Forming thoughts into coherent sentences

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Does anyone else have this problem. Its one of the reasons I don't talk very much. because.....

Prime example above^. I had something to say but as soon as I started writing it down my mind went COMPLETELY blank. Its like the process of forming thoughts into coherent sentences is so difficult that everything else goes out the window. Including the very thought you were trying to decipher. So complex thoughts are extremely difficult to get out. I don't know if it is a memory thing though because I form a sentence in my mind but then immediately forget it when I go to write it down. I have this same problem with talking too. Is anyone else like this? Or is this just called being a human being.

I am much better at expressing myself coherently on a keyboard rather than speaking ex tempore, but I need lots of time, silence, and an absolute lack of distractions. I think it takes me longer than average, which has been borne out on some psych testing I've suffered through recently; they remarked upon my slow processing.

I have that problem with speaking & posting/typing too. I suspect at least part of the problem is related to my dyslexia & ADD.

What happens if you try not to control it too much? Like try to not think about how to do it. Resist urges to think too much about it. Let me know if that helps anything? For me it appears to be helpful.

Yes! I wish I could just "show" people what's in my head, emotion and pictures, vs trying to translate/reduce it to words.

Yes, I have a problem with this. I think in images, like a slideshow, story board or individual photographs being my memories. I have to view those thoughts first before then translating them to speech.

I think the individual photographs analogy is a good one because it's as though I have to arrange or rearrange the "photographs" and edit "on the fly" to have the idea presented coherently in speech.

I had a business lunch meeting today with a person. He mentioned having a bad experience working with a former colleague who was very hard to deal with. He asked me if I had any similar bad experiences in the past working with people. I recalled images of a former co-worker yelling, overall crabby and negative, etc. I had to "put those pictures" in an order that was verbally presentable.

If, as someone earlier in this thread had suggested, had I just answered in an instant without giving it any thought, it would have come out something like this: "Bad man. He was mean to us sometimes. I'm glad he's gone."

Instead, after a short pause, in thinking, arranging, etc I was able to say something like: "Actually, I've had a similar experience. I worked with a guy some years back that was very difficult at times to deal with. He drove morale down in the entire office with his negative attitude....."

When I'm under stress and have no time to think of a response my verbal ability deteriorates dramatically.

Case in point: If I'm stressed and have to devote most thought to executive functioning and one of the kids is making the dog bark very loudly and incessantly I would say something in an instant without thinking about it:

"No! Dog bark. Bad! No bark!" (I'm talking to a child at least over the age of 9, not talking to the dog).

Last edited by Magna on 22 Oct 2018, 4:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Me too. It might be dysgraphia .
It's the reason I never completed school.
It's easier to write one sentence at a time.
In my head thoughts are always on repeat, sentences repeated over and over. It's hard to pull things together into a coherent paragraph.
And i think in movies, not still pictures.

I have that along with my dyslexia. I think in words instead of pictures but it's like my thoughts are too jumbled & go too fast(maybe due to my ADD) for me to type things out well sometimes & I think it can affect my speaking too.

Yes, everything in my head is in pictures.

I'm not sure what it is but I experience this too... i can usually manage to express thoughts when im writing... it takes me longer than others for sure and quite often I find myself struggling to put my thoughts into coherent sentences both while writing as well as verbally. I have issues explaining anything really.... its as though i understand everything so well in my head but when i try to communicate those thoughts or ideas to others it either makes no sense at all or i have to ramble on for a long time bouncing back and forth from thought to thought (also making NO SENSE) bc i keep leaving vital information out lol... sometimes i spend so much time thinking about things that i never actually talk about, so when i do, i realize ive never actually put those thoughts into sentences before and that i dont even know where to begin or what to say lol there are so many things that i see/notice/understand and think about very deeply but never really discuss with anyone else... there are all of these "connections" that i see between things i observe or think about that ultimately help me find understanding and learn stuff but its so hard to explain all of the little things to someone else and to know what all to include for them to understand...Idk... I read something interesting somewhere related to thinking styles, specifically "autistic thinking styles"... if I remember correctly one of them was called abstract thinking or something... I'll have to read up on it again but the way they explained it made a lot of sense and brought light to some things for me for sure. I wonder if it could relate to this at all.

Edit: I was mistaken it wasn't called abstract thinking they called it pattern thinking lol... "Pattern thinking is a more abstract form of visual thinking;"

This is me too. I can be quite articulate when writing and in a previous job our marketing team would run things by me if they were unsure of something, I was their extra pair of eyes. I am pretty quiet though, I find speaking just a lot of effort, it seems to take more out of me thinking on the spur of the moment and saying something out loud, I also struggle to keep up with conversations some times. My voice is also too loud for my own head, I prefer to speak quietly, closer to a whisper at times as it feels soothing.