Mixing words up/saying them wrong/bad memory anyone?

[sjr1969]

hi everyone

Not sure how to describe this, but does anyone get their words mixed up when talking, almost to the point of not being able to get a decent sentence out clearly? Also when you are about to say a word, but sort of think of another word at the same time so a totally different word comes out which combines the two words, so it isnt even a word!? Make sense? I do this and then when i can hear its coming out wrong my brain sort of kicks in and stops me saying it so i sort of stop mid word and it sounds even worse.

Also i forget things so easily. Anything, what i am about to do, say etc. What someone has just said to me. It makes me sound so rude sometimes. I am listening but I suppose I am not listening properly.

Also I will go into a room specifically for something and when i get there literally seconds later i have not a clue why i am in there. Then anxiety sets in and i worry why i am forgetting stuff.

I also forget what i did the day or days before sometimes when someone is talking to me about it i have to really think about it because i just forget. Then anxiety kicks in again ...

Yesterday was terrible my sentences were just a mess. And of course because it was like this i got anxious and probably made it worse.

I just worry about things being wrong when i get like this.

Anyone else similar?

sarah x

[Lizziesaurus]

I have a similar thing with getting sentences out, not saying the right words etc then worrying if people think I'm stupid for saying it etc It doesn't concern me too much because it doesn't happen that often (I'd say every few days or so) but more so when I'm at work. I work at Manchester airport and have to do boarding annoucements and feel SO STUPID when I get them mixed up knowing so many hundreds of people have heard me :blush:
As for the memory problems I'd go to a doc about it all, it may be something to do with you anxiety (don't take my word for it) maybe someone else can shed some more light on it. Still, if it's affecting your everyday life there's no point in suffering in silence, go and get it sorted :)

[cherrypicker]

Hello

I experience very similar symptoms to the ones you describe. In my own case, I blame it on my age (57), having a very anxious personality and being overwhelmed by work and responsibilities. I have a couple of tactics to help. I take deep breaths - 4 in and 7 out and this seems to calm me. I write everything down that I need to remember and I keep a journal, to jot down my bad thoughts and worries. They all seem to help in there own way.

Good luck

Cherry

[RLR]

Word transposition is an entirely common phenomenon and is described frequently by persons experiencing anxiety or clinical depression, among the more common causative factors. It occurs as a result of passive attention and interference by rumanative thought patterns. What many persons who experience the phenomenon seldom realize is that they are often trying to simultaneously introspect while in discussion with someone, causing their focus to stray from its intended course. They talk almost in a reflexive pattern rather than proactive intent. They subsequently find the wrong word being posed at intervals, or in a sense briefly losing their place in the intended course of their conversation.

Complaints of poor memory are also due to passive interaction. While someone is introducing themselves, the affected person is already introspecting about how this person is perceiving them or alternatively how they are presenting themselves to the other person. Consequently, any attention to the verbal introduction was given insufficient attention to be incorporated into short-term memory. Remember that memory must be preceded by attention in all instances in order to be accurately recorded and retained. The part of the brain that first accepts information being attended to is Heschel's Gyrus and from there must take the journey along transcortical circuits and finally to the hippocampus before being relegated to short-term memory, possibly further to long-term storage.

Walking on a journey into a room to retreive something is vulnerable to the same effects. Many thoughts unwittingly cross the minds of persons with anxiety or clinical depression and by the time they've reached their destination, the original intent is lost because it was not held salient and a multitude of other worries or issues have become partially or transiently predominant during the trip. The brain must receive and maintain information in a certain manner in order for it to be properly managed.

The reason that anxiety and clinical depression are capable of inducing the phenomenon being described in your complaint is that they both induce distraction or interference with active learning. In fact, clinical depression is commonly referred to as pseudo-depression in the elderly because more than 50% of elderly persons experience some form of clinical depression and mistake its influence for poor memory or even Alzheimer's disease.

Understand also that age has absolutely nothing to do with failing memory. It is rather underlying causes such as advancing vascular insuffiency, clinical depression, or in the more rare cases, a neurodegenerative process. People in later mid-life and geriatric stages of life also being to unwittingly practice no rhyme or reason thinking habits. In other words, as aging commences so does the inverse need to abide by such a structured and scheduled lifestyle. In one's younger years, multi-tasking and pro-active thinking are replaced in later years by less stringent and stress-invoking tactics. In other words, a younger person can tell you where their car keys are at pretty much any given time because of the strategies being used, whereas a more elderly person might toss them aside in various locations because they have become deluged by a calamity of thoughts and worries about a multitude of issues, easily and oftentimes distracted. The strategies of aging produce more partial than complete cognitive strategies. Thus, gaps appear that are mistakingly blamed for some type of pathological cause.

