Inner monologue - do you have one?

[Dipsydoodlenoodle]

I'm nearly 40 and about 5 years ago learned about aphantasia. I've never been able to visualise, if someone said picture a red ball all I can see is grey. Nothing, no matter how hard I try.

A few weeks ago I'd seen a post on Facebook about an inner monologue - again I can't "hear" a voice or anything - it's just empty with thoughts of what I need to do. I didn't realise that an inner monologue was an actual real thing.

Do you all have one and what is it like?

Yes. Mostly critical.

Yes, especially if I'm walking, or doing something mundane my mind will wander elsewhere.

Yeah, I hold imaginary conversations or just talk to myself in my head. I used to narrate my life when I was a kid. I plan things using my voice in my head. Same as when I'm reading or writing.
Do you hear your voice in your head when you read?

Yes. It's annoying sometimes, other times it helps me to amuse myself. I can't imagine not having one? What is a 'thought' like if you don't hear it?

I don't 'hear' it as such but I do have a sense of tone and volume, etc in what the inner voice is conveying.
It's v chatty and often I have to rewind podcasts or audio books (or even flip back in real books!) because it's drowned out my actual senses

I’m the same, essentially my own voice in my head talking about what’s happening, what I need to do, how I feel etc- it’s like I’m telling myself the story of what’s happening, or that I’m talking myself into existence.

Mine never stops. If I don't have a conversation going on in my head, my brain is playing music. If I ever lost that, I'd miss it.

I’m the same, essentially my own voice in my head talking about what’s happening, what I need to do, how I feel etc- it’s like I’m telling myself the story of what’s happening, or that I’m talking myself into existence.
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This is me!

Absolutely. And also a separate soundtrack running, sometime with two different pieces of music. I also visualise everything I read, so it can get loud and busy in there.

"Right, it's getting late. I really should go to bed now and then I can read for a bit. I need to finish that book and take it back to the library. Damn, but I haven't done those dishes from earlier. Will I do them quickly? Or in the morning?"

Mine currently. Dull subject but that is exactly what I am thinking to myself word for word.

Interesting thread. I was shocked when I read that some people don’t have one. My brain never switches off, I’m constantly thinking about stuff. To me that’s my internal monologue though, it’s just my own thoughts.

It’s like if you’re silent reading. I struggle to believe that people can’t read to themselves without physically speaking. To me that’s what internal dialogue is.

It's like a companion, sometimes thoughts come fully formed into my head, sometimes I think the sentence a word at a time, which is what I think of my inner monologue. Sometimes when I'm finding it hard to switch off and sleep I 'listen in' to my internal monologue, and random words will pop into my head and I'll list them til my mind wanders and I fall asleep.

I have an extremely poor mind's eye. Can't draw from memory, forget what my children's faces look like as a whole (can kind of zoom in on very specific features).

I do have an inner monologue but I can’t hear it. It’s like a diary entry I am constantly writing. I also have music playing in my head.

All the bloody time.

Right now mine is keeping me awake, there's too much chatter in my head to sleep and it's driving me mad!

No , I am like you OP I don't have an inner monologue and I can't visualise.

Mine is a teaching monologue, my brain ‘explains’ everything I do as if I was a 24/7 trainer of random shit. E.g. I run a spreadsheet every workday morning, and explain to a random nobody what I do and why.
My memory for faces and images is non existent too, I can remember there is a photo of someone and can sometimes remember, but can never see a face from ‘life’.

Yes, it’s going all the time and it’ll just carry on even if I’m not actively trying to think. I can see in my head very vividly too. If you don’t have an inner monologue how do you strategise or plan anything, or even replay conversations?

I was shocked when I found out people had no inner monologue. Mine is constant and I often feel like my head’s got too many desktop icons and too many windows open.

Mine is mostly me singing along to music. I don't really have an internal dialogue or conversation with myself, except when concentrating on making a plan, but there always seems to be a soundtrack going in the background as the "default" setting.

I can certainly visualise but I don't have an inner monologue. Thoughts are images and feelings for me rather than a voice rattling on. I always thought inner monologues were used in films as a plot device to inform that audience, as I assumed everyone else's brain was like mine.

Mine never shuts up! Have to do hypnosis to drown it out to sleep. It’s constant thoughts of (not vocalised speech), music (which can be something I’ve heard recently, music from TV show, the other day I had a French song pop in that I did for a school concert in 1990!), images, I rehearse things. I have been diagnosed with ADHD and autism as an adult. ADHD Meds help the monologue slow down and be more coherent but it wears off by bedtime.

OP- If you have stress in your life, work commitments, lots going on, or just day to day life- do you ever wake in the night and then can't sleep due to thinking about things, reliving them in your mind, talking through them virtually? I don't mean anything out your mouth, just thinking in your mind?

I don't have an inner monologue constantly, but through the day or at various times I do think something in my mind before I say it. I can also visualise things apparently more than others. For example, I'm sitting on my sofa right now, and can imagine what it would look like if I was seeing me from say the left ceiling corner of the room like a camera, or say looking upwards at the room from the ground level or down from the centre of the ceiling. I have very good spacial awareness, but never did well on spacial tests at school! No idea what it means though?

No voice or words just thoughts. Are you telling me some people hear an actual voice? Wowsers.

I can visualize everything, and draw a lot of pictures to explain things at work (systems, processes, stories)

I often think I have an inner monologue, but most of the time it’s an outer monologue. Quite a lot of the time there’s an inner and outer one, sometimes two outer ones. It is definitely just me in my brain, but 99% of the time feels like every man and his bloody dog and maybe a heard of elephants, a gaggle of geese, a murder of crows and a crazy of cockers (spaniels) are in there 😂

i talk to myself most of the time, sing a random song that my brain knows the majority of the words to even if I haven’t listened to it for agessss, sometimes I just narrate what I do, or thoughts, or I count my steps, or a plan for later, or a script for a conversation that may or may not happen. I also often talk to my pets even if I’m not in the same room, or if they’re downstairs and I’m upstairs.