Losing track of thought with oral or written communication

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Anyone else get this? Like I type out my response to a thread here, and I'm constantly rewriting it, changing the structure, or I might get stuck because the word I'm trying to use slips my mind, then I got to think of a word that is similar to it, and look it up in a thesaurus to try and find the original word I wanted to use. This happens to me while speaking to someone too. I'll be speaking, but then I stop dead in my words, followed by an awkward pause. Is there a term for this? But I did OK typing this out.

O.M.G. The 'losing a word' thing has started happening to me more and more frequently in conversation over the last ten years or so. I've always done it from time to time, but lately its actually starting to scare me, it happens so much, even when I'm just talking to myself, and especially where NAMES are concerned.

I hate that feeling that the word or name I want is in my database, and I know beyond doubt that its in there, I just can't seem to retrieve it - it nearly gives me a headache straining for it - and it can stop a conversation dead in its tracks when I stubbornly refuse to reword my thought because dammit, the RIGHT word is in my head somewhere, just wait a second until I find it.

When I'm composing something online, or writing in a word processor, I don't mind so much stopping to check the Thesaurus or Dictionary just to be certain I'm not misusing a word or stretching the application of its meaning, or when the word that first occurs to me doesn't quite 'feel' right in that context.

When I tried to explain my word thing, this is what they labelled me with after test..
http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Dysnomia

Except, they didn't take into account that I am a visual-spatial thinker and that can make a difference. It can make a huge difference on many things.
But that might help..

I've had the problem the OP describes my entire life. I've been told I'm an articulate writer but I don't ever do well on timed written tests becasue I'm SLOW as hell. In school I always had to request extra time on any test that involved writing. I have the problems with word recall but I also have problems translating my largely nonlinear and branching thoughts and ideas into a linear written format with appropriate organization and smooth/logical transitions. I often feel like my sentence style/structure is bland and repetitive as well.

In some ways I feel like I'm the opposite of NVLD in terms of my cognitive strengths and weaknesses so it bugs me when people say NVLD and AS are the same thing. Every test I've taken demonstrates that I'm a strong visual-spatial thinker and use primarily the right hemisphere of my brain. My problem with word and information recall means I fail at tasks involving rote memorization compared to other aspies who accel at such tasks. Also, it often seems like my vocabulary is limiting me from truly expressing myself as I would like to. People tell me I have a good vocabulary but it still feels inadequate. I also have frequent moments of intuition where I have some great idea yet don't really know where to start in terms of explaining it.

Yeah, and I've also noticed it getting worse as I get older. That started to be a noticeable problem when I was about 20. At that age, though, I got really good mark marks in essay writing, but like someone else, said, I was very slow at it. Good at essay writing, bad at writing for finals. And then my brain melted, and that was that.

I find the word-finding problem is a lot worse in speech, I think mostly due to it having to be delivered in real-time. Things never seem to come into my mind in the right order to make any sense to other people. And with losing words there's a lot of,

"...it's like that thing where you... you know, uh... put needles in it... and it's made of straw... and ummm... it's a doll... uhhh, ummm..."

"voodoo doll?"

"yeah, that!"

These days I tend to let sloppy writing through because if I stop too long or go back and edit too much I end up forgetting the rest of what I was trying to say.

And some days I'll have a thought, but it'll feel like staring at a giant, complicated, abstract painting and contemplating describing it to someone over the telegraph. ("I had an intelligent thought, I swear! I was gonna say it's like that thing... that's like triangles... but when the sun is at that certain angle... you know, like that... What? No, I am not on acid, d*mmit...")

yes yes yes yes yes