GAH! Constantly interrupted when I speak!

[calmama]

It’s infuriating! I’ve got a quiet voice and fairly introverted but I’m making an effort to speak up. I also see this happening to others too and it drives me batty!

What are your tips and tricks for addressing this?

Fall pointedly silent. Stare. Channel your inner headmistress

Haha. I like it. Though I’m not sure it would help when I’m being mansplained to.

This happens to me ALL THE BLOODY TIME. I usually leave a pointed silence at the end of the interruption followed by “oh are we speaking about X now? I hadn’t finished”

“I hadn’t finished” and go straight back to what you were saying as soon as they pause for breath can work too.

I am totally with you on this, though, and I am very bloody minded about pushing back on it now. Unfortunately DH also does it (more in an “attention span of a gnat” way than a mansplainy way but still ).

This drives me insane too. Especially when someone has actually asked me a question and then interrupts the answer! To me it is the rudest thing in the world because the subtext is almost invariably "what you have to say is of no importance" or "I know better".

The only thing I have to add to what others have said is to try keep speaking across the other person's interruption (they're expecting you to stop) which I have done once or twice when my buttons have really been pressed. It usually does the other person as they realise what they are doing. I have seen a woman do this to a chronic interrupter before, though, and they both ended up speaking simultaneously for ages. It was awful but I respected her determination!

I'm so glad to find others who are driven mad by this!

I’ve seen that too @MrSandmanBringMeABream, and they both got louder and louder until they were yelling a “normal conversation”! I’ve actually seen this a lot. It boggles my mind and not something I would bother with. I have thought about getting an air horn to blast in the air to shut them up though.

It doesn't happen to me, but I would reckon the rude people who interrupt you are not worth giving your thoughts to anyway. Just walk away. And carry on walking away until they stop doing it.

I think you should go with the air horn idea!

I get this all the time! It's infuriating! Depends who is doing it as to how I react. Sometimes I'll go silent, then say "finished?" when the interrupter has finished. I've tried the continuing to speak thing with 50:50 success (honestly I think some people don't hear anyone else's voice at all!). I've also tried "I'm still speaking" (with a raised finger as if to "shhh" the person).
And sometimes I just can't be bothered and think "ok, I won't tell you the answer then"

Ive seen both sides of this - ive got a family memeber I phone a lot who is a constant interupter as she just wants to get her point across.

But conversley they also goes on and on about topics you've heard before /repeating stories and you have to interrupt to get a word in edgeways. Some people really do dominate conversations/go on forever thinking the other person is interested and dont give a pause for natural conversation...

However she also goes on and onn

@Squashed Yep, I have a brother like this too. So I get what you’re saying. But I’m not at all like this. So I figure if I’m talking people can bloody well listen as I do them.

My boss does this. All the time. Cant say anything without her steamrolling over the top. Sometimes I barely get the first word of a sentence out before she is off again.

Fortunately she does it to everyone including her own boss so I know it isnt personal. One day I expect I will open a cupboard to find her bloodied corpse stashed away by someone driven terminally bonkers by her constant interrupting.

My comments get ignored but I think it is partly not engaging them by sight. So just before you say something lock their eyes and then say your bit.

Can I just flip this. I am not rude at all I don't care about getting my point across as I am a listener more so than a talker but I am no good at reading gaps. It's worse on the phone so I don't tend to use the phone alot maybe it's because I can't read the facial expressions to know when a point has been made and a response is needed. As it's just me saying sorry u finish. Ithink it's the way I process the conversation I try to respond to everything the person has said so they feel I'm truly listening to them. It's something I'm very insecure about and have been pulled on in the past alot so sometimes I just listen and then people will say were I just said x. And that makes me look uninterested. Probably on the spectrum somewhere just wanted to say some of us our anxious and just want you to know we are interested in the conversation.

"Ah, I see. When you said "What do you think about...", it was a rhetorical question".

Then smile. And wait.

My family are the worst. They interrupt me every time i want to say something. I said something to them but 'takaway' was that i was being terribly sensitive.
Now i keep talking which they see as rudeness. There is eyerolling. If my dad or brother interrupts me and i dont instantly zip it, then they look at me with that 'em, bit roooood' look!

I get this all the time. I wait for a break and start talking but everybody continues over me so I have stopped trying to join in now.

I’m not softly spoken but my FIL does this to me all the time. I pointedly stop dead talking so it’s obvious to everyone else in the conversation, who all get a little embarrassed. His worst efforts are seven times in one lunch.
He won’t interrupt me to talk to me, he’ll interrupt me with something unconnected that he thinks is more important. It’s so rude and I can’t fathom his logic. I hasten to add, I don’t chat incessantly and dominate conversations.

Does everyone do it or just certain people?

Can't link ATM but have a look at You Tube Ted Talk "when your body language shapes who you are" by Amy Cuddy (something like that anyway!)

Yep it happens to me all the time too. One woman in particular.
If I talk she speaks over me, if I dont talk she announces I'm being quiet. Can't win!! One of these days I am going to explode!!

My autistic ds does this all the time. It's a combination of his poor social skills and his lack of awareness that every thought does not need to be spoken out loud. Drives me utterly nuts.

When adults do this, I suspect that most of the time it's just sheer rudeness. Boils down to them trying to display dominance over you in one way or another.

Mrs. Thatcher used to hold her hand up and say, very firmly but politely, "Let me finish", "I'd like to finish what I was saying." etc.

Hold your hand up to stop them, say “Hang on a second Keith, I hadn’t finished”, then go back to what you were saying.

I would go with "Now, getting back on topic as I hadn't finished saying X about Y" or if you're feeling brave (you might only need to do it the once) "Well, before I was rudely interrupted...."
I personally think a look says more than words can so if you can do the "I can't believe you just did that and kept going" look or maybe get one of these for your mobile phone and when someone interrupts you , start looking at your phone....they'll soon cop on when you keep doing it when they are talking:
www.teepublic.com/phone-case/2021971-sarcastic-i-dont-remember-asking-for-your-opinion-