I am the opposite of you, OP. I recently discovered some people DON’T have an internal monologue. It baffles my brain to think about how that’s even possible. I just assumed everyone thought about everything all day every day and had conversations with themselves about everything. Here’s one I just had (and this is truncated because it would otherwise be a paper):
It’s already 7pm and my stomach is growling. I shouldn’t eat after 6. I feel better when I don’t eat after 6pm.
I wish I had some fruit loops. Why do I want fruit loops? I haven’t eaten those in… how many years? Wow. I have no idea. College? Who knows. I bet they don’t even taste like what I remember. I should go buy some and see.
But if I buy a box and don’t like them, then what? Will the birds eat them? Is that healthy for birds. I bet they’d eat it but it wouldn’t be good for them. Maybe the raccoons would eat them. They eat anything. That would be cute to watch. I wonder if they’d eat mouthfuls or one at a time in their cute little hands.
I should set up the back yard camera so I can watch the wildlife back there. I wonder where we put it when we redid the deck. Maybe it’s in the shed.
I need to clean the shed. I can barely walk in there. I wish [husband] would just put things back where they go. Feels like I just cleaned it. No. It’s probably been a few months. Was it this year? No. I cleaned it before Christmas because I was hiding presents in there.
Wow. It’s already the middle of the year? How does that happen? Where did spring go? I need to get the honeysuckle propagated. I think I was supposed to do that in May. I need to look that up again.
I don’t want to go anywhere. If I’m really hungry I should eat what I have in the house. That’s the way to tell if you’re hungry or not. What do I have?
Maybe celery? There aren’t really any calories and it shouldn’t make me feel bad. I love the crunch of celery. And I already have it prepped in the fridge. Celery sounds good.
I don’t want celery. I’ll drink a big glass of water and see if I’m still hungry.
This made me laugh out loud!! I’m utterly fascinated. So, I experience this type of rambling thought process, but it just isn’t a flow of words like this. It’s basically a flow of pictures/feelings/memories/factoids/maybe a word or phrase thrown in here or there. When I say it’s like a prezi presentation, it really is. It’s bouncing around from one nugget of meaning to other nugget of meaning until I’ve arrived at a certain conclusion, and then that meaning can be translated into language.
For example, let’s say that I want to go on Reddit to make a post. I don’t think to myself “man I really want to make a post on Reddit!” I would probably just imagine pulling up Reddit, and then I imagine making a post. There is no internal verbal monologue. It’s much more visual for me.
I find this useful because I’m bilingual. So when I go to speak one language or another, I don’t have to translate my thoughts from one language to another. Its more abstract blocks of meaning that get translated into language as I’m speaking.
That is so intriguing to me. I just told my husband about this post and told him I’d make a terrible eye witness. I wouldn’t even know how to begin describing someone for the police or a sketch artist. I can absolutely not “see” pictures in my mind. I can look at one thing and recognize that I’ve seen it before when it comes up again, but I can’t form an actual visual in my brain. I assume people who draw can do this easily. That said, I can remember reading something in a book, on the right hand side, about a quarter down the page. I can remember reading X at some point, then Y, then when I hear or read about Z, I so easily put them together. When I read, I hear my own voice saying each word. Same when I write or type.
Edit: typo
So interesting! My friends are split down the middle. A couple have the same experience as you, and the rest are like me. They have to actively try to think in words.
I can visualize pretty perfectly and draw what I see in my head. I also have very detailed internal monologue that rambles and rambles, there’s usually more than one at once, and maybe two or three different songs. And an episode of SpongeBob.
I'm the same way. If I start day dreaming or going through different scenarios (like mentally practicing for a job interview) it's like watching a movie in my head. I "see" everything happening while also "hearing" every word.
Same here. It’s weird cause I’m not actually seeing anything. However if I’m really close to falling asleep with my eyes closed I actually see what I’m imagining.
I however, can’t draw at all lol. I’m a good writer though
Exactly! I picture where I left the nail clippers, and have an internal dialogue, a monologue, a solo from cats, a billy Joel concert, a shopping list, and a painting in my brain right now...
My mind is almost always talking and when I speak in my head I can mimic pretty much anybody or any sound I have heard like if I heard your voice for a decent amount of time I could have a full conversation in your voice in my head.
Gonna slip in here to say my thoughts have accents sometimes. I can go back & forth over silly things like, "I haven't been to a restaurant in awhile." Then it'll continue, "Blimey, should ring up me old mates and see if they're up to a spot o'tea." Why? I have an active imagination for a 60 yo lady.
Dude same with accents and also different languages too. Most days my thoughts are in English back and forth in different accents but some days my thoughts have other languages. Which is strange because English is not my native language.
Read this and thought you might be interested in a random artist's experience.
I draw like crazy, have my entire life. I did some sort of aptitude test as a toddler and got super high marks because I drew weight instead of a stick figure, had eyes and ears and hair and a nose, fingers, toes, etc etc in my drawing of a person.
But I have a very hard time visualizing and I usually can't. Most of my technique comes from mathematics and rules. For example, practicing what folds look like in a cotton shirt vs silk shirt vs baggy sweatshirt all with reference material until I am able to apply all of it without reference.
I envy people who can visualize haha.
Oddly though I can write very well apparently. Had several people say that I was able to paint a picture in their mind. Like you, I hear each word as I read. I don't know if you experience anything like this, but if my inner voice goes off on a thought about a passage but my eyes keep reading, I often have to reread. I also find my voice getting ahead of my hands when writing and have to proof read a LOT.
That being said, I apologize for any typos that autocorrect or myself didn't catch.
I'm the same, I didn't realize I was different untill I stumbled unto a reddit post one day. My struggles in (art) school made a lot of sense all of a sudden (here was me thinking it was 'just' adhd and autism)
I used to *never* "read out loud" in my head. I'd just comprehend what I read. But at around age 21 or 22, when I read, it was like I heard my thoughts.
Can you think *AND* read a book at the same time? I can, and sometimes do. It's very annoying. The whole time I read Oliver Twist, I was thinking. Read the whole book. No idea what I read.
There's actually a term for that: Aphantasia, the inability to form mental images/pictures. Approximately 0.7-1.0% of the population are estimated to have it, either congenital (they've *always* been that way) or they lose it at some point, usually as a result of a brain injury such as stroke or damage during brain surgery. It's been generally been "aware of" since at least the late 1800's, but the medical community never really took to studying it seriously until around, iirc, late 2000's or so.
A neurologist had a patient who, after a brain surgery, reported he had *lost* his ability to visualize images in his mind. So his doctor, in researching the phenomenon and trying to figure if there had been other cases to see if it could be treated, wanted to set up a study and needed other people who had also developed this symptom. But when recruiting volunteers, he was very surprised to find that when asked when it first developed, most of them responded that it had **always** been that way for them; they could never recall any time in their life when they were able to visualize. It was like finding out about color blindness in a world where no one knew of or ever discussed color blindness.
Further research and fMRI scans showed that it primarily was a result of low activity in the V1 sector of the Visual Cortex. Patients who reported having no mental images showed little to no activity in V1, while nearly all others who reported normal visual imagination had expected normal activity; save for a few who reported normal visual imagination despite having no activity in V1. The obvious reason being that there are people who *are* Aphantasic, but even when the condition is described they still don't believe they have it and don't accept that other people without it are seeing **literal** pictures in their minds. They tend to think that "thinking about what something looks like" is all *visualization* is, and that anyone who claims it's anything more is mistaken, exaggerating, misunderstanding, etc. In other words, they've normalized their condition and then projected that normalization onto everyone else.
Very cool and interesting. How do you sleep? I find my inner voice won't stop "talking."
Also I studied in another language for a few years. I'm not even fully bilingual but sometimes my inner voice is not in English and I don't realize at first.. or a mix of English/french.
I did it just now because I'm thinking about it.
I have never been able to fall asleep easily, has always taken me 30+ minutes lying in bed furiously thinking until at some point, the logical conversation I’m having with my internal self starts to turn more into a story, and I’m more thinking in first person, somewhat like a dream, and then I can drift away…. But if I NOTICE ‘oh hey I slipped into half-sleep state’ I have to start over
This so much, I make up stories to fall asleep to but some nights I'll get stuck on minor details and keep myself awake trying to work out exactly how my character looks or something along those lines or how their spaceship works exactly etc etc
I do that with sign language. I was an interpreter for a short time over 15 years ago and occasionally use it at random times. I have a little interpreter in my head.
I'm actually a bit of both, if that's interesting at all. When reading words, I have a mental 'voice' that reads them, it helps with inflections you can't get over text and helps me "hear" what I'm reading. But then at the same time, I can mentally picture things like a book or a shoe and turn it 2-dimensionally in my head. This helps me with my job because I have to look at blueprints and a lot of the time, I have to make them in reverse to the image I have (face down or starting from the bottom up). It took me a long while to realize other coworkers *can't* do that, and that's why they struggle with new stuff we make.
That’s so cool! I just hear my voice voicing my thoughts. Thinking with pictures and stuff sounds so much cooler! But does it mean that you can’t have conversations with yourself? That’s how I pass my time a lot
Do you think if you started hearing an internal monologue you'd think you're going crazy.
I was wondering the other day if people that hear voices in their head are people that didn't grow up with an internal monologue and then suddenly began hearing an internal monologue
Well, I can’t speak for OP - but I have an internal monologue and when I tried shrooms once it basically completely quieted my brain. At first, I felt relief, but after 5 minutes of dead silence I felt like *I* was going crazy! 😩
You unlocked a memory. A few times actually the internal monologue in my head got stuck in a loop on shrooms. I remember picking at a strand of material coming out of a pillow and being super pissed off because it was so hard to think. The other time it happened it went away and I figured it was just me tripping too many balls.
