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

[Smallsteps88]

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?

@EwwSprouts

I was hopeless at meditation but a long, long silent hot bubble bath can turn it right down (no wine/candles/music).

I can last 10 minutes in the bath at a push.

Although my mind was blown that my collegue who is south African has an inner monologue in afrikaans. I'm not sure why it blew my mind as makes perfect sense

I find it very hard to concentrate on one thing with my inner monologue going 19 to the dozen at the same time

NoBloodyHolly

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

Snap. The only way I ever been able to get any silence is by practising meditation, and even then it’s only a few seconds of silence before the next thought spins off, but it is glorious while it lasts!

I have an really noisy mind with a constant stream of chatter. My DS has just been diagnosed with ADD and I have realised that I also have it. I get bored incredibly quickly but I am fantastic in a crisis as when everyone else is panicking I am really calm and focused. Reading is the only thing that calms my brain. I read incredibly fast and I can read a book in an afternoon. I can't decide whether to seek treatment as I am just about to retire.

I get bored incredibly quickly but I am fantastic in a crisis as when everyone else is panicking I am really calm and focused.

I’m exactly the same! Tiny attention span. And I think it’s getting worse. But also very calm in a crisis. Except for when my son went missing. I was very much not calm.

My brain busyness isn't always in the form of words, although since my thoughts are often in the form of an imaginary conversation or explaining something to an imaginary someone there is a lot of that.

There is also imagery and conceptual stuff that I feel as shapes and relationships. When I talk I often move my hands to point to the places I have parked a concept and the spacial relationship between these parking places also represents relationships between the concepts.

Sometimes I don't actually know what I'm thinking clearly til I say it out loud and have to describe those non-verbal relationships in words. I write very long emails that I don't send as a way to uncover those thoughts and structures.

Interesting elastamum, I am also a constant and very fast reader. I don't watch TV because it is not absorbing enough and I get bored very quickly whereas I can concentrate on a book and I have a movie of the book and back threads of character, setting and plot analysis running whilst I read.

I had never thought that I use reading to calm my brain before although of course now you have said it I can see that is obvious!

I'm not sure there is a "treatment" is there? I have always just thought that is how my mind works - I have memories of being like this from toddler times - and I'd be really loathe to tinker with it by medication or otherwise.

One of the great plus points during lockdown for me is that I am never lonely, there is far too much happening inside my head.

I am so glad to read all of these posts.in the last few years I have also noticed that my brain just won't shut off.I am constantly going over things that have happened in my life and what is going on currently.I know that it was like that when was younger , I used to daydream a lot but now it is incessant jabber.I used to find solace in sleep but in the last few months I am having awful nightmares and wake up often awfully upset and exhausted.Listening to music helps but i can now only tolerate slow ,calm music ,anything anyway repetitive or loud I have to turn off .

Yes I have the several thoughts going on at once thing. Interesting about the synasthesia someone mentioned. I don't see all the words people say, but I can get fixated on certain words or phrases and not be able to process their meaning, as if my brain keeps tripping over them. For example, in a new job there might be a certain word used in a technical process, but that word also has another meaning in real life ( like in mathematics you might used the word "prime")and my brain will keep focusing on all the meanings of that word and losing focus of what I am supposed to be processing..does that make sense?? Words often have colours for me, and types of thoughts have colours so that's distracting. I'm best if I have to do something fast and urgently, but given a stack of mundane " easy" tasks to do systematically I just keep forgetting. So if I was working as a chef I'd be fine cooking multiple dishes, getting food out fast, but when it came to ordering for the week or doing the rota I would always make a silly mistake. I have spent most of my life feeling stupid and with people wondering how someone so verbally articulate can be so dumb! Oh, I often feel.like I can hear other people's thoughts too, and just know what they are really thinking.. God, that sounds MAD but actually I have an ability to " read" people really well, so maybe their micro expressions show me what they are thinking?
I could go on...what were we talking about again?

Ooh yy to reading fast and total absorbtion in a book!

