#alogia

[psychotic-system-culture-is]

Psychotic system culture is...

Having a week long cycle of negative/cognitive symptoms and being unable to speak for three days straight

[our-unspoken-experiences]

introduction!

[PT: introduction! /end PT]

welcome to our-unspoken-experiences! this is an experience and confession blog for anyone with speech loss and/or difficulty communicating

this blog is aimed towards anyone with temporary or permanent speech loss, mutism, disorganised communication, alogia, aphasia, and more

this blog welcomes rants, cool things that happened to you, culture-is posts, and any experiences (positive and negative) related to speech and communication loss :)

mod's name is sol! please use our name in place of 3rd person pronouns

inbox rules

[PT: inbox rules /PT]

our inbox is open unless otherwise specified

mod holds every right to not answer certain asks, and delete anything unrelated to speech and communication difficulty

you don't need to start asks a specific way, but if it'd help, you could start with "my experience is," "semiverbal culture is," or any variations you can think of

(you can also just say hi :)

if an ask has seemingly triggering content, it will be tagged #[thing] and #tw [thing]

if you share images without descriptions, they may take longer to be posted, but we'll still try to describe them

(more to be added)

current signoffs:

linked resources

[PT: linked resources /PT]

on "going nonverbal":

[PT: on "going nonverbal": /end PT]

why you shouldn't say "going nonverbal"

going nonverbal is not a thing

stop taking what's meant for the nonverbal community

"well what else am i supposed to say??"

alternative terms to describe speech loss/difficulties

what is alternative and augmented communication (AAC):

[PT: what is alternative and augmented communication (AAC): /end PT]

what is AAC?

sign language is not AAC

what is AAC by ASHA

intro to AAC by AAC community

infographics and comics:

[PT: infographics and comics: /end PT]

a note on "going nonverbal"

the verbal spectrum in autism

how autistic's communicate

let's talk about AAC

communication is for everyone / an introduction to AAC

AAC etiquette

am i allowed to use AAC?

[PT: am i allowed to use AAC? /end PT]

yes

another one for good measure

misc:

[PT: misc: /end PT]

AACpunk flag and definition

another AACpunk flag (used in the blog's banner)

nonverbal/nonspeaking masterlist

cool thread of posts of liked and disliked AAC experiences

(if you have more, please share them. this is just what i could find :)

[vam01011001]

I wonder if one day people I meet irl will stop thinking I'm just "shy" and/or discreet. The only thing they get right is that I'm quiet and don't really talk to others.

I swear if someone read all my school reports (or whatever it's called in English) they will notice absolutely all my teachers I've ever had considered me "discreet" and that I should maybe open up more.

I think some also find me rude/cold but most of the time it's only when I'm being blunt, or when I glare at people trying to talk to me / at people that are speaking about me. My glares aren't always on purpose, sometimes others misinterpret my usual blank glances (probably because my eyebrows are somewhat thick so they think I'm frowning while I'm not?).

[b0x-the-aac]

hey b0x!

what made your handler decide to try aac? i know they’ve told me before but i don’t quite remember how it got into it.

i hope something good happens to you today!

- @chrome-barkz-aac

Text Reads

I have alogia because schizophrenia

Learn AAC to help

End

Explanation

Handler has been losing its ability to speak since a little over a year ago, when it was first developing schizophrenia. It has multiple problems with speech, including poverty of speech, disorganized speech, and disjointed speech. It can't remember how it was introduced to AAC, but it had independently been working on it for a year now, to its speech therapist's pleasant surprise.

[chaoticschizo]

living everyday life while masking the aplatonic afamilial low/no empathy flat affect alogia combo is lethal

[undeletable]

Hi, please advise:

I'm an NPD/BPD/SZPD-haver (medicated and in treatment since 2011) who is best friends with someone who is suspected to have ASPD, NPD and HPD tendencies. Her symptoms are so severe that they damage her relationships. Following one or two sessions with a counselor who noted that she has these tendencies, she is not in treatment because she doesn't think anything is wrong. That, I can't change, so I am just trying to be a supportive friend while maintaining my own boundaries.

There is something specific that sticks out to me and that is her language abnormalities. Olivia issues a lot of contradicting statements, omits important details in conversations, and seems to have grown up using a dictionary that the rest of us did not have – but expects everyone to know exactly what she means when she speaks. More on that and other behaviors/thoughts below the cut.

I am wondering how to kindly point out when she isn't making sense and that I think she needs professional help. It is impossible to offend her, so I'm not worried about hurting her feelings, but I want to be constructive and clear.

Additional details:

- extremely low empathy

- serious alexithymia; has "head emotions" like me, but they're very faint and she can just "push them away". She has made an impressive habit out of this.

- Unable to communicate properly: I think the best example is a past work conflict where she said she'd need four days to finish a project. Four days passed and the project was not done. What she had meant was four days spread out across several weeks. She was bewildered when her workplace did not understand this.

Another example: When she was getting ready for her master's program, she told me that she wouldn't be talking to anybody. When I followed up with her about this because it had made me a bit sad, she backpedaled hard and said that what she had meant was that she would be less available. "Unavailable" and "less available" are two very different things. I was confused as to why she hadn't just said what she meant. This happens a lot. I just remain patient and get clarity on what she means, but sometimes I think even she doesn't know what she means.

- Idiosyncratic beliefs: A thought experiment in university about the possibility of calling a friend during a game show, and winning $1 million if the friend picks up, but losing it all if they don't, convinced her that she needs to pick up every call she receives. Even if it's a robocall. Because a friend might be in that kind of situation and she wants to make sure they win...which is nice, but...

- Masking: like me, she puts on a façade for everyone she knows. Unlike me, she adjusts her persona for each friend group, and after time spent away from them, finds it hard to adjust from group to group. We have agreed not to mask around each other.

- abusive upbringing obv

- Often hurts people with the things she says, even when she doesn't mean to. We've talked about this and have an agreement that if she says something hurtful to me, I can talk to her about it and she will try not to be defensive or evasive about it.

- She changes her mind a lot on things related to values and principles, to the point of true cognitive dissonance. She's been a Communist since high school, but last year said she would have voted for the federal conservative party.

At one point she enthused that it was "incredible" that the provincial conservative party had started polling so strongly. Then, half a year later, when I asked her if she ever feels strong hatred, she said that she hates the provincial conservatives because they are so stupid.

This woman is 28 years old and has a degree in political science 😂 Unsure what changed in either of these cases, but it was her enthusiasm and then vehemence that threw me.

- Gets triggered when other people express emotions like fear, grief or insecurity. She doesn't sense it, but I've noticed how her body language changes (freezing), and her eyes become very distant.

- Has two kinds of tells when making false statements: expressive and brief. Either her inflections become more dynamic, she's more energetic, and she gestures a lot; or, she tells the lie in a single sentence and then stops altogether. She doesn't go on chatting about herself as usual. It's like she doesn't know she's lying, but her body somehow does.

[briar--rising]

Managed shower. Even washed hair. 5 minutes to spare. Go me.

Yesterday avolition so bad eating lunch took almost 3 hours. Dad made lunch for but just the eating part so hard. Force fork to mouth, chew food, swallow, repeat. Again. Again. So hard. 2+ hours to eat bowl spaghetti. Hate this.

Sometimes helpful another person there. A comes in few mintues. She brings dinner. While she is here will help make eating easier. So that's good. Good. Hate this.

[only-knives]

hey what is the term for trouble word finding?? its some kind of subset of alogia? or aphasia? but i cant remember what the term is...