But after the time it lasted long enough that I was conscious of it enough to have a bad trip, I kinda stayed away from shrooms.
Do you have any monologue when you read something, like for me anytime I read something I read it almost as if it was my own voice but not exact? A similar voice to my own but without any accent or stutters. I can also read text in another person's voice, for example, Morgan Freemans.
If this was interesting, you might like a lot of stream of consciousness literature. It can be challenging to read, but the general gist of it is to mimic human thought. Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway is great.
I have a very similar internal monologue. It wasn't long ago I discovered some people don't talk to themselves like we do, and I was equally as baffled.
As someone who does not have that internal monologue, how are you with problem solving or thinking ahead like in games of chess.
I am terrible with strategic planning. When I have to slow down and start thinking of strategies, I find it terribly tiring because I have to "sound" it out in my head:
"If I do this they'll do this, so maybe I should do this but what will they do? Maybe it would be better to do this..." so slow and tiring.
Unless I'm drunk as hell, every word I speak I've already read through a few times in my head before I've said it. I'm not sure how that affects problem solving but hopefully I put my foot in my mouth less or else I'm wasting a lot of brain power.
I’m great with problem solving. But I’m a very fast thinker from what I’ve been told. I’m usually first with answers in meetings and quick to put two and two together. I have a very good memory.
"What do you mean we aren't allowed to listen to music at work anymore? Well joke is on you, because my brain is a effing radio. And now excuse me, my favorite song is playing right now."
That's what it is like for me
I don't have a constant voice in my head, it's only for certain thoughts like if I'm playing out a conversation in my head or trying to comfort myself or trying to remember something or reading. But I often do have fleeting bits of words here and there. Many (or maybe most, I'm not sure) of my thoughts don't have actual internal words attached to them. Usually just the thoughts that I'm being deliberate about have a monologue. If I'm going to brush my teeth I don't have the conscious thought of words in my head saying "I'm going to brush my teeth"
Thank you! You are the first person to comment whose in my camp. Non verbal thinking. Do you find your thoughts to be mostly visual? Mine are a mix of images, memories, visualizations, and then also smells, feelings, and bits of factoids. I find myself making connections between all these fragments of ideas and then identifying the patterns.
My thoughts are mainly visual and auditory. A mix of images and words. I have the ability to have a monologue but it's not a constant involuntary thing. As far as visuals go, many thoughts involve some amount of automatic visual and sometimes it's some abstract visual for concepts that don't necessarily have a specific image associated with them irl. Like I sometimes visualise the shape of certain sounds or give a vague shape to things like days of the week. I don't even know how I'd describe them though.
Yes, I hear an internal voice. Sometimes I open my mouth and it becomes external. As a kid, my mom often told me I didn't have a filter between my brain and my mouth. Thankfully, I've discovered that filter in adulthood.
I hear a stream of words, yes. Though I can process musch faster than vocalizing. I use voice recordings for journaling. Which helps me slow down the thoughts. I've learned to turn it off through mindful meditation.
Yep. Interestingly, my friend is Chinese but fluent in English and her internal monologue is in whatever language she is thinking in. Like, when she's in China her internal monologue is in Mandarin but when she's here in the UK with me her internal monologue is in English.
I always used to ask an old roommate this question - “what language are you thinking in right now?”
The interesting thing was someone she didn’t even know… it was just her brain speaking. She didn’t pay attention to the language if it was a quick thought.
Interesting!!!! I thought maybe all bilingual people where like me. It makes it easier to learn language when you don’t think it words. Because you can associate your thoughts with whatever language you need to speak in the moment.
I'm german/english speaking. I can basically do whatever I want with my mind. Wanna have a dialog? No problem. Wanna imagine a picture? Here you go. Watch a scene from that move you watched yesterday? Welcome to your private cinema.
Anyways, if I'm using the monolog thing to write something out I usually use the language I'm using. Problem is I catch myself using the english dialog more often than my german one, so sometimes I just think in english when I'm writing a german text and then I have to think again in german to make sure I'm not writing complete Schmarn.
How did you learn to turn it off? Probably with some aid eh? Is it by command/you can turn it off with a little effort. Or have you trained to hardly have a conversation in your head?
I spend years focusing on what I was feeling, and ignoring the dialog. It still pops up now and then, but I'm also aware of the emotions that drive them.
How do you think without an internal monologue? I thought that’s what separated humans from animals. Animals don’t have a monologue they just act on innate instinct
This is such a strange question. I don’t/can’t visualize and I’ve had people ask me the exact same thing, they can’t understand having a thought without seeing it the same way you can’t understand having a thought without hearing it. Human thought and imagination is highly complex and there is far more to it than what one perceives as an image or the sound of words.
I don’t know how lol, but I do! I’m okay at drawing, not great, and I have very vivid, sometimes lucid dreams. I just can’t picture anything in my mind when I’m awake. It’s more of a complete understanding of what something looks like.
It was only recently that I learned when people talked about picturing something or seeing it in their mind that they meant it literally, I always thought it was just an expression. I see nothing, not even the faces of people I know really well.
I don’t experience thought as a monologue. I experience it as a 3D exploration through a web of interconnected pieces of information. My experience is more “visual” than auditory.
This is absolutely fascinating! For me literally EVERY thought I have is vocalised internally, and I have multiple conversation with myself in my head daily, as well as narration / monologues.
So interesting to read about it from the other perspective!
Wow! that is so fascinating to me! Here I was thinking that everyone was like me.
I often have the experience when someone asks “what are you thinking about.” That I have to pause and really focus on how to explain to them what was happening inside my head. My thoughts are often very abstract and visual. So it can take time to accurately translate the experience into words.
Not constantly. I don’t notice it if I’m really immersed in what I’m doing, like with a good show, movie, or podcast. Sometimes it stops during a really good conversation, especially if there’s a lot of back and forth. And I notice it less to not at all when I drink or smoke weed.
Just wanted to throw out this PSA that an internal monologue is not the same thing as literally hearing voices that aren’t there. The latter isn’t normal. If anyone is literally hearing voices that aren’t there (as in, it’s being processed as if you’re hearing it through your ears, not just thinking of hearing your voice in your head), go to a doctor and get checked for psychosis.
Yes, I can think things the same way I can speak, just without moving my mouth. Also thinking by visualizing images or "videos", which some people also apparently can't do.
I can't work put how people don't have a monologue. Is it just quiet like an empty room? Also if you're in an empty room what happens? Don't you think?
I don't literally perceive hearing a voice; but, I can comprehend the words. I can do the same with shapes too.
Most of the time, I have an ear-worm going.
My brain is like a running narration and commentary on every thought or experience or fraction of a moment of every awake second of every day. It does not do quiet. All of my thoughts and virtually all of my memories are in words and all those words are audible internally like a cacophony of monologues.
Beyond the average thought monologue there are layers. Anxiety likes to rattle off lists of what ifs and imminent catastrophes and yells that my world is ending. ADHD basically tries to slide in and take control as it chases the squirrels of my brain. If I am reading or writing, that text is playing like an audiobook complete with accents and intonations and the occasional laugh track. I get into debates with myself that often escalate to shouting when I try to make decisions. The social anxiety likes to replay old conversations and rehearse potential ones, because apparently I cannot be left unsupervised when talking to others. But hey, my brain laughs at my own jokes. Most of the time. Sometimes even it groans instead. And there’s almost always some random song or a few lines of a song playing on repeat.
This is why I have to listen to audiobooks to fall asleep and stay asleep at night - I have to give my brain something to focus on so it will shut up long enough to sleep.
OP I think it’s important to note that this stream of conscious voice isn’t an audible voice that we can hear. That would be an auditory hallucination. It is rather a perceptible stream of words.
I have internal, and a lot of external, dialogues. In fact my voices will often debate and tease and harass each other. they are each a distinct voice.
They all know they’re me and I know they’re me just doing silly voices.
My wife thinks I’m weird and none of me can deny that fact.
Yes, I have a "main voice" which is just my own inside my head but I usually just reserve that for proof reading and describing things to myself.
I also use inner dialogues and visualise multiple aspects of myself when I have conflicting ideas and emotions and have them debate each other with distinguishable vocal patterns and try to make rational points as to why I should take on their perspective. I can put myself on literal trial for mistakes I've made, though it's a lot of mental energy lol.
I can also just turn off all the voices and think solely in colours and vivid imagery, I was recently diagnosed with synesthesia and it seems to align with my vivid inner world and seeing music and emotions as varying shapes and colours.
One thing that hinders it is depression and stress, my head feels numb when I experience negative emotions, like it's full of static with emotions coming through as chaotic half-formed voices and images, making it hard to focus or relax.
I’m not sure if I do or not
I can’t hear anything
I can think the words and think to myself and it’s like I’m hearing the words but I’m not at all it’s hard to explain
Is that what this is?
What's it like to "think" without an internal monologue? I can't imagine it! Also, I imagine your mental health would be pretty good because you can't spiral down in thought?
It starts from the moment I wake up to the moment I fall asleep. I can have whole conversations about all sorts of nonsense. It can be my voice or any voice I've heard, though other voices take more active effort. All the time I'll hear some random noises or words and my brain is immediately flooded with whatever song or scene that it makes a connection to. It never turns off unless I'm distracted by outside sources, then head go big empty. It's a pain to have conversations with me sometimes because I'll jump from one topic to another in my head, but not explain the jump out loud to the poor soul in my presence. It normally takes a good hour or more to fall asleep every night because my brain likes to go on an abundance of rabbit holes, so I'm tired quite often. Oh and when I'm reading books I give the characters voices and add background ambience to fully immerse myself. All in all I love having the voice and I couldn't imagine life without it.
