Disorganized Thinking

Can anyone with this tell me what it is like for you? I think I may have experienced clanging and neologisms, but I am not sure.

Hi Tom

If you were clanging, people would definitely have pointed it out to you. It is very obvious to lay people. People don't randomly rhyme all of the time in 'normal' society.

Same with neologisms: if you were doing it a lot, people would be asking you what on earth you were talking about.

Other signs of thought disorder can be much more subtle and lay people wouldn't really pick up on them much, but clanging and neologisms (and word salad - the most extreme example of thought disorder) are pretty noticeable. So, personally, if no one has asked you about them, I wouldn't worry about it. But, as ever, if you're really concerned about it, it's best to consult a psychiatrist/therapist IRL.

All the best

*Willow*

Well you general did not know if your doing it. Like what Willow said others pick it up before you. For me I didn’t know I thought everyone else was talking funny. I had word salad as it’s called, clanging, and neologisms. My parents thought it was very odd and found nothing wrong. The pediatrician referred us to a psychiatrist. She did loads of test and couldn’t place it down. Eventually I was diagnosed with childhood schizophrenia. I did not understand it or the world. My thoughts still don’t make sense, but I’ve recovered enough to talk a bit normally.

I’ve met others who had clanging and neologisms, most of them had autism and sometimes psychosis. The thing is none of them caught on the strange talk, and neither did I.

Well, this is a good point, but can’t one have disorganized thinking without it crossing over into their speech making it disorganized speech? I think you can have disordered thoughts without disorganized speech.

How I would explain it is like your thoughts jump to other subjects before you finish the first subject. Nothing really makes much sense around you and you start thinking things are related when they aren't.

The idea in psychiatry is that speech is an outward manifestation of our thoughts, so basically all of the classic examples of thought disorder are of disordered speech. Psychiatrists can't know what we're thinking unless we tell them, so speech is what they go on. As in, if you're clanging in your speech, you are likely to be clanging with your thoughts too. However, I would tend to agree that mild thought disorder isn't necessarily obvious from speech to lay people, or if only interacting for short periods. You specifically mentioned clanging and neologisms though, which are pretty obvious examples that even lay people tend to notice, which is why I replied before as I did.

The issue with mild thought/speech disorganisation is that it can be perfectly normal and non-specific. Everybody makes up words on occasion, that's how we get new words in language, but that doesn't mean that they have thought disorder. Everybody loses their train of thought at one time or another, but that doesn't make it thought blocking. Everybody on occasion jumps from idea to idea, especially when excited, but that doesn't mean they are experiencing loose associations.

So I'm not sure that it's necessarily helpful to list everything that could possibly be considered mild thought disorganisation as people may worry that they have it when they're entirely within the normal range. Instead, I will ask, what is it that makes you think that you have disordered thinking? But, ultimately, I think that, if you are that concerned, you should consult a psychiatrist about it because they will be trained to spot it way better than either you or strangers on the internet. That way, you will know for sure.

All the best,

*Willow*

Aw you guys can work on it....

What might a mild thought disorder present like?

"Mild" would indicate that it minimally impedes functioning and quality of life. Symptoms that would be easier to deal with and less noticeable to the outside world might be things like alogia or evasive interaction as opposed to, say, word salad.