Having problems verbally expressing things?

[beautiful_seclusion]

Anyone else have trouble verbally expressing things due to the idea of speaking itself? I seem to not express myself very well verbally. I stumble over words, don't finish sentences, talk way too fast or not at all, and just don't articulate myself very well sometimes. But if I am to write about what I am trying to say, I can express things completely lucidly. My academic writing has always been very good as all my professors have gone on and on about how good my writing is. But if I'm to try to express the same things verbally, I often seem to have more trouble. I also notice I say things differently and use expressions differently than people seem to understand. Like I'll say things that I mean as an "expression" and people (including doctors) take me literally even though I'm not trying to be literal. Or I'll be joking and people seem to think I'm serious. I know I tend to mimic those around me as I didn't know how to express myself verbally for a long time, I did that also to learn how to do eye contact as that wasn't intrinsic for me (which still isn't amazing but it's good enough), so I must be doing something wrong with communicating through speech.

But anyway, it's very annoying for communicating with professionals, as they can't tell I'm having any trouble because even though I'm not communicating myself well, they think I am because I've learned to sound like the people around me. And I try to explain that I'm not explaining myself right, and they don't believe me. Also, it's frustrating when I'm trying to talk to people either personally or professionally (school, work, etc.). I know some of it is anxiety, but I don't think that's all of it. I'm only sometimes anxious when it happens. I especially don't think the misunderstanding what I mean by what I say has anything to do with anxiety. Also the issue itself causes more anxiety than it's provoked by, so I think there's some other reason/solution. Anyone else feel like they have a block communicating things verbally? Is there anything you've found helpful to working on it or reasons other than anxiety for it?

[offlineforever]

I can relate to this completley. The only way that I can think of overcoming it, and it is the way that I deal with it, is to write a list of what I want to say before hand, but most of the time I end up giving it to the professional to read. Once they have read it, it can make it easier for me to discuss what I'm feeling,

Maybe you could try something like that?

[synapse321]

I too can emphasise with the speech problems.

I work in a call centre where good communication skills are vital.

I feel so embarrased when unable to articulate

I could also loose my job over it..

[Heaven Knows]

I can also understand what you mean. I often feel like my tongue is too big for my mouth when it comes to trying to explain what I want to.
I also work in a call centre and find it very difficult at times.
You're not alone.
x Katie x

[beautiful_seclusion]

God, I would hate working in a call center. I hate even having to call clients at work occasionally. I also hate taking instructions over the phone, it's much worse communicating over phone for some reason than in person for me. Yes, I have written out what I'm thinking, it has been helpful especially in the past when things were much worse than I could express. I tend to be very blank/not express much emotion so its hard for me to verbally express things that are bad. I say the words, but they don't sink in for people used to seeing accompanying facial expressions/body language. So thanks for the suggestion, that definitely does help in some situations with professionals. I'm just not sure how to improve on it in personal and career situations. And how to not feel anxiety over it, it's gotten to the point of creating a self consciousness over expecting people to misunderstand me (which has often led to negative experiences).

And it's also why I finally gave up on therapy after therapists stopped treatment as i had "no treatment goals", they couldn't really understand what I was trying to express so we never really got anywhere and I'd usually fix whatever problem myself cause I could never get the therapists to understand what I was saying, cause I express myself so strangely/not at all so they'd think I was hiding something/lying/etc when I wasn't, I just was saying it oddly. I guess I just feel like I'm an alien or something and I speak a totally different language as far as meaning despite knowing the same language as everyone else. And not sure how to change that lol.