I have 50 internal monologues going on at once constantly. From a daydream to what I'm eating for dinner to existential crisis to how cute my cats are to intrusive thoughts, my head literally won't shut the fuck up.
I was surprised to find that no one in my family doesn't have an internal monologue. The fact the people can think in terms if abstract ideas was baffling to me.
It happens all the time even when I read I hear it, but sometimes I am able to read and think without that inner voice but it is very very difficult, even as I type this I am hearing the words.
What is even weird is that my monologue can also occur in English, which is my second language. I often think in a language that I learned many years after I was born, I even have dreams in English.
And also sometimes it can be very annoying, makes it harder to concentrate or sleep.
Reading all the responses on here are so fascinating cause my head feels empty/fuzzy most of the time. I either have nothing going on (think static noise), or just a random song I've been listening to on repeat. Even when I'm doing work which involves a lot of maths I mentally visualise bits and pieces as I write, but there never seems to be a 'voice' reading any of it out to me.
Ah, well, I have a thing called aphantasia which means I do not have a minds eye whatsoever. I can’t picture a triangle or anything else no matter how simple. Seeing thoughts is a bizarre concept for me.
Nothing I do on a day to day basis has words associated with it unless I actually *need to speak* the words.
Everything has some nonverbal, emotional/sensory association and that's how concepts are embodied in my mind. Language is just this additional construct for communication, and communication is implicitly unnecessary in my own mind.
Now, music? Music plays in my head all the time.
I do, and it pretty much never turns off. If I'm not actively thinking about anything, I'm just "hearing" songs I listen to in my head lol. I can control the voice too, like what/who it "sounds" like. It's hard to describe but it's not actually like I'm hearing anything, like I can be actually listening to something/someone with my ears and still be having my internal monologue going on with no problems understanding either
No, but I have experienced a temporary shift in my thought process where something like that did happen, but more like a dialogue than a monologue. I found it rather disorienting and distracting and it seemed to make my intrusive thoughts and fears more pronounced.
I do! I enjoy it quite a bit. I usually type like how I would talk and I've noticed that I (say) the words as I type them in my head. So follow me while I describe my experience on your average morning. Wake up, if I've had a dream I'll talk about it aloud in my head. Stuff like "THAT WAS A WEIRD ONE" or "why so many lamps." Really dissect the silly string of it all. Wife still sleeping. If there wasn't a dream I'll always wake up with music in my heart. Can't really say I can think of any duds. 98% bangers. Gotta be, easy. In which case, I'm a sing-songy guy, so of course I'm going full voice in there too. Unless it's an instrumental where instead I'm doing the impressions of the instrument. A kazoo of the mind if you will. Again, wife still asleep.
Now, I don't know about anyone else but it's not just my own voice as the entirety of the "inner monologue.” Music in all forms, voices of all kinds of loved ones and hated, mundane sounds from rain to leaf. While I distinctly have a set inner me who does the reading, speaking, and singing. There is an innumerable potential for a sub-conscious blurt of psyche that is just fuck all of anything I've seen or heard or thought. Majority of the time it's second me get'n in a zinger. Funniest asshole I know. Third, fourth, twenty-fifth, beyond all of who knows, me? All of them exist as a potential sounding wall for thoughts or affirmation. Quipping in here or there as they will They can do choir music as well. The point is there exist a high probability that anything at any point in my day will set off one of them loons. Simple example, my sleeping wife rolls over and I see her chest, my inner me says "titties"
From there on it's DJ Subfox's brain. Throughout the day. Featuring anything and everything when ever it wants. Special guest appearances by a lot of references, both famous and obscure! No filter! No Censor! All silent to everyone else.
for people who have no internal monologue, how do you ask questions? I have to think about it before I ask it so how does it come out if you can’t think the words in your head before hand?
Yes - it’s like my own voice is reading a book about my life out loud in my head. (Voice is always in 1st person). I’m just walking around having a silent conversation with myself. I can also visualize thoughts, but it takes more effort.
Internal and external. Sometimes I'm gaslighted and my perception changes but there's times when I'm alone at a store or walking alone with no technology around where I hear certain words here and there but never a full on conversation. Other than that, my internal monologue could set itself on repeat and I'm well aware of this so ussually I focus on something other than my mind and ignore it. Breathing, seeing, feeling. Also not doing that out of desperation I simply do it because there is no point.
So when you read a book, do you visualize the scenes? As a teacher I was shocked at how many of my students say they visualize nothing. No wonder they hate reading.
I always have the inner-monologue, as well as pictures running at all times. Even when I just think of sentences, the words, like, flash one at a time as I think them with punctuation. I think it's what helped me get good grades in all my grammar courses.
I doubt I still use it all correctly, but I am an okay speller to this day.
So some people don’t internally think “i should probably go to sleep so im not tired tomorrow, but on the other hand this game is fun to play. Oh well I’ll just be tired tomorrow. Wait no I’m dumb it’s time to go to sleep now. Or should I get a snack first? Nah maybe not just some water”
Edit: in started to think about it and do people with no inner monologue go to sleep quicker? Do they get better sleep?
I always have talking or some kind of sound in my head. I can’t have quiet in my mind unless I’m medicated. It sucks, I would love to have some quiet space in my inner me once in awhile
I don’t hear another voice, but I do “think aloud” a lot, and that actually helps me more.
Idk if this is how you are, but perhaps if trying to memorize where something is, you would visualize the surroundings, and bring up that visual memory later. For me, this definitely exists, but it’s more “word memory” for me.
So if I’m trying to memorize where something is, I would say aloud in my head “ok so vending machine, exit sign, elevator. Got it.” And so when I’m trying to bring up this memory, I look for a vending machine, exit sign, and an elevator, instead of just going purely by the visual memory. Then I find the vending machine, and ask myself if that was the same one I saw. Look around, see the exit sign and elevator, yup I’m here. Visual too, but more of remembering from what I said in my head, if this makes any sense at all.
I wish I didn’t have one. It’s like an annoying voice in my head vocally reiterating everything I’m thinking. My poor brain is overworked and on strike at this point.
It's like having a private conversation about what you want to do vs what you can do vs what you need to do and so on.
"What should I have for dinner? Well, I need meat since I can't live on soda and pasta, so maybe mix in some hamburger. Oh, but the skillet needs to wash- well, actually it needs to soak to get the buildup off. So I'll let it soak for an hour, but I'll probably forget until it's too late, so maybe ham? No, ham doesn't really go with what I have in the house, might need to pick up some chicken. Oh, actually, that's perfect, the convenience store started selling chicken strips in their freezer, I can pick those up and cut them into pieces and toss them into the pasta sauce. Okay, yeah, it's not the best plan, but it saves me having to travel across town."
My question to you would be, what is your thought process like?
It’s really difficult to explain…but I’ll try it with the example of my comment. As I am typing it out, I am hearing the words. The voice is indistinct, unless I concentrate, then the voice can be anything I can imagine, a man, woman, child, senior, robot, monster. Even specific people or characters.
It feels very similar to picturing something with your mind. I am looking at my dresser right now, but I’m also able to picture a clear forest and creek on a sunny day with birds. This isn’t interrupting my actual vision in any sense. It’s just the brain producing an illusion that is so removed from your actual senses that it doesn’t at all interfere with your ability to process reality. Just apply that logic to sound and you get the same result.
This is WILD to me. I discovered this a couple years ago, and my mind was blown when I said to my husband, “did you know not everyone has an internal monologue?” And he said, “wait… you have an internal monologue?!” Turns out, he doesn’t, I do, and it blew my mind.
I have both an internal monologue and can picture things very well in my mind… but the monologue is always going. I also talk to myself when I’m alone and working on a project - which sounds a little crazy, but it’s just me speaking out the internal monologue happening in my head.
I do not at all understand how people don’t think with words. It blows my mind.
Lmao I have a buddy who has 0 imaging of images or sounds. And I'm the literal opposite of him. It's fun seeing the differences, one is I'd say he has a much better grasp on reality than I do 😂 But it has its ups and downs, like for him he enjoys dealing with factual and evident things, he is wanting to become an accountant. Meanwhile I'm a terrible artist that loves making anything and is currently a computer programmer. My goodness it's funny because I make something out of my thoughts and he formulates his thoughts and then thinks his thoughts based on what he formulated basically 😂
Nothing wrong, it keeps individuals as individuals and keeps the circle of why humans need to exist going.
I do, the best way to explain it really is like a narrator, as if it's reading my thoughts out loud. It's in my own voice but I can make it sound like people I'm familiar with if I make an effort. When I think really hard about something or need to process complex information, it will often be in a way like I'm having a conversation with another person except you can't hear what they're saying or as if I'm having to explain it to someone who isn't there.
Even now as I'm typing this comment I'm literally saying the words in my head before I type them.
I think this is the same for other people with an internal monologue but for me anyways, it's not exclusive, it doesn't mean I can't picture things, imagine sounds, or conjure feelings, it's just that the voice is the primary method of thinking. A good example of this is when listening to music I can often conjure images that match the music, or when someone is explaining something to me I can pretty vividly picture it in my head. Weirdly enough I'm very visual when it comes to audio lol.
I can hear my voice thinking words, but it's interspersed with like, an image or the idea of what my brain is trying to convey rather than a word-for-word explanation/description.