In sum, there is nothing wrong with you in my opinion. You are merely experiencing common interference factors relative to sematic language function and memory processing. Nothing more.

Best regards,

Rutheford Rane, MD (ret.)

[mabelina]

I have been having this for years but only recently has it got worse. Im forever thinking of two words and put it together like, i might say dog and also think of puppy so it would come out like duppy! Its quite funny writing about it but its got to the point where im frightened to speak to anyone and am thinking really hard before i say words just to make sure i say them correct (which i never do).:shrug:

[sjr1969]

thanks all. yes mabelina i do that. also i will say a sentence and the two words that are together for instance good boy, will come out bood goy! i honestly think it feels worse lately because i am thinking about it more and almost putting pressure on myself to talk correctly. anxiety certainly makes everything worse. it is worrying though.

sarah x

[PoppyC]

Hi
I can relate to a lot of the above posts.
I get this problem a lot and quite often I am sure people must think I am drunk. I can come out with the most stupid of things, back to front words, and people laugh sometimes saying it is funny.:wacko:
I tend to talk very quickly too. A doctor at a hospital once told me that it was pressured speech. I don't realise I am talking so fast until someone tells me to take a breath.
Sometimes if people talk to me, my mind blanks out what they have just said or it seems like I have not heard them almost, but I have :wacko: It does not seem to register at time.
I put it all down to anxiety and the medication. I know that if I feel a lot more relaxed than it does not happen so much.

[sjr1969]

hi, thanks, i agree, i think the more you think about it and more you get anxious the more pressure you put on yourself and it makes it worse. i am trying my hardest not to concentrate to much on it and to relax and hopefully this will help. easier said than done though!
sarah x

[xfilme]

Ive been tripping over my words for about two weeks... I put it down to social anxiety. I came to this conclusion because a few days ago I was served by a really attractive guy and he chatted with me, and I stumbled over so many words I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me :D x

[sjr1969]

bless you, a handsome man can have that affect on us though! x

[lemaladeimaginaire]

Thanks, I have been bothered by this for 10 days, and although in more simplistic words I came to the same conclusion that you describe here, seeing that an MD wrote it made me feel much better!

Cheers again!

V:D

[SolitudeLover]

It's amazing how one little social faux pas can change your life... I was at a wedding recently (which always makes me a bit anxious because I'm not fond of churches, particularly Catholic ones). I grew up in a Catholic Church and found the guilt and judgmentalism to be too much for someone as sensitive as I was. No offense to any Catholics here I hope. Anyway. The aunt of the groom is a close friend of my husband, and I always felt at ease with her. Not anymore, because I wasn't thinking clearly, and got her brothers' names mixed up. I've known her family for about 25 years, and I knew exactly who her brothers were, but for whatever reason, I said "Oh I see Anthony is back from North Carolina" (instead of Joseph). I have no idea why I mixed them up. I knew who was who, and who lived where, and who was visiting, etc. etc. But it sounded like I was a total ditz. So she corrected me, and told me who was who and who lived where. I couldn't believe she didn't just think I mixed the names up. The fact that she corrected me made me feel so much worse, because that meant she thought I was an airhead. And that just sinks me... I can't think of anything worse to be... I'd much rather be a bitch that everyone hates than a ditzy airhead.

But that wasn't the end of it... I walked in too close to the start of the wedding, and was greeted with hugs n kisses that were stoic and formal... done in a hurry with the body language of "hurry and sit down, you're late." (But there was 5 mins to spare). When I attempted to 'redeem' myself by talking to the brother who I knew came in from out of town, he flat out ignored me and hurriedly walked away, as if to say, "Really? You're asking me that now, just before the wedding starts?" And all he had to answer was "good to see you, we'll talk later at the reception." So truly... why am I the one so worried about social skills??

Needless to say... I went to find the restroom when it was over, and did not go through the formal 'greeting line' which I absolutely abhor. And I did not attend the reception. I went home and cried. I told my husband to make up some reason why I wasn't there. I know I overreacted, but for some reason, all of that happening so fast was a 'trigger' that I just couldn't shake.

I think in the future, I will take 20 mg of propranolol, which I was given by a doctor for performance anxiety, when I used to play piano in public. For me, just being in formal social situations like that is putting on a performance, because I AM being judged for my performance of how I interact with others. I just want to be me, and not care what people think about me. I don't want to go to any weddings ever again, unless they're outside, in nature, with just a few close friends.

[Shalee]

I just seen this and just wanted to say how relieved I am to know that I'm not the only person that is or has went thru these issues. It's such a assuring feeling to know I'm not alone and that I'm not "crazy"!! Thank You