Do you have an inner monologue?

[samarrange]

I started this thread in response to a post on another thread that got me thinking about things that are "obvious" to some people and "impossible" to others. Now, a couple of posts on that thread have got me thinking about another topic in a similar vein, so off we go on another tangent...

To me, an inner monologue means that there is a voice in your head (whether or not it's "audible", but it's communicating with you in grammatically-formed sentences) telling you what to do next. Not in a psychotic kind of way, but something like what @bringinguptherear wrote here: "If you suddenly realise(*) the bins need taking out do you not think “I need to take the bins out?” In words?" [emphasis added by me]

As far as I can tell, I do not have an inner monologue. Something, somehow reminds me that it's Tuesday and I take the bins out without being aware of those words. While writing this post I got up and grabbed a few crisps from a bag, and I don't think the word "crisps" came up. When I discovered the whole phenomenon of inner monologues I was shocked, like the first time I discovered that the sun goes from right to left across the sky in Australia. (Please don't make me start yet another thread about whether you knew that! 🤣)

Anyway, this is a nice article about inner monologues, discussing how we all think in different ways. Maybe this discussion will open a few eyes, which (I think) is always a good thing.

(*) In this quote I have corrected what I am guessing was an autocorrect-induced typo. Hope this is OK, @bringinguptherear. 🙏

I feel like I wouldn’t know myself as well without it.

like PP said I can tell people who have IM and those who don’t, and I’m drawn to people who do, they tend to be more interesting people to me. I’ve spoke about it with people and have guessed correctly.

Although the people who don’t have one do tend to be more calm and straightforward I find. Probably more decisive too. I find it fascinating

WHAT!!!

🤯

I spend my life going through different scenarios and trying to quiet my brain. Have considered I have ADHD 🤦‍♀️Even just deciding where to walk the dog,which supermarket to go too ,is bloody exhausting ! To sleep at night I have to play word games to switch off!

Oh I’m so surprised there are people without an inner monologue.
I find mine exhausting but otherwise I don’t know how I’d get stuff done. Everything has to be discussed with myself which I know sounds ridiculous.

Yes. It’s not a monologue though. There’s a fairly full cast of characters in there. One of them is my mother. She talks about my food choices a lot. I’m not eligible for Mounjaro but I would so love to try it for a couple of weeks because she IS my food noise and she lives in my head. What if it could quiet down all her noise? (She is also the fashion police).
i have to listen to a podcast or guided meditation to sleep otherwise the cast of thousands in my head just keeps me awake.

I read something once where someone said their brain was like a computer with loads of tabs open and they have no idea where the weird music is coming from. My brain is similar, I have a few different conversations, some visual stuff and there's almost always some tune playing quietly in the background. Visualisation has been helpful, especially for maths which was my degree and data analysis which was my job (data has a colour and a shape, and it's easier to understand if I let it rotate in my mind to see how it relates to itself).

I hear my words as I type but unlike a previous poster I don't particularly hear the words when I read unless I'm reading dialogue or non fiction. Reading gives me more of a visual input, I see the scene, like watching an immersive film. I don't like reading books set in hot places because I don't like the heat and will often forgive a slightly dodgy plot if it's set in a well-described beautiful landscape.

Recently had this conversation with friends. I have a veryvocal inner monologue. Always there and always rattling away. I find it comforting, helpful and often amusing when it keeps my mouth shut from voicing my inner thoughts.

My inner voice is in my presenting voice not my everyday relaxed me, she's much more formal and very quick on the uptake - I have to be careful not to actually say what I'm thinking out loud. One of friends claims hers is a Jamaican Rasta man and another that his is Irish, one friend that dreams and her inner voice is in her native Russian and the other said she doesn't have a inner voice but sees things or has thoughts that are more like images. For example crisps would be an image of a bag of Walkers. As for deeper thinking she says she doesn't "think" she just acts or reacts.