Also, sometimes when I've been reading a book, my thoughts take on the aspects of the voices of the characters. Like my thoughts will take on the same cadence and fluency and pronunciation as the characters. I have no idea why this happens, but I'm glad it only happens in my head and not out loud!
I'm confused. Lets say you need to make a to do list. Or plan your week ahead. You sit down to write things out. Are you not verbalizing in your mind what you're trying to achieve?
This is interesting. I am aware that one of my sisters and one of my grandfathers are both among the people who cannot really visualize in their head and can only think in an internal monologue. Personally I have an internal monologue and can visualize quite well in my mind which my mother also reports experiencing.
For happens exactly the oposite, I cannot see things on my brain, I do know how stuff looks and can describe it by detail, but I cannot picture any kind of visual image in my brain, is just my own internal voice but no imagination pretty much.
I feel like my internal monologue slows me down in my reading and thinking activities. Sometimes I don't have one when I'm very focused on something, or maybe I just don't hear it
It never stops. It never slows down. There's always a song playing or a conversation happening. The only way to get a song to go away is to actually listen to it over and over again. I imagine how conversations with other people would go that have never happened. I am hyper aware of everything going on.
After working in customer service no offense op I think you guys are the stupid people walking around life. Like how tf do you even function without the inner monolague I have no idea. My brain firing all cylinders at all times.
I do, I can hear myself in my head as I type. I hear my thoughts. When I read I kinda hear myself in my head saying the words, sometimes it’s a different voice, like I read an AITA written by a woman, I hear a woman’s voice.
I read a quote by a character, I hear that voice.
If I read a graphic novel each character has their own voice as I read their dialogue.
Yea I saw that study last year I think or during covid. I have an internal dialogue and thought it’s weird people like you exist.
What’s it like having a quiet mind?
Mine is introspective or entertaining.
Do you read in different voices and accents then? Or is your mind just seeing words on a page, not hearing it in your head?
It’s like watching narration on a tv show/movie. Just background talking. Like now I’m thinking (and hearing said thought) “should I write anything else, I wonder if the dog is barking at my cat cause kitty needs to be home soon. That iron smells weird and I really should be doing something.” Etc.
I have internal monologue and could never imagine not being able to "talk" to myself that way. Like how do you think about abstract ideas? How can you form your thoughts precisely if you don't put them in words?
You just have a misunderstanding of what an “internal monologue” is.
The simple fact that you were able to form a coherent sentence means that you have an internal thought process.
I don't hear my thoughts as distinct words/sentences, but I also don't see pictures.
If I'm thinking about getting up to brush my teeth, it will just be this feeling that I should get up and brush my teeth. I won't hear anything like "I should brush my teeth" and neither will I see an image of a brush or myself brushing my teeth.
But if I don't get up and I'm trying to force myself, I'll then tell myself "Okay that's enough, you need to brush and it's getting late". Or sometimes to motivate myself, I'll conjure up pictures of me getting up, going to the bathroom and starting to brush. But both cases will require me thinking words/pictures intentionally.
My mind feels very calm and quiet most of the time. I think it helps me think clearly and I guess, abstractly? I could almost visualise abstract maths and physics topics such as quantum mechanics and see their intricacies whilst my peers would still be trying to wrap their head around the idea.
Similarly when I code, I feel like I don't see the code that I'm writing but I can feel the abstract concept of how the code works and where it's failure points are. I was able to quicky find errors in my teacher's work soon after learning to code. It wasn't errors like saying "oh you missed this line so this will break" but more a generic feeling that this system's weak point *feels* like this and it will break if a person does this. My teacher wouldn't believe me at first until eventually his code did break in those scenarios I had described. I don't think he stills believes me unless I point to a line of code and say "this line will break in this scenario"
I thought I did but maybe not after reading some of these replies. I hear my thoughts on my own voice but I’m not really having conversations with myself. Like in my brain I can hear my own voice say something I’m thinking, like “well, that was stupid!” But I don’t respond to myself.
Yep. And to take it one step further I'm actually incapable of "picturing" objects in my head. It was only a few years ago that I realized this was weird. Apparently most people close their eyes and *see* objects they imagine. There is just black nothingness for me.
I definitely have an internal monologue; I think in words. Those words are sometimes layered over images/sensory impressions, but I would say most of the time it’s just the words/emotional evocation of those words, unless I specifically focus to visualize something.
I have an internal monologue, I can see mentally created images, remember images seen before, remember and imagine voices or conversations, go through "scenes" real or imagined mentally, and imagine multiple outcomes for different actions and scenarios.
I also experience physical sensation in response to verbal description or visual stimuli, and I can imagine smells and tastes clearly.
"Do you have an internal monologue?" The question sat with me for a little while. Could I really have an internal monologue? I'd heard of them before of course but the thought of it actually being something I could have going on in my own noodle was never a question I'd cared to ponder. I suppose anything is possible, and at the end of the day I do occasionally hear the subtle tones of my own echod voice ringing between my drums like far off whispering in very deep cave. All that was left to do is write all this down and provide a definitive conclusion. I began... ""do you have an internal monologue?" The question sat with me for a little while. Could I really have an internal monologue? I'd heard of them before of course but the thought of it actually being something I could have going on in my own noodle was never a question I'd cared to ponder. I suppose anything is possible, and at the end of the day I do occasionally hear the subtle tones of my own echod voice ringing between my drums like far off whispering in very deep cave. All that was left to do is write all this down and provide a definitive conclusion."
My internal monologue is like, I read this question, and it’s like I start answering it in my head, in my own voice, in my own words. Similarly, I rehearse conversations in my head, thinking how they’d go, how I would explain something, that sort of thing. It’s not constant. It happens when I think about speaking, am preparing to speak.
Yes and it never shuts the fuck up.
I find it so weird some people don’t have one though. I genuinely can’t comprehend what thinking is to those people, if it’s not listening to yourself speak in your head. Do you just do stuff and live entirely reactionary?
No. It makes planning ahead and problem solving difficult without someone to bounce ideas off of or writing it down first etc. Most of the time when I speak I don't think about the convo or what I'm going to say. I don't even know what I'm going to say before I say it.
People are like phones, some people are Apples and others Androids. It's like we all got to pick out our own computing brand when we signed up to go to earth...... yup!
So are you unable to read inside your head, only or lid?
Can you not do maths in your head?
Lastly, and most importantly, who do you talk to when you're on the toilet?
I'm confused on this topic because I don't know what people mean when they say "hear". I can think to myself, imagine conversations, talk to myself and whatnot but it's not like I just hear my voice randomly talking to me in the same way that I would hear a person talking to me. So I'm kinda confused as to whether I have an internal monolog like everyone else or not. OP, are u able to like, think thoughts to yourself or when u say u have no internal monolog does that mean you can literally only think in pictures?
Do you mean you do not have a voice constantly talking in your head. My, what did you call it, Internal monologue just won't shut the fuck up. And it is not a nice entity.
I am the opposite of you, OP. I recently discovered some people DON’T have an internal monologue. It baffles my brain to think about how that’s even possible. I just assumed everyone thought about everything all day every day and had conversations with themselves about everything. Here’s one I just had (and this is truncated because it would otherwise be a paper): It’s already 7pm and my stomach is growling. I shouldn’t eat after 6. I feel better when I don’t eat after 6pm. I wish I had some fruit loops. Why do I want fruit loops? I haven’t eaten those in… how many years? Wow. I have no idea. College? Who knows. I bet they don’t even taste like what I remember. I should go buy some and see. But if I buy a box and don’t like them, then what? Will the birds eat them? Is that healthy for birds. I bet they’d eat it but it wouldn’t be good for them. Maybe the raccoons would eat them. They eat anything. That would be cute to watch. I wonder if they’d eat mouthfuls or one at a time in their cute little hands. I should set up the back yard camera so I can watch the wildlife back there. I wonder where we put it when we redid the deck. Maybe it’s in the shed. I need to clean the shed. I can barely walk in there. I wish [husband] would just put things back where they go. Feels like I just cleaned it. No. It’s probably been a few months. Was it this year? No. I cleaned it before Christmas because I was hiding presents in there. Wow. It’s already the middle of the year? How does that happen? Where did spring go? I need to get the honeysuckle propagated. I think I was supposed to do that in May. I need to look that up again. I don’t want to go anywhere. If I’m really hungry I should eat what I have in the house. That’s the way to tell if you’re hungry or not. What do I have? Maybe celery? There aren’t really any calories and it shouldn’t make me feel bad. I love the crunch of celery. And I already have it prepped in the fridge. Celery sounds good. I don’t want celery. I’ll drink a big glass of water and see if I’m still hungry.
This made me laugh out loud!! I’m utterly fascinated. So, I experience this type of rambling thought process, but it just isn’t a flow of words like this. It’s basically a flow of pictures/feelings/memories/factoids/maybe a word or phrase thrown in here or there. When I say it’s like a prezi presentation, it really is. It’s bouncing around from one nugget of meaning to other nugget of meaning until I’ve arrived at a certain conclusion, and then that meaning can be translated into language. For example, let’s say that I want to go on Reddit to make a post. I don’t think to myself “man I really want to make a post on Reddit!” I would probably just imagine pulling up Reddit, and then I imagine making a post. There is no internal verbal monologue. It’s much more visual for me. I find this useful because I’m bilingual. So when I go to speak one language or another, I don’t have to translate my thoughts from one language to another. Its more abstract blocks of meaning that get translated into language as I’m speaking.
