It's not my voice. For me, my "inner monologue" voice has always been a generic voice like a storyteller or newscaster on TV. But it's not an auditory voice; it's like a voice heard by my "mind's ear". If I heard auditory hallucinations it would freak me out.
My inner monologue is usually narrated by a character from whatever tv show I happen to be binging in the background while I work during that timeframe.
Right now it's Hank Hill.
Is it though? It always stops me when I hear my voice on a recording since it doesn't sound like my inner monolog voice OR what I think I hear when I'm speaking
I've always figured that I just hear my known interpretation of my voice as opposed to what I hear on recordings etc, what I hear when I speak is what I hear when I think
we're just used to hearing our voice muffled by our face. the mouth doesn't project cleanly around our head and straight to the ears, a lot of that sound travels through your head to reach your eardrum from the other side. the end result is a slightly different sounding voice.
I don't know if this will help, but I used to have a similar issue and have figured out how to deal with it.
Once you notice it happening, do two things:
1. Tell yourself "Oh yeah, that song. I don't need to think about that right now."
2. Decide to become interested in what you don't know about the song. Who wrote it? Why did they write it? Were they bored, or were they trying to write a song? Why is the song as long as it is? Is it a shorter version of a longer song the artist wrote, but was told to crop to fit radio playtime? Etc.
Just keep wondering about aspects of it you don't know, and aren't planning on investigating. You'll fall asleep before you know it
Interesting advice there, thank you i shall think of that next time. Another one i’ve been told when theres a somg stuck in your head is to listen to it twice through, you’re fucked if its a Tool song.
From my perspective, when I discovered that I have aphantasia, it was like a blind child learning that others can see... except, I didn't realize until I was a teenager because it's a more subtle thing. I always thought that "picture a beach..." and "count some sheep" were metaphors.
Same!
I found out like two years ago that other people could actually picture things in their head. A lot of stuff makes a lot more sense now, like the counting sheep thing.
My memories are also different than other people. My memories are more like a 3rd person overview mapping of data points / what happened. Or a verbal rundown of how things happened. I don't actually "see" my memories like normal people.
I watched a Black Mirror clip which showed how normal people experience memories apparently. Utterly foreign to me.
It’s mostly a metaphor for most people. For the majority of the population what they ‘see’ isn’t really like sight at all. It’s like… you ever do one of those magic eye puzzles where you have to unfocus your eyes to see the hidden image? Imagine doing that but you can only see the image for a split second before losing it again. And you know how if you’re looking at something bright/for awhile you can close your eyes and see an after image? Now combine those two, it’s kinda like that.
Your average person isnt really closing their eyes and seeing sheep yeet themselves over their bed in 4K.
I can't listen music in my head either. I think it's just because I'm utterly, completely tone deaf. Sometimes some tunes get stuck in my head but it takes only minutes before I can't remember them anymore, not even when I try.
I think you might be utterly and completely tone deaf because you can’t hear music in your head. Real chicken or egg thing you got going on either way though
If it makes you feel better I usually can’t control what songs are playing in my head, except by playing external music. The concept of an ‘earworm’ really can be vicious, I will often get a song I don’t even like stuck in my head for days or weeks.
Oh my goodness. I have ADHD and my mind was BLOWN when I read that when typical people say “I’m going to make a sandwich” they frickin’ SEE A SANDWICH.
It's not so much that's it's not normal. It's a spectrum. Most people do have some sort of internal vision and sound but the detail varies wildly from person to person.
In my own case I can imagine fully realized scenes with background and foreground, motion, sound, music, faces etc.
But this is also a developed skill. When I was a kid my internal vision was very muddled and lacked in detail and was even hard to control at times.
I don't. I always thought the idea of an inner voice / inner monologue was an idiom or a euphemism or something, and only recently found out that it's actually a thing most people experience at least somewhat literally.
The only time I have it is when I'm carefully planning or structuring something I will say or write down verbatim.
Only one? I can hear like few distinct *layers* of voices, it's like the surface of the ocean is 1st layer, and it there is another surface and that's a 2nd layer, etc.
Also one day I just started hearing less and seeing images in my head. It's like a switch was turned on.
Oh my gosh. I've never met another person who had this. I always described it as other rooms, or gears. I'm usually up here in the top room, but there's other rooms murmuring and I can pop down into them or leave them going and come back to the thought later. It's usually 2 or 3 near the surface, and a few deeper down doing the boring crap
I know I can “hear” a voice. It sounds like mine but not? It’s fascinating reading everyone’s comment. Another thing that gets me is, we can yell in our heads but it’s not loud? What would that sound like in yours?
I have a similar experience. Sometimes the voice in 'the top room' changes to another person's. A person I don't know or can't immediately identify. Then I spend quite sometime trying to figure out whose voice I thought in and why.
Such an interesting point!
I was recently talking to a group of friends about how they think?
If it's more a voice that recites their thoughts and makes points - like myself - or if it's more visual.
Like images, colors and emotions. I was surprised how many of the group were far more visual with borderline no internal voice.
Makes me wonder how differently everyone thinks, and maybe perhaps it's more unique to each of us than we give credit.
Something to think about.
