Young man mixing up my words...seem to be losing vocabulary etc
January 25, 2018 7:05 AM   Subscribe

I'm wondering if I'm going mad. I seem to be losing my vocabulary a little bit, I'm mixing up words when I'm reading aloud to my children at bedtime and I'm sometimes misspeaking at work, for example: "Yes I'll get them invoice charge us for them" or "No, I noticed was that a bit odd". Small things like that.

I'm wondering if this can be attributed to tiredness or if something more sinister may be at work. Is this grounds for going to see a doctor? I'm in the UK and the whole health service is really really stretched so I don't want to waste anyone's time. I'm 33 and in otherwise rude health.
posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (22 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Tiredness causes similar problems for me. See if things improve with a week of good quality sleep before seeing the doctor.

There have been other threads about improving sleep quality with lots of good suggestions.
posted by duoshao at 7:09 AM on January 25, 2018 [4 favorites]


Pregnancy does this to me - is that a possibility?

Edited - oh, I see from your title that this is unlikely.
posted by valeries at 7:12 AM on January 25, 2018 [14 favorites]


I was going to suggest: fatigue, blood sugar, medication that you started recently. Fatigue can kick in if you are sleeping poorly, like with sleep apnea, even if you are getting enough sleep.
posted by puddledork at 7:13 AM on January 25, 2018


Tiredness, stress, and reading aloud too fast can make me do that. Slowing down and reading a bit more mindfully makes a big difference.

My brain is cruising along with no skips so it doesn't happen when I read silently. Is your brain/awareness hiccuping too, or just your mouth?

Either way, if you have a health concern, you are not wasting anyone's time. A finding of nothing wrong is a legitimate finding!
posted by headnsouth at 7:14 AM on January 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


When I'm reading aloud to my children, I find that my eyes are generally scanning ahead on the line to see what I'm going to say next, and sometimes I overload my memory buffer and the words come out jumbled.

Agreed this is probably worse when you're tired. Distraction also might be a factor - when I'm reading to the kids, especially a long book, I'm not always 100% focused - the kid's squirming is distracting me, I just remembered that thing I forgot to do, etc. Is it possible that's what's happening at work too? You're thinking about one thing and talking about another and the trains of thought collide?
posted by telepanda at 7:14 AM on January 25, 2018


Rude health? :)

I think it’s worth making an appointment and in the meantime focusing on sleep, exercise and healthy food. Make a few notes about when you make these errors and what kind. 33 is a bit young to be tripping over things but if you have kids, stress and any sleep issues (such as a 3 year old kicking you in the guts every night after coming into bed), it wouldn’t be out of the realm of normal.

One thing I notice with age and having kids is my ability to coherently multi-task is spread pretty thin. So where I used to be able to think about one thing and talk about another thing and smoothly jump around, after sleep deprivation/the wonders of parenthood, I had to do a lot more focus on focusing.

But you’re worried so get it checked.
posted by amanda at 7:16 AM on January 25, 2018


I'll repeat what others have said that tiredness definitely ruins my English. Mostly I find it harder to actually pull the right work from my brain; I'll either take a 2-4 second pause while thinking, and possibly trying out words to find the right one. Example: "The problme isn't just that these two things happened, but that they happened ... simpl, no ... conince, no ... simultaneously!"

The other way is yeah, my grammar will fall apart. I generally don't misorder words in the way that you're describing, but I wouldn't be surprised if tiredness couldn't cause that effect.

Note, when I'm talking about tiredness, I mean less than three hours of sleep the night before. I'm lucky enough that most any time I have such little sleep (usually work related), that the next night I can get at least 7-8, which while still leaving me tired for a few days doesn't leave me wrecked in the same fashion.

Why are you so tired; are you not getting/making time to sleep, or are you not able to sleep despite having the time? If you can't sleep despite the time, then that's definitely something to see a doctor over. The point being that you won't be able to attempt to see how you are with good amounts of rest because you have a problem.

If you just aren't made time, work hard on your schedule to eliminate anything that can be, or cash in some favors with people to get a full week with at least 8 hours of sleep. If your problem goes away, then you need to look towards making life choices which allow more sleep. If your problem doesn't go away, then again it's definitely worth a health followup.
posted by nobeagle at 7:21 AM on January 25, 2018


A thing I learned when I was doing transcription is that people make little speech errors like this all the time and mostly just don't notice. I agree it's worth talking to a doc if you're worried, especially since confusion and fatigue can be symptoms of other things, but... is it possible you're just in a vicious cycle of getting-worried / paying-more-attention / noticing-more-errors / getting-more-worried?
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:24 AM on January 25, 2018 [5 favorites]


This happens to me when I'm not paying full attention. Similarly, I will omit letters when I'm writing (yesteray instead of yesterday). Paying closer attention is hard, but it helps.
posted by 8603 at 7:25 AM on January 25, 2018


Yes, you should go to see a doctor.