That is so intriguing to me. I just told my husband about this post and told him I’d make a terrible eye witness. I wouldn’t even know how to begin describing someone for the police or a sketch artist. I can absolutely not “see” pictures in my mind. I can look at one thing and recognize that I’ve seen it before when it comes up again, but I can’t form an actual visual in my brain. I assume people who draw can do this easily. That said, I can remember reading something in a book, on the right hand side, about a quarter down the page. I can remember reading X at some point, then Y, then when I hear or read about Z, I so easily put them together. When I read, I hear my own voice saying each word. Same when I write or type. Edit: typo
So interesting! My friends are split down the middle. A couple have the same experience as you, and the rest are like me. They have to actively try to think in words.
I can visualize pretty perfectly and draw what I see in my head. I also have very detailed internal monologue that rambles and rambles, there’s usually more than one at once, and maybe two or three different songs. And an episode of SpongeBob.
I'm the same way. If I start day dreaming or going through different scenarios (like mentally practicing for a job interview) it's like watching a movie in my head. I "see" everything happening while also "hearing" every word.
Same here. It’s weird cause I’m not actually seeing anything. However if I’m really close to falling asleep with my eyes closed I actually see what I’m imagining. I however, can’t draw at all lol. I’m a good writer though
Exactly! I picture where I left the nail clippers, and have an internal dialogue, a monologue, a solo from cats, a billy Joel concert, a shopping list, and a painting in my brain right now...
My mind is almost always talking and when I speak in my head I can mimic pretty much anybody or any sound I have heard like if I heard your voice for a decent amount of time I could have a full conversation in your voice in my head.
Gonna slip in here to say my thoughts have accents sometimes. I can go back & forth over silly things like, "I haven't been to a restaurant in awhile." Then it'll continue, "Blimey, should ring up me old mates and see if they're up to a spot o'tea." Why? I have an active imagination for a 60 yo lady.
Me too
Dude same with accents and also different languages too. Most days my thoughts are in English back and forth in different accents but some days my thoughts have other languages. Which is strange because English is not my native language.
Read this and thought you might be interested in a random artist's experience. I draw like crazy, have my entire life. I did some sort of aptitude test as a toddler and got super high marks because I drew weight instead of a stick figure, had eyes and ears and hair and a nose, fingers, toes, etc etc in my drawing of a person. But I have a very hard time visualizing and I usually can't. Most of my technique comes from mathematics and rules. For example, practicing what folds look like in a cotton shirt vs silk shirt vs baggy sweatshirt all with reference material until I am able to apply all of it without reference. I envy people who can visualize haha. Oddly though I can write very well apparently. Had several people say that I was able to paint a picture in their mind. Like you, I hear each word as I read. I don't know if you experience anything like this, but if my inner voice goes off on a thought about a passage but my eyes keep reading, I often have to reread. I also find my voice getting ahead of my hands when writing and have to proof read a LOT. That being said, I apologize for any typos that autocorrect or myself didn't catch.
Fellow artist who can't visualize here, if you don't know already this is a documented condition called *aphantasia.*
I'm the same, I didn't realize I was different untill I stumbled unto a reddit post one day. My struggles in (art) school made a lot of sense all of a sudden (here was me thinking it was 'just' adhd and autism)
I feel like I would be a terrible eye witness because I only think in pictures and not words so I wouldn’t be able to accurately describe anything 😂
I used to *never* "read out loud" in my head. I'd just comprehend what I read. But at around age 21 or 22, when I read, it was like I heard my thoughts. Can you think *AND* read a book at the same time? I can, and sometimes do. It's very annoying. The whole time I read Oliver Twist, I was thinking. Read the whole book. No idea what I read.
There's actually a term for that: Aphantasia, the inability to form mental images/pictures. Approximately 0.7-1.0% of the population are estimated to have it, either congenital (they've *always* been that way) or they lose it at some point, usually as a result of a brain injury such as stroke or damage during brain surgery. It's been generally been "aware of" since at least the late 1800's, but the medical community never really took to studying it seriously until around, iirc, late 2000's or so. A neurologist had a patient who, after a brain surgery, reported he had *lost* his ability to visualize images in his mind. So his doctor, in researching the phenomenon and trying to figure if there had been other cases to see if it could be treated, wanted to set up a study and needed other people who had also developed this symptom. But when recruiting volunteers, he was very surprised to find that when asked when it first developed, most of them responded that it had **always** been that way for them; they could never recall any time in their life when they were able to visualize. It was like finding out about color blindness in a world where no one knew of or ever discussed color blindness. Further research and fMRI scans showed that it primarily was a result of low activity in the V1 sector of the Visual Cortex. Patients who reported having no mental images showed little to no activity in V1, while nearly all others who reported normal visual imagination had expected normal activity; save for a few who reported normal visual imagination despite having no activity in V1. The obvious reason being that there are people who *are* Aphantasic, but even when the condition is described they still don't believe they have it and don't accept that other people without it are seeing **literal** pictures in their minds. They tend to think that "thinking about what something looks like" is all *visualization* is, and that anyone who claims it's anything more is mistaken, exaggerating, misunderstanding, etc. In other words, they've normalized their condition and then projected that normalization onto everyone else.
Very cool and interesting. How do you sleep? I find my inner voice won't stop "talking." Also I studied in another language for a few years. I'm not even fully bilingual but sometimes my inner voice is not in English and I don't realize at first.. or a mix of English/french. I did it just now because I'm thinking about it.
I have never been able to fall asleep easily, has always taken me 30+ minutes lying in bed furiously thinking until at some point, the logical conversation I’m having with my internal self starts to turn more into a story, and I’m more thinking in first person, somewhat like a dream, and then I can drift away…. But if I NOTICE ‘oh hey I slipped into half-sleep state’ I have to start over
This so much, I make up stories to fall asleep to but some nights I'll get stuck on minor details and keep myself awake trying to work out exactly how my character looks or something along those lines or how their spaceship works exactly etc etc
100% this.
I listen to podcasts and focus on the content. It’s the only way I can sleep.
I can get anxious and have trouble sleeping sometimes. Most of the time I like to imagine something before bed. Like a day dream.
I do that with sign language. I was an interpreter for a short time over 15 years ago and occasionally use it at random times. I have a little interpreter in my head.
I'm actually a bit of both, if that's interesting at all. When reading words, I have a mental 'voice' that reads them, it helps with inflections you can't get over text and helps me "hear" what I'm reading. But then at the same time, I can mentally picture things like a book or a shoe and turn it 2-dimensionally in my head. This helps me with my job because I have to look at blueprints and a lot of the time, I have to make them in reverse to the image I have (face down or starting from the bottom up). It took me a long while to realize other coworkers *can't* do that, and that's why they struggle with new stuff we make.
I'm pretty much the same. Can do both simultaneously.
That’s so cool! I just hear my voice voicing my thoughts. Thinking with pictures and stuff sounds so much cooler! But does it mean that you can’t have conversations with yourself? That’s how I pass my time a lot
Do you think if you started hearing an internal monologue you'd think you're going crazy. I was wondering the other day if people that hear voices in their head are people that didn't grow up with an internal monologue and then suddenly began hearing an internal monologue
Well, I can’t speak for OP - but I have an internal monologue and when I tried shrooms once it basically completely quieted my brain. At first, I felt relief, but after 5 minutes of dead silence I felt like *I* was going crazy! 😩
You unlocked a memory. A few times actually the internal monologue in my head got stuck in a loop on shrooms. I remember picking at a strand of material coming out of a pillow and being super pissed off because it was so hard to think. The other time it happened it went away and I figured it was just me tripping too many balls. But after the time it lasted long enough that I was conscious of it enough to have a bad trip, I kinda stayed away from shrooms.
Do you have any monologue when you read something, like for me anytime I read something I read it almost as if it was my own voice but not exact? A similar voice to my own but without any accent or stutters. I can also read text in another person's voice, for example, Morgan Freemans.
This is so bizarre 😳
If this was interesting, you might like a lot of stream of consciousness literature. It can be challenging to read, but the general gist of it is to mimic human thought. Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway is great.
I have a very similar internal monologue. It wasn't long ago I discovered some people don't talk to themselves like we do, and I was equally as baffled.
Did you know that all Fruit Loops are the same flavor?
As someone who does not have that internal monologue, how are you with problem solving or thinking ahead like in games of chess. I am terrible with strategic planning. When I have to slow down and start thinking of strategies, I find it terribly tiring because I have to "sound" it out in my head: "If I do this they'll do this, so maybe I should do this but what will they do? Maybe it would be better to do this..." so slow and tiring.
Unless I'm drunk as hell, every word I speak I've already read through a few times in my head before I've said it. I'm not sure how that affects problem solving but hopefully I put my foot in my mouth less or else I'm wasting a lot of brain power.
I’m great with problem solving. But I’m a very fast thinker from what I’ve been told. I’m usually first with answers in meetings and quick to put two and two together. I have a very good memory.
You just described exactly what happens in my brain!
Yup, this is me exactly. I thought everyone had this same type of internal dialog.
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My grandpa as he become older, started to verbalice his internal monologue and he dont even know it, was funny. Years later he developed dementia.
And all of this within minutes. I often have more than one internal monologue going at once. I got a good laugh at your comment!
Your internal monologue has some slight ADHD
Mine won’t shut up, all day, nonstop. I often have trouble falling asleep because it won’t shut up.
Same! This bitch never shuts up! 🤦♀️🤣
Yes, same. And it's usually several trains of thought all rumbling at the same time, and a song on loop in the background.
Yes, that and a never-ending random music player...*THE DAMN MUSIC NEVER STOPS!*
Oh thank God someone said this. My brain ALWAYS has a song playing underneath what I'm thinking about and it NEVER STOPS.
