How can I tell if I have an internal monologue?

Can anyone explain the difference between a thought and an internal monologue? As I write this I'm saying it in my head, if that makes sense?

I only have it sometimes
It's pretty boring.
I tend to just think without words but in abstract thoughts and impulsion.

I have a whole world with characters and back stories. I know them better than I know my friends! I have scenarios and conversations between them going on all the time.
My brain is very busy!

I don't think I have an inner monologue. I think verbally in my head about specific things (eg thinking about what people say in conversation, spending time thinking about a topic I've seen mentioned in the news or read a post about) but in day to day life I'm not noticing and narrating what's happening.

All I can compare it to is when you're driving familiar roads on autopilot. You are concentrating and able to react to things if they happen, but unless something does happen your brain isn't actively making new memories. That's me all the time- I have verbal thoughts in response to stimuli, but the rest of the time I'm just going along silently rather than noticing things.

I also don't picture things when I read. I wonder if it's linked. It seems illogical but I’m a massive lover of reading and always enjoyed creative writing and got high marks in it. Just don’t picture things in my head (so descriptions of appearances or action scenes in a book get skim read just to pick up the gist or plot points, rather than me visualising them in depth).

Ok.

In that case, I'm pretty sure I do both.

I wonder if we all 'think' in many kinds of ways simultaneously.

Sometimes an intenal monlogue is really obvious - like if I'm pottering in the garden and I think 'where did I just leave my secateurs', but say it out loud without thinking.

Do people with no internal monologue whatsoever do that too? Or never speak their thoughts out loud when alone?

I don't have an inner monologue really, I think I have a bit of one when stressed but that's it. I'm autistic and I will sometimes dream of conversations and rehearse conversations in my head (again mainly work related)
A lot of the time though my mind feels quite blank. I'm just quietly observing and there's no chatter.

I have a good friend with quite severe ADHD and he describes his inner monologue as constant, fast paced and switching topics all the time. It sounded exhausting. He was baffled when he realised that there could be times that if he asked me what I was thinking, and I said 'nothing' that that could be genuinely true!

With my autism I do mimic a lot by habit, and when I do have a bit of an inner voice it usually starts to take on the voice of people I spend a lot of time with and look up to. If I'm not careful I then start picking up their intonation and accent so I have to be careful as that can appear very creepy!

I still think, well hopefully anyway!
Do you hear an actual voice, speaking as a person would in the same style? What does it say!?

I’d be thinking, but I wouldn’t hear the thoughts as words, more feel the gist of them. Or like a PP described as thoughts surfacing like bubbles. The exception would be if I’m actually thinking about verbalising something like rehearsing a conversation, or rehashing a conversation, which will still happen a lot. I’m a terrible insomniac, but not highly anxious, and am kept awake by thoughts that won’t shut off, but I’m not necessarily experiencing them as a monologue.

My internal monologue is a way of slowing thoughts down so I can catch hold of them. When I was younger I used to find it really annoying that to truly think a thought I had to think it into words before it made sense. I spent years trying to work out if I could short cut the process and just take the raw thought, to speed thinks up a bit and have more time available for more thoughts, but it never works.

How mine works is that all the voices argue until the real thought actually gets spoken in my head in proper words.

If I’m “practising for a conversation” in my head it’s different as then both sides of the conversation come all the way to a single thought first. Sometimes I forget whether I’ve had the real conversation with the person I’m planning to talk to (and the conversation never goes to plan).

My monologue never turns off, I assume that’s what comes out when I sleep talk!

Before reading this thread I’d never even considered that some people might not have the monologue at all, I assumed people would have them at different speeds and levels of useful, but silence would be weird (deafening!).

I'm glad others are wondering about this.

I am totally bemused by the idea of constant chatter or constant conversations in your head. But I do have thoughts. But just a normal amount I think. I'm not sure now. I don't know how I read and whether it is pictures or words. It just happens.

I'm assuming if I had a very prominent inner voice I'd know about it?

I have no internal monologue and have aphantasia. Thoughts are just totally abstract, neither words nor pictures, they’re just… thoughts (to me! Obviously it’s all I’ve ever known).

