Language problems, trouble finding words, forgetting words

[MostlyWater]

Does anyone have problems with language and/or speech? I sometimes make mistakes in my writings and I'm always forced to check back over what I've written to make sure there are no mess-ups. I don't mean typos either.. I mean my brain doesn't put the word I tended to write. For example instead of "depressed" I'll often write "depression".. or instead of "anyone" I'll write "anything".. or instead of "someone" I'll put "something".. "mine" instead of "mind".. "find" instead of "found".. you get the point..and I usually never notice it as I'm doing this. I'm just wondering if anyone has "brain failures" like this? It doesn't have to be just language. I don't want to bring up the topic of brain damage either but this never happened before w/d. It's like w/d messed up something in the language center of my brain. I also do this when talking to people but not as often. I wish I had some answers.. this is something that bugs me everyday. Thank you for any responses.

[Petunia]

Yes, I get this happening to me now, I have to carefully read back through what I've written and I'm often surprised by the mistakes I've made, it never used to be like this.  I also can't find the words I need when I'm talking.  I know I know the word, just can't seem to remember it, drives me crazy.  When I'm talking to someone, I have to use a bunch of words to describe something, when I know there is one word which would do, if only I could recall what it was. I used to be more.......succinct, yes that's the word I was looking for.   Sometimes it feels like I've lost half of my IQ.  I have better days and worse days though, so I'm hoping this will improve along with my other symptoms.

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

Yes, yes and yes. This is still happening to me and at one time even included difficulty just using the muscles of my face to form words (luckily that only lasted a short time).

 

It gets better, it gets worse, it gets better again. I just chalk a lot of stuff like this up to wd syndrome and try not to focus on it. Our brains need to be exercised during the whole of wd and for a long time afterwards. I use a site called puzzlebaron.com. Acrostic and cryptogram puzzles are excellent for exercise and I use a lot of cheats to finish puzzles. It is the doing of it that counts whether you cheat or not.

 

Crosswords are good too to help with memory recall.

 

If I had to hazard a guess as to why I would blame perturbation of neurotransmitters getting in the way of recalling things from memory. It works (or else we'd be like constant newborns) but just not that well sometimes.

[Petunia]

Thanks CW, I just checked out puzzlebaron.com, but I'm in an awful wave again and nothing was making much sense, I'll try again in a few days.

[UnfoldingSky]

  When I'm talking to someone, I have to use a bunch of words to describe something, when I know there is one word which would do, if only I could recall what it was.

 

I had this badly for a long time and still get it to some extent.  I believe it's called a "circumlocution". Took me ages to find the word for not being able to find the right word, go figure!

[UnfoldingSky]

Also, does anyone find that when they write what comes out is what they are thinking at the time of writing?  So say I am thinking about the word brand, but I want to write baked, instead of baked coming out the word brand does?

 

This happens to  me all the time and it's so frustrating.

[UnfoldingSky]

Oh and there's a site called Free Rice that might help people improve their vocabularies, they give you a word and a list of definitions and you pick whichever answer you feel is right.  It's an interesting site, if you get answers right they donate rice on your behalf to hungry people. 

 

http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/2212

[Songbird]

I mean my brain doesn't put the word I tended to write. For example instead of "depressed" I'll often write "depression".. or instead of "anyone" I'll write "anything".. or instead of "someone" I'll put "something".. "mine" instead of "mind".. "find" instead of "found".. you get the point..and I usually never notice it as I'm doing this.

 

This happens to me a lot and I find it quite annoying as I didn't used to make as many mistakes.  It's not brain damage, just the brain not working quite right.

 

I also can't find the words I need when I'm talking.  I know I know the word, just can't seem to remember it, drives me crazy.  When I'm talking to someone, I have to use a bunch of words to describe something, when I know there is one word which would do, if only I could recall what it was.

 

This happens to me a lot too.  I feel like I used to have a better vocabulary - I guess it is still there but just not accessible quickly.  I feel quite dumb sometimes when I'm trying to talk to someone and find it hard to say what I want because the right words aren't there when I need them.  In general my memory is not as good and I don't think it is due to getting older, just the brain not working as well as it should. 

 

These problems are frustrating at times but for me they are not severe enough to have a huge impact on my life.  I'm hoping they will improve eventually.

