Is verbose speech a sign of masking?

All of this resonates with me. 

Strictly based on my own experience: I think it's not only a case of a mania about being understood or misunderstood. Excessive writing and speaking results from anxiety, it's true, but also from an intense need to justify my existence. That likely sounds rather grandiose or too serious or simply too vague an interpretation so - irony ahoy - here's a clearer explanation by way of an anecdote:

My mum, who was likely autistic, couldn't write a letter to an official body without it being page after page-long. Every important and also superfluous detail was included, and she herself was aware of this fault. But then, in her defence, people like us are often powerless or are merely dismissed in thought or actuality before we even begin communicating; the general assumption frequently is that we're life's failures, and our concerns are therefore not to be taken seriously even if these are crucial to us. So, my personal theory is that this 'fault' is at once autistic and yet also a consequence of glib and lazy thinking on others' parts.

The irony is that we are only trying to appease their need, to have everyone conform to the standards of communication, I actually am perfectly happy not to be ‘social’ at all. 

When I am in a conversation, I have very little understanding of the politics involved, I’m literally just running the protocol of-least-resistance or spouting my interests (not that anyone is interested in what they want me to say).
I never used to talk to anyone when I was in the office, because I can’t focus on more than one thing, my mask used to drop and people used to dismiss  me from socials as a robot.  
I didn’t feel depressed until people started to point out that I looked depressed, it seems like you can’t just passively apply a system long-term, you have to actively play the game of office politics.  
So I know what you mean..:)

For me, it's not masking exactly- it's an attempt to provide clarification when communicating with neurotypical people, because my natural tendency to be concise and precise with language seems to really annoy them. I find that if I say only exactly what I want to say, I'm considered abrupt, or interpreted as implying something horrible. So then I desperately try to clarify literally everything I've said, and that takes me a while.

Of course, then they get annoyed at me for 'protesting too much' or 'not knowing when to shut up', so I'm not entirely sure why I bother!

I feel like the English language is the greatest vehicle for reason and logic ever, because it has evolved over-time and has been painstakingly updated for centuries, it’s only recently been made a tool for fashionable assertion. Our forefathers have defended the English language from impractical regression for centuries.

Sometimes I feel that if I had a better command of grammar, I would have a way more dense, and complex means of rhetoric. But I feel that I only add a thing to the picture once it is understood by me, so that draws the question of competency, and the depth of my command of the English language.

It's actually very natural to me and coincides with info-dumping so possibly it isn't always a masking thing for everyone, even if it is for some.

I think I do say ‘yes’ to a lot of things and am happy enough to get exploited. 

But there comes a point where a have to say ‘no’, which can be in moments that seem odd to some, for example I will not excuse myself when I am being blamed without cause.  
I’ll give my plea once, and then starts the charade, but I can frustrate a-lot of people who just would like to sate their frustration.

I find that my rhetorical-tactics run along the same lines as overload, shutdown and meltdown. 
I’ll reach my intuitive limit, then I’ll resort to speed-socials, then I’ll evade, then we have a tirade on our hands.  
But the older I get the stronger my defences are.I wouldn’t call what I do small-talk though, I’d sooner call it rambling as I don’t actually require another participant, once we are past a social point..

Of course you belong on this planet Ann and my logic for that I s simple, as you are still willing to ‘voluntarily play’, and because you are still willing to pick up your pen despite your discouragement!

Now. Masking is a newer and more fluid part of ASC I feel, and it’s dimensions are still unknown, especially now that the more agreeable and discreet Autists are bleeding through their diagnoses stories. A big part of ASC for me, has been to discover my neurological strengths, and to discover the psychological baggage I’ve picked up along the way.

I have been really drawn to alternative psychologies in the past, and I am in the process of melding the various truths together. I can’t tell you how great it is, to discover that their are heads other than my own, to help in that process.

Thank you for the reply..:)

Yes and another way to avert conflict and 'mask' is actually to just say 'Yes' to everything and constantly trying to please and say what people want to hear... It's one I struggle with a lot and it can land me in a lot of trouble.

I am in myself a fairly-assertive individual, and I dislike being challenged with assumption, so I can end up going toe-to-toe with some pretty aggressive people.  

I can use long-words to say insults and retaliate without it leading to violence, because it turns out that aggression is an indicator that a person has no more words, if the words are short they can provoke action (if you don’t allow yourself to be pushed). 

I think when I was younger I was mute most of the time, because saying and doing nothing is also an averter of aggression, my words are my shield from neurotypical assumption i feel. 

