Why am I so wordy? (does Bob have Tourettes?)
 

All my life I have been EXTREMELY talkative/wordy.
Most on 2+2 know that this trend has continued into my online-posting life.


Why do I never shut-up? Why am I so wordy?

I'm 34 y.o. now and it seems pretty immature to always be yapping on and on and on, blah blah blah.
This is especially exaggerated when i've had caffeine.


Background -
18 y.o. - Voted most talkative in my H.S. class. An accomplishment that I took with great embarassment.
Getting in trouble for talking too much with friends...and also debating various ideas within the class.

23 yo - On a road-trip with friends: Wasn't aware (as usual) that I was talking so much.
Girl turns around and says, "Geez...I bet you couldn't go 5 damn minutes without speaking."
Naturally I shut-up for the next hour..but her point was made and it wasn't the first time someone had confronted me.


Career - Prior to poker I was a radio-sportscaster for minor-league and college sports.
I would frequently work without a broadcast partner.
Talking and talking all on my own through an entire 6-hour long Florida State League double-header was never much of a problem for me.


Current - I never shut up on 2+2 as you all probably know.


Recently - I had a very dramatic situation regarding my love-life.
While most would not be inclined to share such a situation with a bunch of internet-posters (and may even shut themselves out to their friends about it too) my inclination was to write a freaking novel about it in OOT.

I got some good (and some not so good) advice over there....
but much of the therapeutic value was just unloading all my thoughts in some incredibly long and rambling posts.
And I mean REALLY REALLY long.


Ideas -
Did my mommy not pay enough attention to me?
I distinctly remember times when she was blowing me off or not listening.
But this is more likely a situation of her just not being able to CONSTANTLY pay attention to the non-stop ramblings of her chatter-mouth 5 year-old kid.


Tourettes Syndrome??
I'm not kidding. Have never looked it up on the internet and perhaps I should. But I believe I may have a low-grade variety of tourettes that has gone undiagnosed.


I have many facial-type ticks. Lots of eye-blinking and nose-twitches, etc. Not everyone notices but I also think they aren't as severe as before.
I used to have one twitch for 6 months and then it would change and go somewhere else.
A kind of nose-twitch I had through the spring/summer when I was 18 had everyone joking that i looked like a damn bunny-rabbit.


There HAVE been times when I've been driving alone or at the grocery-store or something where I actually will mutter/blurt something like, "f'ck them all" or "i hate them" or "die" or something and I'll have no idea where it came from.

not very often...but it happens.
In my 20's I might have this happen 3-4x a week. Occasionally more than once in a single day.
Now I think it's proably just one blurt every 2-4 weeks or so.

It's not very loud...and usually when I'm not with anyone else.
So thankfully I've never been walking down the sidewalk and just randomly shouted "Douche-Bag!!!" at someone (unless I'm walking past Phil Hellmuth of course).


a professional marriage-counselor that my ex-wife and I saw speculated that i might have Osberger's syndrome which I really didn't get around to studying either.
I think Bobby Fischer is believed to have it among others.
It's kinda/sorta related to autism I believe.


I don't know how 'normal' tourettes works but I guess their filter to not blurt out the things they do is just somehow messed up.

Well...perhaps my filter to just shut the hell up is somehow similarly broken.

Re: Why am I so wordy? (does Bob have Tourettes?)
 

[ QUOTE ]
a professional marriage-counselor that my ex-wife and I saw speculated that i might have Osberger's syndrome which I really didn't get around to studying either.


[/ QUOTE ]

Hi Bob

Maybe you mean Asbergers?, I have a friend with this who is constantly offending people, he is very good with cars, I mean totally taking them apart, no manuals, he would know more about a car he's never seen before in half a day, than probably even the guys who make them. He also makes good furniture. I doubt he would be capable of holding down a steady relationship though, his ability to feel empathy is zero, so I doubt you have that.

Maybe it's tourettes then, do you ever do chicken impressions? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Regards Mack

Re: Why am I so wordy? (does Bob have Tourettes?)
 

Yes. I guess it's asberger's.

The empathy bit is interesting.
I guess that is similar to the more emotionless autism thing.
But the marriage-counselor likely wouldn't have suggested that i might have it if it definitely meant having no empathy.

She was probably basing it on my math prodigy-ness as a 4-year-old.
I'm not so hot at math now...but I could multiply at a very young age. Obsessed with numbers. On a family trip when I was 7 I spent hours and hours in the car
counting to a million (it took a few days). My parents were going out of their minds.

Also was playing chess when I was 5 (I'm not a great player though).
Taught myself to play piano.


I have some weird chess/math/music thing going on in my brain which I think are some of the classic departments for autism (???).

Hence, the counselor's Ausberger's diagnosis I suppose.

Also believe that left-handedness might have something to do with it.

all my knowledge about autism is from movies like Rain Man and that film with Bruce Willis and the autistic kid who figured out the government puzzles.


No chicken impressions.
Sorry. (not sure I'm getting this joke...what am I missing??)


Couple other things -
Sometimes my 'ticks' would be in the form of a kind of a 'snort' or 'sniff'. My mom has these sniffs.
Doctors thought it was just allergies.
People today might think I'm a cocaine addict.

