There's a J In there… Somewhere!

I have always loved words. Writing them, reading them, speaking them. I’m one of those strange people who aren’t worried about public speaking. I’m also someone who is an introvert and, especially when I’m home by myself, I’m quite happy to be quiet and in my own head.

This morning, I stumbled over a post on Instagram about being Hyperverbal. This isn’t a term I had heard of before, but the more I read, the more I found myself thinking ‘hey, that’s me’. I did my usual thing of doing some research and found that there are others talking about being hyperverbal.

When I was younger, I was often told to stop talking, to consider other people, and think that may not be interested in what I had to say. I would talk over people in my excitement to get the words out. I would talk about my interests… but soon find that others didn’t want to listen.

I would take advantage of sharing time at church to talk about what was going on in my life, only to be told to sit down and let others have a turn. So I would stop talking.

I loved doing talks at school as I was able to share whatever I had learned, but my classmates didn’t seem to want to listen to me. My favourite parts of my journalism course were the radio and TV units where I could talk. I enjoy ringing radio stations to share things. I even chat to those at the supermarket just to talk to people.

If I’m struggling, I often call Lifeline so I can talk things through (I think this is another reason journalling doesn’t work well for me as I find processing big feelings by talking about them is what I need). I really enjoyed when I had a peer support worker as it was someone to talk to and I was encouraged to infodump.

There have been so many times in my life when I’ve been told to be quiet, to not talk, to not share. This could be that others aren’t interested, they want a turn, or their voices are simply louder than mine, so I learned to be quiet and to suppress my words, my voice.

I’ve only just discovered this term and what it means, so I’m trying to work out what to do with this moving forward… it’s nice to know that I’m not so unusual, needing to talk about things, to use my voice, as I thought.

There is a lot of information and discussion about those who are non-verbal and accommodations for them, but not much about those of us who are hyperverbal. I’m not sure what accommodations will help, maybe peer support workers who will let me talk, or something, I don’t know. It’s nice to know I’m not alone.