I wonder if this is why I’m a serious introvert? Because my brain is making so much noise it’s exhausting and overwhelming to try and concentrate on real life interactions at the same time.

I can hyperfocus. Fortunately that worked for me when revising for exams. Music on, coloured pens out, room covered in post-its, tape recordings of me talking to myself in French. I also got "in the zone" for my disertation, although should have engaged with my tutor more.
The revision advice of "take regular breaks" is anathema to me. I find transitions hard, so once I'm into something, I have to roll with it until my steam runs out. Stopping after 45 minutes would kill half the day by the time I focus on getting back to it.

This year has been awful for my function as I need external stimulation to focus and otherwise end up drowning in an abyss of time and possible options.
Even things I want to do get procrastinated and avoided.DH working from home is nit compatible with my need for the radio to be on in stereo around the house, and to liberally sing as needed
Teaching was a good career between the structure of the school day, some creative freedom and no two days being identical, and I had to be present in the situation. I am the world's least productive SAHM! (DS needs quiet time at home and doesn't cope with wrap around care)

My attention span varies wildly through the day. My best time is 6am then picks up through the evening.

I get very frustrated with myself because I know what its like to feel productive, but I find it very difficult to create and fake that mood and much of the time it's a battle to do simple, basic life crap.

Sonique is currently singing in my head. Goodness knows where she came from!

I am fantastic in a crisis as when everyone else is panicking I am really calm and focused

This is really interesting. My mum is very ADHD-like and has always said that the women in our family are WONDERFUL in a crisis — but really scatty the rest of the time. 😆 I’m generally better when there are problems, especially when I need to adapt or prepare for the worst or improvise. I’m AMAZING at improvising.

Same here Smallsteps88.

Another person who loves a crisis or urgent problem. I thrive in high pressure workplaces.

I realised recently I have a tendency to derail my life when things are a bit quiet, safe or routine. Like I’m trying to create problems just for the fun of giving them.

I have spent most of my life feeling stupid

Same here. My memories of school are of an overwhelming sense of not really understanding what was going on. I remember being in P1 and always being surprised and upset because I never knew what colour the colour table was going to be and why no one had told me it was purple this week so I could bring in something purple. I remember seeing the other children presenting their coloured items for the table and I couldn’t understand how they knew to bring something in. As an adult it was clearly relayed by the teacher and they all heard it and went home and told mum or dad they needed to bring in a purple thing and I just never listened. Same theme throughout school. I never really understood how people knew what what was going on. They just listened!

So I asked older DS about his head voice. He just has one. It only has one stream of thought. It’s not talking all the time. He’s not sure how he turns it off or quietens it but it’s not on when he is talking to me or reading something.

I told him about my voice and he said

“Sounds about right”

Oh God yes to the not knowing how everyone else knows what to bring in! I'm sad for you about the purple table, I totally get that feeling.

Thanks @IfNotNow12, I’ve processed my feelings about the purple table and think I’ll be okay but yes, I think that just is a perfect example of my entire school life. And beyond really. I still am baffled by how people know how to find out things. I’m not sure exactly how to say what I mean by that.

How big a cross over is there on this thread doe risk taking behaviours. Sexually or socially? Dangerous driving or sports? I know I certainly had/have a risk taker profile - i prefer mountain biking to a bike ride, a hill walk to a walk and a fast drive to a Sunday drive. Nights out have always been messy and are still chaos.

I’m very risk averse!!

Such an interesting thread. I generally have a lot of very chatty internal dialogue going on, and often music playing as well if I'm feeling quite hyper. My dream world is extensive too. Also terrible at listening, sitting through telly, finishing a thought/task etc. Very messy and scatty,
but also great in a crisis. I'm waiting for an adhd assessment at the moment. I love reading but my ability to do that goes up and down as well, which feels upsetting when I'm desperate to read but can't.

Goodness, your purple table story sums up a lot of my experience at school! Just felt like everyone else was in on something I couldn't catch onto.