[davew0071]

I'm serious about this, because I can't quite get my head around it.

I meet a lot of people in my workday, most of them quite nice. Often, there's some kind of conversation, either general stuff, or maybe specifics about their individual pest problems or questions or concerns. Ya know, like ya do.

I've met a couple of individuals (usually women, if that matters) who can't talk in a straight line, if you know what I mean. It's like they start on one topic, then their mind flits away after a couple of sentences, and they interrupt themselves because they've thought of something else, so they follow that tangent until something else distracts them, and they're off again. All in the space of only about four or five sentences. Or, rather, sentence fragments, since they never really come to the end of a sentence or completely fill out a thought.

I never quite know how to deal with this. I either feel as though I'm interrupting and sort of patting them on the head if I jump in with, "Well, I'm gonna get started on your treatment now", or else I feel as though I'm not addressing whatever it is they wanted to speak to me about, since I can't really follow what it is they're speaking about.

But is there a reason or a name for this phenomenon? Is there some sort of ON/OFF switch that's busted, or are these people just extremely stream-of-consciousness?

I'm sorta baffled and very vaguely creeped out when this happens.