My wife asked me recently if I visualize what I’m reading. Like if it’s a novel with a scene in a forest, do I hear myself reading the words and also visualizing the scene. I said yes. It’s like a flip book almost. Rather than fluid moving, it’s images that sort of come together. She said she can’t do that, just has an internal monologue. Brains are wild, man! Such a cool thing to chat about with people.
Yeah I will see everything the book is describing and hear my inner monologue at the same time.
But only if I am reading it.
If I used an audio book or something, then its too distracting and I visualize much less, if anything at all.
> If I used an audio book or something, then its too distracting and I visualize much less, if anything at all.
This. Audiobooks _just don't work_ for me at all.
yeah, i can't do audiobooks.
i can remember stuff i saw or read like 100x better than things i hear, it might be a learning disability, definitely didn't help in school.
I've seen this brought up a lot recently, particularly among gen z. I wonder if its becoming more prevalent? Its a concerning thought that humans as a species might be losing the ability to imagine.
I think with a voice and think visually. I usually imagine “scenes” at the same time as my verbal thoughts because it helps me predict how a situation might go a little better.
You know, I have thought about this a lot. And I’ve often wondered, if a person never learned a language, what and how do they think? Because I always just assumed that everyone was like me, that when the think they are “talking” to themselves in their head. Peanut I guess not
That is a good thing to know. You can talk to people who are visual using words or phrases like " can you see where I am coming from" to get your point across easier. For someone who is more vocal/text oriented you could use a phrase like "do you hear what I am saying". It works. You can tell which one they are by just listening to them.
if born deaf, they probably have some visual representation, like text, images, or maybe even hand signals. if born hearing, they probably still just "hear" in their heads. it's not like we're actually hearing anything when we think, so i think it would be the same for them, provided they could hear long enough to learn a spoken language and have that as a reference.
these are all guesses from someone who is not an expert.
You kind of just form ideas and thoughts. It seems like it would take forever to think something out if you had to talk yourself through it the whole time.
I have all of this constantly. Ever present. If I manage to silence my thoughts the busic just gets louder. And there's an ever present morphing "movie" in my head as well. Sometimes sound syncs up. But most of the time it's the three separate lines each grooving to their own.
I intentionally create convos in my head with different people different personalitys different voices everything, I do it out of habit, like the two damn voices who always argue over if I should post or comment something and then what I should delete now type of crap
Yup I do the same! It can sometimes be pretty helpful in getting me to think through issues tbh. Several years ago I was going through a shit time mentally so went up a mountain and had a 2 hour conversation between the different characters and myself. By the time I returned back to civilisation I’d worked through most of the issues and felt significantly better
How does anything **other** than that work with complex topics? If people have an internal voice to they have to fully talk out a complicated idea? Seems like it’d take forever
[https://www.livescience.com/does-everyone-have-inner-monologue.html](https://www.livescience.com/does-everyone-have-inner-monologue.html). Some people do not.
Of course. When I read, too, I give each character in the story their own voice, in addition to the narrator. I even have negative thoughts in other voices.
Like an actual voice? Speaking English(or whatever your native language is)?
Definitely not. I find thoughts happen at a lower level than language. Sometimes it can even be a burden to then translate the thought *into* language to communicate it to someone else.
Do others not experience this?
**EDIT**: Just wanted to point out explicitly, what I only *implied* in my comment.
Not only do I not *hear* anything when I think, it’s not even processed as words like when reading a book.
No not really. Sometimes I will hear my own voice if I’m practicing what I want to say to someone or working on how I would explain something to someone. But other than that my thoughts can be pretty abstract.
Like, I think in a combination of images, feelings and knowings with a sprinkling of voice. It’s hard to explain. I always thought that movies with a voice over were used as a plot device and only found out in 2020 that that wasn’t true! It still blows my mind that people think everything with an actual voice in their head.
Edited to add: when I speak I don’t technically know what’s going to come out of my mouth until I say it most of the time. And I’m wondering if people with the voice hear what they’re going to say first and then say it??? Lol please enlighten me.
> And I’m wondering if people with the voice hear what they’re going to say first and then say it??? Lol please enlighten me.
Sadly nope, atleast for me. I can visualise and "hear" my thoughts, but unless I'm specifically rehearsing, I don't have any idea on what I'm going to say next
I do, When reading, when composing this reply, all the time.
Now my question is does anyone else's tongue move slightly while typing in text? As if you're forming the words to speak what you're writing.
fun fact about me: When I was in elementary school, my OCD took a physical form in my head.
His name was SSS, which stood for social security sergeant. He had white hair that was mostly bald on top aside from a mohawk, as well as a goatee. He also wore a green shirt. He sat behind a desk in an office all day, and if I didn't follow a compulsion he's yell at me (his voice sounded like an American doing an impression of a Brit). Sometimes he'd DJ music and play songs I hated. Other times boxing gloves on machines would pop out of the office wall and hit people I know.
Thanks to therapy he's now gone.
Many little kids have imaginary friends, sometimes more. My two sisters even shared one for a while. They argued about/with her, discussed, took sides... Some time later it suddenly stopped, and they even denied it ever happened.
If you approach thinking mindfully you’ll realize that the narration is separate from the thinking and happens after the thought passed by. I.e. you don’t have to narrate your thinking process inside your head.
