Anyone else? re: aphasia
 

I find that when I'm trying to think of a word and it doesn't quite come to my tongue, aphasia I suppose, my mind starts going 24/7. It's like I develop racing thoughts, but only when I am trying to find the word I want to say. I don't know if I've described it very well. I know this is going to sound odd but I get kind of a mental image of all the thoughts and words that could possibly be in my head at that given time and somebody has gathered them up and is swirling then around really fast in a bundle. It's weird I know. Anyone else get this?

sounds familiar but sorry can't help with what to do... maybe one of the veterans can help us

Yes :)

If word finding issues are new to you since your head injury, it's troubling when you really can't come up with something that you know, "you should know." I am like this with words, facts I know I knew, etc. I then get stuck until I figure it out.

I've found if it's in conversation, I will explain the concept of the world I'm trying to come up with, and allow people to offer suggestions until I come up with the right word. For example if I can't find the word "dog", I will say something like, "you know it's furry, has four legs, people have them as pets... etc." If not, I would be stuck for hours trying to find it.

When it comes to facts, my go to is my google app on my phone. Because again, it will bother me and my mind will obsess until I figure it out. This could take hours, and lots of brain energy.

But yes, it's normal :)

It sucks. I've had the tip-of-the-tongue thing before but this is different. I tried googling but I couldn't even get close enough to what I was trying to think of to make a proper search. It's so frustrating. I'm grateful there are others who are going through the same thing. My mom's a nurse and she knows all the book stuff and she and my dad and everyone else have been very supportive but it's different than knowing firsthand.

Classic TBI aphasia: you can describe something, down to the last detail, but can't come up with its name.

My word of the day was "earmark." Took a good hour to get it.

Yeah, not a lot of synonyms for that one. :)

This is fairly common, I had word finding difficulties the first couple of months of my recovery, and resolved after that.

Your injury is still fairly recent and I suspect you will see improvement. Speech therapy may be helpful.

Yup. Been happening a lot lately in conversations with my wife. When it happens I just stop talking. She has figured it out and usually gives me a clue or ups my train of thought and im able to figure it out. If I still cant get it then she knows the conversation is over.

Socks,

This is a common frustration. The anxiety of thoughts rushing is likely due to you trying to hard. It only makes it worse for me. My trick is to look around the room and sort of distract my mind with other images and words. It works some times as my mind lets go of the search and switches between the other stimuli.

Don't let it get to you. It will only make it worse.

Hope my trick helps. My best to you.

In an old Ellen DeGeneres stand-up she refers to the whole thing of searching for a word and involving the other person to try to figure it out as forcing them to suddenly participate in the $10,000 Pyramid.

"We were talking about floor lamps."

"No."

"Mariah Carey?"

"No."

"Things that taste like chicken! Things a monkey would wear!"

The good thing about aphasia (if there is a good thing) is that you know it's happening. One can be completely unaware of having an Apraxia (using one word, when you mean another) moment.

I usually only know it's happened because people are giving me bewildered, bemused or shocked stares.:eek:

Sometimes the words are close in sound or relationship. For example, "your sock is untied," when, obviously, I thought I'd said shoe.

Other times, they are completely off the wall. Like the time our dinner guests were all staring at me uncomfortably and my husband told me I'd just asked if they'd like a "cup of bluejay." Yes, bluejay. :Head-Spin: Chances are, a bluejay had just flown by the window at the moment I went to say coffee.

When I went into Attention Processing Therapy (APT), my wonderful instructor realized that I would often, unknowingly, insert the name of whatever crossed my field of vision, into a sentence. APT helped me relearn how to focus better on the task at hand. Thanks to that training, I don't have as many of the really outlandish apraxia moments and, when it does happen, I occasionally realize it, without prompting.

I'm going to piggyback on my own post here. I'm having trouble daydreaming, or using my imagination. This I'm just noticing today. I'm anxious, I calm myself down and try to think of a happy place, but suddenly there's a block and I can't think of anything but what's happening presently. I had a vivid imagination and no problem kinda fading off and now I can't. I'm a little freaked right now. Anyone else experience this?

Yes, a TBI can really impede one's inner life.

I was a professional fiction writer. Before my MVA, my mind was always swimming with ideas, conversations between my characters, etc... For a long time after the accident, my mind was just blank. The internal monologue had stopped. I was in a scarey silence. Left alone, I'd just sit, unaware of the passage of the hours. My sleep was black and dreamless.

As time passed, I began to regain some capacity for thought and imagination. Is it like before? No. I have only have pre-rem dreams and I know I'll never again write creatively. But, at least, I have thoughts.

God it's scary. I had the beginnings of a panic attack about it earlier. Thanks for the response though! Helps to know I'm not entirely crazy!