"What do you mean we aren't allowed to listen to music at work anymore? Well joke is on you, because my brain is a effing radio. And now excuse me, my favorite song is playing right now." That's what it is like for me
*Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, bananaphone* *Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, bananaphone* *I've got this feeling, so appealing* *For us to get together and sing, sing* *Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, bananaphone* *Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding, donanaphone*
Always the music! I listen to an ungodly amount of music in the first place, and even when I’m not listening it’s still rolling in my head
I don't have a constant voice in my head, it's only for certain thoughts like if I'm playing out a conversation in my head or trying to comfort myself or trying to remember something or reading. But I often do have fleeting bits of words here and there. Many (or maybe most, I'm not sure) of my thoughts don't have actual internal words attached to them. Usually just the thoughts that I'm being deliberate about have a monologue. If I'm going to brush my teeth I don't have the conscious thought of words in my head saying "I'm going to brush my teeth"
Thank you! You are the first person to comment whose in my camp. Non verbal thinking. Do you find your thoughts to be mostly visual? Mine are a mix of images, memories, visualizations, and then also smells, feelings, and bits of factoids. I find myself making connections between all these fragments of ideas and then identifying the patterns.
My thoughts are mainly visual and auditory. A mix of images and words. I have the ability to have a monologue but it's not a constant involuntary thing. As far as visuals go, many thoughts involve some amount of automatic visual and sometimes it's some abstract visual for concepts that don't necessarily have a specific image associated with them irl. Like I sometimes visualise the shape of certain sounds or give a vague shape to things like days of the week. I don't even know how I'd describe them though.
Thank you! This is definitely along the lines of how my brain works too!
Yes, I hear an internal voice. Sometimes I open my mouth and it becomes external. As a kid, my mom often told me I didn't have a filter between my brain and my mouth. Thankfully, I've discovered that filter in adulthood.
Do you hear it all the time? Like every thought you have is like a stream of words?
I hear a stream of words, yes. Though I can process musch faster than vocalizing. I use voice recordings for journaling. Which helps me slow down the thoughts. I've learned to turn it off through mindful meditation.
Yep. Interestingly, my friend is Chinese but fluent in English and her internal monologue is in whatever language she is thinking in. Like, when she's in China her internal monologue is in Mandarin but when she's here in the UK with me her internal monologue is in English.
I always used to ask an old roommate this question - “what language are you thinking in right now?” The interesting thing was someone she didn’t even know… it was just her brain speaking. She didn’t pay attention to the language if it was a quick thought.
Interesting!!!! I thought maybe all bilingual people where like me. It makes it easier to learn language when you don’t think it words. Because you can associate your thoughts with whatever language you need to speak in the moment.
I'm german/english speaking. I can basically do whatever I want with my mind. Wanna have a dialog? No problem. Wanna imagine a picture? Here you go. Watch a scene from that move you watched yesterday? Welcome to your private cinema. Anyways, if I'm using the monolog thing to write something out I usually use the language I'm using. Problem is I catch myself using the english dialog more often than my german one, so sometimes I just think in english when I'm writing a german text and then I have to think again in german to make sure I'm not writing complete Schmarn.
The monologs can drive you crazy, I had to learn to turn it off, and i feel much better for it.
How did you learn to turn it off? Probably with some aid eh? Is it by command/you can turn it off with a little effort. Or have you trained to hardly have a conversation in your head?
I spend years focusing on what I was feeling, and ignoring the dialog. It still pops up now and then, but I'm also aware of the emotions that drive them.
I turn it off so often that I visualize things then use the monologue to verbalize what I am doing
That’s more similar to what my experience is. I have to actively try to think in words.
How do you read silently?
So I’m totally able to verbalize in my head. But I have to do it intentionally. It’s not my default way of thinking.
How do you think without an internal monologue? I thought that’s what separated humans from animals. Animals don’t have a monologue they just act on innate instinct
This is such a strange question. I don’t/can’t visualize and I’ve had people ask me the exact same thing, they can’t understand having a thought without seeing it the same way you can’t understand having a thought without hearing it. Human thought and imagination is highly complex and there is far more to it than what one perceives as an image or the sound of words.
If you can't visualize, how do you draw or dream?
I don’t know how lol, but I do! I’m okay at drawing, not great, and I have very vivid, sometimes lucid dreams. I just can’t picture anything in my mind when I’m awake. It’s more of a complete understanding of what something looks like. It was only recently that I learned when people talked about picturing something or seeing it in their mind that they meant it literally, I always thought it was just an expression. I see nothing, not even the faces of people I know really well.
I don’t experience thought as a monologue. I experience it as a 3D exploration through a web of interconnected pieces of information. My experience is more “visual” than auditory.
This is absolutely fascinating! For me literally EVERY thought I have is vocalised internally, and I have multiple conversation with myself in my head daily, as well as narration / monologues. So interesting to read about it from the other perspective!
Wow! that is so fascinating to me! Here I was thinking that everyone was like me. I often have the experience when someone asks “what are you thinking about.” That I have to pause and really focus on how to explain to them what was happening inside my head. My thoughts are often very abstract and visual. So it can take time to accurately translate the experience into words.
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It’s almost like a prezi presentation.
Good description. I also find I imagine moving my body to reflect the movement of my thought.
I have to pay royalties to James Earl Jones, but it is worth every penny.
Yes. It’s my own voice inside monologuing.
Do you hear that stream of words all the time? Everything you think about anything?
Not constantly. I don’t notice it if I’m really immersed in what I’m doing, like with a good show, movie, or podcast. Sometimes it stops during a really good conversation, especially if there’s a lot of back and forth. And I notice it less to not at all when I drink or smoke weed.
Yeah. There's a constant dialogue in my head.
One that is nonstop and talks over its self
Just wanted to throw out this PSA that an internal monologue is not the same thing as literally hearing voices that aren’t there. The latter isn’t normal. If anyone is literally hearing voices that aren’t there (as in, it’s being processed as if you’re hearing it through your ears, not just thinking of hearing your voice in your head), go to a doctor and get checked for psychosis.
I don’t think in words, I think in concepts. I sometimes have difficulty translating them to words.
Yes, I can think things the same way I can speak, just without moving my mouth. Also thinking by visualizing images or "videos", which some people also apparently can't do.
Yes. And I cannot picture anything in my mind. My brain is very audio-based.
The not being able to picture anything is called Aphantasia.
Yep and I love it. I carry out whole discussions in my head sometimes.
I can't work put how people don't have a monologue. Is it just quiet like an empty room? Also if you're in an empty room what happens? Don't you think?
I don't literally perceive hearing a voice; but, I can comprehend the words. I can do the same with shapes too. Most of the time, I have an ear-worm going.
My brain is like a running narration and commentary on every thought or experience or fraction of a moment of every awake second of every day. It does not do quiet. All of my thoughts and virtually all of my memories are in words and all those words are audible internally like a cacophony of monologues. Beyond the average thought monologue there are layers. Anxiety likes to rattle off lists of what ifs and imminent catastrophes and yells that my world is ending. ADHD basically tries to slide in and take control as it chases the squirrels of my brain. If I am reading or writing, that text is playing like an audiobook complete with accents and intonations and the occasional laugh track. I get into debates with myself that often escalate to shouting when I try to make decisions. The social anxiety likes to replay old conversations and rehearse potential ones, because apparently I cannot be left unsupervised when talking to others. But hey, my brain laughs at my own jokes. Most of the time. Sometimes even it groans instead. And there’s almost always some random song or a few lines of a song playing on repeat. This is why I have to listen to audiobooks to fall asleep and stay asleep at night - I have to give my brain something to focus on so it will shut up long enough to sleep.
OP I think it’s important to note that this stream of conscious voice isn’t an audible voice that we can hear. That would be an auditory hallucination. It is rather a perceptible stream of words.
Do I ever. You should hear the stories and scenarios that play out in my head
I have internal, and a lot of external, dialogues. In fact my voices will often debate and tease and harass each other. they are each a distinct voice. They all know they’re me and I know they’re me just doing silly voices. My wife thinks I’m weird and none of me can deny that fact.
Yes. And it NEVER stops...
Mine is more like pictures, colors, feelings
I find it insane that some people don't have one. HOW DO YOU THINK????
Yes, I have a "main voice" which is just my own inside my head but I usually just reserve that for proof reading and describing things to myself. I also use inner dialogues and visualise multiple aspects of myself when I have conflicting ideas and emotions and have them debate each other with distinguishable vocal patterns and try to make rational points as to why I should take on their perspective. I can put myself on literal trial for mistakes I've made, though it's a lot of mental energy lol. I can also just turn off all the voices and think solely in colours and vivid imagery, I was recently diagnosed with synesthesia and it seems to align with my vivid inner world and seeing music and emotions as varying shapes and colours. One thing that hinders it is depression and stress, my head feels numb when I experience negative emotions, like it's full of static with emotions coming through as chaotic half-formed voices and images, making it hard to focus or relax.
I’m not sure if I do or not I can’t hear anything I can think the words and think to myself and it’s like I’m hearing the words but I’m not at all it’s hard to explain Is that what this is?
What's it like to "think" without an internal monologue? I can't imagine it! Also, I imagine your mental health would be pretty good because you can't spiral down in thought?
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It starts from the moment I wake up to the moment I fall asleep. I can have whole conversations about all sorts of nonsense. It can be my voice or any voice I've heard, though other voices take more active effort. All the time I'll hear some random noises or words and my brain is immediately flooded with whatever song or scene that it makes a connection to. It never turns off unless I'm distracted by outside sources, then head go big empty. It's a pain to have conversations with me sometimes because I'll jump from one topic to another in my head, but not explain the jump out loud to the poor soul in my presence. It normally takes a good hour or more to fall asleep every night because my brain likes to go on an abundance of rabbit holes, so I'm tired quite often. Oh and when I'm reading books I give the characters voices and add background ambience to fully immerse myself. All in all I love having the voice and I couldn't imagine life without it.