[rapunzel2]

oh yes! I can't speak! I don't find the right words and I feel like my vocabulary has shrunk.... a lot (I was trying to find a better, more descriptive word here, but I guess "a lot" will have to do ). It's very, very disturbing!!

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

 

  When I'm talking to someone, I have to use a bunch of words to describe something, when I know there is one word which would do, if only I could recall what it was.

 

I had this badly for a long time and still get it to some extent.  I believe it's called a "circumlocution". Took me ages to find the word for not being able to find the right word, go figure!

 

 

Tee hee.......

 

When I looked up the def for circumlocution, here was an example that was given to describe it:

 

 

"when you've finished your circumlocution, maybe you could just get to the point"

 

well, yeah. The point is.... Wait, what was the point? I forgot!

 

The reason I know exercising your brain with word puzzles and such works is that I had some strange experiences happen with computers while I was in the thick of wd and it happened several times. I have worked on people's computers for several years now and am very good at it. I had long time customers call me and ask me to fix their recalcitrant machines. I dreaded every call and wanted to refuse because when I sat there and just thought about the steps I had to do to start fixing I couldn't recall any of them. The worst was an operating system reinstall because of the configuration steps I always do afterwards, something I never wrote down. But I did it any way and found out a weird thing: I'd get started somehow and then all of my knowledge would come cascading back and I could get the job done. It needed an outlet to perform. There were times when I seriously thought I had lost all of my intelligence. Not true.

 

So Petu, the acrostics and cryptograms on pb are hard if you never learned them outside of wd. (I just visited pb to get the links and I see they have added a bunch of new puzzles, something for everyone! Here is the main link.) I used to be good at them but when I tried them this past year, just figuring out how to start them was a challenge. Each different type of puzzle has its own section on the site. The site I used for crosswords was boatloadcrosswords.com because they are so easy and I needed easy and it has keyboard navigation which helps.

 

I've gotten lazy and more often just do the jigsaw puzzles on pb (um, while I am waiting for someone to post something for me to read on this site....     )

[DLB]

Oh yeah, also the keyboard is not to friendly to me anymore..

[Light]

Does anyone have problems with language and/or speech? I sometimes make mistakes in my writings and I'm always forced to check back over what I've written to make sure there are no mess-ups. I don't mean typos either.. I mean my brain doesn't put the word I tended to write. For example instead of "depressed" I'll often write "depression".. or instead of "anyone" I'll write "anything".. or instead of "someone" I'll put "something".. "mine" instead of "mind".. "find" instead of "found".. you get the point..and I usually never notice it as I'm doing this. I'm just wondering if anyone has "brain failures" like this? It doesn't have to be just language. I don't want to bring up the topic of brain damage either but this never happened before w/d. It's like w/d messed up something in the language center of my brain. I also do this when talking to people but not as often. I wish I had some answers.. this is something that bugs me everyday. Thank you for any responses.

 

This is pretty common and should improve with time. I had paraphasia and I would say things like "I'm going to take out the theater" when I meant to say.... take out the trash. I also lost a lot of my vocabulary. These were words that I knew when I was 12 years old and for the life of me I didn't know what they meant. I also had expressive and receptive aphasias that were very disturbing. All of the above is either mostly or totally resolved. My writing still isn't as fluid or creative as it once was though. 

[Ever]

Spelling.  I used to be excellent at spelling.   Now I type some words and then just look at them, thinking that they just look wrong.  Often they are and I have to look them up.   And they are often not particularly difficult words to begin with.   Very frustrating and makes me think my brain is deteriorating.

[MostlyWater]

Thank you all for the helpful answers.. It's as if w/d has deleted a good chunk of my vocabulary.. and not just super-complex words but even relatively simple words that I've known for sometime. It's sooo frustrating! This and all the mistakes really bother me. I used to have more to say than I could speak.. now It's the opposite. Let's just hope to god for all our sakes that this improves. I've noticed on some days this stuff isn't as bad. Who knows what this all means?

[MostlyWater]

Anyone have any positive testimonies with this regard? Has anyone's vocabulary recovered? Does the memory of the words still exist?

[UnfoldingSky]

 

 

  When I'm talking to someone, I have to use a bunch of words to describe something, when I know there is one word which would do, if only I could recall what it was.

