AIBU to ask whether constant mental chatter is normal?

That's interesting... I'm (monkey mind) a reader. My husband (silent mind) is a watcher. I'd rather read a set of instructions, he'd rather watch a you tube video on how to do it. I will read newspaper articles online, he will watch tik toks. I will read a book for pleasure, he will watch a film. I hate having to watch stuff and he really dislikes having to read lengthy things

Mine can and that’s when I realise I need to sort it out. Literally on a sort-it-out drive as we speak! Cannot believe the progress I have made in a week.

I think it might explain why I prefer reading to watching TV. When I read I am thinking about / imaging what is happening, what they look like etc so I get absorbed in it and it takes my mind from other things. Watching TV doesn't do this in the same way.

Same. I can't visualise maps, location, or how things work. My husband knows if we're facing east. Or which way to go home from somewhere we've never been to before. He can put together complicated things with ease and can build stuff. I haven't even got a sense of direction. But his mind is silent. And I envy him that! My kids are just like me. I think his kids are more like him

I’m 40 now and I remember in my teens and 20s thinking/discussing how I could have more than one conversation at once in my mind

always got songs on repeat

but I tend to find its racing, worse with stress and hormones

I tend to block a lot out with scrolling/music/podcasts/tv

suspected I might be adhd for a few years now

Yes, it's absolutely incessant. It's like having 50 tabs open at once on my browser. I'm not ADHD although I probably have traits (my son is, and his mental chatter is at insane levels 🤣). My husband doesn't have any internal dialogue whatsoever. When I used to ask him what he's thinking, he says 'nothing' and genuinely means it. I spent a while thinking he was lying to me haha. It was a revelation that not everyone experiences this.

We had this conversation in the car recently. Me and both kids are like this. All perfectly normal. My husband's brain is silent but very visual. Also normal.

God yes, my brain is going all the time. Remembering things, worrying about things, thinking of my to do list....don't do music though. I do see images though and rerun conversations in my head. I had an interview last week and I must have been through that 100 times, thinking of the things I did well and all the other things I'm sure I didn't. It's exhausting. Dh seems to just watch the Repair Shop and never think of anything.

I have this and I’m autistic - it’s horrible and absolutely exhausting.

Oh and if people say they don't have it it's 99.9% likely they're just not aware of it.

I have this, I do not have adhd, it’s just normal brain.

Meditation is not about stopping the thoughts.

Omfg I have that stuck in my head all the time! WHYYYYYYY 😩😩😩

thats really interesting. My DH and dd both have ASD and they say their minds are full of pictures rather than sounds.

I always wonder how people can empty their mind to meditate - if I try I find myself having an internal voice going - ooh I'm doing quite well with not thinking about much, but now I'm thinking about thinking about not thinking so no I'm failing emptying my mind! - but yes, I have constant chatter, re-running conversations, imagining how other conversations might go, thinking about what I have to do, what the cats doing, What's happening on TV, how I'm cold - all of these thoughts intertwine and fill my head simultaneously.

Yes I would have thought it is. No one would have survived if we had vacant empty heads, its how I know Im not doing ok actually when my head is just vacant (like today)

The constant natter and chatter is because life is overstimulating, our brains represent that.

Constant chatter, I have regular conversations with myself plus singing/ remembering things in the background.
probably have ADHD, I am autistic.
also no pictures in my brain, it’s loud but not visual.

No not mine.

Yes it's the default mode in humans. It's a neuro typical response to being alive!

Look up the default network mode.

I have conversations going on mostly. Not constant but enough for it to be too much.

Also I am going through a phrase of cringy memories popping up several times a day. I hate that.

Reminds me to meditate as it calms down a bit if I do that regularly.

Another one whose brain won't shut up and as far as I know completely NT. I can do parallel processing, with an ear worm going round and round while thinking about all sorts.

I'd love to be able to switch off, or meditate, but I can't.

I dont have a song in the day but do in the morning normally, although thinking about it I dont think Ive had that for months whereas I had it for years before, it was just normal

I do have a lot of mental chatter, things I need to remember normally.

I always have a song in my head, but no other chaos, noise or chatter. It’s interesting to see what a ND brain can be like.

Very much me and I am diagnosed Audhd.

I nearly always have a song in my head. And I always have thoughts milling around too. But I don't think of it as chatter.

I often read or hear something which intrigues me and my mind follows the thought through until I reach a dead end. At which point I usually Google a bit to see if I can find any further insight into what I've been thinking about.

For example,I recently read a couple of articles about the use and limitations of AI. That got me thinking about the difference between reading about an experience and actually experiencing it. . Then I moved on to think about why I read about things I've never experienced, and if that reading gave me any useful insight at all.

At 75 years old I've never been diagnosed with or suspected myself, that I was anything other than NT.