I find it difficult to cope with people who talk too much

Agree V3ra. I think MrsThatcher was rather rude.

Whitewavemark2 I imagine there are many people like the lady in the park with her dog. My heart goes out to you and others who engage with her, giving her a chance to make small talk. That’s huge. Without that brief contact she’d be totally alone - even more alone than you described. Ask her about her dog, where is she originally from, has she ever been married… questions that might unveil a truly interesting person. Just my guess.
USA Gundy

Esmay - Well that's a good way to get rid of them off the phone then, just start speaking about what's in YOUR life!

Biglouis - Good on you for speaking up (in both instances!)

I have a friend who dominates conversations when we are out in a group and it can be annoying.
I love a good natter myself and maybe rattle on a bit at times, especially to my family but I try not to dominate when in a group and try & remind myself it’s as important to be a good listener.
Small talk doesn’t come easy to some people though so when in a group those people who are more chatty naturally tend to take the lead & try & fill the silent gaps.

I know someone like this. She talks about herself all the time. If we're discussing a topic within a group she always knows everything about it and relates her own experience in great/long/boring detail. I see people's eyes glaze over as mine do, and I struggle not to say, 'ok now shut up and give someone else a chance - and stop boasting, we've all done things that we could boast about but we don't'.

I have two relatives like this. One phones me every night and talks about the same things. Mainly about the covid vaccines and what it has done to people health wise. I've had enough of it. If don't answer the phone she will keep ringing until I do answer. Just recently she phoned at one o'clock in the morning!
I'm running out of excuses.
The other, I can't get a word in edgeways.
It's draining.

We all need to talk there are times moreso than others especially if you live on your own and a sociable personality i e seen it come out in huge chunks but just glad she could unload! Other times when life is being moderate she's just how she was many yrs ago! Iv seen folk who have been screened from life stresses eg bills, holding down jobs , caring for family members etc be quite belittling because they simply don't understand! Sad they do t but you coukd say how can they possibly understand
Ice a lovely niece who vents it all to me every few weeks it's about 3 hrs long and coffees later
Iv a 'friend' although a bit critical way who says 'I've never had anxiety about finances'! Kind of superior ' she just doesn't realise her good fortune I guess

I do some volunteering once a month and last time we had a new person on our team who I knew slightly from years ago. From start I finish she talked non stop mainly about her world cruises but other stuff too and she never stopped, I’m quiet but couldn’t have got a word in anyway.

I don't go out much now and If I didn't see my daughter and her partner I possibly wouldn't have anyone to speak to for weeks. It doesn't really trouble me but I do try to control my gabbling when I am with someone. I rely on the Net for company and have several pen friends as well as family members that message, email and occasionally, video.

There are people who like to talk and but don’t know how to hold an actual conversation. This makes meeting up with them very frustrating and really quite boring. Sometimes I find myself interrupting their monologue quite abruptly but it’s the only way I, or others in the company, can get a word in !

I decided a long time ago that the art of conversation is dead . Why , ive lost hours listening to people talk about themselves , never once enquiring about me or my family. My pet hate though is a friend who finishes my sentence for me as soon as I start to speak and that wasn't what I was going to say at all . I'm often tempted to scream let me finish .
To be honest I've stopped answering the phone now it's a waste of time and I can't be bothered . I'm not sure why people think their lives are so interesting . Pull up a chair , let's talk about me . No thanks I've got stuff to do ha ha ha .

I must say I fine myself exhausted listening to people these days! They ask me a question and I get one sentence out and then find they only asked because they want to talk about the subject ,all about them!! I find I could easily not see any friends at all and be quite content. I'd love to just hang up on them! One person speaks so much I put her on loud speaker and just say mmm every now and then!!

Sometimes it’s kinder to say it as it is. I tell my partner he is boring when he shows endless photos of his grandchildren and deceased pets. Things that are important in our own lives often mean little to others!

Thank you, M0nica and Mama2020 fo your comments about ADHD.
I've got a dear friend, we were at school together, now both widowed and in our late 70s. She has recently been diagnosed with ADHD (why, at that age?) and also she is also mildly demented. She's always been a bit of a chatterbox, but an interested and interesting person. Now, she chats away constantly, repeating herself and worrying about it, her short-term memory not so good now.
It is a bit of a strain being with her, but the friendship is important and I hate the thought that I might lose the real peson. Sometimes it's onward and downwards, so sad.