 

I had this badly for a long time and still get it to some extent.  I believe it's called a "circumlocution". Took me ages to find the word for not being able to find the right word, go figure!

 

 

Tee hee.......

 

When I looked up the def for circumlocution, here was an example that was given to describe it:

 

 

"when you've finished your circumlocution, maybe you could just get to the point"

 

well, yeah. The point is.... Wait, what was the point? I forgot!

 

The reason I know exercising your brain with word puzzles and such works is that I had some strange experiences happen with computers while I was in the thick of wd and it happened several times. I have worked on people's computers for several years now and am very good at it. I had long time customers call me and ask me to fix their recalcitrant machines. I dreaded every call and wanted to refuse because when I sat there and just thought about the steps I had to do to start fixing I couldn't recall any of them. The worst was an operating system reinstall because of the configuration steps I always do afterwards, something I never wrote down. But I did it any way and found out a weird thing: I'd get started somehow and then all of my knowledge would come cascading back and I could get the job done. It needed an outlet to perform. There were times when I seriously thought I had lost all of my intelligence. Not true.

 

So Petu, the acrostics and cryptograms on pb are hard if you never learned them outside of wd. (I just visited pb to get the links and I see they have added a bunch of new puzzles, something for everyone! Here is the main link.) I used to be good at them but when I tried them this past year, just figuring out how to start them was a challenge. Each different type of puzzle has its own section on the site. The site I used for crosswords was boatloadcrosswords.com because they are so easy and I needed easy and it has keyboard navigation which helps.

 

I've gotten lazy and more often just do the jigsaw puzzles on pb (um, while I am waiting for someone to post something for me to read on this site....     )

 

 

lol, "maybe you could just get to the point", thanks for the laugh cw, really needed it today.

 

Also I have the same avoidance issue too re getting things done, I often have trouble thinking about the steps.  At present avoid knitting which I mostly learned in withdrawal (I knew the most basic stitch but that was it), I wasn't that bad at it, could write patterns in withdrawal even though I was utterly uselessly with most other things..Now it's overwhelming thinking about starting a fairly basic project.  But if I pick up old knitting I haven't finished it isn't as bad as I think it will be...It's just trying to pick it up that is hard.

[UnfoldingSky]

Anyone have any positive testimonies with this regard? Has anyone's vocabulary recovered? Does the memory of the words still exist?

 

My situation is improving in some respects. I believe the memories are still there, it may just be a matter of getting at them. I had a window recently where I managed to write the beginning of a story and all of the plot details, the plot was so complicated I could barely keep up with it but I told it to someone else and they said it made sense and that it was a really good plot (and they aren't easy to impress either.)  I found while writing it though that many words did in fact return to me that I hadn't used in a long time...So take heart, it's still in there.

[Songbird]

I believe the memories are still there, it may just be a matter of getting at them.

 

I agree, I think they are all still in there, but accessing them is slower and more difficult for some reason.

[UnfoldingSky]

 

I believe the memories are still there, it may just be a matter of getting at them.

 

I agree, I think they are all still in there, but accessing them is slower and more difficult for some reason.

 

 

I wonder if it isn't that in withdrawal we can be in such a state of fear that the memories become inaccessible because they aren't directly relevant to what our bodies (wrongly) believe is happening. 

 

If you are in a fight/flight situation, what use are past memories that don't relate to the danger at hand?  It's doubtful if you were, say, being attacked by someone that you would need or even want to recall say the great time you had at the beach ten years ago, or a complicated word not related to what is going on...And as it seems in withdrawal it can be at times like a prolonged fight/flight reaction (especially if you have akathisia for instance) then it sort of makes sense why you can't remember things at certain times.

 

Also I just recalled, I had a doctor do some neuropsych tests on me and was told the memories I couldn't get at were likely still there, based on the test results. 

[Songbird]

 

I wonder if it isn't that in withdrawal we can be in such a state of fear that the memories become inaccessible because they aren't directly relevant to what our bodies (wrongly) believe is happening. 

 

I guess that could be true for some people, but it doesn't apply in my case.  I've been tapering very slowly with only mild symptoms and hardly any anxiety recently.  I think it must be that SSRIs affect receptors in the areas of the brain that retrieve information - it isn't only language that my memory has problems with.