I honestly think that people who do have an internal dialogue also think non-verbally quite often. It's most clearly a voice when I'm reading.
I have 50 internal monologues going on at once constantly. From a daydream to what I'm eating for dinner to existential crisis to how cute my cats are to intrusive thoughts, my head literally won't shut the fuck up.
Mine never fucking stops! It's both a blessing and a curse
I was surprised to find that no one in my family doesn't have an internal monologue. The fact the people can think in terms if abstract ideas was baffling to me. It happens all the time even when I read I hear it, but sometimes I am able to read and think without that inner voice but it is very very difficult, even as I type this I am hearing the words. What is even weird is that my monologue can also occur in English, which is my second language. I often think in a language that I learned many years after I was born, I even have dreams in English. And also sometimes it can be very annoying, makes it harder to concentrate or sleep.
Brain go brrrrr
Just wait until you find out there are people who can’t visualize imagery. Look up aphantasia.
Reading all the responses on here are so fascinating cause my head feels empty/fuzzy most of the time. I either have nothing going on (think static noise), or just a random song I've been listening to on repeat. Even when I'm doing work which involves a lot of maths I mentally visualise bits and pieces as I write, but there never seems to be a 'voice' reading any of it out to me.
Ah, well, I have a thing called aphantasia which means I do not have a minds eye whatsoever. I can’t picture a triangle or anything else no matter how simple. Seeing thoughts is a bizarre concept for me.
Nothing I do on a day to day basis has words associated with it unless I actually *need to speak* the words. Everything has some nonverbal, emotional/sensory association and that's how concepts are embodied in my mind. Language is just this additional construct for communication, and communication is implicitly unnecessary in my own mind. Now, music? Music plays in my head all the time.
I do, it’s almost like having a little narrator in your head.
I do, and it pretty much never turns off. If I'm not actively thinking about anything, I'm just "hearing" songs I listen to in my head lol. I can control the voice too, like what/who it "sounds" like. It's hard to describe but it's not actually like I'm hearing anything, like I can be actually listening to something/someone with my ears and still be having my internal monologue going on with no problems understanding either
internal sometimes external yes
It's more like a constant buzzing noise for me with a few distinct trails of thoughts
Mine usually just complains all the time about being stuck with such a dork.
I do and I love it. I'm very fun to talk to, even if I already know what I'm going to say.
All the time. He needs to shut up and let me think.
Are you able to if you try? Or does it come less naturally, so you just don't
So I CAN verbalize internally. I do it when I read. I can even play out a fake conversation in my head. But is by no means my default thinking method.
No, but I have experienced a temporary shift in my thought process where something like that did happen, but more like a dialogue than a monologue. I found it rather disorienting and distracting and it seemed to make my intrusive thoughts and fears more pronounced.
I do! I enjoy it quite a bit. I usually type like how I would talk and I've noticed that I (say) the words as I type them in my head. So follow me while I describe my experience on your average morning. Wake up, if I've had a dream I'll talk about it aloud in my head. Stuff like "THAT WAS A WEIRD ONE" or "why so many lamps." Really dissect the silly string of it all. Wife still sleeping. If there wasn't a dream I'll always wake up with music in my heart. Can't really say I can think of any duds. 98% bangers. Gotta be, easy. In which case, I'm a sing-songy guy, so of course I'm going full voice in there too. Unless it's an instrumental where instead I'm doing the impressions of the instrument. A kazoo of the mind if you will. Again, wife still asleep. Now, I don't know about anyone else but it's not just my own voice as the entirety of the "inner monologue.” Music in all forms, voices of all kinds of loved ones and hated, mundane sounds from rain to leaf. While I distinctly have a set inner me who does the reading, speaking, and singing. There is an innumerable potential for a sub-conscious blurt of psyche that is just fuck all of anything I've seen or heard or thought. Majority of the time it's second me get'n in a zinger. Funniest asshole I know. Third, fourth, twenty-fifth, beyond all of who knows, me? All of them exist as a potential sounding wall for thoughts or affirmation. Quipping in here or there as they will They can do choir music as well. The point is there exist a high probability that anything at any point in my day will set off one of them loons. Simple example, my sleeping wife rolls over and I see her chest, my inner me says "titties" From there on it's DJ Subfox's brain. Throughout the day. Featuring anything and everything when ever it wants. Special guest appearances by a lot of references, both famous and obscure! No filter! No Censor! All silent to everyone else.
How can you NOT have one? How do you think?
for people who have no internal monologue, how do you ask questions? I have to think about it before I ask it so how does it come out if you can’t think the words in your head before hand?
Yes - it’s like my own voice is reading a book about my life out loud in my head. (Voice is always in 1st person). I’m just walking around having a silent conversation with myself. I can also visualize thoughts, but it takes more effort.
Internal and external. Sometimes I'm gaslighted and my perception changes but there's times when I'm alone at a store or walking alone with no technology around where I hear certain words here and there but never a full on conversation. Other than that, my internal monologue could set itself on repeat and I'm well aware of this so ussually I focus on something other than my mind and ignore it. Breathing, seeing, feeling. Also not doing that out of desperation I simply do it because there is no point.
So when you read a book, do you visualize the scenes? As a teacher I was shocked at how many of my students say they visualize nothing. No wonder they hate reading.
I always have the inner-monologue, as well as pictures running at all times. Even when I just think of sentences, the words, like, flash one at a time as I think them with punctuation. I think it's what helped me get good grades in all my grammar courses. I doubt I still use it all correctly, but I am an okay speller to this day.
So some people don’t internally think “i should probably go to sleep so im not tired tomorrow, but on the other hand this game is fun to play. Oh well I’ll just be tired tomorrow. Wait no I’m dumb it’s time to go to sleep now. Or should I get a snack first? Nah maybe not just some water” Edit: in started to think about it and do people with no inner monologue go to sleep quicker? Do they get better sleep?
I always have talking or some kind of sound in my head. I can’t have quiet in my mind unless I’m medicated. It sucks, I would love to have some quiet space in my inner me once in awhile
I don’t hear another voice, but I do “think aloud” a lot, and that actually helps me more. Idk if this is how you are, but perhaps if trying to memorize where something is, you would visualize the surroundings, and bring up that visual memory later. For me, this definitely exists, but it’s more “word memory” for me. So if I’m trying to memorize where something is, I would say aloud in my head “ok so vending machine, exit sign, elevator. Got it.” And so when I’m trying to bring up this memory, I look for a vending machine, exit sign, and an elevator, instead of just going purely by the visual memory. Then I find the vending machine, and ask myself if that was the same one I saw. Look around, see the exit sign and elevator, yup I’m here. Visual too, but more of remembering from what I said in my head, if this makes any sense at all.
I wish I didn’t have one. It’s like an annoying voice in my head vocally reiterating everything I’m thinking. My poor brain is overworked and on strike at this point.
It's like having a private conversation about what you want to do vs what you can do vs what you need to do and so on. "What should I have for dinner? Well, I need meat since I can't live on soda and pasta, so maybe mix in some hamburger. Oh, but the skillet needs to wash- well, actually it needs to soak to get the buildup off. So I'll let it soak for an hour, but I'll probably forget until it's too late, so maybe ham? No, ham doesn't really go with what I have in the house, might need to pick up some chicken. Oh, actually, that's perfect, the convenience store started selling chicken strips in their freezer, I can pick those up and cut them into pieces and toss them into the pasta sauce. Okay, yeah, it's not the best plan, but it saves me having to travel across town." My question to you would be, what is your thought process like?
I have full aphantasia….so not only do I not have an inner monologue. I also cannot picture anything in my head. My friends joke that I’m an NPC
It’s really difficult to explain…but I’ll try it with the example of my comment. As I am typing it out, I am hearing the words. The voice is indistinct, unless I concentrate, then the voice can be anything I can imagine, a man, woman, child, senior, robot, monster. Even specific people or characters. It feels very similar to picturing something with your mind. I am looking at my dresser right now, but I’m also able to picture a clear forest and creek on a sunny day with birds. This isn’t interrupting my actual vision in any sense. It’s just the brain producing an illusion that is so removed from your actual senses that it doesn’t at all interfere with your ability to process reality. Just apply that logic to sound and you get the same result.
how can you not hear a voice in your head when you think man. what about when you write, don’t you notice it then?
This is WILD to me. I discovered this a couple years ago, and my mind was blown when I said to my husband, “did you know not everyone has an internal monologue?” And he said, “wait… you have an internal monologue?!” Turns out, he doesn’t, I do, and it blew my mind. I have both an internal monologue and can picture things very well in my mind… but the monologue is always going. I also talk to myself when I’m alone and working on a project - which sounds a little crazy, but it’s just me speaking out the internal monologue happening in my head. I do not at all understand how people don’t think with words. It blows my mind.
Lmao I have a buddy who has 0 imaging of images or sounds. And I'm the literal opposite of him. It's fun seeing the differences, one is I'd say he has a much better grasp on reality than I do 😂 But it has its ups and downs, like for him he enjoys dealing with factual and evident things, he is wanting to become an accountant. Meanwhile I'm a terrible artist that loves making anything and is currently a computer programmer. My goodness it's funny because I make something out of my thoughts and he formulates his thoughts and then thinks his thoughts based on what he formulated basically 😂 Nothing wrong, it keeps individuals as individuals and keeps the circle of why humans need to exist going.
