crazymama30

Active Member
Can someone explain/describe pressured speech to me? I have tried looking it up in different places. I am thinking it means something similiar to being forced to speak. Never mind, I finally found it.
 

Steely

Active Member
It is when the child or adult talks so fast it as if there is somebody holding a gun to their head, demanding they speak. Often it is rambling, and about nothing - but the speech itself is clear and loud. Definitely a hallmark of bi-polar, although this characteristic did not manifest itself with my son's BiPolar (BP) until about a year ago.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
When I have pressured speech I talk very fast and my speech is often discombobulated. My thoughts race faster than I can get them out of my mouth so that people really cant understand what I am talking about. I will be talking and can start in the middle of a thought and then get ahead of myself in what Im saying so that nothing I say makes sense. People cant follow my conversations.

For instance:

I will be thinking about going somewhere or doing something and my speech would sound something like this.

"then when we, oh and did you see the big building, but then the elevator came down? And then the man did that thing. But wasnt it funny? Oh yeah! Sometimes it was weird but then the road went up again."

Im carrying on a full conversation in my head that no one else can hear but to me, they can hear it and its going on so fast that my mouth simply cant keep up.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
When difficult child 2 was doing it last spring, it was like "diarrhea-of-the-mouth". He just didn't stop. Ever. It was driving everyone around him CRAZY. And like Janet describes, his was all over the map and hard to follow. Very disjointed, almost stream of consciousness in nature.
 

Penta

New Member
My girl used to talk this way. I had almost forgotten. It was like her mouth was on speed dial....she couldn't stop and her thoughts just came racing out.

She now has normal speech patterns.
 

crazymama30

Active Member
You guys just reinforced what I finally found out. difficult child talks like this so much. We were at psychiatrist appointment, and psychiatrist was listening to difficult child talk and asked if he always talked with that pressured speech. I answered without pausing, yes. He has constant diarhea of the mouth. It has been worse since the beginning of the month, and we did increase his Lamictal to 200mg from 150mg. He has been so wound lately, between his birthday and Christmas, it has been nuts. I have been thinking for a while that we needed to increase a medication, but I was thinking of Daytrana. Problem is difficult child lost 2lbs from last psychiatrist appointment in Sept/Oct. difficult child is a skinny guy, and cannot afford to lose any weight.

DJ, what you describe fits husband perfectly. I just cannot follow his conversations sometimes. He was just diagnosed as BiPolar (BP) and ADHD, and is currently on the medication merry go round looking for the right medication. His psychiatrist had him on Depakote, but stated he did not want to keep him on it long, just wanted to see if it would help his sleep patterns. It did nothing for that, but did seem to slow him down some.
 

smallworld

Moderator
FWIW, pressured speech is a symptom of hypomania/mania. While Lamictal stabilizes the moods, it works more on the depressive end of BiPolar (BP)-like mood disorders than the manic end. Daytrana could be contributing to the problem rather than helping the situation (by speeding him up). Your son may need a second mood stabilizer and/or an ayptical antipsychotic to get his symptoms under control.
 

crazymama30

Active Member
I will watch and see if things get better within a couple weeks, or if they stay the same. That should let us know. Thanks
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Yes the pressured speech is definitely a sign of hypo or mania. When this comes on me its a sure sign that Im heading into a problem or am already there.

My therapist can tell if I am having problems talking in therapy that we may need to discuss a medication tweak. Or sometimes I just need to work on relaxation skills or work on my stress reduction techniques. I do have a medication that I can take PRN if things get iffy but I try not to do that.
 
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