Mom also tells me that her dad and grandmother had some twitches or ticks in there.


My Dad and sister were talking before my first live poker tournament (the party poker cruise last March) and were concerned with whether I would give my hand away via my ticks.
It's not internet-poker afterall so they thought I might get clobbered.
Then they decided that I have SO many ticks that I would probably confuse the hell out of anyone who was trying to "read" me.
(I finished in the money btw).


My sister evidently has some blinking too although I have never noticed.
Friend of mine recognized seeing my sister in her brief 10-second appearance on the Today show and knew it wasn't just someone who LOOKED like my sister because of the way she was blinking at the interviewer.

Re: Why am I so wordy? (does Bob have Tourettes?)
 

Counted to one million. Nice work!

Re: Why am I so wordy? (does Bob have Tourettes?)
 

Yes. I was indeed a weird kid.

Additionally...I was an incredibly small kid with a REALLY low voice (remember...I eventually worked in radio).

On the growth-chart things at the doctor's I would be in the zero percentile.
As a 9-year-old you would have sworn I looked like I was 6.

doctors seriously projected that I would probably be 4'8" or so as an adult. (I'm 5'6").


And I had this REALLY low voice for my natural speaking (kind of like the old Frosted Mini-wheats commercials where they dub the adult voice when the kid is speaking).
It was too the point that my parents asked doctors about it because it was so freakishly low.


I don't know if any of this has anything to do with the tourette's bit or counting to a million or whatever....but it all combines to be kind of funny imo.


This super-small, low-voiced, twitchy/blinky, always talking kid who's counting to a million.

Right about now I feel like calling my parents to thank them for not killing me.

Re: Why am I so wordy? (does Bob have Tourettes?)
 

[ QUOTE ]
23 yo - On a road-trip with friends: Wasn't aware (as usual) that I was talking so much.
Girl turns around and says, "Geez...I bet you couldn't go 5 damn minutes without speaking."


[/ QUOTE ]

You probably weren't talking about HER! Obviously, SHE is the center of the universe and you were off center.

Don't ever shorten your posts!

Yes, your posts are wordy but they are well written informative and interesting.

Re: Why am I so wordy? (does Bob have Tourettes?)
 

hey bob,

shut up.



i keed, i keed.

Re: Why am I so wordy? (does Bob have Tourettes?)
 

Wow man, you have almost 10,000 posts in like a year and a half. Keep up the good work [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Seriously though, you should go check out a copy of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (aka the DSM). Read some of the symtoms/characteristics of Aspergerger and tourettes and see if these sound like your characteristics.

Re: Why am I so wordy? (does Bob have Tourettes?)
 

Shut up you twitchy little ****er

Kidding. I figured you wouldn't mind, if you did I apologise. Besides, I can probably beat you in a fight anyway. :P I'm not accepting any headsup challenges from you though - well, not for more than $10.

Anyway...

Bob, it does sound like you might have something wrong with you. It might well be Tourette's or Asberger's or someone else's syndrome or a combination (who knows, it might fall into a gap and you can be the first Microbob syndrome sufferer).

But it sounds like you are a functioning member of society. I'm not going to argue that being a functioning member of 2+2 is an indicator of normality - but your posts are almost always worth the (much longer than average) time it takes to read them so don't worry on that count.

If I were you, I'd consult a professional. Most likely they'll say "well, there's not much point doing anything, keep on being a functioning, if a little twitchy and wordy, member of society" only more tactfully. But they might have some advice that helps you feel like you're fitting in better (I read an undertone into your post that you sometimes feel a little weird - I could be wrong) or helps you minimise the effects. At worst, you'll be reassured you aren't going to suddenly go all Bobby Fischer.

Oh, and get a blog. I'm semi serious, it provides a place to ramble without worrying about annoying 2+2 with long posts (but again, if you can keep quality above average, post away - my mouse has a scroll wheel anyway). on two plus two

Re: Why am I so wordy? (does Bob have Tourettes?)
 

I highly doubt that you have Asperger's syndrome, most of your descriptions of yourself point more towards a low level tourettes-like syndrome. There are a lot of personality traits that people can display, yet if they don't interfere with your life you can't really chalk it up to full-blown anything.

I think the thing will be really telling is how these urges/ticks/exclamations come about. People that have full-on tourrette's describe their outbursts as a feeling building inside them that they can no longer stifle. Once this becomes too much to bear the outburst comes. These outbursts come in many forms, such as: small tics of the face and body, vocal outbursts (coprolalia (profane outbursts) is actually not that common), to full on multi-step movement sequences (kind of like dancing without the context). No matter what these impulses must be fulfilled for the person to feel ok; the more they are ignored the more the urge builds.

I echo the thought of other posters that you talk to a professional, but really if it isn't hurting you in any way it's usually not considered a problem (you're only crazy if you can't contribute to the economy). However, knowing more about yourself certainly can't hurt. Those of us from the Ignorant Diagnostic Internet Operation Team (I.D.I.O.T) wish you well, we tried.