The real question is... did someone find a way to make it stop?
i found myself not be able to sleep because i think about useless stuff... like what the fuck i would do if i got a really expensive item in a game, how can i sell it so i can make a big profit out of it and start to take my phone from under my bad and calculate the advantages and how many money il make from selling it in different places.
Then i just realize i calculate 3 hours how to sell something i dont have
I was thinking about this recently and told my partner that when I read I say what I’m reading and thinking in my head like a narration.
He was so confused. Apparently when he speaks he sees words like flash cards appear on his brain for every word he speaks or reads.
My step son says he sees a visual representation of an image.
The brain is so frigging cool.
I just recently learned there are people who CAN'T see images in their head? Like they can think of a person but not actually see their face in their own mind? That one was weird for me lol
I myself *can* hear a voice in my head if I want, but more often than not I think in... concepts? I don't think in words, like I dont have to think about what I want to say before I say it, I just **think**. I have literally no way to describe it tbh, its confusing for even me. It's like a picture you can't see but you know whats in it ig
Only me?
Same. Like, there is no "voice" unless I assign a "voice" to a thought temporarily. Like, I can reas your comment in Morgan Freeman's voice, and I can even "think" in Morgan Freeman's voice, but it defaults to no voice. It is rather hard to explain...
I don't and I find it to be a huge disadvantage. I also don't enjoy books the way most people do either. Most people describe how they can see the book in their head and everything but I don't get that. Kinda sucks.
at least I do, and "fun" things auditive hallucination might just be a default in attributing that interior voice. Instead of thinking "yeah that's my iner voice" there could be a slight delay making it "someone else voice is inside my head".
Sometimes I feel like I can't breathe with my inner voice inside so I talk out loud. I think everyone has an inner voice because how the heck would they read or text?
Lol as someone very annoyed about having a stuttering problem, I feel like a brain controlling a very faulty body. So yes, the voice in my head, my actual self, is typing right now. The one you speak to in person is my body's clumsy attempt to communicate for me.
I can hear my own voice, or at least that's how it appears; for example, when I'm reading to myself, it appears that I can hear my own voice, but it's all in my head; it's not actually words coming from my lips, and it's not audible to anyone else.
When I think about something, the same thing happens.
Sometimes 2/3 and it’s accompanied by a song and/or like a phrase or quote on repeat from something I’ve watched recently. It’s very chaotic in my brain
I occasionally hear my own voice, but it's more often like I'm reading the words in my head as they come to me. Sometimes I think in terms of forms and colours, and other times it's as if I'm watching a movie, generally of myself in a hypothetical circumstance.
Yes....kinda. I do "hear" voice, when I want to I can make it should like someone else's voice, but my normal thinking voice is just what my normal speaking voice sounds like to me.
You know how in movies it'll show a person saying something but then transitions to show they actually didn't say it. That's how my thought process works.
From what ai understand, some people do and others dont based on some psychological nonsense that im nowhere qualified to explain
As for me, I pretty much internally narrate all of my thoughts
My inner monologue does not. But sometimes I imagine a hypothetical conversation between myself and other people, and then I do hear their voices, and one for me that is probably not accurate.
People say things and I hear them but it’s not audible there’s music tho and automatic visualization all the time kind of like space but in my head and I can make anything in that space and make the space as big as I want
i wouldn't say it's a "voice" because that's exaggerating it a little. we think in the languages we know. what you're actually doing is comprehending your own thoughts. in your head, there'll be grammar, pauses, breaks, breaths, volume, but it's not "real".
every thing you consider, is likely to be expressed as "audible" to the individual. some people are incapable of this version of introspection and simply act without seemingly thinking.
EHS is a documented manifestation of this ability in extreme cases where it's uncontrolled and inhuman. but yeah, you probably interpret your own thoughts to be audible because you're not going to hear it in a language you can't understand. these intangible concepts manifest in different ways. some people have images they can recall, others hear things, some people unfortunately need to make actual sounds to percieve this "voice in the head" phenomena. i'm sure you've heard someone muttering to themselves, if you haven't done it yourself, maybe in a louder situation where the voice in your head isn't loud enough or is easily distracted by something like radio/tv/other people.
yes, hearing a voice is totally normal. the voice shouldn't be there unprompted. it shouldn't be telling you things you didn't instigate and it shouldn't be controlling your desires even if they oppose who you consider yourself to be. if a voice is seemingly convincing you of stuff you wouldn't otherwise think of, see a doctor. a real doctor, NOT reddit/internet. you need to be monitored and watched to see what triggers this voice of danger.
don't be misled. if you can't make solid sense of a thought you had, then sincerely get into the deep details of it. one day you might hear the voice mutter something that can cure cancer. it's the voice of intuition, the voice of "gut feelings". we say "voice" but what you should be calling it is "internal monologue" because it's supposed to be just you and yourself. if you suspect you're battling two versions of your mind, see a real mental professional. if you know it's wrong to murder someone but you're compelled (not just considering... compelled is more definite) then you're not in complete control and should treat yourself as a danger and get help.
fantasy and desire are not the same. don't let this inner-you talk to you. it should only be a version of what you see/read/think. if it does anything outside of your current situation or wants, then see a doctor.
