Communication problems

I have trouble with conversation and it's only getting worse as I get older. I find it very difficult to deal with interruptions. I’ll be talking with someone and a third person will come up and start interrupting when I’m right in the middle of a sentence, then the person I was talking to will just start talking as if I wasn’t even there. The odd thing is that, it doesn’t work in reverse. I’ve tested it and if I go up to two people talking and try to interrupt, they will go on talking as if I wasn’t there. So, I can be the interruptee but I’m not allowed to be the interrupter.

Anyone know why this might be? I wouldn't say I'm necessarily shy. Could it be some sort of language processing issue as I've always been this way when I think about it. I might be too old for this to be adjusted but I think my communication issues have affected my daughter.

I've always had this problem. That is why I took to expressing myself on a message board where it is much harder to be interrupted in the middle of one's thoughts.

Happens to me too, but I stew over the frustration. My mum and I played an 'invisible' game that helped when I was young.

My partner feels more strongly about always being sidelined and being invisible. We joined Toast Masters a long time ago, partly to make friends and partly to learn tips on holding the floor, regaining the topic, maintaining audience interest, and of course the art of the witty put-down for a rude interrupter or heckler. Doesn't always work (especially in families) but at least at work he functions better.

I suspect the whole thing is about reading social cues, and these days the mix of home/family cultures and more public culture have become more complicated so that it's harder for many people to read the cues everyone presents. It's like reading invisible emoji: we know they represent something, they feel familiar, but we can't say exactly which means what to whom, when. So it's messy. What we were taught as courtesy has largely been glossed over as 'everyone knows' or 'unnecessary these days', and the result is a thin coat of civility.

Hang in there! Hold your ground. Remind the interrupters that you hadn't finished, and they can contribute in a moment. ('Hold that thought!') hold your hand up in a Stop signal, and smile. If you are ignored in the conversation after, quietly collect your things and just go. If it's a work meeting, claim another deadline. Stay calm, quiet and positive.

Are you, perhaps, from the midwest? Here in the NYC area, we interrupt more than people do in other places.

Tom_Reingold said:
Are you, perhaps, from the midwest? Here in the NYC area, we interrupt more than people do in other places.

...and that's considered to be the proper way to carry on a conversation.

Having been born in Queens, to Carribean parents, I had to train myself to not talk over everybody, always