Thinking of words

[valeriedl]

Does anyone else have problems thinking of simple words?

I know what the word is, how to describe it, but the word just won't come to me.

I'll be talking to someone and try to tell them that this happened in the living room, but I can't think of the word "living room". I'll tell them it's the room with the tv and couch, but living room won't come to me. I do this all the time and people think that I'm having a sez (I will do this too when I am having a sez), but I do it all the time.

Does this happen to anyone else too?

[chaosdemon]

Hi Valeried

It happens to me all the time, and it's soooo frustrating. I can be talking and all of a sudden it feels like my brain and language centre has entered a black hole, where thought is impossible, so to everyone else I have suddenly stopped talking and if the person knows me, they say the word for me and I'll be 'yes! that's it', and carry on.

Since my E kicked off and I've started the anti-epileptic drug's, I've gone from an extremely eloquent person to an airhead. I'm still unsure whether it's the Epilepsy itself, or if its been helped along by the med's.

Luckily when ur typing something, unless its on msn etc, its not noticible that it's taken you sometimes upto 5 minutes just to write out one sentence

Sal

[Deb12345]

Hello valeriedl,
I asked a similar question to this group. Take a look at the following page. Hope the link works.

Speech problems

You may find it useful and reassure you that you are not alone. I hope you are having a good day.
Best Wishes
Debbie

[Nakamova]

When I was on Zonisamide was when I had similar problems to what you describe. I couldn't remember "post office" and came up with "mail house" instead. But since switching to a different med, I haven't had any problems.

[Molly97]

Does anyone else have problems thinking of simple words?

I know what the word is, how to describe it, but the word just won't come to me.

I'll be talking to someone and try to tell them that this happened in the living room, but I can't think of the word "living room". I'll tell them it's the room with the tv and couch, but living room won't come to me. I do this all the time and people think that I'm having a sez (I will do this too when I am having a sez), but I do it all the time.

Does this happen to anyone else too?

Hi. When I was on antipsychotic drugs for my seizures(they thought I had pseudoseizures due to DID brought about by childhood sexual abuse), I did exactly the same thing. I could describe the word, but couldn't for the life of me come up with the word itself. I'm happy to say that since I've been off the *&*^ drugs since Nov 2006, I am back to my clear-thinking wordiness.

And to those who thought I had pseudoseizures, I really do have real seizures. They were wrong, and I was on some heavy-duty drugs for it.

[tam bam]

Only all the time! I thought maybe it was just me. My husband tells me all the time that I am a terrible story teller. I used to not be this way. Oh well what can you do.

tam bam

[McGill]

No, I don't have that problem. This might sound silly to you, but have you ever tried to read a dictionary just for fun? You'll be surprised at just how much your vocabulary will increase & enough to give you the precise words you want to describe something.

[Rae1889]

OMG McGill! I tried to do that once. and totally was highlighting the top of the pages to know which ones I read. I couldnt even make it past "G" because my eyes got tired from the small print.

I also tried to use a highlighter to make the white pages look like the yellow pages. turns out idont have a long enough attention span. So when I got tired of doing that, me and my friends ripped out all the pages individually and loaded my friends room with the pages of about 50 older phone books!

And yes I mix up words all the time. my favourite example i use is "Prepare vs Proper!"

[occb]

Partner has the same issue. He thinks he says one thing, and then something completely different comes out -- either the entire sentence or just one word. One time the pharmacist laughed at him and asked if he was being serious -- he was really confused because he thought he'd asked her if he had another refill on his meds, but apparently not...

He has the same issue with hearing sometimes. Either one word, or a whole sentence will just change in his head.

[CathyAnn31]

Yes, I have this problem....a little more often then I'd like.

[skillefer]

Yup! Which can be a bit embarrassing since I'm a teacher...

[C0urt]

I have the same issues when speaking.

The other problem is when I am writing i type a word that sounds like the one I want so my spell check never catches it, but it has nothing to do with the thought in my head.
like still and steal I swap out homonyms a lot. where were and wear I think I am horrible with.

[BuckeyeFan]

Have been there and done that too many times to count.

[Endless]

I do that all the time!

It's like living inside a game show. I describe the word...

"you know, that road that goes up and over the river"

And the other person fills in in... "oh - the bridge!"

My family and friends have a sense of humor about it. My coworkers, not so much.

[Loopy Lou]

I do that too Actually, i think i've done it whilst posting on here a few times

Like, my brother came round and asked if he could make a sandwich, and i couldn't think of the words "fridge" and "bread". Normally it's only ever one word i forget in a sentence. (not that it happens ALL the time)

I ended up replying "yeah, there's cheese and stuff in the....thingy... the one that has cold stuff in it and the.....stuff... the sliced stuff... oh, bread! is on the side."

I swear my IQ has dropped about 20 points. I used to be intelligent lol.

[foreverdark]

I'll be talking to my daughters and say something like, "You, the one with the purple shirt..." the kid will say, "*insert name*, dad!" and I'll say, "Yeah, you come here please." Or they will actually give me the word I'm trying to get. I'll say, "Can you get me my uhhh, my.." and apparently sometimes I'm pointing or looking at it and they will say "Your .....?" and yep, that's it.

Really annoying...

[Nakamova]

Reminds me of an episode of The Simpsons where Homer says "Eat... dig... spoon" -- when he can't remember "ice cream."