Do you have a hard time translating thoughts into words?

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My description would be: a nilon material in the shape of a circle(or rectangle), that has cords attached to it and slows a person down after they jump from a fixed object at a high altitude..( people also use parachutes to do base jumping( which is jumping from a fixed object(bridge or land), not just airplanes. ; or it is used to catch the air and gain lift in the sport of parasailing. Then there can be the definintion of it being a big multicolored round pieces of nylon material that is used with small groups of children to toss balls around, and run under.

When I think of an object, I get a visual picture, and i ususally describe its physical features. then I describe all of the possible uses for it, whether it be its intended conventional purpose, or other use.

for me, i never really know what the correct answer is, that the person is expecting from me. ( there is no such thing as a question that you can answer only yes or no to, and there is always more than one answer to any one question). Thats how I see it.

I have trouble translating thoughts into words. I like that you used the word "translating", too, because sometimes that's what needs to happens. The thoughts are there, but in a non-word form.

It's not that I'm bad with words; in fact I think I'm quite good with words, especially in writing. But there are many things that I'd like to communicate, which I cannot put into words, because my experience of them is not word-based. When I try to translate certain hard-to-translate thoughts into words, I often feel like I'm exposing some strange, intimate part of myself.

Example: Sometimes I'll see a movie or read a book, and it really touches me in some way, and I want to share it with someone else. But the more I try to explain it, the more I realize that I can't. I have to resort to imagery and metaphors that will come across as hokey to certain people. Some people are good conversation partners for that kind of thing, and some are not.

I have a reasonably good vocabulary, but not good enough to say much of what I want to say. I often doubt my word choices. Also, sometimes the meaningful part of an experience or an idea is not something that can be described with words. I don't know. It's like you can eat a peach, but you can't peach an eat.

As an aside, I was just reading the script of a Samuel Beckett play called "Play", and I have this very strong feeling that that play is relevant to this topic. I can feel how it is relevant, but I can't put it into words. The characters themselves (who are dead people), do a lot of talking to themselves, but seem to have trouble grasping their thoughts and "translating" them into words. That's how I feel very often.

Me too: above average written communication skills but pretty bad verbal skills.

I can get by discussing whatever mindless drivel is being discussed in a group. (So-and-so is back in rehab? NO???! !! ! )

I'm also okay at re-telling stories I've heard, or books I've read, or conveying an earlier event. It isn't easy but I can make it convincing enough.

But I can't for the life of me explain my thoughts or my feelings, or even explain something technical or scientific. It is all in pictures... nay in HD video up there in my head. How can I translate that to words? It'd be like watching an IMAX movie on a little 12" black and white TV.

Yes.

I am a mostly visual/abstract thinker, so when I have to describe something, I have to make a "translation" from visual/abstract to verbal.

It depends if I know the word and am describing it, which I do well at.. or if I know the word but can't think of it and am trying to explain something without the word.. then I talk around what I'm trying to say and it comes out very poorly.

"Can you put the bread in the thingy? Um.. the thing with the holes, the thing that toasts the bread?" (yes I know after wards that I used the word TOASTER almost right in the sentence, but still I can't think of the word. ) happens all the time.

I am terrible at this, if if it is verbal I stammer and jumble everything up completely, if it is written then I'm somewhat better but I still have trouble creating sentences that flow together properly.
If someone asks me a question it can take me a few days to create a full and appropriate canned response in my head that I could reply with, but then of course it is too late.

Weirdly enough, when I am drunk, I can be articulate and have proper conversations.

Me too.

I find I say " I was just telling so and so about..." because it's easier to have a conversation with prescripted stuff than to find words all the time.

Mw99 Yes, I do for there are times when I can see what I want to say in my mind like words on a page but, often when I go to say it in a verbal manner it gets all screwed up and winds up as, if I was stuttering or having some major speech problem as such.
Sometimes, even when I'm online does this become quite apparent when I go to make my posts there are times I have what I wish to say in the center of my mind but, somwhere it gets lost and seemingly can't be able to put things together to sound coherent and make a post that tends to be rational or intelligent..Thanks for your post very much as, it helps me to realise such thing are not just isolated to me alone..

I have that problem all the time

Yes, I have this problem often enough.

I can relate with many in here...but the funny thing is that my thoughts are actually quite verbal...It's odd. It's like the verbal part of my thoughts stops working when I start speaking.

"Can you put the bread in the thingy? Um.. the thing with the holes, the thing that toasts the bread?" (yes I know after wards that I used the word TOASTER almost right in the sentence, but still I can't think of the word. ) happens all the time.

I’m a train wreck at this. I often tell people that only about 20% of what I intend to say gets through. It’s like there’s a filter between my brain and my mouth.

Loads of problems translating thoughts into words. My first thought wouldn't even have been to describe/explain the function of a parachute....I would have started with words about the shape of the canopy. If I'd been expected to respond really quickly, there's a good chance I would have said something like "parachutes are big, open balloons-shaped things....with strings that hook up to a person....I mean to a harness....the strings hook up to a harness....to the harness--to a harness that a person wears--to attach them to the parachute. By the strings....[this is the point where I might lose track of my own words] let me start over"