Terms for strange symptoms
 

I experience some symptoms that I have given names to. Has anybody else got some with their special names?

Mine are:

Brain fart: When you try to do one thing and something different comes out, usually a speaking or typing verbal mix-up.

i.e. I was trying to say eloquent but kept saying elegant.
If my wife asks which way to turn, she knows to wait for me to correct my answer. I will often say left when I mean right.

The thought is, " Did that come out of me? Phew"

As soon as I hear the word I said, I know it was wrong and will try to correct it. It took me quite a few tries to get eloquent to come out.

It can also be something like starting to pour milk into the box of cereal. Been there. Done that. Stopped before it got messy.


Spaghetti brain: When all of the words or thoughts are zooming around in my head but I cannot get them sorted out so I can speak or type them. Sort of like 'word finding' on steroids.

Sometimes, I will try to talk or type and notice that they are scrambled and need to be edited. Those who don't understand my condition will give me very strange looks. If my wife or a friend in there, they will often acknowledge my excuse that my injured brain gets scrambled from time to time.

I don't have a name for this other symptom. It is when I see a new word with a difficult pronunciation. My mind get obsessed at trying to pronounce it. I just looked up the spelling of {HEW. The definition was <Pronunciation: \a voiceless bilabial fricative usually followed by a voiceless (y)ü or ue sound; often read as ˈf(y)ü\.> I had to try to pronounce bilabial and connect it to fricative. Now I have a pair of words to my brain to obsess on.

Does this happen to anybody else? What can we call it? Or am I just too weird?

posts your 'special' terms. Some times, it is family that come up with the term.

Hi Mark,

I have the same problems talking. The clinical names I've been given for these problems are speech aphasia (say the wrong word) and speech apraxia (can't find or say the word).

I see a speech therapist, but it's not always easy to improve in these areas. This is especially true in my case because I'm usually unaware I've made a mistake. When people are staring at me oddly, I figure I've said something wierd, but I don't know what. My family and friends sometimes point out my errors.

Sometimes my mistakes are close or related like "launch" for "lunch" or "fork" for "knife." Sometimes there doesn't seem to be any connection at all like "rug" for "oven."

We have discovered that some of my mistakes occur because I can't hold more than one thought or think ahead. For example, if I'm helping my daughter get dressed and then start to think about making her breakfast, I'll say, "Put your waffles on." I meant socks, but my mind has wandered into the next thought. I have to work very hard at staying in one moment at a time. Not an easy task for a former multi-tasker.

Of course, I'm aware when I'm struggling to find a word. The trick here is to abandon the word and use one with the same meaning. As you know Mark, this can be easier said than done as the TBI brain tends to get stuck in ruts and doesn't let go easily of whatever it's trying to grasp.

Cheers

I know the aphasia and apraxia terms. I struggle with the same problems.

My point is to have 'silly' or alternative words that allow us to be lighter as we judge our behavior.

I have a number of sayings for the aphasia:
I got my tongue caught around my eye tooth and couldn't see what I was saying.
I just washed my tongue and can do a thing with it.
I got my merds wixed up.

I spend more time with the aphasia. My wife has learned to interject the word she thinks I am trying to find. She is most often right. A doctor complained that she should stop doing it so I learn to find the words better, as if my wife is enabling a behavior. In reality, my wife just wants to help me get on with the conversation.

My wife has another term.
Brain hiccup. It is more acceptable in mixed company than brain fart although the exclamation "Did that come out of me?" fits the brain fart term better.

Josh Blue, a winner on Last Comic Standing a few years ago has a number of good explanations. He has cerebral palsy and has built a career joking about his own condition and his observations of others when they see him.

For a few good laughs, check out www.joshblue.com and download his sample bits.

Thanks for the link.

I'm sorry that I took you literally when you said you wanted terms for these speech issues - you know the rigidity of the TBI brain. Anyway, I agree that we have to try and keep our sense of humour about these speech problems.

I think that the doctor who said someone can "enable" aphasia in TBI folks by interjecting an intended word, may be off the mark. I don't even know I've made a mistake. When I say, "Would anyone like some concrete?" and my husband says, "Did you mean 'coffee'?" he's offering the correction for the benefit of a confused third party. In my mind, I've thought and articulated "coffee".

I don't choose to use the wrong word and I don't know I'm using the wrong word. When corrected, I accept that I've made a mistake because I'm being told by a reliable source - but it isn't some eureka moment where I remember speaking incorrectly. I can't self-correct. I don't misspeak and then say spontaneously, "I meant..."

The part of my brain that controls speech is badly damaged. Try as I may, expecting me to speak normally again is a bit unfair. It's not a matter of laziness or lack of concentration - I just don't have all the necessary equipment.

Yes, I think we're back to Vini's insightful one-armed juggler metaphor.

Cheers

mix ups
 

hi ya its good we give them pet names it kinda help us deal with it

I have not got a name for what I call object blindness my best one was washing out broken egg shells and placing them on the draining board

my worst was trying to drain boiling potatoes through a frying pan instead of a colander, but the weird thing was my first thought was the holes must be blocked, not that it was the wrong object

inside of a ping pong ball ,

when I was at school we had fiendish English teacher who as a punishment, would ask you to write a 200 word essay describing the inside of a ping pong ball

,I get white outs mainly when trying to name things or people with out them being there. try as I might there is nothing there, like my brain stalls some times it will clear or I will talk round it trying to remember from a different angle if you get what I mean

oh my poor computer spell checker and back space button :)

The 200 word essay describing the inside of the ping pong balls sounds easy. Just write the whole essay on white paper with white ink. It describes the inside of a white ping pong ball exactly. Then you just ask her which description she disagrees with.

I have had one problem since early after my injury. I often work with power tools that have a cord. If I am using an extension cord on one a drill but need to change the extension cord to a shop vacuum, I try to take the drill cord off the extension cord. When I do this, I drop the extension cord and try to plug the shop vacuum into the drill cord. Not gonna work. I have tried to focus on the task to get it right but still will drop the end of the extension cord.

When I was still driving, I had a 1926 Chevy Suburban Woodie. I drove it because it has very good feedback to keep me focused on the task of driving. It was quite a sight and people liked to honk their horns at me. If they did, usually at a traffic stop light, I would get flustered and have to look down at my feet and reorient my brain to the foot pedals. Otherwise, I would not remember which pedal was the gas, clutch and brake.

It would be like they just crashed my computer and I needed to reboot. Never did come up with a term for that problem, other than needing to reboot. Actually, reboot works because I needed to look at my shoes which were often boots. At least I did not have to take my boots off to reboot. LOL

good answer
 

good answer mark LOL :D but think the guy would of said now describe three red lines across your butt ! boy, corporal punishment was the norm in my day

when I first came too I could not tell my left from right , think this body orientation thing maybe a residual effect

nice old car mark I have owned in the past a 57 Austin Westminster and a 65 p5 rover 3000 ltr c suffix in a compartment it had 4 spanners that fitted every nut and bolt on the car