What is Hyperverbal Autism? Plus 3 Writing Prompts To Help You Regulate Your Nervous System
There are too many articles on the internet about hyperverbal Autism that want you to practice social skills like you’re 7 years old in at ABA therapy. When I rifle back through my memories, the one constant is a deep yearning to connect with words- whether that’s through talking, writing, or reading. It never lived in my brain as an occupation, like becoming a writer- just the vehicle through which I needed to express myself.
When I couldn’t come up with my own, I found myself copying lines from songs and books- writing them again and again, trying to forge a path: Do you see me like the person who wrote this does? Please see me. Please hear me. Please understand me.
I love words. They’re my biggest nervous system regulation tool. My biggest frustration is when they don’t seem to come out the way I want them to because, as an Autistic who has a deep fear of being misunderstood (like many of us), I want all the right words there- character limit and attention span be damned.
Will everyone love your yapping? No. But I hope that you can find the right people who want to listen, so that you aren’t constantly monitoring yourself in every. single. situation. And in this blog, I want to offer another nervous system regulation outlet for your wonderful, beautiful, deserve-to-be-heard words: writing.
What Is Hyperverbal Autism?
Maybe you’re used to (or grew up) hearing the phrases, “never shuts up” “talking your ear off” “oversharing” “being too much”. And if you grew up in a world where the only version of Autism was a non-speaking boy who liked trains, then you were shit out of luck because you did NOT fit the profile. (And if you didn’t- how old are you? How did you find this???)
The basic bullet points of Hyperverbal Autism include:
A vast vocabulary that often surprises those around them
Advanced reading skills from a young age (Hyperlexia)
A tendency to talk at length about specific topics of interest without recognizing when others are disengaged
Challenges with understanding sarcasm, jokes, and non-literal language
Difficulty interpreting the nuances of social communication, such as body language and facial expressions
And while I love bullet points, it’s easy to see how these traits are geared towards children, led to you being deemed “too smart” or “too social” to be screened for Autism, and irritatingly perpetuate a black and white thinking of Autistic folx being unable to grasp a metaphor.
Thinking Person’s Guide To Autism¹ breaks it down into 3 parts: emotional accelerant, thought speed, and social pragmatics; calling it “a communication profile that can often function like a mood accelerant.”
Which makes me think of Spinal Tap’s “this goes up to 11.”
There are so many things running through my head at any given time (mostly to-do lists and sensory input I am processing in my environment + that one song from 2002). When emotions become entangled, it’s not (as so many people also seem to get wrong) a robotic acknowledgement of “hello emotion I am feeling right now.”
Instead, the internal amount of words can quickly cause the emotion to intensify into a place that is difficult to gather the reins on.
I love words. Sometimes they seem to fight me at every step because they won’t do what I want them to. They get stuck in my chest or they spill forth about something I didn’t mean to say. And then they do exactly what I want them to: connect me to myself and other people. And I love them all over again.
Nervous System Regulation In Writing
“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” - Joan Didion
So your head is full of thoughts- as per usual- and you can’t pick them apart from what you need to do today, what you said to the cashier last week, what you want most in life, and that weird sense of dread hanging over your head (and actually you just want to think about your new favorite game tysm.)
I can talk to you like a baby and tell you how good journaling is for mental health² or we can go deeper. Nervous system regulation is “a cascade of physiological responses our nervous system makes to reduce heightened states of arousal and increase states of calmness during times of distress.”³ When you have hyperverbal autism, don’t let a lifetime of people brushing you off as “talking a lot” detract from what can truly support everybody talking about these days (for good reason): regulating your nervous system.
You’ve probably already noticed that your words come faster, and more intensely in times where you are dysregulated- meaning you’re upset, overstimulated, OR want to infodump about a specific interest of yours.
New research from the University of Arizona reports⁴ that just 20 minutes of “narrative expressive writing” over a three day period can trigger a physiological chain reaction that was found to improve heart rate variability (HRV), which has been linked with a stronger vagal tone- counterbalancing the “fight-or-flight” response of the sympathetic nervous system.
That’s the scientific study side of it- which may not interest you.
The more anecdotal side is that giving yourself a space where your words are respected and allowed to come out without being told they’re “too much” or “wrong” is a yapper’s wet dream.
3 Writing Prompts To Regulate Yourself
I don’t promote “productive” writing. It’s not my intention to have you write a novel or a memoir as a healing project. I’d actually prefer that you take that pressure off and write something terrible. Write something for you. Write something with no intention to show anyone else. Not because you’re ashamed but because those other people don’t matter right now.
When you’re feeling dysregulated, take a breath, pull out your journal & a prompt, and write as many words as come forth. Whether it’s one over and over and over again, 20 pages, or 4042rjdwsnc3 incoherent ramblings all jumbled up.
PANIC : The [panic/fear/anxiety] feels like….[descriptive as you like]
HEAR ME OUT : What’s the thing you’re most interested in right now? And what does everyone get wrong about it?
WHAT IS THAT? : Stuck on the same situation? Write everything you want to write about it. Write it from different perspectives. The fly on the wall. The ceiling fan. Your heartbeat.
Want tips on how to structure you writing practice? Check out The Neurodivergent's Guide to Unmasking Via Creative Writing.
Growing up, everything always felt like it was so big. I had a million words inside of me that no one wanted to hear or seemed to care about. I wanted so much for everything that was chaotically swirling around in my skin and my brain to still for just a minute so all the words I had acquired could build that bridge with someone.
I didn’t know I was Autistic; just the “weird” kid. My writing now, if anything, is more similar to how I wrote as a teen- kinda trash. I don’t edit my poetry because when I do I find myself editing my journal entries or goals and pushing myself back into a mask that hurts more and more as I get older.
So I write to regulate my nervous system. I write to unmask. I write to connect. I write because my hyperverbal autism put a yearning for words in my soul that demands it. And it feels so good to listen.
Get Out of Your Head One Word At a Time
Are you thrashing?
Trying desperately to come up with the perfect solution to all your problems in your head before you make your next move
Drooling over the things outside of your comfort zone that you feel completely unprepared to do
Battling with yourself in a painful chaotic loop of “But what if that's not right?”
THRASH ERA is a FREE ebook to help you write your way through your inner turmoil today- one word at a time.
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