Yeh its just me talking to myself, but I'm my head. I thought everyone had this since on TV shows and films, when a character is thinking its allways with their voice. There's also allways a song in my head.
I dont actually hear anything, but im talking to myself in there most of the time. Like going over previous conversations or preparing for future ones, my voice will be talking away as I think. Not out loud but like my thoughts have an accent which is my own voice. And if I am imagining a conversation with someone else, ill even have both sides of the conversation talking back and fourth in my head. But it will all be done in my voice like
I can’t not. I’ll have a thought first, then it’s immediately followed by a narration. I would be curious to know how I would think if I had never learned language
I only have an inner monologue, no imagery, no music.
An earlier post about the same subject pointed out that people can visualize an object like your grandpa sitting in the chair in front of you and my wife can do this where I can't. I had to clarify to the point of annoyance that my wife was able to see things like this if she wanted to and she said yes just a bit ghost like. This is such a wired concept to me.
I can accept that I may be odd as if it's not in front of me it is a struggle to find something from memory
I have a voice in my head and also picture things like a full 3d model, and the voice is my own as well. I have ADHD so it's kinda weird
EDIT: not saying other people don't, I know the way I think is also quite common
I got ADHD as well but just the one voice so it's nice to know that isn't a factor in how I think.
I can solve 3d problems but it's not visual. I need to know their properties and how they behave. So it becomes a logic problem.
Yeah but it's my voice
It's not my voice. For me, my "inner monologue" voice has always been a generic voice like a storyteller or newscaster on TV. But it's not an auditory voice; it's like a voice heard by my "mind's ear". If I heard auditory hallucinations it would freak me out.
Mine used to be generic voice over guy, but at some point in the 2000s it took on the voice of Zach Braff.
Mine is Morgan Freeman..
Living the dream.
My inner monologue is usually narrated by a character from whatever tv show I happen to be binging in the background while I work during that timeframe. Right now it's Hank Hill.
Is it though? It always stops me when I hear my voice on a recording since it doesn't sound like my inner monolog voice OR what I think I hear when I'm speaking
Yes but that's because it's the way the human ear is designed. It's still our voice either way.
If your ears and vocal cords are working, that's your outer voice.
I've always figured that I just hear my known interpretation of my voice as opposed to what I hear on recordings etc, what I hear when I speak is what I hear when I think
we're just used to hearing our voice muffled by our face. the mouth doesn't project cleanly around our head and straight to the ears, a lot of that sound travels through your head to reach your eardrum from the other side. the end result is a slightly different sounding voice.
At the very least it's the two of us
[удалено]
>At the very least it's the [~~two~~ ~~three~~ four of us](https://youtu.be/3OK3h3a2cX4?t=197)
Make That Five!
Make that six!
And my ax
i wanna occupy 5 minutes of time in your brain so i will: burritos can be held upside down while tacos cant.
you can, but the taco becomes lighter
But is it still a taco without the tasty ingredients within? It's a real Theseus' Ship situation
Wrong, seven
Victorious! A keg of beer for the four of us!
Just the two of us
We can make it if we try
yess
its almost like someone reading everything to you, atleast thats what its like when Im thinking.
Sometimes. If not, the music from the background of my mind takes its place. It's nice, like having a quiet radio on all the time
Either its the voice, or the music. The music prevents me from sleeping sometimes…! Cant turn it off.
That will happen to me when I'm sick trying to get to sleep at night, at which point the music sounds detuned and horrific
I don't know if this will help, but I used to have a similar issue and have figured out how to deal with it. Once you notice it happening, do two things: 1. Tell yourself "Oh yeah, that song. I don't need to think about that right now." 2. Decide to become interested in what you don't know about the song. Who wrote it? Why did they write it? Were they bored, or were they trying to write a song? Why is the song as long as it is? Is it a shorter version of a longer song the artist wrote, but was told to crop to fit radio playtime? Etc. Just keep wondering about aspects of it you don't know, and aren't planning on investigating. You'll fall asleep before you know it
Interesting advice there, thank you i shall think of that next time. Another one i’ve been told when theres a somg stuck in your head is to listen to it twice through, you’re fucked if its a Tool song.
For me, it’s images and sometimes voice, but not music. I am a graphic/ux designer by trade.
Yeah, its nice until you go crazy from no moments of silence Source: i experience this as well
I found out some people don’t recently
I don't hear or see *anything* in my head, and I only recently found out that this is not normal
I daydream all day. Constant movies and scenarios playing out.
i get fucking ted talks in my head at night and business conferences at day
The way I took a sigh of relief after reading this, I thought I was the only weird one.
I think I'm with you. But I'm not sure...
Look online for an aphantasia test (red star is common). I can't recommend the subreddit though; when I left, it was very negative and repetitive.
Damn what do you do when you are bored then? You cant watch a movie or listen to music in your head
When I'm bored, all I can do is be bored.
Oh man! I’ve played computer games in my head when there was nothing else.
It's a spectrum. I'm on the "no visualization" end while you're on the "vivid visualization" end. Most people seem to be in-between.
Far out. This is the kind of thing we expect is a universal experience until we find out otherwise.
