Misunderstanding Language

[tigergrl74]

Hi Everyone,

Today I had the craziest experience. My husband and I were talking and I thought that I understood what he was saying, but he wasn't saying anything even close to that. It wasn't a misunderstanding, like I didn't get his point. I totally thought that other words were being said....it was a crazy experience. It was almost as if the words were coming in correctly but then being sorted incorrectly. If that makes any sense. Anyhow I have heard a lot about Cog Fog and I have never experienced it, could this be what it was. It was seriously like I was on another planet....planet MS possibly?

Thanks,
Erin

[mjan]

Yes I am a fella resident on Planet MS!! Nice to meet you!!

I hear things wrong all the time. OR.. switch the words in my head and get an entirely different meaning. OR..I keep rewinding the DVR after saying, "what did they just say?"

I know I heard something, I see people's mouths moving and they are looking at me, but I cannot compute at all. Its as if I were in a silent movie.

So yes, cognitve deficits. Sorry you have it.

Warmly, Jan

[apple19]

Yes I'm with you, Erin.
Sometimes when someone is talking to me it sounds like they are speaking another language.
Like Jan said I also see the mouth moving but what they are saying just will not register.
You are definitely not alone on Planet MS

I hope it gets better for you. Take good care.

[CougarMama]

Annoying, isn't it? I've taken to repeating what is being said to me before responding!

[tigergrl74]

Thank you for responses everyone. They made me feel much better. I thought that it either had to be the MS or I had finally lost it and gone crazy. I wasn't sure which one

[Thomas Jackson]

Good response mjan. It reminds me of when I was a kid and played a tape recorder back fast. You could hear the voices but they were too fast to understand. Good to know I'm not alone on Planet MS.

[rdmc]

You might want to google Auditory Processing Disorder. I don't have this problem, but my niece had it when she was a child. She had it as a primary, developmental problem, but I believe it can also be a secondary condition to certain neurological problems. I know for her, it was frustrating. She absolutely didn't hear words the same as we'd say them. We'd say "van" for instance, ask her what we said and she'd say we said "bean.". Caused major speech impediment, but hers was developmental and with help of speech therapists she fully recovered and went on to do very well in life and her education. It completely resolved. With MS it would be an acquired condition, and I don't know how they'd treat it.

[cloudedmoon]

I do this too, every once in a while. Sounds like gibberish. I have to ask people to repeat what they just said, so they say it louder. Thanks to the OP for bring it up and rdmc for the link.

[meeegun]

for about 6 months prior to being diagnosed, i developed a habit of asking for saying "huh" after just about everything someone said to me. i could hear them talking and the words seemed clear enough its just that i couldn't figure it out. i would hear the words but could not connect them, if that makes sense. by the time the person got done repeating the sentence, and often before they had said the first word or so, i had figured out what they said.

it later occured to me that i didn't misunderstand them, i simply needed more time to process what they had said. my girlfriend finds this very annoying and would often lose her patience with me. luckily it seems to have improved somewhat or i have developed better strategies for dealing with it. not sure which.

i also have a lot of trouble understanding people on the phones if there is any sort of fuzzy reception, or the speaker has an accent, or background noise. recently, i stayed up all night finishing a group paper and noticed that when talking to my group members by phone i basically couldn't understand a damn thing they were saying. they repeated multiple times but i finally had to give up. i just couldn't understand. so frustrating! i believe that being fatigued had a huge impact on my language comprehension in that case. ordinarily its not that bad.

yet another seemingly invisible thing that MS has done to me. i am getting by with it for now, fingers crossed that will never change.