Impaired Language in Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Whilst I do have the above problem, (& find it most embarrassing & frustrating), I find another speech difficulty to be even worse.
Does anyone else spout gibberish, when they’re not even trying to communicate anything? It usually happens to me when I am having what I call a ‘jerky attack’ (some kind of seizure, with huge jerking movements coming from my very centre), & seems to be unprovoked. Last night when it was happening I noticed that I was still thinking in English, even though what was coming out of my mouth was anything but… When I was finally able to speak again, (which was only after a VERY long time), my words were very slow & spaced out – as if I’d had a stroke. My Dr has no idea of what is happening, so I would be really relieved to find I wasn’t the only one it was happening to!
(I have had M.E. for 34 years, & this has been happening at sporadic intervals throughout that time.)
I always feel extremely tired afterwards, after all the involuntary jerking. I’ve noticed over the years, that these episodes often end with a huge yawn.
Does this happen to other M.E. patients?

I experience this speech impedimant all the time and I’ve been ill for a decade this coming March. It’s like I forget what it is I’m saying or the point I’m trying to make and/or the specific word to tie it all in. It’s nuts just as trying to explain it above may not make sense.
I as well can’t stand talking on the phone to someone I don’t know and it seems to advance my leakage of energy rapidly almost as much as when sunlight hits my skin. I think it’s simply when you’re talking to someone you don’t know you have to acheive a greater degree of concentration – who knows!
As far as the “jerky attack” the other comment relayed I get those all the time but typically right when I’m about to fall asleep. At times I’ve thrown the remote across the room from the “spasm” – other times I could swear my entire body comes off the bed it’s so intense. And yes it seems to come from right in the trunk of my body.
Despite being ill this long I moved almost 5 years ago to Texas and I’m still finding it difficult finding doctors out here. It’s just sad to be a productive individual person my entire life and now to be looked at like a hypochondriac that is just ageing!

I have experienced this–and it was the lack of being able to articulate, assimilate, and relay information that stopped me midway through a PhD program. While other symptoms had existed for years, this one was, and is, one of the more devastating.

Wow, I am so happy to see this discussed! As someone who has always excelled at anything language-related, this is one of the most frustrating parts of the Fibro for me.

I struggle to find words, substitute the wrong ones, and speak in gibberish. another thing I’ve noticed is that wehn I’m tired or stressed or flaring, my brain will just grab a word, no matter what language it is! I am not fluet in anything other than English, but I know a little bit of about 6 languages. I have to apologise to my friends, family, and SO because I will randomly use other languages for no reason…

Wow our brains are weird!!

DR and others,

Here’s a forum post that has a lot more information on the cognitive problems we have and covers some of the things you’ve mentioned:

Cognitive Deficits

I have FM and the aphasia that goes with it. I can leave my keys on the bed but I can’t find the word “bed” so I say “it’s on that thing we sleep on upstairs” or “it’s on that square thing in the middle of the living room we put stuff on”. Ask me the same question ten minutes later and I have no problem finding “bed” or “coffee table”.

I found a work around that may help others. If I see a picture of the object in my mind, the word just pops into my head. So if hubby says “where are your keys” and I’ve lost the word, I bring a clear image of our bed into my minds’ eye. Then the word for bed just pops into my head. It’s as if the word for bed is a computer file and for some reason I temporarily cannot access it from the directory I’m in which is the oral representation of the object. So I go to another directory-the visual representation of the object-and I can find my way from the picture back to the word. Describing the bed doesn’t help, I have to be able to look at the visualization of the object in my head. This works almost all of the time. When I lose a word, I pause for just a few seconds and then I’m able to continue talking. It works best for nouns, of course. When it comes to descriptive words, which can’t always be pictured in your mind clearly, it works less well. If I’m watching TV and I want to say to hubby “wasn’t that last scene nauseatingly anvilicious?” and I can’t find the word “anvilicious” I can’t bring up a picture of it. So hubby guesses the word and it ends up being a guessing game.

I’m a writer and I lose words all the time. MSWord’s thesaurus is my best friend. I search for adjectives with close meanings and then click through the thesaurus until I find the lost word. My thesaurus is my mind’s lost and found department.

I had CFS & Fibro for 15 years before getting better. I don’t have true brain fog anymore & I use my brains in writing and for my blog & podcast a lot each day. Pure tiredness does not throw me into an episode of mis-speaking a name, but stress often does. And a combination of tiredness & stress… watch out! Then at odd times, it shows up like a new pimple. But all in all, this symptom is pretty much gone & that’s good. Now, once again, I’m talking and writing for a living. I hope this personal account helps and encourages someone.