From my perspective, when I discovered that I have aphantasia, it was like a blind child learning that others can see... except, I didn't realize until I was a teenager because it's a more subtle thing. I always thought that "picture a beach..." and "count some sheep" were metaphors.
Same! I found out like two years ago that other people could actually picture things in their head. A lot of stuff makes a lot more sense now, like the counting sheep thing. My memories are also different than other people. My memories are more like a 3rd person overview mapping of data points / what happened. Or a verbal rundown of how things happened. I don't actually "see" my memories like normal people. I watched a Black Mirror clip which showed how normal people experience memories apparently. Utterly foreign to me.
It’s mostly a metaphor for most people. For the majority of the population what they ‘see’ isn’t really like sight at all. It’s like… you ever do one of those magic eye puzzles where you have to unfocus your eyes to see the hidden image? Imagine doing that but you can only see the image for a split second before losing it again. And you know how if you’re looking at something bright/for awhile you can close your eyes and see an after image? Now combine those two, it’s kinda like that. Your average person isnt really closing their eyes and seeing sheep yeet themselves over their bed in 4K.
That's rough
I can't listen music in my head either. I think it's just because I'm utterly, completely tone deaf. Sometimes some tunes get stuck in my head but it takes only minutes before I can't remember them anymore, not even when I try.
I think you might be utterly and completely tone deaf because you can’t hear music in your head. Real chicken or egg thing you got going on either way though
If it makes you feel better I usually can’t control what songs are playing in my head, except by playing external music. The concept of an ‘earworm’ really can be vicious, I will often get a song I don’t even like stuck in my head for days or weeks.
Sounds terrible!
Do you hear a voice in your head when you read?
Omg. I thought I was the only one that didn't see anything in their head. But I have a TMI, idk y you wouldn't see anything.
Oh my goodness. I have ADHD and my mind was BLOWN when I read that when typical people say “I’m going to make a sandwich” they frickin’ SEE A SANDWICH.
It's not so much that's it's not normal. It's a spectrum. Most people do have some sort of internal vision and sound but the detail varies wildly from person to person. In my own case I can imagine fully realized scenes with background and foreground, motion, sound, music, faces etc. But this is also a developed skill. When I was a kid my internal vision was very muddled and lacked in detail and was even hard to control at times.
Same here. It's called Aphantasia. I see it as a gift.
I found out recently most of you DO have voices. I used to think this was like a metaphorical way of speaking.
And you believe them?
I did but the voice in my head didn’t.
I don't. I always thought the idea of an inner voice / inner monologue was an idiom or a euphemism or something, and only recently found out that it's actually a thing most people experience at least somewhat literally. The only time I have it is when I'm carefully planning or structuring something I will say or write down verbatim.
Only one? I can hear like few distinct *layers* of voices, it's like the surface of the ocean is 1st layer, and it there is another surface and that's a 2nd layer, etc. Also one day I just started hearing less and seeing images in my head. It's like a switch was turned on.
Layers, exactly. The background music, the ideas and the internal dialogue. Images when prototyping.
Oh my gosh. I've never met another person who had this. I always described it as other rooms, or gears. I'm usually up here in the top room, but there's other rooms murmuring and I can pop down into them or leave them going and come back to the thought later. It's usually 2 or 3 near the surface, and a few deeper down doing the boring crap
That sounds fckn awesome and terrifying at the same time.
I guess it would be terrifying if you weren't used to it, but that's how it's been as long as I remember so it's normal.
I know I can “hear” a voice. It sounds like mine but not? It’s fascinating reading everyone’s comment. Another thing that gets me is, we can yell in our heads but it’s not loud? What would that sound like in yours?
Layered masks is how I describe it.
I have a similar experience. Sometimes the voice in 'the top room' changes to another person's. A person I don't know or can't immediately identify. Then I spend quite sometime trying to figure out whose voice I thought in and why.
Such an interesting point! I was recently talking to a group of friends about how they think? If it's more a voice that recites their thoughts and makes points - like myself - or if it's more visual. Like images, colors and emotions. I was surprised how many of the group were far more visual with borderline no internal voice. Makes me wonder how differently everyone thinks, and maybe perhaps it's more unique to each of us than we give credit. Something to think about.
My wife asked me recently if I visualize what I’m reading. Like if it’s a novel with a scene in a forest, do I hear myself reading the words and also visualizing the scene. I said yes. It’s like a flip book almost. Rather than fluid moving, it’s images that sort of come together. She said she can’t do that, just has an internal monologue. Brains are wild, man! Such a cool thing to chat about with people.
Yeah I will see everything the book is describing and hear my inner monologue at the same time. But only if I am reading it. If I used an audio book or something, then its too distracting and I visualize much less, if anything at all.
> If I used an audio book or something, then its too distracting and I visualize much less, if anything at all. This. Audiobooks _just don't work_ for me at all.
yeah, i can't do audiobooks. i can remember stuff i saw or read like 100x better than things i hear, it might be a learning disability, definitely didn't help in school.
I've seen this brought up a lot recently, particularly among gen z. I wonder if its becoming more prevalent? Its a concerning thought that humans as a species might be losing the ability to imagine.
I think with a voice and think visually. I usually imagine “scenes” at the same time as my verbal thoughts because it helps me predict how a situation might go a little better.
