The other day, I was trying to greet and hold a casual conversation with my new nephew in law. It didn’t go well. It started out ok but deteriorated into something like this:
Me: Hey Tim, how are you?
Nephew in law: I’m great, and you?
Me: Oh, fine, fine. Just get off work?
NIL: Yeah.
Me: What do you do?
NIL: I work in RV manufacturing.
Me: Oh yes, that’s what she does (pointing to my niece).
NIL: (silence)(nods and smiles).
Me: I’m staying at a hotel. Bad hotel. It’s a 3. It has a pool. No maintenance. Freezer frozen. I complained. Lots of people.
NIL: (looks at me real funny)
Me: My illness is acting up. I can tell by the way I’m talking.
That’s generally what transpired. I don’t remember exactly. What I wrote makes more sense than what I actually said. This is the first time this ever happened to me.
Trouble with word salad is your thinking isn’t matching your output verbally. I don’t think what your describing is too bad but know it can be hard especially if your stressed.
I don’t think it’s a major thing. You may come over as a bit awkward but if you try and be friendly it’s not a deal breaker…
I would suspect just more stress and processing than word salad…still. It comes with the dx that we can be awkward or socially inept. Still worthwile trying to connect and doing your best. I know it’s hard but other people without sz can be awkward too!
How about derailment? I know my little script doesn’t reflect this but It felt like my sentences weren’t connecting to each other like they had no relation to each other. Another thing is that I was only barely aware of what I was saying. And with each word, I was making less and less sense. And this was all under very high stress. I was picking up his thoughts through telepathy and they were insulting of me.