Ever Blank in Conversation?

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Did something like this ever happen to you?

I was at my doctor's office, actually getting ready to go in for x-rays and some worker comes through and starts up small talk about how they already have Christmas stuff in the stores, etc. And I try to keep up, and reply but she said something and I just blanked on it. She had this look on her face like she thought I was the most insane person. I'm not I just blank and pay no attention to someone speaking.

It happens to me too. It really annoys me when it happens to me, people think I'm not interested and I really am, and then they sometimes refuse to say what they said during the blank. I think it happens to me most when I'm tired or stressed, when does it happen most to you?

Ah, right, I hadn't thought of the tired/stressed out connection. But yesterday I hadn't slept and so probably couldn't summon 'the socials' -- that's what I call it, where I try and make small talk and act smiley and normal. I must have been staring at somewhere right over her head.

It happens to me when I try to make an intellectual point.
It's there, it just disappears. Nerves?

Yeah, I think so as well. The same nerves that don't want me to walk into rooms of people or crowds, even family gatherings. Profound sense of discomfort!

Can I ask - what is the painting in your avatar, Aimless? Is that Edward Hopper? I like the light and shade.

it only seems to happen to me whenever i talk to people... pretty much anyone.

yes, that is Edward Hopper.

re: mind going blank-I'm lucky to have people I can scrunch up my face and pound on my head when this happens and they are not unduly concerned.

OOoOoOOooHH, I hate when that happens!! Its my own fault usually, because I set out to make one point, get sidetracked by a sub-issue and by the time I loop back around to the original point to wrap up, I've suddenly stepped off a mental cliff and find myself like Wile E Coyote, standing in mid-air without a clue where I was going.

Sometimes it comes back after a few seconds, sometimes not. If I'm lucky the person I'm talking to hasn't totally tuned me out and can remind me what I started out talking about.

It also happens a lot when I'm referencing people's names, usually celebrities. One second its there, the next....damn, it was right on the tip of my tongue...

And the older I get, the more it happens...once or twice a month at twenty...two or three times a day now...

nice description.

i stopped trying to make intellectual points in conversations >2 a while ago. I just listen and study acutely and am in awe of people that can do such things.

Quite a routine occurence for me. Pre-diagnosis my stock phrase would be, "my brain stopped there for a minute."

How little I knew how right I was.

I have time mentally arranged for socialising, just as I have time mentally arranged for other tasks. Talking to me beyond those times specifically designated for socialising will sometimes be a struggle (possibly depends on who is talking to me ). If my mind is heavily engaged thinking about something else then paying attention is not easy.

On the whole, I have the opposite sort of problem, I think, more often. There's too many things I'd want to say or I get too emotional or too wound up & so on.

It's happened twice I can distantly remember.

Once had to talk to this guy in a career office. I remembered I was supposed to look at him so I did while he asked me something and apparently I just kind of didn't respond or realize anyone was talking to me... my mother was there as well.

The other time I really remember was at school. Someone walked in the room and asked my name, they were introducing me. And I was trying to think this out and apparently I didn't say anything. The teacher said, "This is ____. She is our mute student." or something similar.

I'm not mute. I have no idea why they said that, or if it was a joke.

I can do small talk even when I'm extremely tired or anxious. I'm a master of social appearances (especially under extreme circumstances when other people's mental scripts fall apart), I just don't know how to get beyond them. But I try.

'the socials' I like that! I find that it's sort of like my brain is a gearbox with less gears then it should have. I'm either speeding along in 4th or 5th or I'm in neutral or stalling it and there isn't really an in between. I sometimes miss stuff in conversation or am asked something and just blank out - people usually don't seem to believe me when this happens as more often than not I'm overflowing with thoughts...

it happans to me every time!!