Inappropiate Words

A few nights ago, after dinner, I thought to myself.. " I would really like to have some purple".

Yeah, I know. What the heck does that mean?



What I really wanted, as illustrated above in the word cloud, was some pudding. My brain, in a frantic effort akin to driving lost on a freeway ... took the wrong exit and told me we were where we needed to be. It quickly handed me a word which was silly and inappropriate to the situation at hand. I had a little guffaw at myself, then proceeded to tell G what I had been thinking. We laughed a bit.

This is known as Word Finding, and is a common symptom in traumatic brain injuries. In addition to substituting the wrong words, there is also lack of words... I know you've had a word on the tip of your tongue before.  It's like that.  Only, instead of being able to think of 15 other words that might mean the same thing (making it a little easier for whom ever you are communicating with), you can't come up with at least one word like the word you lost.  So, you stand there, straining. Embarrassed because you have the picture in your head of a goose, but for the life of you can't come up with the word, or any similar words.

Advice for caregivers and friends of us with tbi... give us a little patience- don't jump in and start handing us words until we ask. When you immediately start guessing at words, it derails our thought process. First, it started out as a bit embarrassing, now it's downright frustrating (which could cause more stress in an already stressful situation) . I know you want to be helpful, and we appreciate it many times over; but unless we're in a burning building, there is no reason to have us rush our communication.