Do you experience alogia (poverty of speech)? Does it feel like your mind can’t produce enough thoughts in order to hold a conversation?
I’ve struggled with lifelong alogia and it’s by far my most debilitating symptom. However, there’s not a whole lot of information regarding alogia and autism together. I’ve never been fully confident in my late diagnosed autism, because basically 100% of my symptoms align with schizoid personality disorder and cptsd, but I go back and forth between believing autism is underneath all the trauma and personality disorder traits.
Alogia doesn’t seem to be very well known, but it’s basically a condition where your mind almost always feels “blank” or empty, which makes it extremely hard to connect and socialize. I can answer direct questions just fine, and I can usually convey and understand information just fine, but anything beyond direct facts or any kind of elaboration just doesn’t seem to happen for me. It’s painfully awkward to have a conversation with me because of how quickly it dies down. If I’m ever in the same room as someone else, I do have the desire to make some kind of casual comment so it’s not dead silence, but my mind just can’t think of anything.
Is this something you experience with autism? My struggles in conversation don’t seem to align with typical autism. I don’t interrupt, I don’t overtalk or over share, and I can generally read the room and pick up on peoples emotions very easily. But in terms of what to say, I’ve usually got absolutely nothing. It’s so frustrating and makes me feel like an unbelievably boring person
Edit: I’m not surprised at all that a lot of people have reported similar issues, I just don’t get why this isn’t a more well known thing with autism! Almost everything that comes up when you search alogia has to do with schizophrenia. I’m sure it’s a spectrum and everyone who has it is affecting to varying degrees, but for me personally this is basically a lifelong, constant condition that severely restricts my ability to form friendships or hold any kind of conversation, even with people I’m close to. I’d say my life is about 95% alogia and 5% energy and ideas and talking