I don't have many chances to speak aloud with others because I've grown heavily avoidant and I don't go out much. Being around other people I don't know well gives me extreme anxiety. I feel like my grasp on vocabulary has slipped because of it. It doesn't affect me as much while I'm typing because I'm allowed to take my time and edit my phrasing, but I stumble through the basic building blocks of language when I'm trying to speak. It's never been my strong suit, but I used to perform better because I had practice. How can I work on this if I can't handle a social life?
Once, I read online from someone on the spectrum, that text to AS people is like braille to the blind.
Verbal communication in real time can be too immediate.
Verbal communication is a part of life though, and cannot be avoided, yet at the same time, we cannot pressure ourselves to become perfect, we are autistic, it can get easier though.
Slowing down our speech helps a lot.
It is perfectly ok, in real time verbal communication to say to an NT, a stranger we may need to phone (mobile phone carriers, utility companies, shop workers etc) "I am autistic and find it challenging to talk, phone etc".
I have co-morbid mental health issues, and am starting to engage with groups, most of them at NT's, I cannot expect Oscar Wilde type vocabulary, from myself, I have to be happy with what I can do, it is ok.
It is also ok to accept that we have this condition for life and while it does present a challenge in verbal communication, with practice we can adapt somewhat, I feel, and it is also a blessing to accept we have autism and know that there are also many good aspects to being autistic.