My mind is racing all the time and I am medicated for anxiety. But as I don’t think in words, it manifests as a general panicked feeling and being unable to relax.

I too read by absorbing full sentences or paragraphs at a time, extremely fast. I can reread books quite happily because they don’t really sink in properly, though I still enjoy them. Non fiction books aren’t as easy to read because I can’t really do that.

If you read with your voice in your head, do you have to read at the same speed as you talk? Surely otherwise it would sound very strange? I can’t imagine reading that slowly, I would hate it 😂

This is all fascinating to me as an inner verbal diarrhoea-er.
So @Shoopstoop in a white quiet room what would be happening in your head? Peace and quiet? I cannot imagine not thinking anything - it's probably lovely but it sounds a bit scary tbh!

I do all of those things you’ve just said, but I don’t ’hear’ it in a narrative in mine or anyone else’s voices. It’s more of a feeling / internal understanding of a train of thought.

I can make myself hear a narrative in my head, for example practicing for interviews. But that always feels forced and less natural.

For me, I still have thoughts but there’s no conversation in my head. I’m so confused, is it like having a little person on your shoulder talking to you? 😂

I speak you myself out loud probably more often than is normal.

Right?! The whole voice do hear when you read kind of has me stymied … I don’t really read in any voice, I just sort of immerse my mind into what I’m reading. Couldn’t describe it if I tried.

There is an exception, if I read book that I’ve previously listened to the audio version, I will read in all the characters voices from the narrator.

Daily though I do have an inner dialogue that is going on in the background along with random songs that can switch between tv theme songs, children’s songs, and heavy metal.

I think the real challenge is that when you try to think about it it, you can’t. It’s the equivalent of describing the full process of breathing, You just do it naturally.

It's interesting that an internal monologue is not necessarily an advantage, you would think it would be, but it seems like there are some clear advantages to not having one.

@Em308 Isn’t an internal monologue simply thinking?

Possibly so ...........but it's fascinating to see all the different ways there are of 'simply thinking'

@MBappse 🤣🤣

So if you were in a white quiet room with no stimulus what would be happening internally? This is very interesting to me! I can’t imagine it.

This is how I read too and I’m a quick reader.

This whole thread is blowing my mind. I genuinely can’t figure out if I have one or not.

When I read or write I’m thinking the words in my head but not in my voice, or any voice. They’re just there.

Isn’t an internal monologue simply thinking?

So, if you are someone who does not have an internal monologue - are you really good at listening?

For example, when I'm listening to people talking on the radio, my mind wanders off on a train of thought about what they are saying and I sometimes wish I could rewind and hear what I've missed.
I'm guessing that people with no internal monologue don't miss anything as their mind never wanders?

Do people with no internal monologue never daydream? or think about what they're going to say on their way to an interview / the doctors / to visit a friend in hospital / to a break up chat with a partner etc?

I can't imagine not practising these situations before I arrive at them.

@SquitMcJit
I don’t have an inner monologue and didn’t realise for a long time that others do. I’m thinking lots of random things all the time, but I don’t hear a voice narrating anything.

@StamppotAndGravy Thoughts just surface, like bubbles. Often there are multiple there at once but they only take shape when I focus. Like fish in a pond. I wave my hands a lot when I talk and feel like the shapes and feel come faster than the words.

@Anonym00se I’ve just had this conversation with DH and he describes it just the same as you, that he absorbs the words but doesn’t sound them. He said that he thinks in pictures,

@SquitMcJit When I read I’m reading really fast ............ I just sort of absorb the words - if I consciously think about it and slow down and sound it out then it’s very slow and not as enjoyable.
I just know when words flow and when they don’t. I can make a voice in my head to read it back, but it doesn’t happen subconsciously.

@ForSale2024 If I remember it’s bin night and I need to put the bins out, I see a picture of the bins and have an internal understanding to remember to put the bins out later.

yes, yes and yes - all of these! You've all put into words what I've always felt, but just didn't have the words to describe

What an interesting discussion, thank you! @Barrol

(edited to include PP names)

My dd & dh have one, dd has anxiety, dh has adhd.
I don't and neither does ds (according to dd we're the mentally stable family members!)