I definitely feel this at times. I’ll understand what someone’s saying with the first sentence or so and know where they’re going and have a response formulated… and then there’s another paragraph that doesn’t affect the point, just expository stuff or context and the like, all the while my brain is screaming to continue with the core of the conversation and get the info across. It’s a low level sort of agony to have information come across so slowly when my brain is constantly trying to be on the move. It sucks because it does feel 100% entirely selfish and I know that and do my best to deal with it and just listen, but it doesn’t change how painful it really can feel sometimes. I think maybe a part of it is I know just how fleeting my thoughts are, so if I don’t get it across immediately when it’s relevant I’ll likely just entirely forget it. And oh man when someone else’s paragraph continues beyond the relevance of your point and you’re left trying to figure out if you should just blurt out what you wanted to say when you can while you remember it or if you should just drop it and continue the conversation they were moving onto… conversations be tough sometimes

Practice makes perfection, two-ways conversations included, I'd say, and it's something that people with ADHD should still be able to learn to do to my understanding.

And while I recommend trying to teach yourself this skill, if you find it too hard, no shame in looking for help.

And having in mind how the conversation can be beneficial past an immediate interest could help making you stick at it for longer too.

Having a conversation is a two way affair and if you are involved in the conversation you can choose to try to steer the conversation. However I think you may have a compulsory need to talk, driven by your thought process.

Maybe try to keep in mind what you want from the conversation. Is it an opportunity to bond and share thoughts with the other person, or are the topics discussed the most important thing and the relationship secondary and worth sacrificing?

We should hang out. I'd rather listen than think about what I'm supposed to say.

I notice that being alone for prolonged periods of time makes me kind of load up on thought and insights that I want to dump on people. So the first person I see after isolating myself for a while gets the waterfall. But once that's out, I can listen. The challenge is findig people who actually are interested in my thoughts and wait their turn. Luckily they exist. Can anyone relate?