Can anxiety make you fumble and flub your words and say disjointed things?

[wasthatafilm]

I started a training course, the first one in a long time, at the weekend. It's for something very important and the first day I was so incredibly nervous.

I noticed when I was speaking I just couldn't seem to make a point succinctly for one thing, so I was rambling and sounding fucking stupid, and I could feel my heart racing and my vision was literally pulsating from stress in those moments.

Then in casual small talk conversation on the breaks I actually tripped up over small simple sentences a few times? The words actually came out in the wrong order?

This happened especially if I was trying to do something else ie pour a coffee at the same time as respond to the person, I just felt so flustered and unable to easily do, well, anything really, and it's like it took intense effort to not look stupid and do things normally, and then I still ended up looking stupid.

It had eased off and was not remotely so bad by day 2 of the course but should I see a doctor about early dementia or something? Or could this be intense anxiety in the situation?

Yes, it could be intense anxiety.

I get this when I am either very tired or very anxious.

I've noticed other people getting it as well - I'm a teacher and often at the end of parent's evenings after a 12 hour day lots of us are struggling with our words.

This happens to me when I'm anxious. I think it's quite normal - normal for me, anyway.

How old are you? I’m often the same, I put it down to being peri menopausal.

Thanks for your replies. Hopefully anxiety then and nothing more sinister.

I was like this when I started with peri. I still sometimes can't get my words to all go in order.

I'm 38. Not sure if I'm peri menopausal but I was very tired as was awake with ovulation pain the night before. Felt physically not great.

Don't think this has anything to do with dementia or menopause in these circumstances. Stress and nerves.

I definitely started with symptoms at 38. I'm 42 now and on hrt but the years when I kept being told I was too young for it to be peri were awful.

Maybe not but it can cause major anxiety. It's worth a thought.

I don't mean to dismiss menopause symptoms etc., but as the immediate circumstances were a situation when the OP felt very stressed and anxious, that seems a more obvious route to take.

It's extreme anxiety.

Have you had a past experience of an overbearing partner or parent?

Yes, I hate public speaking and just had to do an induction via teams, and I said so many wrong words, time came out as toime as if I was Irish or something.

I’m 38 too. Definitely developed anxiety when I became peri menopausal amongst other delightful symptoms.

Recently I had several stressful events back to back, and I was forgetting words and struggling to string a sentence together. It's eased as things have sorted out. I was worrying about young onset dementia too.

Yes, it's very common to lose your thread and stumble over words when nervous or anxious. I think most of us have been in a slightly awkward social situation or a job interview at some point and found ourselves starting to talk in a panicked gabble, haven't we? Or have been introduced to someone important and instead of saying 'Hello, Mr Bloggs, lovely to meet you, I'm ManateeFair' just blurting out 'Hello, I'm Mr Bloggs' and then immediately wishing for the sweet release of death.

Anyway - basically I think what you experienced was essentially a more intense version of that. Very normal for someone in an anxious state. I sympathise.