I’ve started interrupting the interrupter and saying, “Excuse me, I was talking.” Yeah, it may make the moment tense for a bit, but it also points an arrow at whoever spoke over me. In most contexts, at least. It doesn’t work with my family, but with reasonable, mature people it works.

Which isn’t to say that I don’t interrupt people sometimes, but I’m working on it. If I realize I interrupted someone, I stop myself and say something like, “I’m sorry. You were talking first, go ahead. I’ll go next.” I’ve also started putting my hand up and waiting for the first person to finish, then saying something like, “I didn’t want to break your flow, but I wanted to add …”

I’m not perfect, I was raised in a household where interruptions and talking over other people was the norm. I’m still trying to unlearn some of the crappy things I was taught. Thankfully, most people seem to be cool about these screw-ups so long as I apologize and show that I’m trying to do better. It’s a process.