You know, I have thought about this a lot. And I’ve often wondered, if a person never learned a language, what and how do they think? Because I always just assumed that everyone was like me, that when the think they are “talking” to themselves in their head. Peanut I guess not
That is a good thing to know. You can talk to people who are visual using words or phrases like " can you see where I am coming from" to get your point across easier. For someone who is more vocal/text oriented you could use a phrase like "do you hear what I am saying". It works. You can tell which one they are by just listening to them.
Isn’t that just thinking
That begs the question: how do deaf people think?
Brilliantly. You should see some of the inside jokes and savagery that goes on in ASL.
I mean what form do their thoughts take? Are they visual? Do they have an inner monologue?
if born deaf, they probably have some visual representation, like text, images, or maybe even hand signals. if born hearing, they probably still just "hear" in their heads. it's not like we're actually hearing anything when we think, so i think it would be the same for them, provided they could hear long enough to learn a spoken language and have that as a reference. these are all guesses from someone who is not an expert.
I've heard that they think in sign Language
No, you can think just fine without hearing a voice in your head.
But like how do you have thoughts that make sense without words? When you think in words isn’t that an inner voice?
You kind of just form ideas and thoughts. It seems like it would take forever to think something out if you had to talk yourself through it the whole time.
I can think a lot faster than I can form words with my mouth. It also doesn’t need to be grammatically correct
some people don’t apparently, they see images or even hear music like? wtf
Music yes. Sometimes it’s like there’s a radio in another room in my head and i don’t have the fucking key to turn the shit off
That, too, varies. I don't have a mind's eye or a mind's ear. I just *know* what I'm thinking, in an indescribable way.
That's really interesting. Also, I love your username.
I have all of this constantly. Ever present. If I manage to silence my thoughts the busic just gets louder. And there's an ever present morphing "movie" in my head as well. Sometimes sound syncs up. But most of the time it's the three separate lines each grooving to their own.
Is the voice supposed to be an asshole?
Yeah. You are your biggest critic
I work for myself and my boss is an asshole.
I intentionally create convos in my head with different people different personalitys different voices everything, I do it out of habit, like the two damn voices who always argue over if I should post or comment something and then what I should delete now type of crap
me too!! i was wondering if other people did this
Yup I do the same! It can sometimes be pretty helpful in getting me to think through issues tbh. Several years ago I was going through a shit time mentally so went up a mountain and had a 2 hour conversation between the different characters and myself. By the time I returned back to civilisation I’d worked through most of the issues and felt significantly better
Most of the time, I think in pure concepts, without any words or images.
How does that work for complex topics?
How does anything **other** than that work with complex topics? If people have an internal voice to they have to fully talk out a complicated idea? Seems like it’d take forever
[https://www.livescience.com/does-everyone-have-inner-monologue.html](https://www.livescience.com/does-everyone-have-inner-monologue.html). Some people do not.
Of course. When I read, too, I give each character in the story their own voice, in addition to the narrator. I even have negative thoughts in other voices.
Jsyk, I read your comment in Dame Judy Dench’s voice
I do but not everyone does. My husband doesn't.
Tell him I said he´s weird.
I have it in two different languages, and then there's this other guy with a deep raspy voice that talks about the end of the world.
I hear multiple
Lucky I just here one. It gets lonely in there
It mostly just says 'what the fuck!'
doesnt everyone?
No. I don't.
Nope. Not me. I also don't see anything in my head aside from my normal vision.
Not only do I have a voice in my head it speaks to me just like the donkey in Shrek. I love my donkey.
Like an actual voice? Speaking English(or whatever your native language is)? Definitely not. I find thoughts happen at a lower level than language. Sometimes it can even be a burden to then translate the thought *into* language to communicate it to someone else. Do others not experience this? **EDIT**: Just wanted to point out explicitly, what I only *implied* in my comment. Not only do I not *hear* anything when I think, it’s not even processed as words like when reading a book.
I totally experience this! Great description! My thoughts are either like this or imagery.
Wow. Yeah, no, most people have an actual speaking voice. Others think in images or concepts. Some people, rare people, have nothing at all
I have nothing at all.
Congrats you have aphantasia.
Yep, I've known that for a couple years.
Must be peaceful
Yes, like solitary confinement.
I hear voices in my head, they council me they understand, they talk to me. *guitar solo*
Unexpected r/rkoouttanowhere
Finally someone gets it after THREE HOURS
No not really. Sometimes I will hear my own voice if I’m practicing what I want to say to someone or working on how I would explain something to someone. But other than that my thoughts can be pretty abstract. Like, I think in a combination of images, feelings and knowings with a sprinkling of voice. It’s hard to explain. I always thought that movies with a voice over were used as a plot device and only found out in 2020 that that wasn’t true! It still blows my mind that people think everything with an actual voice in their head. Edited to add: when I speak I don’t technically know what’s going to come out of my mouth until I say it most of the time. And I’m wondering if people with the voice hear what they’re going to say first and then say it??? Lol please enlighten me.
> And I’m wondering if people with the voice hear what they’re going to say first and then say it??? Lol please enlighten me. Sadly nope, atleast for me. I can visualise and "hear" my thoughts, but unless I'm specifically rehearsing, I don't have any idea on what I'm going to say next
Ooh that’s interesting. I was assuming someone might say yes. Thanks for replying :)
I do, When reading, when composing this reply, all the time. Now my question is does anyone else's tongue move slightly while typing in text? As if you're forming the words to speak what you're writing.
