Not Dementia but Memory: why is there a difference between remembering words when I am speaking and not when I am typing?

[KatyMac]

I just realised this today - when I am talking words disappear or I cant say them correctly or I say a similar but different word (possibly due to brain fog caused by menopause/FM/CFS/Hypothyroidism/age)

Whereas when I am typing I forget far fewer words and am much more eloquent

I mean I still cant spell! but that it life long, I used to be able to talk/speak without losing words

Perhaps because your brain has more time to think when you're typing. When you're speaking it's generally to another person/people so you have to get it all out in one go and you or your brain end up getting flustered. Would that make sense?

Possibly although in a fast moving whatsapp chat I imagine the difference is small

I think your right, thanks

When you type you can see what you have written before and what you are responding too and the first letter of the word so this will help your mind remember what the word is, as there is some visual information. When you talk it's all in your mind so if your mind goes blank .... words gone.

Sounds like brain fog so please don't worry about dementia unless you feel its getting steadily worse or really impactingon day to day life ( I have long covid and can come up with some really funny word substitutions!)

I'm not really worried about dementia but thought people here would understand memory better than most 😉

It is brain fog, compounded by many causes of brain fog!!

But moving most communication to writing has alleviated most of my problems - I just didn't know if the mechanism that enables me to write fluently could be transferred back to talking

I wonder if it's something to do with unconscious Vs conscious thoughts too, so when you're typing it flows more naturally,like when you are driving somewhere you know and aren't thinking about it. When you are speaking you put more thought into it and your consciousness worries and blocks it, like when you start thinking about breathing it becomes less natural.

@KatyMac
I would call it word finding difficulty rather than memory as word recall is a different bit of the brain.
Basically if its brain frog its asymptom of you being tired. Think of it like having a limp if walking to far.
For whatever reason writing has a less cognitive load than talking face to face. ( consider slower and more time to think when writing and also extra social pressure and anxiety about word finding when talking)
Others won't notice it as much as you so try not to worry and if you can be open about it do people are likely to be understanding. Sense of humor helps too

Aa well as the various factors above, different types of 'doing things with words' (reading, writing, speaking, listening, gramatical structure, interpreting meaning) are all stored in slightly different parts of the brain.

There have been cases of brain injury where, for example, the person loses the ability to write but can still read - or vice versa, and its fairly common after a stroke for people to lose (or partly lose) speech but still understand what people are saying to them.

And it can be transferred to some extent. There was a man (I think he's in one of the Oliver Sacks books) who retaught himself to read by tracing out the letter shapes with his finger or tongue (inside his mouth, not licking the book!). He couldn't understand the letters by looking at them.but could by 'writing' them. And after a while the skill swapped back so he could read automatically without doing the tracing.

In your case as it's general fog rather than 1 bit being out of action, I suspect it's mainly about speed and cues - writing is slightly slower and you can see all the surrounding words. But it might be that you could find some way to enlist the 'writing' brain as support when the 'speaking' brain is foggy.