Brain health · Sanctum

A literal, precise communication style

You take things at face value. You miss the subtext, dislike vagueness, and get frustrated when people will not just say what they mean. Jokes and sarcasm can land oddly, eye contact is something you manage rather than do, and conversation can run off-beat.

This is a difference in communication, not a deficit. For some brains, meaning is in the words rather than the hints around them, so the implied, the social padding, the reading between the lines, does not arrive automatically. Directness is not rudeness, and literalness is not slowness. It is a different operating system.

Because the mismatch is two-way, it gets blamed on the person who communicates differently, called blunt, awkward or hard to read, when really two styles are simply missing each other. The effort of constantly translating goes unrecognised.

We look at how you actually communicate and where it meets friction, because that difference is part of the picture, not a flaw in it. None of this is a diagnosis. It is what we explore with you.

Written by Dr Asad RaffiConsultant Psychiatrist · Founder & Medical Director