I actually forgot my child’s birth date at the drug store when picking up a prescription. I know they thought I was nuts!

Thanks for a great article! I have a really hard time speaking in an organized fashion. And I find that when I get frustrated or anxious or depressed (which is pretty often lately) its even worse. I especiallly run into trouble when I go to the Doctor! I either can’t remember it or can’t say it so they will understand. I find that I can write much better than I can speak about something. So when I go to the doctor, I always have notes that are very detailed and sometimes I just write them like a letter and ask if I can just read it to them. So far, no one seems to mind either!

I was surprised to read JC’s comment because I, too, was derailed from a PhD program because I could no longer think, assimilate, or write. I’ve had Fibro for about 5 years and it has steadily robbed me of the life I had…

I keep thinking this is linked to sleep and fatigue. I just found it so interesting when a very attentive sleep doctor quietly assured me that I would re-gain some of my cognitive function when I was on sleep meds. He told me it would take a few months of improved sleep.

Well, I don’t think my sleep improved enough that it’s back to “normal” but I am doing better, thankfully. I don’t know if he was referring to memory difficulties (tho memory could play a role in ‘recalling’ the right words) or to other cognitive functions. He said that sleep apnea patients often have cognitive problems as well, before they start getting treatment.

I still have to chuckle a bit when I recall telling mom not to call my aunt because she was out vacuuming the lawn. Or, when I walked into a room at work and stood there, looking puzzled — walked out hoping that my co-worker hadn’t realized something was wrong. I looked at her and said… “Brain…” (long pause) “Dead.” (pause and a smile lights up my face), “BRAIN DEAD!” I was happy to recall the right word… but after I realized what that must have looked like, I started laughing. My co-worker teases me sometimes, but it’s ok. I do sometimes get upset when something like this happens, like I’ve let myself down somehow — but it’s not my fault. It’s just the illness.

I am so relieved to read here that others share this speech/brain fog issue……………I have this almost daily with things I shouldnt forget also…and it is embarrassing to say the least……some people have acted way outta line at times in the past with this and I allowed myself to feel really stupid and humiliated. The worst being is I love the english language and words and their meanings….& always loved to write when younger…..but sometimes I simply cannot for the life of me remember my phone number, or my SS number, or other stuff I know all too well MOST of the time….and when I feel panicky from forgetting….it makes it all that much worse.

What I try ( ‘try’ being the operative word here) to do today is laugh at myself also rather then apologizing for my ‘Lucy moment’…..or……say something like,” Its my first day with my new brain….or even still……” WHO’S babysitting me today!!?” ( I just wanted to see if you were paying attention is another winner….) And ,after making light of the whole thing…if I dont feel better, I just try to shrug it off cuz having all these rotten symptoms everyday, all day, is ENOUGH of a burden….I certainly dont need to add to it.

Hope I have helped someone out there with my humorous way of handling such a delicate problem for us all…..

I hate phone calls with people that I don’t know. I get flustered and can’t get out a coherent answer. With friends and relative it’s not as bad, but I prefer instant messenging or email. I hate long conversations on the phone. I get fatigued and confused and words don’t come out right.

I have SPMS + FMS. Great combination.

Peace & Serenity,
Maris in Israel

I have this all this time also. It helps to have a great sense of humor and a husband who understands. I can usually get the first letter…so we have a “game” and just sound out some words or make up a new word for it…takes the stress out of searching for the right word.

I have FM probably since childhood — although it took until 2006 (55 y.o.) for a diagnosis! I have always found words quite unrelated to what I am saying finding their way into my sentences; also forgetting simple words and totally mixing up information/forgetting stuff.
My sons used to call me “Mrs. Malapropism”!

I have never been a book reader even though I read everything else in sight. I think it is because I have a comprehension problem which has to do with my inability to retain information that I am reading over a period of time. So if I have to take a comprehensive test — I do miserably. Or if I have to transfer information from one document to another — cut and paste has become a life saver.

In school I was always labeled an “under achiever”. I think it was because the FM caused me to have a learning disability.

The speech stuff does improve with better sleep and less stress – my brain is much clearer. When I say a wrong word I don’t let it throw me but work to change my sentence if I can, and somehow my brain has done a better job accommodating.

My kids patiently correct me when I make obvious mistakes — I apologize, thank them for the correction. Do I feel stupid — yes; but beating myself up for it won’t help anything. I do get frustrated if I get into a “tangle” with someone about my memory of an event vs. their’s knowing that sometimes I am right! My credibility is not good.

