Silent echolalia?

[DogwoodTree]

Do you ever repeat words/sounds/phrases in your head over and over, but not out loud?

I didn't think of this as echolalia until I was reading an article just now about autistic characteristics that look different in women and are therefore so often missed. Autistic girls tend to be quieter...so even though the behavior of echolalia is not apparent to observers, that doesn't mean it's not happening. And I realized that I do this silently--forming sounds in my throat without making the sound out loud--all the time.

Not sure if this is more aspie or more OCD, though...there are several phrases and even entire sentences or paragraphs I feel compelled to say to myself when I get stressed out about something or start to worry about particular things.

It's very common for my throat to feel sore and strained by the end of the day if I've been really stressed, even if I haven't talked out loud much, because I'm forming these silent sounds in my head and throat.

 

[Ylva]

I do. I reckon it's due to all the admonitions I got as a child to "make sounds inside you instead". Unsurprisingly, my brother got to make all the horrible sounds he felt like making.

 

[Kirsty]

Is your echolalia controlled in public and when you get home you say them out loud?

 

[DogwoodTree]

Not really...I always keep it silent. Every now and then, when I actually start gagging because my throat gets so tight from keeping it in, I'll let myself whisper under my breath. But I live with my DH and 4 kids, so there's really no time when I could make vocalizations anyway that wouldn't sound strange to someone. But even in the brief period I lived alone (after leaving home for college, after getting my own apartment away from roommates, before I got married, long before I knew anything about autism), I don't recall ever vocalizing this stuff out loud very often. It sounded too strange even to me.

 

[nightowl]

Repeating words silently in my mind is something I do from time to time. Especially when I'm under stress, or when I afraid to speak up, but I still need "say" something. Sometimes, I just do it without really thinking about it...

 

[ExplosiveTMT]

Come to think of it, I do.

 

[Ellylldan]

Hmm.. Very interesting... I thought echolalia was when you repeat after someone right away, I never actually looked into it. I don't repeat words after others in the moment they were spoken, but I do repeat a word or a phrase over and over mostly in my head but sometimes also out loud when I am alone. It feels like it's stuck there. Though I wouldn't say I do it only in the moments of stress, it can happen any time, I can do something and in the same time mumble some phrase I've heard from someone or have said myself. It just pops up in my head and I start repeating it. Would it be echolalia, too?

 

[Spiller]

Is your echolalia controlled in public and when you get home you say them out loud?

A lot! DogwoodTree, you've suddenly made me realise this!
Always at home, though I've caught myself starting to repeat parts of conversations when I'm out. I had a period for a while after my breakdown 18 months ago where this would go on for 2-3 hours sometimes.. nearly set fire to the kitchen once because I was concentrating on a conversation I'd had days ago!
I had a teacher at college who suffered with Echolalia; all the other guys'd make fun, I just felt sorry for him. That's why I restrain myself in public.
Wow, another condition to add to my list, thanks Dogwood

 

[DogwoodTree]

Wow, another condition to add to my list, thanks Dogwood

Lol, glad I could help...I think?

 

[Spiller]

Lol, glad I could help...I think?

My psychiatrist's gonna say "Aspergers, nah. Hypochondria, yep!"

 

[Kirsty]

A lot! DogwoodTree, you've suddenly made me realise this!
Always at home, though I've caught myself starting to repeat parts of conversations when I'm out. I had a period for a while after my breakdown 18 months ago where this would go on for 2-3 hours sometimes.. nearly set fire to the kitchen once because I was concentrating on a conversation I'd had days ago!
I had a teacher at college who suffered with Echolalia; all the other guys'd make fun, I just felt sorry for him. That's why I restrain myself in public.
Wow, another condition to add to my list, thanks Dogwood

Lol I always do that too - replaying conversations I had days ago and really getting into the emotions of it that I would literally act out a scene in my bedroom like its a movie to practice my social skills.

