Alogia or depression or something else?

It's not my meds but I'm down right almost silence all the time. My conversations are yes/no or short sentences. It's ruining my relationships. I try not to label my symptoms but this is ruining my life. How do I fix this because it's seriously ruining my life. please don't say "just talk more" because I have nothing to say. I've always been quiet in public but at home it's never like this at home.

Can you rehearse things to say like about news stories or whatever?

I can't seem to memorize anything lately but I get met "Yeah I know" if I find something out.

I use to be a very shy person before my illness. I dreaded social situations like bbq's and dates but I still forced myself to them, but doing so meant I had to be prepared or I'd never have the confidence to follow through.

To prepare for a date or a bbq I would list current events, funny things that have happened at work, new recipes, and ready made intros if someone asked me who I was. One thing I learned over the years is that people love to talk about themselves. Be a careful listener and try to penetrate what most moves them.

A simple question I like to ask is "What's good in life?" first because it brings up positives in life and second because it might trigger a passion they have been working on.

I recommend keeping in the loop about current events, always having a book to read, ask, ask, ask for recipes!!! and follow something intellectual. The more mental friction you have the more ideas will pop into your head.

I am like that when I am depressed. Let alone talking I can barely open my mouth to answer yes or not. Not only verbal conversation, I can't do texting as well. Maybe it's a time to visit your psychiatrist?

Without knowing if you're having other depressive symptoms right now, it's hard to say as it could be either. I've certainly had both, but for me (and it might not feel the same for others) in depression, it's too much effort to talk/type, but with alogia, I genuinely have nothing to contribute to the conversation.

If it's depression, a med tweak might help; alogia less likely to help, but maybe? I know you said not to say "just talk more", but that's what I do. My family hate it when I'm so quiet and go on and on about it, so I do genuinely just force myself to talk more. It requires monumental effort, but it's better than the constant nagging and concern.

Like DayTripper said, people like to talk about themselves so you can ask an open question and use minimal encouragers (like "yeah/uh huh/right" etc) to keep them talking, so they feel like you're having a conversation with very little effort on your part to think of something to say.

There's also the other option mentioned of finding conversation pieces, but I find that requires much more effort. But the whole thing is very exhausting regardless so I can only manage it for short periods each day, but several short periods with rests in between tends to keep my family off my back.

I hope you find something that helps

*Willow*

It's mainly my husband noticing. I'm usually upbeat and talkative at least I trade quips with him but now I'm not even doing that. I just have nothing to say and it takes all my effort to say yes or no. Some days I just nod. It's just strange. I find politics is a hands off topic but I'll try keeping up with current events. Sometimes I say something in my head but it takes to much to say out loud.

I feel your pain...as I'm going through the same thing right now. It's so hard to talk to people outside of small "yes, no, yeah, mhmm, cool" answers. I can have scattered thoughts but not be able to get them into words, it's like it just won't happen. I used to have conversations with people about all sorts of topics and engaged in intellectual debate too. I miss it a lot. I wish I had some way I could help, but I'm in the same boat with no answers.

This is probably unlikely, but just to be safe, there is no physical reason you might be having trouble thinking of words, is there? Like a head injury, very high or low blood pressure, high or low blood sugar? Low oxygen saturation due to asthma or copd?

Sometimes when we have mental health issues, we attribute Everything to them, and a physical health problem could get overlooked.

Whatever the cause, i hope you feel much better soon.

I didn't think about health problems.

This happens to me sometimes when my illness is more obvious.

Hang in there, people do get better xx