I am lucky to have supportive husband, friends in addition to my sons.

When I was working — I wrote everything — EVERYTHING — down. And when I filed my EEO disability discrimination grievance/lawsuit it made management furious! So they fired me (retaliation). It is a good thing I have all of those notes!

It is so, so helpful to read that other’s have the same kinds of struggles. Thank you for sharing.

Just saw this..Excellent!

Managing Fibrofog – The Cognitive Dysfunction of Fibromyalgia

by Dr. Mark J Pellegrino, MD*
March 16, 2009

http://tinyurl.com/c9og8l

I am SO glad to have read this, I cried! This has been the most frustrating thing for me. My intelligence has always been my best (ACK! attribute?). I’ve always dumbed down the large vocabulary I use before I speak, but now I can’t do that because I can’t find the word in my head TO dumb down.
I forget words all the time. I too, need to “see” a picture in my mind to help me remember the word. But I can often get the first letters, too.
But my word substitution is just the oddest thing! I will sometimes use a synonym, and that’s great; nobody knows but me. But once I used “tomato” in place of “strawberry”. I try to use humor, and that was a good one. But one time I told it, the strawberries became watermelons. A month later, I was looking for strawberries at the store, and wondered out loud, “Now where are the cherries?” Well, at least I consistently choose red food! Aren’t our brains odd?

I have problems sometimes understanding words, speaking and reading a completely different word than what is actually printed on the page. My most perplexing problem is something altogether different. It seems to happen every year in the change of season either from Spring to Summer or Summer to Fall. I get something like Bels Palsy on the right side of my face and my tongue spasms and won’t make the proper shapes for words. I sound like a stroke victim. The first time it happened was a couple of years ago and it lasted until August. This past Summer it was a lot shorter but it still happened. During stressful times it seems to start in a mild form but never develops fully. Anybody else have this problem? Is there any information about this?

This is a real eureka moment for me. I regularly lose words half way through speaking and resort to describing the item like Maureen_in_Mukilteo. I regularly forget how to spell simple words drawing a complete blank and I regularly replace words with the wrong word like dn527 said.

I think the most major thing I have noticed is that I really have to think about what I’m about to say, almost practising it in my head before hand to be sure it makes sense and even ties into the conversation. The number of times I’ve added something to a conversation and then in hind sight realized it didn’t actually make any sense…very embarrassing.

Thanks for this article…so nice to know I’m not alone!

Ugh. Jane, I’m always saying the wrong thing in a conversation! It is crazy embarassing, and then ppl start avoiding/feeling sorry for you.

I need a T-shirt to explain that having a conversation with me is like talking to someone on a cell phone when they go into a tunnel and then come out the other end. (what did she just say? … ;/).

I to loose words or say the wrong ones.At first I thought it was just me. It’s a good thing my husband, daughter and best friend know me so well or they wouldn’t have a clue what I’m talking ablut/

I will start to tell them something any by the time the description is finished I have forgotten what I was talking about in the first place. I just laugh and say I forot what I was talking about.

I put strange words where they dodn’t belong and go into this long spirel of trying to tell them what I am looking for, or thinking or trying to tell them.

I also mix up letters when typing and put things in the wrong place.

It’s really strange but , I am a licensed wildlife rehabber and when I am dealing one of my animals or my pets I can do what heeds to be done while the words coming out of my mouth make no sense. The only time it relly bothers me is with some one who has brought be a wild baby and they look at me like I’m nuts and should I leave this animal with this nut. Luckily I have a gret reputation with people and it has spread by word of mouth. I just look at them and I have no idea what I just said but really do know what I’m doing. and laugh. If I have a lot buns I just put it up to stress

But I have noticed that stress really makes a difference and I’m stressed all the time so I just laugh a lot let it go. I just kind of stop and reconoiter9 Like they do in the army when they are under attack). I’m not sure I used the right word or spelled it correctly.

I have burned up so many pots because I was trying to boil water and yesterday I had started to put water in the kitchen sink, the washer was going and so was the dishwasher ( the electric co must have loved me that day) /////When for some reason I looked over at the sink and I had soap suds rising high and the sink had run over and the counters were full of water .

I’m amazed that so many of us have this affliction. It gets frustrating at times, but I have a family with a sense of humor. When they see me struggling with a word, they say…..”Sounds like?” and then we do a charades type game until I get the word or someone guesses it. It is very annoying during a job interview!!!