 

[Spiller]

really getting into the emotions of it

I actually found that imaginatively reliving bad experiences like this was making my depression sooo much worse; your body can't tell the difference between an actual and an imaginary experience. So imagine having that argument with the woman who thinks I'm a benefits scrounger, how upset, hurt and emotional I feel, thinking about all the things I could've/should've said to her at the time, then having the same argument in my mind again, then again and again!
I still have a tendency to do it, but mentally clamp down and stop it.. less depression and less kitchen repainting

 

[Kirsty]

I actually found that imaginatively reliving bad experiences like this was making my depression sooo much worse; your body can't tell the difference between an actual and an imaginary experience. So imagine having that argument with the woman who thinks I'm a benefits scrounger, how upset, hurt and emotional I feel, thinking about all the things I could've/should've said to her at the time, then having the same argument in my mind again, then again and again!
I still have a tendency to do it, but mentally clamp down and stop it.. less depression and less kitchen repainting

Yeah that's what you've got to watch- it might depress you.

 

[AsheSkyler]

Yes. Sometimes a word or handful of words will get stuck, a lot like a broken record, and just repeat over and over until I can shake it out or somehow make it stop. Pretty common when I'm having mock conversations in my head or trying to remember scenes from movies. Quite annoying.

 

[DogwoodTree]

Yes. Sometimes a word or handful of words will get stuck, a lot like a broken record, and just repeat over and over until I can shake it out or somehow make it stop. Pretty common when I'm having mock conversations in my head or trying to remember scenes from movies. Quite annoying.

Oh yes, I get stuck on words in my head, too. It's almost like I'm trying to pronounce it exactly in the right way, with the right emphasis and smoothness and energy or whatever...even though it's still just all in my head and not something I'm saying out loud. And yes, it's usually in the course of a "mock conversation" in my head.

Do NT's think like this, I wonder? It sounds so strange, but then maybe they just don't talk about it and yet they do it, too?

 

[Ellylldan]

Do NT's think like this, I wonder? It sounds so strange, but then maybe they just don't talk about it and yet they do it, too?

My husband's aunt, who is very much NT, tends to suggest the last word of the phrase to a person she's talking with, basically saying that word together with that person, and often also repeats the last word the person said. It always looks like she is so much into the conversation that she wants to help people to find words. And I noticed she repeats the last word only if she agrees with the statement. It seems to be under control. But from outside it looks pretty much like echolalia.

I found that there are two types of echolalia: immediate and delayed. I seem to have the delayed one.

 

[AsheSkyler]

Do NT's think like this, I wonder? It sounds so strange, but then maybe they just don't talk about it and yet they do it, too?

That has plagued soooo many of my conversations on a wide variety of subjects. How do people intuitively know what everybody feels and what they don't so as to not ask these kinds of questions?

I did try asking my husband, but then the toddler terrorized the bowl of tater tots and got distracted. Maybe I'll find out if the kid goes to sleep soon.

 

[Harrison]

Do you ever repeat words/sounds/phrases in your head over and over, but not out loud?

Yes. I never considered it as part of my AS or anything else until I read your post. Interesting, thank you.

 

[Spiller]

I'm trying to pronounce it exactly in the right way, with the right emphasis and smoothness and energy or whatever...even though it's still just all in my head and not something I'm saying out loud.

Exactly this, well said! I considered that it might be an aspect or form of OCD, but I have no other symptoms.. at least until you go right ahead and point them out to me as well
I'm looking at my growing list of ASD and co-morbid traits and thinking.. ya know what, forget all that, I'm just a Nutter! There, instant, easy diagnosis anyone can understand.. fits neatly in the teeny tiny box on the disability benefit form too

 

[Mytrice]

Do you ever repeat words/sounds/phrases in your head over and over, but not out loud?

I didn't think of this as echolalia until I was reading an article just now about autistic characteristics that look different in women and are therefore so often missed. Autistic girls tend to be quieter...so even though the behavior of echolalia is not apparent to observers, that doesn't mean it's not happening. And I realized that I do this silently--forming sounds in my throat without making the sound out loud--all the time.

Not sure if this is more aspie or more OCD, though...there are several phrases and even entire sentences or paragraphs I feel compelled to say to myself when I get stressed out about something or start to worry about particular things.

It's very common for my throat to feel sore and strained by the end of the day if I've been really stressed, even if I haven't talked out loud much, because I'm forming these silent sounds in my head and throat.

I do exactly the same thing. I am very anxious at the moment for various reasons and I have the Russian word пчел́a going round and round in my head and have had for the past few days. I also say it aloud sometimes by accident, though never very loudly. I think I use it as a form of stimming when I am somewhere it wouldn't be appropriate to stim in.

I get the sore throat as well which has never really made sense to me either. I'm not sure that I'd classify it as echolalia though. It's nice to know that someone else does this too.