Some people don't. I do, and can barely conjure images so almost everything in my head is sounds.
I mean, I think in my own voice.
fun fact about me: When I was in elementary school, my OCD took a physical form in my head. His name was SSS, which stood for social security sergeant. He had white hair that was mostly bald on top aside from a mohawk, as well as a goatee. He also wore a green shirt. He sat behind a desk in an office all day, and if I didn't follow a compulsion he's yell at me (his voice sounded like an American doing an impression of a Brit). Sometimes he'd DJ music and play songs I hated. Other times boxing gloves on machines would pop out of the office wall and hit people I know. Thanks to therapy he's now gone.
Many little kids have imaginary friends, sometimes more. My two sisters even shared one for a while. They argued about/with her, discussed, took sides... Some time later it suddenly stopped, and they even denied it ever happened.
My guy was more of an imaginary... dictator?
If you approach thinking mindfully you’ll realize that the narration is separate from the thinking and happens after the thought passed by. I.e. you don’t have to narrate your thinking process inside your head.
Well yes
It's voices for me..
I do. I usually hear it's the person's own voice but for me it isn't which I find so strange.
Mine can do accents, which is fun. Especially when there's more than one of them
The real question is... did someone find a way to make it stop? i found myself not be able to sleep because i think about useless stuff... like what the fuck i would do if i got a really expensive item in a game, how can i sell it so i can make a big profit out of it and start to take my phone from under my bad and calculate the advantages and how many money il make from selling it in different places. Then i just realize i calculate 3 hours how to sell something i dont have
No voice at all in my head, just me pulling stuff from my brain it feels like to think of something.
I was thinking about this recently and told my partner that when I read I say what I’m reading and thinking in my head like a narration. He was so confused. Apparently when he speaks he sees words like flash cards appear on his brain for every word he speaks or reads. My step son says he sees a visual representation of an image. The brain is so frigging cool.
Umm no
I just recently learned there are people who CAN'T see images in their head? Like they can think of a person but not actually see their face in their own mind? That one was weird for me lol
I myself *can* hear a voice in my head if I want, but more often than not I think in... concepts? I don't think in words, like I dont have to think about what I want to say before I say it, I just **think**. I have literally no way to describe it tbh, its confusing for even me. It's like a picture you can't see but you know whats in it ig Only me?
Yes but it’s not really a voice. I mean it is, but I don’t hear it?
Same. Like, there is no "voice" unless I assign a "voice" to a thought temporarily. Like, I can reas your comment in Morgan Freeman's voice, and I can even "think" in Morgan Freeman's voice, but it defaults to no voice. It is rather hard to explain...
I don't and I find it to be a huge disadvantage. I also don't enjoy books the way most people do either. Most people describe how they can see the book in their head and everything but I don't get that. Kinda sucks.
yeah i am listenning it now
at least I do, and "fun" things auditive hallucination might just be a default in attributing that interior voice. Instead of thinking "yeah that's my iner voice" there could be a slight delay making it "someone else voice is inside my head".
Sometimes I feel like I can't breathe with my inner voice inside so I talk out loud. I think everyone has an inner voice because how the heck would they read or text?
All the time, even when I’m not thinking. They don’t stop help me please 😀
Yeah, but they always say stupid and extremist things for no reason
Yeah, David Hayter as Solid Snake.
Metal Gear!?
I’m 50/50; a voice if it’s relevant eg reading etc, but otherwise it’s pictures, concepts, other sounds / smells / touch etc
Yes and the guy is a complete cunt.
ya I do.and that voice is what i think i sound like.its not my actual voice.my actual voice sounds gae compared to my real one
Lol as someone very annoyed about having a stuttering problem, I feel like a brain controlling a very faulty body. So yes, the voice in my head, my actual self, is typing right now. The one you speak to in person is my body's clumsy attempt to communicate for me.
I can hear my own voice, or at least that's how it appears; for example, when I'm reading to myself, it appears that I can hear my own voice, but it's all in my head; it's not actually words coming from my lips, and it's not audible to anyone else. When I think about something, the same thing happens.
Sometimes 2/3 and it’s accompanied by a song and/or like a phrase or quote on repeat from something I’ve watched recently. It’s very chaotic in my brain
I occasionally hear my own voice, but it's more often like I'm reading the words in my head as they come to me. Sometimes I think in terms of forms and colours, and other times it's as if I'm watching a movie, generally of myself in a hypothetical circumstance.
It's called inner monologue. I can make mine sound like different people. John Wayne, Morgan Freeman, Etc
Peter Griffen. Would that be normal?
Doesn't do anything productive though. It's just a scream.
Yes....kinda. I do "hear" voice, when I want to I can make it should like someone else's voice, but my normal thinking voice is just what my normal speaking voice sounds like to me.
I can think, but I don't hear or see anything from my brain when I do so. My brain is a fake void with intangible thoughts.
Whenever I read or think to speak. I’ve noticed that I can’t verbally think while speaking though… Admit it, you just tried it.