[MostlyWater]

Good point songbird.. I think the problem is general information retrieval, language just happens to be a large focus. I have problems with retaining and recalling information in general.. My only theory is that the brain is functioning at a slower rate, maybe to preserve energy since we're constantly in fight or flight. That's probably wrong but it's something to do with fight or flight I'm sure.

[dalsaan]

I have had language issues that I associate with a broader memory problem. I think the memory of the word still exists but the recall of it at a particular time is limited. At another time it will be a different recall issue

 

My memory was particularly bad and more generalised with severe sleep deprivation. Now it's still bad but only shows in particular ways.

 

I am going to try some memory games to see if I can actually improve my memory by working on it. My memory probs are my biggest issue in my new hobby of stand up comedy. They undermine my confidence, so I want to improve my memory if possible

[WiggleIt]

I have everything described in the threads above and it causes me great emotional distress as I used to be a college English professor.

[MostlyWater]

I have everything described in the threads above and it causes me great emotional distress as I used to be a college English professor.

 

Very interesting. Could you maybe go into more detail as to what is bothering you specifically?

[MostlyWater]

This also causes some emotional problems for me at times. I feel like my social and intellectual life might just be over for the most part.

[WiggleIt]

I have trouble forming words.  When I do, they are monosyllabic.  If I try to verbally express a complex thought, every other word is "mmmm" because my brain and body get stuck.  It is like there is a wall behind which my intelligence is stuck, and I cannot access the intelligence, but I know it is there, so I feel frustrated.

 

My tongue doesn't work.  It is weak and twitchy and does not obey me to form sounds.

 

Plus, I can't successfully use contractions aloud.  When I speak, every syllable comes out very slowly and overpronounced, like a slow version of Data from Star Trek if he said "mmmm" between every word.  All of my consonants come out VERY hard-sounding.  

 

For the whole battery of the rest of my symptoms, check out my signature.  You'll be appropriately appalled. 

[MostlyWater]

Wigglelt.. I understand everything you're saying. It's a horrible situation. These docs are complete idiots who did this to us and should have their licenses and degrees revoked!

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

Oh yeah, also the keyboard is not to friendly to me anymore..

 

I do not know if it is my keyboard or me but the one word "from" has been coming out as "form" ever since I first posted in this topic. As 'form' is a recognized word in my computer's dictionary, it won't be flagged as 'misspelled' so I have to search for every instance and correct it. It is like my brain has forgotten how to spell it.

 

It is very odd what these drug and the recovery from taking them does to our 'expression' abilities.

[Songbird]

I do not know if it is my keyboard or me but the one word "from" has been coming out as "form" ever since I first posted in this topic.

I do that all the time.

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

I don't feel so bad now, Songbird. I sometimes wish windows had autocorrect like phones and tablets but then I have read the 'autocorrect:fail' sites and fear what might happen were I in a hurry....

 

(do you know that my browser is flagging my spelling of "autocorrect"? It wants a hyphen or 2 words. Luddite.)

[Songbird]

Those sites are great when you need a good laugh.

[steeley]

Just to add my two bob's worth yes, yes, and more yes.  I think people (friends, etc.) think I might have Altzheimer's, but I don't.  This stuff just goes from bad to worse and I want to be a success story. 

 

I'm going to go try put a jig saw puzzle together.  It's a globe of the world (never done a 3D jigsaw before), betcha I mess it up and have Australia in Alaska.

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

 

I'm going to go try put a jig saw puzzle together.  It's a globe of the world (never done a 3D jigsaw before), betcha I mess it up and have Australia in Alaska.

 

You better check with the rest of Aussies before you do that, they might not take it kindly being annexed to the US......

[WiggleIt]

I am bilingual. I am having trouble in both my languages, but I wonder: do you think it is generally good for my brain recovery that I speak two languages? Do you think it helps it to "exercise" in some way because I use two languages?

[WiggleIt]

I am bilingual. I am having trouble in both my languages, but I wonder: do you think it is generally good for my brain recovery that I speak two languages? Do you think it helps it to "exercise" in some way because I use two languages?

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

Read the beginning of this thread about using word games to exercise your brain.....