What's this inability to speak?

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I'm hearing people saying how they literally cant speak. when they shut down or get an overload. what sort of situations cause this? and how does it feel? does it happen to you?
that's never happened to me, does this mean i cant have aspergers?

Nah man, you can still have Asperger's.

In fact I've been having the same problem for about a month. I'm having trouble getting the signal from my brain to my mouth, if not forgetting *what* I intend to say. Not to mention my speech sounds like I'm drunk the majority of the time and the way I string words together mixed with my slurring, it's very frustrating for me.

I've been suspecting that it is damage to my brain from a major heat stroke I had at work (I'm in Arizona and I push carts at a grocery store for my whole shift in heat around 115 degrees). I read that heat strokes kill brain cells. But I don't know, because that's unlikely to be what caused your problems.

Let me see if I can explain the way I experience this...

It is as if I literally can't speak. The words, they are in my mind (usually), but they just will not come through to my mouth and out. It is as if they are stuck, and there is not way to dislodge them. It feels like my throat is closed up and tight, almost like when you get a lump in your throat as you are about to cry. That is what it feels like physically. Mentally, it is really just a block, like nothing is coming through and intends to stay that way.

It usually happens to me in large crowds, school, and generally in places or with people I am not comfortable with. It is very stressful as it is happening, but after the situation is over or I am back in my comfort zone, it improves until I feel normal again.

Luckily, most people are fairly understanding when it happens (well, at least people who know me). They do not try to force me to talk because, I think, they understand that it is difficult, even if they do not really understand why it happens.

I hope that makes sense and I that I did not type a post full of gibberish.

that made sense, dont worry. . and that is ODD. wow. that's so wierd. is it like a panic attack or something?

Although not the physical feeling that my throat is closed, that statement is very close to how I feel. Some days at work, like when I said how I feel like I can't get the signal from my brain to my mouth, it's just barely at my lips. I had tried to call out to a coworker to ask the question, I keep hearing myself call out her name, but my voice couldn't call out. It's as if I forgot how to say her name, or even how to speak. It sucks.

And no, your post was not full of gibberish, it was excellently written.

It sounds like you are describing selective mutism, the symptoms of which are fairly common among autistic people, particularly females. It happens to me occasionally, usually in busy environments with lots of light and noise and things moving around. It also happens in situations where strong emotions are being shared or displayed. It's not that I don't want to talk; I am either unable to talk, mustering only a blank stare, or can only utter indecipherable sounds. It usually doesn't last all that long, but it is noticed, and people invariably see it as a choice not to participate in the conversation.

Oh yeah, I've done this. Unfortunately for me, it has only happened in domestic situations where I become upset about something and the significant other asks what's wrong and such and I just can't speak which surely only complicates the problem.

The good new is it has not really happened much/at all with my current relationship so hopefully I have gotten over it.

Does shyness count?

no. i mean when people physically CANT talk.
i am very shy myself.

It's exactly like a mini-panic attack. I have no problem handling tattoo customers when they come in quietly look around and begin asking questions. I'm very comfortable answering them and happy to help out any way I can. My repeat customers always tell me they come back to me because I'm not pushy like some of the other people they've talked to, and I keep them relaxed through the process.

The last shop I worked in, though, the owner absolutely INSISTED that we rush up to customers the instant they came through the door, immediately ask if we could help them with something, then follow them around asking questions to find out their interests, and push tattoo ideas on them like a car salesman.

Needless to say, he hated me, because I could only get out the first "May I help you?" about every third or fourth time. Most times, I went completely mute for up to thirty seconds, while the customer stared at me, waiting to hear what I was going to say. My mind would go utterly blank. I knew what I was supposed to do, but my brain couldn't formulate the words and get them to my brain fast enough for me to assemble them into a coherent sentence. By the time I could get the words out, one of the other tattooists would jump in and take over. Since we work on commission as independent contractors, it cost me a lot of business, but i just can't work that way. I don't have those kinds of aggressive tendencies, and I crumble under that sort of psychological pressure.

It also cost me the license I apprenticed for, when the owner refused to schedule my final test because I wasn't a pushy enough salesman. Didn't keep him from keeping the $3000 Vocational Rehab paid him to get the disabled guy licensed, though. Bullies. How is it they are always allowed to win?

oh my, that is AWFUL! i'm really sorry youve had such a bad experience with that job. . but at least it's better, now. do you have aspergers? or high functioning autism?

well if it's just like a panic attack, i must know a similar feeling then. i have had many panic attacks, this one time i had one that was absolutely crippling and i had to go home from school because of it...
my mine has gone blank under pressure many times, but i dont know if its ever been physical.

When I heard Temple Grandin speak a few months ago she said that nonverbal autistics' visual and auditory processing is a mess, and I would say that describes me pretty acurately.

visual, as well? for example how? what sort of processing isnt a mess? like what is your strongest type of prosessing?

I've also described myself as being not fully conscious. It took me years to be able to articulate that. Maybe that is an alternate description of what Temple Grandin said. All I know is it affects me every second of every day and it is not fun.

really? how do you mean? could you give me an example?

I get "tongue-tied" sometimes or stutter mildly if I'm thinking faster than I can speak, or if I get caught off-guard with something that requires a scripted or nuisance response but which interrupts my current thought process. I don't multitask well.

But I don't think this minor aphasia is unique to autism--I've seen plenty of NTs do it also, although they seem to be able to recover faster. When I find myself doing it, I have to stop, close my eyes (to shut off irrelevant sensory input, maybe), and "rewind" to the beginning of the faulted sentence, trying to state it in simpler terms perhaps (e.g., avoiding a temporarily forgotten word or the "dependent clause to nowhere" that tripped me up in the first place).

And slowing down helps tremendously.

I'm much better at writing than speaking.