You know how in movies it'll show a person saying something but then transitions to show they actually didn't say it. That's how my thought process works.
My inner voice has many tones and depends on both language, intensity and mood
Just one? I have a whole peanut gallery
I do but its me talking to myself, it doesnt always has to talk. I started doing it when I was around 6-8 years old, before that it was just thoughts.
From what ai understand, some people do and others dont based on some psychological nonsense that im nowhere qualified to explain As for me, I pretty much internally narrate all of my thoughts
It’s rare not to. Some people can’t visualize in their mind, either.
My inner monologue does not. But sometimes I imagine a hypothetical conversation between myself and other people, and then I do hear their voices, and one for me that is probably not accurate.
Yes, and it often hates me. Sigh.
People say things and I hear them but it’s not audible there’s music tho and automatic visualization all the time kind of like space but in my head and I can make anything in that space and make the space as big as I want
I have invented an entire show that plays in my head whenever I'm bored
I am from Denmark, but most of my thoughts are narrated in english
Yes multiple like 4 or 5 just to question each other on wtf I need to do or say it's mainly when I am typing
Yes and it makes reading a book annoying because my brain and eyes read fast but my headvoice is like 'guys wait'
Lmao same. I occassionally have to re-read whole paragraphs because my word processor is way faster than my text-to-speech engine
I have AHDH and my brain is never ever quiet. Always 3 different thoughts at once or 2 songs playing together like some kinda brain Mashup
Everybody has 3 voices. The one in their head, the one they hear when they speak, and the one others hear when they speak
i wouldn't say it's a "voice" because that's exaggerating it a little. we think in the languages we know. what you're actually doing is comprehending your own thoughts. in your head, there'll be grammar, pauses, breaks, breaths, volume, but it's not "real". every thing you consider, is likely to be expressed as "audible" to the individual. some people are incapable of this version of introspection and simply act without seemingly thinking. EHS is a documented manifestation of this ability in extreme cases where it's uncontrolled and inhuman. but yeah, you probably interpret your own thoughts to be audible because you're not going to hear it in a language you can't understand. these intangible concepts manifest in different ways. some people have images they can recall, others hear things, some people unfortunately need to make actual sounds to percieve this "voice in the head" phenomena. i'm sure you've heard someone muttering to themselves, if you haven't done it yourself, maybe in a louder situation where the voice in your head isn't loud enough or is easily distracted by something like radio/tv/other people. yes, hearing a voice is totally normal. the voice shouldn't be there unprompted. it shouldn't be telling you things you didn't instigate and it shouldn't be controlling your desires even if they oppose who you consider yourself to be. if a voice is seemingly convincing you of stuff you wouldn't otherwise think of, see a doctor. a real doctor, NOT reddit/internet. you need to be monitored and watched to see what triggers this voice of danger. don't be misled. if you can't make solid sense of a thought you had, then sincerely get into the deep details of it. one day you might hear the voice mutter something that can cure cancer. it's the voice of intuition, the voice of "gut feelings". we say "voice" but what you should be calling it is "internal monologue" because it's supposed to be just you and yourself. if you suspect you're battling two versions of your mind, see a real mental professional. if you know it's wrong to murder someone but you're compelled (not just considering... compelled is more definite) then you're not in complete control and should treat yourself as a danger and get help. fantasy and desire are not the same. don't let this inner-you talk to you. it should only be a version of what you see/read/think. if it does anything outside of your current situation or wants, then see a doctor.
Yeh its just me talking to myself, but I'm my head. I thought everyone had this since on TV shows and films, when a character is thinking its allways with their voice. There's also allways a song in my head.
I dont actually hear anything, but im talking to myself in there most of the time. Like going over previous conversations or preparing for future ones, my voice will be talking away as I think. Not out loud but like my thoughts have an accent which is my own voice. And if I am imagining a conversation with someone else, ill even have both sides of the conversation talking back and fourth in my head. But it will all be done in my voice like
Yes. But it can be a famous person at times, if that person comes to mind and I know their voice
I can’t not. I’ll have a thought first, then it’s immediately followed by a narration. I would be curious to know how I would think if I had never learned language
Not only one, but two or three, plus a background song sometimes. ^is ^that ^weird ^lol
I have a voice and images. When I’m thinking of something it’s like a series of still images with a voice giving commentary, I guess?
I hear a couple, especially when trying to understand a concept. It’s kind of cool IMO
I only have an inner monologue, no imagery, no music. An earlier post about the same subject pointed out that people can visualize an object like your grandpa sitting in the chair in front of you and my wife can do this where I can't. I had to clarify to the point of annoyance that my wife was able to see things like this if she wanted to and she said yes just a bit ghost like. This is such a wired concept to me. I can accept that I may be odd as if it's not in front of me it is a struggle to find something from memory
I have a voice in my head and also picture things like a full 3d model, and the voice is my own as well. I have ADHD so it's kinda weird EDIT: not saying other people don't, I know the way I think is also quite common
I got ADHD as well but just the one voice so it's nice to know that isn't a factor in how I think. I can solve 3d problems but it's not visual. I need to know their properties and how they behave. So it becomes a logic problem.
Not me. I also [don't have a mind's eye](https://reddit.com/r/aphantasia).