(no subject)

[brin_bellway]

(inspired by Book Review: The Seven Principles For Making Marriage Work)

It weirds me out when people talk about I-statements and other such speaking techniques.

Is this an autism thing? Like, are allistics actually capable of doing that anywhere close to reliably (assuming they choose to)?

I...basically, I am a Mass Effect character. I can generally control the *gist* of what I am saying (barring the occasional misclick), but for the most part I cannot control the exact words that come out of my mouth: I just have to hope that the phrasing doesn't have connotations or implications that I didn't intend. It's hard enough to make sure I always have the right number of *negations*, and you want me to use *I-statements*??

Comments

[lunartulip]

Huh, that's interesting! To the extent that's an autism thing, it's one I haven't previously experienced or heard about. Which doesn't mean it's not, but does point towards its at least not being a super common one.

I actually tend towards the opposite extreme; my brain-to-mouth filters are strong enough that I occasionally want to say a thing, but first need to figure out how to verbally formulate it, and end up not having time to interject it before the conversation moves on. One of my therapists commented a few times that I speak unusually slowly, and seemed to think that fact was Significant somehow, although he was never clear about exactly how.

(I move away from that pattern somewhat when I'm drunk, though; when drunk, I talk very quickly and am noticeably less inhibited about what I say, sometimes even starting sentences without knowing yet how I'm going to end them. (Although, from what several friends have told me, Drunk Me is still substantially more filtered than the typical drunk person is.))