How can I tell if I have an internal monologue?

I’m not sure it automatically correlates with mental illness. I have always had an inner monologue and haven’t ever had anxiety or depression. It’s just something that’s always been there.

To be honest it never crossed my mind that anyone didn’t have it until now.

Come to think of it some people definitely think more in pictures than words.

I hear absolutely nothing, and in fact if I was to sit like that with my eyes shut and didn’t nod off then it’s like my thoughts switch off all together…..but I become hyper aware of my surroundings and physical being. Like I can’t go into myself….I sort of go out!

Thank you for articulating so perfectly what I experience!
I’m fascinated by the idea that some people have an internal monologue because I just don’t have that, and like @StamppotAndGravy describes when I read it’s just sort of absorbed somehow. There’s certainly no voice and i’m an avid reader.

I cane across this stat a few years ago.

It’s not about reading in your head. It’s about having an inner voice that has a life of its own.

If you are sitting in silence, with nothing. Your eyes closed. Do you end up having a conversation in your head or do you hear absolutely nothing?

I wish my inner voice could be quiet sometimes. I always wondered if it was my conscious- then realised I just overthink.

Oh wow, my mind is BLOWN. I didn’t even realise an internal monologue was a thing!! I don’t have one.

Similarly to @SquitMcJit, I absorb the words but don’t necessarily hear them. I know their meaning in my head but there’s no-one narrating this. Writing is also a significant part of my job and 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. Often I use Word’s Read Aloud function to hear it being read back to me.

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.

There is absolutely no narrative going on in my mind at other times. The idea that this is normal to everyone is absolutely mind blowing. To me, that just sounds overwhelmingly chaotic.

This is so interesting!

Ah I can't remember what this is called but I studied it in my psychology degree. It does have a name!

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, whereas my thoughts are in language. My mind is completely blown! It’s amazing how different we all are.

Interesting, I was wondering whether anyone else did this! I have one in constantly, with a podcast or book going. I stop it to have direct conversations, that’s about it.

I just cannot begin to imagine what it’s like to not have an internal monologue. Interesting point about meditation - I wonder whether people with or without one are more successful!

That actually sounds really lovely. Like having a constant buddy!

This is so interesting!

I do this! Now I write it down in the notes on my phone then delete it a day later.
It stops me going over and over it in my mind so it ends. I do it for both past and future conversations

I have ADHD and three types of internal monologues going on all the time

1. Constant reminders to myself to do stuff because I will forget, I often sing it so I remember
2. Constant thought process of everything going on around me, what I see, what's next etc interspersed with snatches of music when I hear phrases that remind me of songs
3. role playing conversations that need to be had but haven't happened yet

When I wear noise cancelling AirPods but with no music etc on them, all the above reduce massively

That’s a really good way of describing it for me too - when I’m reading, the words go straight to thoughts, I’m not hearing or sounding out the individual words like hearing an audiobook.

Mine never stops from morning to night. Ever.
I talk myself to sleep every night. It's exhausting to be honest!

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.

When I read I’m reading really fast (I didn’t realise that until someone tested me and said I couldn’t be reading and taking it in). 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 write in my work and again don’t hear a voice sounding it out. I’m a natural proof-reader and my eye can just see things in the page (I will now obviously have made loads of mistakes in this post after saying that…)

I have an internal monologue, and definitely think in words (I have aphantasia and so cannot think in pictures even if I try my hardest). But I can turn it off, it’s essentially the same as speaking - I can do it or not do it.

No anxiety and generally quite good at coping with stress and pressure.

I'm not sure, I think I'm somewhere in between.

When I read/write I hear a voice in my head as if I was reading aloud, and sometimes when I'm rehearing or rehashing a conversation.

But the majority of the time my brain is quiet of voices. Thoughts of things I have to do will pop up, but there's no internal debate or competing voices as people describe here.

Ditto. It’s just chatting away all the time. I’m starting to hate it generally but it’s a nightmare and the cause of my insomnia since I was a teen.

but if it shuts down completely, that’s normally a bad sign. I don’t understand how it all works.

I do have an inner monologue . It’s sometimes quieter than other times. I reason things out verbally in my head. I don’t think I’m excessively anxious at present but the inner monologue is there whether I’m anxious about things or not.

This is why I constantly have an AirPod in my ear playing podcasts to stop all the chatter

Pretty much the only time I don’t have one in is when I’m washing my hair

I only do this if I'm stressed or worrying. Otherwise I don't have a monologue. 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.

I hear words when I type, but not when I read. They just go straight to thoughts. The same is true in my second language, but not in my third and fourth languages which aren't as strong. I have to concentrate on the words individually and they don't go straight to thoughts. I only learnt the extra languages as an adult, so I'm not bilingual, but having a wide vocab in English, plus now a couple of other languages, means that no thought or concept has been associated with a single word since I was little.

I have adhd so without my medication I have about five internal monologues (is that grammatically possible?) at once. Absolutely cannot imagine not having any at all!

I wish my inner voice would shut up.

i thought everyone did this!! (repeating conversations or rehearsing future ones). And the chatter! Blimey. I had no idea until I read this thread that this wasn’t 100% of people. The things I learn!

Thank you to OP for highlighting the difference in all of us :)

I hear a narrator when I read. My late husband didn't - he told me that he "saw" a technicolor film.