Hi, I'm not wordy at all when it comes to writing (in fact writing is the worst for me as it involves too many options and decisions and when I write I tend to be very concise and factual), but I do also use speaking a lot as a way of masking... It only occurred to me recently- I have barely been socialising at all and the past 2 attempts (because I really could not cancel), I found myself rambling on like an idiot and then I realised that it was actually a way of masking and coping with the situation. If I just randomly talk it means I do not have to engage in a 2 way conversation but I still on the surface may 'appear' to be social... not sure if that is how you feel when you use a more verbose communication style? 

What you are describing also reminds me of when I was coming up with creative ways to avoid using 'you' in Luxembourgish, German or French as I could never decide whether I needed to use the polite or informal form. I became very good at wording sentences that didn't require a choice between informal vs polite form. 

I think there are so many ways in which we mask that we are not even aware of... in fact maybe we should give ourselves more credit- we are being (even if subconciously) very inventive and resourceful in our ways to cope and mask. Though I just wish society was built in a way that did not require so much masking... it is sad really. I am somewhat in existential and actual crisis anyways today... feeling very much like I don't belong on this planet... 

I can get people who say direct and aggressive things to me like “when you getting a job” and I divert the question with passive verbosity, because I don’t want to answer question or give them a two-finger salute, then they end up calling me arrogant or condescending..?!

I end up diverting to such a degree and so effectively, that they forget that they initiated the conversation, that they are being irritated by.. but it suits me because at least the initial interrogation has been averted..

For the record, I like the way you write.  It reminds me of a certain author.  Of course I’ve forgotten which one. :). I do think it might be masking, to answer your question.  I’m so afraid of unintentionally annoying or offending someone by not explaining myself well.  So I overdo it. I’m afraid of not being believed, so I give too much detail and justification.  I’m so used to having to work so hard to gain acceptance that I work really hard to communicate correctly - which, ironically, has the opposite effect ;).  So I can see how it is a form of masking.  

I used to work with a farm-manager that used to love awkward silence, he used to answer questions with a few words, and it would just send me off into a flurry of words. 

One time I we were going ‘somewhere’ and he hadn’t been speaking, so I’d been windily-gusting a digression at him, when he finally interjected. 
He said “I just thought I’d tell you, that we’ve arrived and our destination, and you’ve literally just talked for four hours”.. awkward silence.. “oh, well, anyway..” blah, blah, blah..
He just started laughing and we continued on our way..:D Honestly, it probably did start off with the awkward silence, but my interest is what took me away.  

Really, I just end up subjecting and subjecting and subjecting, to a point where the conversation never ends. It’s literally speed-thinking and speed-writing and speed-reading until I no longer have the physical dexterity to continue..

It feels like a ‘chicken and the egg’ scenario in which my interest feeds of my anxiety (and vice versa) until I’m exhausted and beyond..

I have this problem too.  Saying far more than is necessary to convey a point.  I make fun of myself about it now but really, when it’s happening, all the words feel necessary, and the big vocabulary is just how I communicate.  Many mistake it for arrogance 

I’ll say a bit more when I feel up to it. One thing I find is that when I can sense people getting to the end of their tether with my over elaborate sidewinding towards a point, it just makes me worse. I can feel a rising panic about it (hoping to god they don’t think it’s some affectation but generally knowing they usually know me well enough to know it’s not but still feeling wretched for them as I ramble on) and I start over analysing what I’m doing and somehow the jumble of words and tangents gets worse. My family are the ones who feel most comfortable saying to me ‘can we get to the f**ing point some time today?!’ Which can be funny but they still haven’t learned that it makes me trip over my own verbosity all the more. They just delay the ‘point’ even more! Can you or anyone relate to this aspect? 

Thanks man.. top marks for being the first reply..:D

Of all the literature that I have read, I don’t really come across it that often, I catch ‘pedantic’ speech a lot though. 
I’ve always considered verbosity, to be a core tenant of my ‘peculiarity’, as I called it prior to diagnosis. I’ve been trying to work through all of the ‘extra stuff’ I’ve accrued, as an undiagnosed individual, and this is one of those pieces I have trouble finding a fit for.

No worries man, I ‘get’ being burned out, thanks again..

Wow, that’s so close to my own experience of myself (and others’ reactions to/tolerance or otherwise of my largely involuntary wordiness) that I could have written it myself. Ironically I’m too burned out just now to write in my usual runaway train style so this atypically concise ‘same here!’ sentiment will have to do for now! Interesting thread though