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Original poster

Do other people have quiet times in their head or is their brain always talking?

278 replies

Smallsteps88 · 28/11/2020 23:31

Do you ever have silence in your head? I never do. My head voice is constantly talking. Shite mostly. It often interrupts conversations I’m having with people and I have to concentrate really hard to “hear”what the other person is saying. I really wish I could switch it off sometimes. I take hours to fall asleep every night because my brain is still going. Is that what everyone else has or do you have quiet sometimes?

OP posts:
Original poster
Smallsteps88 · 29/11/2020 00:10

My brain is exactly like yours. I thought that was normal but it turns out I have ADHD.

I’ve thought I have ADHD for a few years. My son does. I’m considering having an assessment.

OP posts:
Original poster
Smallsteps88 · 29/11/2020 00:11

I must ask my friends if they have the same or if they get some silence now and again.

OP posts:
hilariousnamehere · 29/11/2020 00:14

Mine is like this. Tabs open, music snippets, diary and conversations and thoughts and stuff going round at what feels like high volume constantly, interrupting each other and never, ever switching off. Plus super vivid dreams. And for extra fun I also have ticker tape synesthesia so I see the words I am saying or other people are saying as they say them, roll past me in typeface. It's very hard to focus and I'm fairly certain I have ADHD!

trashcanjunkie · 29/11/2020 00:19

Another one with ADHD here feeling like you

Legoandloldolls · 29/11/2020 00:20

I'm always chatting away in my head. Daydreaming, all kinds of things and convos I will never have with people in RL who have pissed me off. It only stops if I do mindfulness. But even when people say clear your mind, I can, but for some reason a shopping list is always the first thought to pop back in

GruffalosGirl · 29/11/2020 00:21

My brain is the same and is never quiet. It regularly takes me several hours to get to sleep, and if I'm worrying about something or excited then it isn't happening. I have adhd. My doctor said that the hyperactivity kids with adhd have becomes internal once you age and it's mental hyperactivity that causes it.

Whatisapension · 29/11/2020 00:21

Yes, I’ve constantly got several conversations/plans/overthinking about insignificant decisions going on, its exhausting!

The only thing that drowns out my brain at times is the tinnitus. I don’t know which is worse.

africanantelope · 29/11/2020 00:22

I'm the same, only stops when I'm in a deep sleep and that's not very often. I usually sleep very lightly and I dream.... a lot. Usually 4-5 dreams a night that are very active and I wake up exhausted. My dreams are very detailed and my husband says they are very strange when I explain them to him. So no it's not just you x

Original poster
Smallsteps88 · 29/11/2020 00:25

Yes lots of insane dreams here too. Nonsense and some truly terrifying stuff. (Woke up this morning highly stressed out as my town had been taken over by a massive terrorist/pirate gang)

OP posts:
StrawberryTot · 29/11/2020 00:29

I have a chatty monologue, usually with more than one at a time. Its never quiet, but sometimes ‘quieter’. I’m forever tired and never enough sleep, however not sure they are related.

I also have a 11 year old DS, autistic who really struggles to switch off and from what he says neither does his monologue. He’s literally on the go, all day.

MissDoLots · 29/11/2020 00:30

I don't really understand this. Do you hear voices or is it just when you think about things.

My brain only thinks about things I want it to. I don't 'hear' voices but rather sense them. I do day dream.

If I was going down stairs to get a drink (for example) I might say to myself on the way down the stairs that I may as well empty the dish washer while in down there... but I suspect this isn't what you mean ?

Blibbyblobby · 29/11/2020 00:35

My brain is exactly like yours. I thought that was normal but it turns out I have ADHD.

Really? I thought it was just what brains do. I have thought I may have ADHD but this wasn't one of the reasons!

I thought it was like computer cycles...even if you aren't actively using your brain to think about something it carries on doing its brain stuff because that's what it does... no off switch.

MiniMum97 · 29/11/2020 00:36

I read your OP and was literally sitting here debating whether to ask you if you might have ADHD! Then read down the the c thread and there we are.

Finding it difficult to switch your brain off, trouble falling asleep and the thing that stood out to me was that you struggle to concentrate when talking to others.

AlexaShutUp · 29/11/2020 00:37

Mine is constant, OP. I try to quiet it through the regular practice of meditation, but it rarely shuts off for more than a few seconds even when I'm really concentrating as hard as I can. I just try to note the voice and then go back to the meditation, but it's bloody annoying!

I have also wondered quite often about adhd...

Original poster
Smallsteps88 · 29/11/2020 00:38

I don't really understand this. Do you hear voices or is it just when you think about things.

I hear my own voice constantly. Regardless of what I’m doing my voice is talking in my head. It reads out what I’m reading, but can also be saying a whole different thing at the same time- like two different trains of thought being spoken. I hear other people’s voices when I’m having imaginary conversations with them or remembering conversations I’ve had with them.