Romola a late diagnosis of ADHD can be very comforting for somebody who has always felt like a square peg in a round hole or wonders why they can't manage what other people do. I haven't had a diagnosis but it is clear to everybody who knows me that I have a grasshopper brain, a mouth which blurts out without engaging brain, and many of the other traits that occur with ADHD. I can't afford a diagnosis and the NHS doesn't take on those over 60 so it is likely I will die not knowing for sure but it makes so much sense to me and I am relieved in a way as I realise I cannot help being who I am.

I sometimes think we should form a group of neurally diverse older people on GN.

We will all have grown up at a time when these problems were not recognised and where we were either considered odd, I ceratinly was by both adults and other children, or were always in trouble for our 'failings'.

I have dyspraxia (diagnosed) as well as ADHD. This was revealed when I was seeking help for my DS when he was a child. We were referred to a private therapist, who, when I commented sometime in to DS's therapy, that I had similar problems, turned round and said 'Yes, I had noticed'. At school I was always in trouble because my handwriting was so bad and my work so messy.

There is a strong genetic element in neural diversity and my DS drew my attention to my being ADHD some decades ago when he was struggling with problems he had and both he and my DGS are both awaiting assessment.

M0nica

I sometimes think we should form a group of neurally diverse older people on GN.

We will all have grown up at a time when these problems were not recognised and where we were either considered odd, I ceratinly was by both adults and other children, or were always in trouble for our 'failings'.

I have dyspraxia (diagnosed) as well as ADHD. This was revealed when I was seeking help for my DS when he was a child. We were referred to a private therapist, who, when I commented sometime in to DS's therapy, that I had similar problems, turned round and said 'Yes, I had noticed'. At school I was always in trouble because my handwriting was so bad and my work so messy.

There is a strong genetic element in neural diversity and my DS drew my attention to my being ADHD some decades ago when he was struggling with problems he had and both he and my DGS are both awaiting assessment.

I have dyspraxia which was diagnosed when my son was diagnosed. The same son is going for ADHD diagnosis because although the signs were there, the Ed Psych was influenced by the school who seemed to want to minimise his problems despite our private Ed Psych alerting them to a potential problem. Their attitude was that he was bright enough to read and spell. He was in fact in very percentiles for maths, reading and verbal skills. He was in the lowest percentile for writing and spacial awareness. Although he fidgeted all the time (so do I) we weren't hyperactive in that we slept reasonably well as children. We know so much more than we ever did and I hope that he can get the help he needs. Neurodiversity runs deep in our family with many of the younger members being diagnosed as ASD and ADHD but when I look at my Aunts and Uncles, they were obviously ND. We used to look at them and remark what a funny family they were not realising we were thought of as odd too!

I hate it when the serial yakkers talk over someone who is quiet but when they do speak they have an interesting point to make. Most of the time I am more of a listener than a talker unless I have had a glass of wine.

I am pretty chatty myself, however I am also good at getting quieter members of a group to talk. I don't mind people talking a lot, providing they are interesting. I'll admit I am not a fan of people who just drone on about themselves and their problems constantly.

Sometimes people talk about themselves in order to share their experience of a question asked. Personally in my opinion that's much more than someone talking about themselves. It's interesting to read these experiences and how they differ. I'd be more than interested if someone wrote war and peace about their experience if it was related to a question I'd posted. People get too ar*ey these days over every silly little thing. That's my take it on it anyway!

I wonder if it is same when writing? Some people on here write lengthy posts full of detail and comment several times on the same post, it is not a critisism just an observation.

I am not a lengthy speaker and when writing can come across as quite abrupt as I keep it as brief as possible.

Theexwife

I wonder if it is same when writing? Some people on here write lengthy posts full of detail and comment several times on the same post, it is not a critisism just an observation.

I am not a lengthy speaker and when writing can come across as quite abrupt as I keep it as brief as possible.

Guilty!

icanhandthemback

Theexwife

I wonder if it is same when writing? Some people on here write lengthy posts full of detail and comment several times on the same post, it is not a critisism just an observation.

I am not a lengthy speaker and when writing can come across as quite abrupt as I keep it as brief as possible.

Guilty!

Ditto!

I don't know how people find so much to say - I often find conversation with people I don't know very well quite excruciating. There are some people I just "click" with on first meeting, and others who, no matter how long I have known them, leave me searching for something to talk about.

I do know a few people who talk about their own lives quite a lot but immediately "switch off" when I mention something in my own life. It can be quite annoying. But sometimes people who chatter on and on are quite useful when others in the group are not great conversationalists.

*Whitewave" You're so kind.