Other people may experience this routinely. That's great for them.

You don't experience this routinely. You need to see a doctor.

My father started misspelling words. No big deal, right? Most people can't spell.

Except him. He was a perfect speller all his life, until then.

The spelling mistakes were caused by an astrocytoma. It took five months to get the diagnosis that you're supposed to get within two weeks. Shortly after his diagnosis, he was dead. On the morning of his funeral, the ambulance came to pick him up for his first radiotherapy appointment.

An overstretched NHS is a reason to go to the doctor *sooner*, not decide it's probably nothing and wait a few months.

I know how alarmist it is to say this. You probably don't have a brain tumour. If you do have a brain tumour, it's probably benign. I shouldn't scare you like this. However...

Just go to the doctor OK please.
posted by tel3path at 7:27 AM on January 25, 2018 [29 favorites]


Go to the doctor. I experienced this when I first had stress. But I kept on going till I was seriously ill, and it developed into constant anxiety. Go
posted by mumimor at 7:29 AM on January 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


If it only happens at hope, check your house for carbon monoxide.
posted by SemiSalt at 7:37 AM on January 25, 2018


I started something similar recently - saying the absolute wrong word (like "pineapple" when I meant "lotion", for example). I got it checked out and it was absolutely stress-induced. That being said, though, aphasia is a potential stroke symptom, so get it checked out.
posted by okayokayigive at 7:46 AM on January 25, 2018


I think people are being surprisingly cavalier about this. Aphasia is a major, alarming symptom. People get 'tired' and 'stressed' all the time, but they generally aren't losing control of their language to a noticeable degree. It could be a brain tumor, seriously. Or something else which quick intervention would help. I'm not trying to be an alarmist, but this is your brain we're talking about here... what could be more serious and worthy of getting properly checked out, especially if you have children? I personally dealt with a neurological issue that I never thought to get checked out because assumed it was just a quirk or something semi-normal, and the path of my life would have been very different if I had taken it seriously many years ago, just for the record.
posted by thegreatfleecircus at 7:56 AM on January 25, 2018 [17 favorites]


Wasting NHS time is ringing for an ambulance with a broken fingernail - you have a genuine* concern that needs to be discussed with your GP, put the internet down and go make an appointment. You're worth it.

* Spookily, just an hour ago I tried to say brisket and could only manage brixton and brexit until finally forcing out the correct word. I've not had much sleep this past few weeks (partner has been ill) and am quite stressed. If this were a more frequent occurrence I would definitely, definitely get it checked out.
posted by humph at 7:57 AM on January 25, 2018 [4 favorites]


My father had an episode like this & the NHS promptly put him through every scan known to mankind in case he’d had a stroke / got something else serious. Having been cleared of anything obvious, they’re now testing for more obscure things “just in case”. He appears to be fine, so crossed fingers it was just stress / tiredness.

Get yourself to your GP & get checked out.
posted by pharm at 8:12 AM on January 25, 2018


This is either nothing or something, but if it is something, it could be a big something that will get much worse if not treated promptly. Get it checked out.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:29 AM on January 25, 2018 [4 favorites]


The "get to your GP" part has been well covered, but to address the part where you're worried about wasting anyone's time: this is not a "ghost poo" situation.
posted by asperity at 10:24 AM on January 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


Good advice above. In addition, please make sure the doctor checks your Vitamin B12 levels.
posted by gudrun at 11:07 AM on January 25, 2018


I get aphasia (word salad!) as part of the aura when I'm about to get a migraine (I also get tingling and scotoma. Not everyone that has aura gets the headache, but the aura also can mimic stroke symptoms. Get it checked out.
posted by Pax at 11:15 AM on January 25, 2018 [4 favorites]


This was happening to my wife just before she was diagnosed with a significant vitamin D deficiency.
posted by Clustercuss at 12:54 PM on January 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


I got this just before I was diagnosed as being severely anaemic. Basically, we are all guessing and you will be too until you see a doctor.
posted by Jubey at 2:51 AM on January 26, 2018


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