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?

I'm sure it's the same vice versa, but I cannot comprehend how you have thoughts if you don't have an inner monologue or the ability to visualise! How can you have thoughts if they're not words or pictures?

Also I find this interesting re spelling - I can picture a word spelled out in my head and have always been a good speller. I wonder if there is any correlation between difficulty spelling and the way we have thoughts?

Mine is so intense that I sometimes have to give it a job to keep it occupied (I do appreciate that this makes it sound like an errant toddler or teenager!). If I want to go to sleep, I'll give it the job of making a list - something like a packing list for a holiday or a list of cleaning chores I need to do - just engaging enough to stop it drifting back into a full-on dialogue but not interesting enough to keep me awake.

Sometimes I have an inner monologue and sometimes I don't.

I'm a maths teacher and sometimes my thoughts are visualisations, sometimes they are words in other languages and sometimes I have to pause and say "I'm not quite sure how to put this in words".

Yes, I have a constant commentary of my life playing out in my head.

I also have a tendency to ruminate & when unhappy, will re-run situations/conversations over & over.

Sometimes it's helpful but most often it's draining.

Yes this is me too. I really don’t get how people decide on plans or different options for things if they don’t have an inner monologue.

I don’t know, I can visualise pretty much anything including words spelled out but am awful at spelling. I just visualise how I think the word should be spelt but it’s not always correct. Also strange as I have a photographic memory and can picture anything I’ve seen or even play a video back in my mind of situations and conversations, but apparently not how words are spelt.

All day everyday
. I've learned i don't have to agree with what im ruminating about. And occasionally I argue myself.

Mine is a constant commentary of my life and the world around me. Sometimes it seems like a MN thread (I probably spend to much time here). It only tells me what to do for things like " you are going to get out of bed on three"

I also have a running soundtrack, though I can turn that off if I listen to music.

Audiobooks sometimes works to turn off the IM but TV doesn't, it just starts commentary on the TV show instead.

I will just check with myself :)

I have an internal monologue and can easily visualise items or events or just make stuff up in very fine detail.

Yes I have an exhausting inner monologue. I'm either speaking to myself/narrating my actions in my head, or I'm having an imaginary conversation with someone.
The only thing that switches my brain off is watching TV. I even keep up the internal monologue over the top of reading a book.

I’m like you OP and have no ‘inner pictures’ nor monologue I can hear. Fragmented thoughts that kind of ‘float up’. Heard a podcast about it on R4 I think and one of the journalists described v similar really well.

I find it mind blowing that some people don't have an IM or can not visualise pictures etc. my head is going 24/7. I too give my IM tasks to do and have full on two way conversations in my head 😂

Mine is very much alive. It’s much more catty and full of wit than my spoken self. I have to dilute much of it before I allow it out of my mouth. It’s like having Lily Savage sat on my shoulders.

Yes, I often wish it would just STFU. Especially at 3 in the morning.

Re: the IM - definitely. My friend asked me if I get bored walking around the park on Mat Leave, and I guess she doesn't have an IM? I love wandering around listening to myself. I don't even mind if I have nothing to read on the train.

Re: images. I'm always confused by this one - if I close my eyes, I can physically see swirly blackness. But if I imagine a chair, I can still see the blackness, but also see the image of the chair - if that makes sense.

I can’t understand what is the difference between an inner monologue and just thoughts? Surely we all think in words? And images.

Yes, it's like a classroom of kids each with a different dream and goal.

Apparently not everyone does.

No.

At least some of the time I don't think in words.

(I am a maths teacher and if I think in maths I am not using words)

How can you read without a voice in your head doing the reading?

Yes, constantly. Incredibly mundane, usually about every day stuff, Im talking to myself now while I write this. Repeat conversations in my head that either have happened or will happen, plans for the day, reminders that I need to do. Constant

And of course now all I can see is a red ball surrounded by grey due to your OP!

It is hard to understand how you have thoughts without hearing words, when most people do have an inner monologue.

Mine is quite loud and sometimes distracting.

But I assume people who have never heard a spoken voice (deaf people) must think without hearing a voice in their heads.

Yep

And if I've been listening to a podcast of someone with a different accent, my inner dialogue's accent changes too

Yes, I've always had an inner monologue. As a child I was a constant daydreamer, and I can still lose track of a conversation or TV programme if something in it sends my inner voice off on a tangent. I recognise the phenomenon someone else mentioned of having more than one song playing in my head at the same time. It's more useful than not.

Yes I can sit through an entire programme, of something that Im really interested in and not take any of it in!

The amount of times I watch the same documentary so that Ive actually 'watched' it!!