Adult daughter with Autism

I talk to myself and say random stuff all the time (repeating words and quoting things from TV too...it's pretty common; repeating things you've heard is called ecolalia), always have done. Mostly, I manage to do it just when I'm by myself but occasionally feel I embarrass myself when I do it around people (usually because I don’t realise or forget they are there rather than that I cannot control it). Though, I've long accepted I'm a bit 'weird' and try not to be bothered that other people may think I am because I'm talking to myself. There's lots of different reasons people might do so, to express themselves and communicate, or as a sort of stimming (to express emotion, cope with anxiety, as a focus to reduce unwanted sensory input, or even just to get your level of sensory stimulation to that 'just right' point). Sometimes it just sounds and feels nice to be honest. My ability to find myself endlessly entertaining (for some reason the favourite thing I can’t stop saying recently is ‘the hop-sicle, where all the poorly bunnies go’, it makes me giggle) is something I very much enjoy.

Also I think worth pointing out, it is not necessarily a tic in the tourettes sense. It can be, but tics are kind of involuntary and may be very difficult to control. Certainly for me, saying random stuff might be kind of compulsive (i.e. I really want to say it) or unconscious (I sometimes kind of do it without thinking) but I can not do it.

Why does it worry you exactly? It's a perfectly harmless thing to do. Although if the amount your daughter does it has increased recently, perhaps it is her way of dealing with stress and there has been a change that is making her feel more stressed.

I talk to myself and say random stuff all the time (repeating words and quoting things from TV too...it's pretty common; repeating things you've heard is called ecolalia), always have done. Mostly, I manage to do it just when I'm by myself but occasionally feel I embarrass myself when I do it around people (usually because I don’t realise or forget they are there rather than that I cannot control it). Though, I've long accepted I'm a bit 'weird' and try not to be bothered that other people may think I am because I'm talking to myself. There's lots of different reasons people might do so, to express themselves and communicate, or as a sort of stimming (to express emotion, cope with anxiety, as a focus to reduce unwanted sensory input, or even just to get your level of sensory stimulation to that 'just right' point). Sometimes it just sounds and feels nice to be honest. My ability to find myself endlessly entertaining (for some reason the favourite thing I can’t stop saying recently is ‘the hop-sicle, where all the poorly bunnies go’, it makes me giggle) is something I very much enjoy.

Also I think worth pointing out, it is not necessarily a tic in the tourettes sense. It can be, but tics are kind of involuntary and may be very difficult to control. Certainly for me, saying random stuff might be kind of compulsive (i.e. I really want to say it) or unconscious (I sometimes kind of do it without thinking) but I can not do it.

Why does it worry you exactly? It's a perfectly harmless thing to do. Although if the amount your daughter does it has increased recently, perhaps it is her way of dealing with stress and there has been a change that is making her feel more stressed.