Words occasionally get scrambled between my brain and my mouth. I’m fairly certain it’s a side-effect of Lyrica, which has gifted me with several new skills, this among them. Of course, I’m also a 47 year old woman with a five-year-old and an eleven-year-old, so it could be marked up to age, perimenopause, or the psychosis that comes with parenting.
This has bothered me for months, but it last night was truly notable. It happened in a dream. I kid you not. I was dreaming and found myself saying “tacular” when I meant “testicular”. I don’t remember the dream, nor do I have any idea why I was dreaming about something testicular. I just know that I woke up immediately after, probably startling myself awake by realizing that I was aphasiatic. (Technically this isn’t a word, but given the topic I find it amusing to use it.) So, startled awake at 1:56am, I jotted down on my phone the following:
“Words come to my. Mouth wrong even in drrams. Tackularinstead of testicular.”
Sometimes, like this time, I notice the difference between what I speak and what I think I’m going to speak. Other times, it’s slips by me. My kids will tell me, “Mom, you just told us to put our plates in the garage. Do you mean the dishwasher?” This is problematic, because it calls into question the consistency of what I advise them to do. They can then come back in other situations with, “No, Mom, you clearly said we could watch (meaning TV) in the library,” when I thought I said that they could wrestle in the library.” Grr..
There’s nothing to be done about it except to start recording myself when I speak to people, but I’m not prepared to having everyone sign a written agreement accepting to be recorded.