OP posts:
MiniMum97 · 29/11/2020 00:38

@NoBloodyHolly

My brain is exactly like yours. I thought that was normal but it turns out I have ADHD.

My husband says his brain is silent most of the time. I can’t even begin to imagine what that’s like.

My husband says this too. He literally falls asleep as his head hits the pillow most nights and I asked him about this the other day. And he said well I just stop thinking about things and fall asleep!!!!!! I was like "what?!?" How is that even possible!!!!
PickAChew · 29/11/2020 00:39

Constant fucking commentary. On fucking everything.

AlexaShutUp · 29/11/2020 00:39

I have also wondered quite often about adhd...

...but for entirely different reasons as someone else has said. It had never even occurred to me that the constant chatter inside my head might have anything to do with that!

MiniMum97 · 29/11/2020 00:42

@MissDoLots

I don't really understand this. Do you hear voices or is it just when you think about things.

My brain only thinks about things I want it to. I don't 'hear' voices but rather sense them. I do day dream.

If I was going down stairs to get a drink (for example) I might say to myself on the way down the stairs that I may as well empty the dish washer while in down there... but I suspect this isn't what you mean ?

Oh my god that sounds amazing. You must have such clarity and calm.

I constantly feel a bit confused and it's so easy for me to get overwhelmed with so much already going on in my head all the time.

BogRollBOGOF · 29/11/2020 00:42

I woke DH up with dream sound effects last weekend. At least I wasn't miaowing this time... Grin

DS as referred to upthread has diagnoses of ASD and dyspraxia.
I seriously wonder about dyspraxia for me. For so many reasons.

I have a bank of songs in my head to pull out if some random earworm is too annoying. Anything random can normally activate a song from my mental archive.

Random thoughts through my head distract me from my intentions. The DCs get muddled up easily because I'll say the last name that came into my head. I'm frequently in the wrong room because of being diverted by an observation in passing. I can't cope with tidying techniques like tidy as you go, or always take something up/ down with you because then I end up down a rabbit hole and never achieve the original function.

Original poster
Smallsteps88 · 29/11/2020 00:42

If I was going down stairs to get a drink (for example) I might say to myself on the way down the stairs that I may as well empty the dish washer while in down there... but I suspect this isn't what you mean ?

Yes my brain will do this, like run through a to do list, also on my way to get a drink I’ll spot seven other things I just need to do and then forget that I was meant to be getting a drink. Tea always goes cold in my house and I have no small children Grin just a never ending “I’ll-just-do-this-quickly list”

OP posts:
4Minions2CallMyOwn · 29/11/2020 00:43

@Smallsteps88

I don't really understand this. Do you hear voices or is it just when you think about things.

I hear my own voice constantly. Regardless of what I’m doing my voice is talking in my head. It reads out what I’m reading, but can also be saying a whole different thing at the same time- like two different trains of thought being spoken. I hear other people’s voices when I’m having imaginary conversations with them or remembering conversations I’ve had with them.

This is totally me OP! I thought that was normal- am now off to google Grin
BadMom82 · 29/11/2020 00:43

Never shuts up

Imaginery conversations with people I've not had yet, imaginery scenarios where I die or something bad happens to me or DH etc.

Even now when I paused to have a drink it's carried on writing the message.

I tell myself bedtime stories in my head to help me sleep, have since my teens. I have to be in it, so normally meet some guy, going out on a date, jealous ex or lottery win or his dying mom's wish to see us married etc
Basically daytime trashy telly

WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants · 29/11/2020 00:44

Depends what you mean,,,

I always have thoughts running through my head, mostly things I need to do.

But when my Dad died I was broken, but had to hold it altogether for my mum, deal with my Dads business, organise the funeral and a million other things. I developed this weird thing where memories of my Dad were kind of like a video in my head playing over & over

& when I have too much going on I feel like I want to take my brain out & put it in the fridge!!

I have a few things I'm stressing about at the moment. I can distract myself on MN & by playing a repetitive game on my phone, but when I go to bed I can't stop thinking so I have been putting John Campbell on YouTube & falling asleep to that (sorry John. Live them in the daytime!!)

AgathaTabathaBagatha · 29/11/2020 00:45

@Newuser991

It never shuts up. I'm a maladaptive day dreamer too

I wind myself up and get upset over imagined scenarios in my head

Maladaptive daydreamer here too. My brain never stops. I have a million-page novel (or is it a film?) running inside my head my whole life long, plus I talk to myself too. I can spend a whole day being deeply emotionally upset over something completely imaginary that happened inside my mind. My DP calls me Walter mitty but I've never seen that film.