Word salad

I learned some new words today.  Nominal aphasia.  "Nominal aphasia (anomic aphasia, amnesic aphasia) is a severe problem with recalling words or names."  I do not have nominal aphasia, because I don't have a severe problem.  But I do have trouble with recalling nouns.  I frequently have to scramble for a phrase to describe the thing I am thinking of.  It's normal for everybody to occasionally be unable to think of a word.  However, in my case the lapses increased in frequency fairly suddenly after a severe concussion I sustained during college.

How severe?  Well, I was unconscious for a while.  Then I was conscious again for long enough to see a face over me.  Then I was unconscious.  I remember very little of the time surrounding the injury, and for the next week or so I had to be watched carefully because I had lost my short term memory.  The problem with losing your short term memory is you will end up brushing your teeth five times because you don't remember that you've already brushed.  Similarly, you can eat multiple breakfasts with no idea that you've done so.

I trace my noun problems back to that time.  Prior to that I'd had the normal "it's on the tip of my tongue" feeling that every other person occasionally gets.  Following that concussion (and, unfortunately, more concussions over the years) it became more frequent.

Fortunately, I've gotten used to working around it.  I seldom spend much time searching for a word.  Instead, I describe the thing and let my listener figure it out.  ("You know, it's tall and green and has nuts and birds like them?"  )  And then I move on.  Life is too short to worry about words you can't think of.

The tricky part is the other half of my word problem.  The half where the word I'm thinking of is not the one that comes out of my mouth.  Spinach instead of cabbage.  Door instead of window.  Vi instead of pine.  If I'm lucky, I hear the mental echo and correct myself.  If not, I have very confused friends.

It's interesting to me that it seems to be primarily an oral problem, for me.  My writing is mostly unaffected, although I am prone to inserting any word I might hear into the sentence I am writing.  Works great for dictation, not as well for trying to write while sharing an office.

On a completely unrelated note, I am looking at a USPS "Sorry we missed you!" note and wondering who sent me registered mail.  According to the post office, the sender's name is "Taiwan".  I don't think an island sent me mail.  I could be mistaken.  With luck I'll find out tomorrow.