What did I say?

You really start to worry about your big mouth when someone says the CEO thought you were “hilarious” at the office Christmas party.

Being hilarious is both good and bad when you have whatever disorder or neurodiverse quirk that I have.

It’s good because it means you were entertaining. It’s bad because it means you were compulsively talking.

Things I remember saying to the CEO include: how much I’m looking forward to retiring; how much I’m NOT looking forward to cruising to Brisbane next year (the acting CEO is from Brisbane), the fact I’ve run out of annual until mid-2026 because I’ve booked too many holidays; and how I didn’t wear my beehive wig because it makes me look like John Travolta in Hairspray.

I hate to think what hilarious things I said that I can’t remember.

Help, my chest feels tight …

According to Very Well Health, the concept of excessive talking is largely subjective: “What one person may regard as ‘excessive’ another may consider ‘outgoing’. With that said, excessive talking is generally regarded as behavior that is outside the social norm or one that is inappropriate for the situation.”

Signs of excessive talking include:

Changing or rerouting the conversation to what interests you
Talking over others
Monopolizing conversation
Speaking at inappropriate times or places
Oversharing information
Speaking impulsively
Fearing gaps in the conversation
Speaking more than listening

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick …

The article offers lots of not great reasons for why people talk excessively. The author of the article also reckons excessive talking can create a social burden for both the talking person and their listeners.

Let’s add that to my anxiety list, shall we?

I think there were also tips on how to stop talking excessively, but I was too busy typing excessively to read them.

I think I still have the tap open (I have 50 tabs open at all times, just in case I need any of them again), so I should probably read the tips.