Do You Interrupt People?

[Galaxy Freeze]

Do you guys have bad habits of interrupting people without realizing it?

I do it a lot, more than I think. I've been trying to work on it lately, but I'm not sure if I've improved. Usually I think I'm just paranoid that I'll forget another point once the other person starts talking, I'll slip a phrase in right after they've started to change the subject... I hate it when I do it, but I can't seem to fix/understand it no matter how hard I try. My dad often criticizes me for it.

 

[Explosition_Rooster]

Can't say that I have, since I really don't talk to people and I generally don't interrupt people. Well, maybe when they're rude.

 

[Soup]

I'm not sure it is always a 'bad habit': I only know that the NT world has some confusing & contradictory social codes about interrupting. some people badly NEED to be stopped in their tracks when they experience a regrettable bout of verbal diarrhea. Interrupting them before they bore you to homicide or stark raving madness is good for both yourself AND them: a generous community service! When someone corners me with a flood of flap-jaw, I WILL interrupt them to enable myself to make a hasty retreat.

 

[Ylva]

I'll have to take a page out of your book, Soup. (That is, photocopy it; I don't want to mutilate your book.)

I automatically tune out noise, and my mind apparently interprets incessant rambling as noise. I can't say I disagree with it. I wish I could un-ingrain my mother's admonitions that it's rude to just turn around and walk away. Yes, it is, but it is still necessary at times!

 

[Sparticus]

Excuse me I don't mean to interupt but... Yes! A lot but lately I'm getting better at it.

 

[Mellotron]

Yea I tend to interrupt people a lot on the phone. I can never tell when they're done talking and when I should start. I do a lot of "oh sorry, you go ahead" on the phone. Its annoying. I do it to some degree in person but not as much.

 

[Galaxy Freeze]

Yeah, I'm bad with the phone, too. But sometimes when I'd be talking to my sister, there'd be these long, awkward silences. I just run out of things to say! But if there's no silence, usually I'm talking over her or at the wrong time, it's weird. Haha, actually we constantly interrupt each other, it doesn't both us too much but if I'm talking to other people I try to be more careful.

 

[Gomendosi]

I have been known to interrupt on occasion, but some people just steamroll right over the top of you anyway.

I was once told there are two types of people, those that actually listen and those that wait to have their say, but there are three types including those who don't value your opinion and cut you off mid sentence. We see so many people interrupting these days because everybody thinks that what they think is really vital and because memory is of less importance these days due to technology remembering everything for us, we tend to have to say things as we think them.

My mother is actually paranoid of being interrupted and weirdly she will then draw out her speaking so that you eventually have to interrupt, at which point she will sigh heavily and then she feels vindicated that she really is being interrupted all the time and not just paranoid like people think. I just have to marvel at self fulfilling proficies like this.

 

[Geordie]

I interrupt people all the time! Don't ask me, don't stop me, it's just me.

It's my way to tell you, 'I care about you and your thoughts so much, sorry to force a break in your thinking, but I feel you absolutely! Include me, please!'

Haha

 

[Judge]

Always. One of those things I can't seem to fake or improve on.

 

[Hadassah]

I interrupt people all the time! Don't ask me, don't stop me, it's just me.

It's my way to tell you, 'I care about you and your thoughts so much, sorry to force a break in your thinking, but I feel you absolutely! Include me, please!'

Haha

Same here, lol!! I interrupt, cause I care xD

 

[James]

Having ADHD I find that I do interrupt during a conversation. If I don't I have trouble tracking the conversation if they go on and on

 

[Asperger96]

All the time. And I hate myself while doing it, but I just can't figure out when to speak.

 

[Kadevilbig]

Hey my name is kade vilbig I'm a 22 year old college student with Asperger's And I had that same problem. A good rule of thumb and soultion to that problem is to look at them when there talking and if the stop for a few seconds then you can responde. If there were just pausing to think briefly and you start to interrupt stop and say sorry go ahead they may continue talking or say its not a big deal and you can say what you wanted to say.

 

[srispers]

in my opinion that's a normal action. most people without asperger's do it all the time but who am i to say individuals without asperger's don't have it maybe they do but are just in denial and can't come to realization that they do. don't feel bad i do the same lol.

 

[Ylva]

I've never seen "interrupts people" on a symptoms checklist.

 

[Flinty]

I've never seen "interrupts people" on a symptoms checklist.

In fact, my guess would be that this would be the opposite of a symptom...but that's just the non-clinical observation of my sister and a few of my friends.

 

[anne.bc]

YES, and the worst part is when someone will never let you talk. Right when you're finally about to get a word in, start talking, they start talking. UGHHHHHHH

My mother HATES that I interrupt her, but she interrupts me too... sooooo.... let me finish what I was going to say and then I'll let you respond and then we can switch next time? hmm?

*head desk*

 

[Christian T]

Theoretically, interrupting people during conversations is rude and something that shouldn't be done. However, in practice, conversations do contain a great deal of overlap. I too find it very difficult to judge when people are just filling in pauses with lighthearted small-talk that I can interrupt without causing offense, or when they actually want to finish what they're saying. I usually end up either missing an opportunity to take the floor in a conversation and contribute something, a lot of the time because I don't realise that a person might still have finished their turn even if they have left a sentence dangling unfinished. On the other hand, when I do try to seize the opportunity to speak, I'm either pushed out or ignored because of the mutual understanding between seemingly everyone else but me that the person speaking has not yet finished their turn.

I've heard that Aspies have a particularly strong sense of morality and equality. That is true of me in the sense that if I notice that other people can feel free to cut me off if something's happened around me - an interesting sight appears, another person has just arrived - then I assume that they don't mind if I cut them off to point out something like that. I find it very frustrating when that isn't the case.

At school I always hated when I had my hand up to ask a question but the teacher let someone else speak before me, and yet if I tried to speak out of turn, claiming the floor through mere extroversion and vocal volume, then suddenly the hands-up rule would be brought back into place.

I know that, as far as inequality goes, these instances are at the smaller and pettier end of the scale, but it still bugs me.

 

[Spinning Compass]

I have the opposite problem. People are more likely to interrupt me and it's very annoying. Especially if I am trying to get an answer to something. They don't even say "I'm sorry" or "excuse me." Now, to me, that is rude. It's not like I am going on and on about something. It's like I just get started in a conversation with someone and someone else comes in and away they go, like changing partners at a dance.

I read somewhere that interrupting is an indication of social status and power, as least when it comes to neurotypicals. Someone who is perceived as high-status or otherwise seen as important, is not as likely to be interrupted as someone who has low status and who is not seen as being important. According to that theory the fact that I am more often interrupted than interrupting (apart from the fact that I was brought up to be polite and not interrupt unless for an urgent reason) indicates where I really stand socially.