How does your inner voice or voices talk to you?

[Ignoramusgiganticus]

I call myself a bloody idiot if I do something stupid but generally my inner voice is fairly quiet. I might replay conversations or scenarios over a few times late at night but generally I'm busy and I don't hear a lot going on in my head.

Tonight it transpires a friend has constant dialogues going on in her mind between a "good" voice and a "bad" voice and she has to adjudicate over who "wins". It sounds tiring and hard work.

How does your inner voice or voices talk to you?

Mine starts nearly every monologue with "Oh ..." as in "oh for fuck's sake!" or "oh just get on with it". It's a monologue because I've given up trying to answer back - I never win.

Mine says Lol a lot

My inner voice tells me that I can't run 5k and to give up. Sometimes I do agree with it, other times I ignore it.

Pie I think you've described how it usually is for me. Unless I'm really, really worried about something then it's on a loop and I can't get it out of my head.

My inner voice is directed at other people or things, so if someone is being difficult it might say “ oh for fuck sake” it’s very sarcastic. I will come out with something professional like” I can’t see that would be likely in the timescale we are talking about “
Everyone with impulse control must do this though. It’s the difference between this with ASBOs and those without.

@Piewacket

It always catches me out when people say "What are you thinking about?" And the answer, most of the time, is"nothing." (they never believe you: "But you must be thinking about SOMETHING!")

Yes, yes, YES! Is it so hard to believe? Apparently so.

Do you also find you have a high tolerance for boredom? I used to have an inner voice, I know I did and it seemed to want constant stimulation, I couldn't happily just sit and BE as I can now. I remember being unable to shut it up back years ago when I started meditating and it made it very difficult to do for even a few minutes.

@ScottChegg Ah, now I do try to meditate every day, have done for many years.

Yes, I'm pretty good with boring situations/tasks, I'll just quietly get on with it. It has to be quite extreme for me to start thinking "I'm bored now."

I'm not good with is quick-thinking/under pressure scenarios, instead of racing through all possible solutions/answers, my mind tends to want to go soothingly blank instead. (Of course it's entirely possible I'm just very, very stupid )

My inner voice is constantly tutting and putting world to rights.

I thought this was going to be a load of philosophical Mumbo jumbo when I clicked. I seem to have a quite constant monologue/dialogue going on in my head. I assumed it was just me running over things in my head. Isn’t it? I also often have random songs from the past playing, not the whole song, often just bits on repeat with most of the words not quite there. I have a tendency to go over events in my head over and over again, especially if I’ve, for example, made a mistake... I turn it into huge deal and feel like the worst person in the world. It’s quite tiring, not sure how to switch it off!

Am I the only person with different languages?

Is there anyone else bilingual on the thread?

Mine speaks in an accent that is different to my own. It's normally influenced by the book I am reading at the time and where the main character is from. I read a lot of Roddy Doyle books in the past so it's often got a default Irish setting. I am not sure why.

Mine used to be very harsh to me, it would really lay into me if i did something daft, like break a mug...it would go off on one about what a stupid, clumsy twat i am. Since i've had some counselling and realised i do have some worth, i have been re-training my voice to be kinder. I model it on my 10 yr old daughter who is one of the most together people i know. When i'm beating myself up, i think what would she say and she is always kind and loves me, just the way i am. I am much happier these days.

Mine normally tells me not to say things or overshare. I tend to ignore it but i do just blurt things out. Theres a lot of swearing and fuck offs going on. Music is normally a constant in my head song lyrics normally. Its very conflicting. Im constantly at war with the good and bad me. Theres lots of regrets thrown in for good measure normally things that happened years ago appear at random moments. I've found it's calmed alot and thats down to antidepressents.

Mine just won't shut up. There is normally music playing, although as pp said, just a bit of a song or tune on a loop (this morning it's a couple of bars from an old 70s funk song that I can't remember the name of). While at the same time there is a running commentary on what I'm doing, along the lines of "ooo this thread should be interesting, go on, click on it", I click on it, "ah, not what I thought it would be, that's not very interesting, go and find something more interesting, oh hang on, someone's said something controversial, this might get interesting, scroll through and see if anyone's pulled her up on it".... and on and on and on. At the same time, I might also have a more background voice musing on stuff that's bothered me recently.
It's generally quite negative, although as pp said, that seems to be affected quite a bit by my hormones. It's become so negative around my period now that it's worried me on occasion and I've been thinking of speaking to my gp about it.
It used to talk to me in the style of my mum, so constantly telling me that I was doing things "wrong". But I retrained it to talk more like my friend who is always kind to me. I realise now that it's slipping back.

Actually, now I'm typing it, I realise there are lots of different voices going on, although I realise they're all me. I also get the arguing with themselves/myself scenario, where one voice puts me down and the other bigs me up. I have my inner bitch that judges people and then along comes Ms Reasonable who defends them. It is like having two personalities in a way and can be very tiring.

It's quite hard to explain really!

This is an amazing article that I've found regarding multiple voices. Apparently we all have them but we can learn to shut down the "lizard" brain and listen to our more rational forebrain.

www.elitedaily.com/life/distinguishing-voices-head

I'm worried now. Inner voice? Where's mine?
I think in pictures (autistic) then run the words, in my head. That's just like talking to myself, aloud.

I do experience another voice, but that's not mine. You don't want to know about that.

I have quite a few inner voices and most of them are not kind. I'm not mentally ill but I had a fucked up childhood and the various inner voices are what's left. I'm having counselling / therapy to try to make them less harsh and critical but it is very hard. I feel like I never get any peace.

Mine is talking pretty much all the time, about everything. About decisions to be made, making lists of to do/to buy, planning things in the future, enacting false conversations that will happen in the future.

It's only one voice though, mine, having a conversation with itself (me with me). Sometimes I have a conversation with it in my head (so me vs me I guess)

It can be tiring.

And you can definitely retrain your brain. The more you think a certain thought the easier it is for your brain to think it automatically because you've created a thought habit. If you think more positively, consciously, then eventually you will do so subconsciously too.

I don't have an inner voice. I have thoughts, but like previous a previous poster I think in pictures a lot.

That article makes sense Ignoramusgiganticus. My hindbrain talks like my mum and my forebrain talks like my lovely kind friend.

I think I need to start making more of an effort to listen to my forebrain again.

Anyone read The Chimp Paradox? That's all about letting your forebrain take control. I read it a few years ago and it was enlightening.

I think I'll order that book struggling
I'd like to read it myself and then I'll pass it on to my friend. Thanks.

Mine is...unpleasant. I try to distract myself mostly.

wellthisisshit
My inner voice IS me, so I don’t understand how it can work together with you? Interesting. I’m not very nice to myself, my self commentary is very harsh and my mind runs on going over certain things and cringing at what I’ve said or done, and generally being a right bitch to myself. I would like to know how to stop being so harsh to myself, I think it would make my life a lot easier and me a lot less weighed down. I’d never talk about someone else the way I do about myself.

From what I've learnt from this thread, I guess this is where for everything that your negative voice tells you, you have to consciously think something positive to counterbalance it. You have to argue with yourself and say, actually that's not true. Other people wouldn't be so hard on themselves so I'm not going to allow myself to believe this rubbish you are telling me.
You do actually have to believe that your mind is able to lie to you. Because it obviously can.
Reading that article I posted, it seems you have allowed your hindbrain to be completely dominant. You need to use your forebrain to dispute the rubbish your hindbrain/lizard brain is coming out with.

Would other people agree with this?