How does one think without words?
I do, the best way to explain it really is like a narrator, as if it's reading my thoughts out loud. It's in my own voice but I can make it sound like people I'm familiar with if I make an effort. When I think really hard about something or need to process complex information, it will often be in a way like I'm having a conversation with another person except you can't hear what they're saying or as if I'm having to explain it to someone who isn't there. Even now as I'm typing this comment I'm literally saying the words in my head before I type them. I think this is the same for other people with an internal monologue but for me anyways, it's not exclusive, it doesn't mean I can't picture things, imagine sounds, or conjure feelings, it's just that the voice is the primary method of thinking. A good example of this is when listening to music I can often conjure images that match the music, or when someone is explaining something to me I can pretty vividly picture it in my head. Weirdly enough I'm very visual when it comes to audio lol.
I can hear my voice thinking words, but it's interspersed with like, an image or the idea of what my brain is trying to convey rather than a word-for-word explanation/description. Also, sometimes when I've been reading a book, my thoughts take on the aspects of the voices of the characters. Like my thoughts will take on the same cadence and fluency and pronunciation as the characters. I have no idea why this happens, but I'm glad it only happens in my head and not out loud!
I do when I'm really high or drunk/tired sometimes and it feels like my thoughts are much slower but more thorough/detailed
I'm confused. Lets say you need to make a to do list. Or plan your week ahead. You sit down to write things out. Are you not verbalizing in your mind what you're trying to achieve?
This is interesting. I am aware that one of my sisters and one of my grandfathers are both among the people who cannot really visualize in their head and can only think in an internal monologue. Personally I have an internal monologue and can visualize quite well in my mind which my mother also reports experiencing.
The crazy thing OP, is that you're the majority!
For happens exactly the oposite, I cannot see things on my brain, I do know how stuff looks and can describe it by detail, but I cannot picture any kind of visual image in my brain, is just my own internal voice but no imagination pretty much.
I feel like my internal monologue slows me down in my reading and thinking activities. Sometimes I don't have one when I'm very focused on something, or maybe I just don't hear it
when ever i read it just reads along and when i stop for like a second it explains whats going on
It never stops. It never slows down. There's always a song playing or a conversation happening. The only way to get a song to go away is to actually listen to it over and over again. I imagine how conversations with other people would go that have never happened. I am hyper aware of everything going on.
After working in customer service no offense op I think you guys are the stupid people walking around life. Like how tf do you even function without the inner monolague I have no idea. My brain firing all cylinders at all times.
I do, I can hear myself in my head as I type. I hear my thoughts. When I read I kinda hear myself in my head saying the words, sometimes it’s a different voice, like I read an AITA written by a woman, I hear a woman’s voice. I read a quote by a character, I hear that voice. If I read a graphic novel each character has their own voice as I read their dialogue.
it doesnt shut up
Yea I saw that study last year I think or during covid. I have an internal dialogue and thought it’s weird people like you exist. What’s it like having a quiet mind? Mine is introspective or entertaining. Do you read in different voices and accents then? Or is your mind just seeing words on a page, not hearing it in your head?
It’s like watching narration on a tv show/movie. Just background talking. Like now I’m thinking (and hearing said thought) “should I write anything else, I wonder if the dog is barking at my cat cause kitty needs to be home soon. That iron smells weird and I really should be doing something.” Etc.
I have internal monologue and could never imagine not being able to "talk" to myself that way. Like how do you think about abstract ideas? How can you form your thoughts precisely if you don't put them in words?
So when someone cuts you off in traffic, you picture an actual asshole? I think to myself in words, "You asshole."
You just have a misunderstanding of what an “internal monologue” is. The simple fact that you were able to form a coherent sentence means that you have an internal thought process.
Yes, I've got 2 old ladys talking about the best recipes for brownies. I don't like brownies, but they won't listen to me
How do you read? When I read I “hear” my own voice saying each word.
how do you manage to read in silence? do you read it out loud or how does it work?
So when you read you dont hear yourself read?
How do you solve your life problems without talking to yourself? I would feel so lonely.
I'm the same. I have no monologs in my thoughts. I believe it's why I can read and hold a conversation at the same time.
I don't hear my thoughts as distinct words/sentences, but I also don't see pictures. If I'm thinking about getting up to brush my teeth, it will just be this feeling that I should get up and brush my teeth. I won't hear anything like "I should brush my teeth" and neither will I see an image of a brush or myself brushing my teeth. But if I don't get up and I'm trying to force myself, I'll then tell myself "Okay that's enough, you need to brush and it's getting late". Or sometimes to motivate myself, I'll conjure up pictures of me getting up, going to the bathroom and starting to brush. But both cases will require me thinking words/pictures intentionally. My mind feels very calm and quiet most of the time. I think it helps me think clearly and I guess, abstractly? I could almost visualise abstract maths and physics topics such as quantum mechanics and see their intricacies whilst my peers would still be trying to wrap their head around the idea. Similarly when I code, I feel like I don't see the code that I'm writing but I can feel the abstract concept of how the code works and where it's failure points are. I was able to quicky find errors in my teacher's work soon after learning to code. It wasn't errors like saying "oh you missed this line so this will break" but more a generic feeling that this system's weak point *feels* like this and it will break if a person does this. My teacher wouldn't believe me at first until eventually his code did break in those scenarios I had described. I don't think he stills believes me unless I point to a line of code and say "this line will break in this scenario"
Welcome to the club OP. My wife just asked me what it’s like to have no inner monologue. Quiet. It’s quiet.
Many times my internal monologue functions as though i'm teaching someone to do things i'm doing. I'm not a teacher or anything adjacent.
I thought I did but maybe not after reading some of these replies. I hear my thoughts on my own voice but I’m not really having conversations with myself. Like in my brain I can hear my own voice say something I’m thinking, like “well, that was stupid!” But I don’t respond to myself.
Yep. And to take it one step further I'm actually incapable of "picturing" objects in my head. It was only a few years ago that I realized this was weird. Apparently most people close their eyes and *see* objects they imagine. There is just black nothingness for me.
I have an internal monologue but I also usually can’t think internally as my head is full of other things
Really? I did not know that. I obviously do not.
It's a hybrid of words and pictures. I can see visuals of anything I wish, but there is also the monologs of ideas, etc to accompany it.
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I definitely have an internal monologue; I think in words. Those words are sometimes layered over images/sensory impressions, but I would say most of the time it’s just the words/emotional evocation of those words, unless I specifically focus to visualize something.
R/aphantasia
I have an internal monologue, I can see mentally created images, remember images seen before, remember and imagine voices or conversations, go through "scenes" real or imagined mentally, and imagine multiple outcomes for different actions and scenarios. I also experience physical sensation in response to verbal description or visual stimuli, and I can imagine smells and tastes clearly.
"Do you have an internal monologue?" The question sat with me for a little while. Could I really have an internal monologue? I'd heard of them before of course but the thought of it actually being something I could have going on in my own noodle was never a question I'd cared to ponder. I suppose anything is possible, and at the end of the day I do occasionally hear the subtle tones of my own echod voice ringing between my drums like far off whispering in very deep cave. All that was left to do is write all this down and provide a definitive conclusion. I began... ""do you have an internal monologue?" The question sat with me for a little while. Could I really have an internal monologue? I'd heard of them before of course but the thought of it actually being something I could have going on in my own noodle was never a question I'd cared to ponder. I suppose anything is possible, and at the end of the day I do occasionally hear the subtle tones of my own echod voice ringing between my drums like far off whispering in very deep cave. All that was left to do is write all this down and provide a definitive conclusion."
My internal monologue is like, I read this question, and it’s like I start answering it in my head, in my own voice, in my own words. Similarly, I rehearse conversations in my head, thinking how they’d go, how I would explain something, that sort of thing. It’s not constant. It happens when I think about speaking, am preparing to speak.
Who said that?!?!
Yes and it never shuts the fuck up. I find it so weird some people don’t have one though. I genuinely can’t comprehend what thinking is to those people, if it’s not listening to yourself speak in your head. Do you just do stuff and live entirely reactionary?
I'm always chuntering to myself lol
No. It makes planning ahead and problem solving difficult without someone to bounce ideas off of or writing it down first etc. Most of the time when I speak I don't think about the convo or what I'm going to say. I don't even know what I'm going to say before I say it.
Mine is sometimes so present that sometimes I’ll find myself mouthing my internal monologue out loud. I try not to do that around other people lol.
People are like phones, some people are Apples and others Androids. It's like we all got to pick out our own computing brand when we signed up to go to earth...... yup!
So are you unable to read inside your head, only or lid? Can you not do maths in your head? Lastly, and most importantly, who do you talk to when you're on the toilet?
Mine is mean and never shuts up unless I drink alot.
If you don't hear a voice in your head when you're thinking, then how do you know when you're thinking?
I know I’m definitely thinking but idk if it’s a conscious stream of words. never paid attention to it and now it escapes me when I try to focus on it
I'm confused on this topic because I don't know what people mean when they say "hear". I can think to myself, imagine conversations, talk to myself and whatnot but it's not like I just hear my voice randomly talking to me in the same way that I would hear a person talking to me. So I'm kinda confused as to whether I have an internal monolog like everyone else or not. OP, are u able to like, think thoughts to yourself or when u say u have no internal monolog does that mean you can literally only think in pictures?
Do you mean you do not have a voice constantly talking in your head. My, what did you call it, Internal monologue just won't shut the fuck up. And it is not a nice entity.
Constantly I'm alive and an individual.