Certain people naturally speak fast because they were socially conditioned to do so from a young age. For example, a child with rambunctious and highly vocal siblings may feel constant pressure to “speak quickly and speak right away” in order to get a word in and receive attention.
People interpret fast talking as a sign of nervousness and a lack of self-confidence. Your fast talking can make it appear that you don't think people want to listen to you, or that what you have to say is not important.
Pressured speech is often a sign of mania or hypomania. That's when your energy level or mood is very high. It's linked to bipolar disorder.
Learn to pause frequently, every 6-8 words, to replenish your breath. You'll feel relaxed, sound deliberate and strong, and slow down without even thinking about it. Relaxing your jaw and opening your mouth will naturally slow down your speech. If you're a fast talker you can't open your mouth very far.
Some studies show that speaking more rapidly makes you seem more intelligent, possibly because speed implies certainty. So what should you do? There's a better approach than simply speaking quickly or slowly, because how quickly you should speak can depend on the situation you're in.
Rapid Fire Speech and Excessive Talking
One of the trademarks of ADHD is rapid fire thought and excessive speech. These signs of ADHD exist under the hyperactive-impulsive sub-type of ADHD. This symptom may cause problems within a person's professional and personal relationships.
There's no direct relationship between ADHD and talking too fast. However, it's possible that because of some of our symptoms, we might resort to speedy speech. Case in point: since forgetfulness is a common trait of people with ADHD, we might talk too much so as not to forget the ideas in our head.
Signs of a fluency disorder
You may drag out syllables. Or you may talk breathlessly, or seem tense while trying to speak. If you clutter, you often speak fast and merge some words together or cut off parts of them. You may sound like you are slurring or mumbling.
Talking fast can lead to a lack of clear enunciation, articulation and an engaging tone, preventing your message from taking hold in the listener's mind. They may hear your words but end up misunderstanding the full message.
People with ADHD tend to talk — a lot. We talk because we're excited or nervous, or because we just want to be a part of the conversation. Sometimes we talk simply to fill the silence because silence is hard for us.
Researchers had men and women play a dating game, where they tried to seduce a potential love interest. And guys who talked fast did better than guys who spoke slowly. They were also asked about their sexual history. And it turned out the fast-talkers got lucky more often as well.
At 195 words per minute, about the fastest that people speak in normal conversation, the message became more credible to those listening, and therefore more persuasive. Talking fast seemed to signal confidence, intelligence, objectivity and superior knowledge.
Pressure of speech is an instance of tachylalia, or rapid speech. Pressure of speech is also variously related to agitolalia, agitophasia, tachyphasia, and verbomania.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): People with ADHD may talk excessively and interrupt frequently.
Certain people naturally speak fast because they were socially conditioned to do so from a young age. For example, a child with rambunctious and highly vocal siblings may feel constant pressure to “speak quickly and speak right away” in order to get a word in and receive attention.
Fast talkers are people who articulately and assertively say things faster than they can be assessed as a way of pushing their agenda past other people's examination or objections. Fast talking can be especially effective when it's used against people worried about appearing stupid.
Pragmatics and ADHD
Blurting out answers, interrupting, talking excessively and speaking too loudly all break common communication standards, for example. People with ADHD also often make tangential comments in conversation, or struggle to organize their thoughts on the fly.
Smaller hippocampus and amygdala sizes can cause impairment in the regulation of memory, emotion, and behavior, which is a common symptom of kids with ADHD. While these regions of the brain may remain smaller in people with ADHD, studies have shown that they do continue to grow and mature as children get older.
People with ADHD have a hard time with conversation. They might get distracted and lose track of what the other person is saying. They might ramble, and monopolize the conversation, said psychotherapist Terry Matlen, ACSW. They might interrupt.
Hyperactive and Impulsive Type ADHD
People of all ages may talk non-stop, interrupt others, blurt out answers, and struggle with self-control.
Executive functions have other roles which affect how someone thinks. In people with ADHD, these executive dysfunctions impact thinking in numerous ways. People with ADHD don't really think faster than people without it, but it can sometimes seem like they do.
Can intelligent people be talkative? For people presented as very intelligent, the mean rating of talkativeness was 0.32, which was in the direction of being above average, but not significantly so [t(30) = 1.66, p < . 10].