sisters at work say.

I thought I was the only one who had this type of problem, I do always have so many thoughts, Ideas and things to say but when it comes time to write them down, I blank out, if im having a conversation I totally just say the wrong thing, wich often causes an argument with my bf, or disagreement. WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN? I KNOW OUR WIRES ARE ALL MIXED UP. I WONDER IF A LIGHTING STRIKE WILL CURE ADD. ITS HAS GIVEN SIGHT TO BLIND PEOPLE IN THE PAST.............