This is exactly it. Mine wakes me up as well. Like a PP I can harness it for things- when I had an MRI I took myself through a favourite symphony movement to pass the time. I have insomnia and often lie there imagining different endings to movies etc and see it as if it is all actually the film in my minds eye.

I can't imagine having nothing or quiet in my head. A pp asked how it is different from hearing voices in a bipolar kind of way- it's not the same. It is you, your voice, your inner conscious. Not someone else and you are completely aware it is you at all times.

Yes that’s how I operate. I don’t know how you would function otherwise. Sometimes I’ll communicate out loud with others what my inner monologue is saying. I forget that the other person is not involved with my inner monologue, and they will say ‘that was random,’ but to me it’s what my train of thought was going to anyway. I think dh does it too as he will often say something like: you know I told you about Craig at work, well his wife has cancelled all his betting apps now. Yes and he was banned from going on that holiday to Spain, I’ll sit there thinking I’m sure I don’t know who Craig is. I’m certain you’ve never mentioned him before. It’s kind of like reading a text message and processing it but not replying, then thinking you have replied because you have already processed it internally.

I'm still finding it hard to understand how those without an inner monologue think, especially those who also don't have a mind's eye?

I used to ask my class of 5 year olds to think ahead what they were going to say when it was their turn at carpet time. What were those without an inner monologue thinking in that time?

Yes, right now it's singing a Foo Fighters song at full volume !

I do think! I have thoughts, can play out scenarios, make decisions, observe things, just not literally and ‘out loud’ in my head if that makes sense. The notions and decisions just arrive either fully formed or ready to be debated, and never word for word. There is no music unless I hear it in real life, and I definitely struggle to hear it in my head even if I make a conscious effort to.

I am gobsmaked at the noise and chaos in what appears to be the vast majority of posters brains! I never knew it was so widespread! Having spoken to all my close family, husband, parents, children and many of my friends, all is calm and quiet inside around here. I do talk a lot, especially when making decisions, so wonder whether this is why? I wonder what causes this disparity? Busy lives? ND? Imagination? It’s fascinating.

I have a full on soap opera in my head. I play scenes over and over, both fictional and real, and think about the dialogue, the things I could have said or would have done, I think up fictional future conversations with multiple different outcomes, it’s fun in my head.

Well obviously because the inner monologue is more inclined to agree with me, though not all the time.

Always done it, remember Mother saying ‘ she is off with the fairies again ‘ when I was very small.

@Diggetydawg I had ‘ I got a girl in Kalamazoo’ yesterday, meandering around popping up through the day.

Mine is just like this. I go through in my head what i need to do next when getting ready for work in the morning moving on to the next thing as i’ve done the last too. Songs and memories pass through my mind all day, often memories are triggered by something then the thoughts may continue from there or it might go away. I think about things i’m interested in randomly then will google to get answers too.

Is it the introverts like myself that have this constant inner monologue or do the extroverts have this too?

Constant internal monolgue here (& pretty extrovert). Plus a CONSTANT earworm which often keeps me awake, particularly after going to a gig. DD always says she has too many tabs open & tries to shut a few of them down to quieten them. She has ADHD, which I don't but I suspect I have some of the features of it.

I exhaust myself sometimes! There’s the inner me chatting away plus I talk out loud to myself as well! And as DH says, I am the Queen of random!

Constantly, can’t imagine how silent it would be when I’m on my own!

Do most posters who have an internal monologue actually 'hear' yourselves or others talking in your heads? And do you 'hear' music being played? Maybe at different volumes?
I'm trying to imagine if both examples could be described as if you've walked into a room with people talking, and maybe the TV or radio is on in the background?

Sometimes the room is fairly quiet and only one person might be there chatting (your own voice) , and sometimes the room is busy and full of noise with all sorts of conversations, which you can physically hear, are going on at once. There also might be background distraction noise, such as the TV playing.

This is the only way I can describe it, but is this how having an internal monologue feels for you?
My 'inner monologue' is always quiet and silent, but I always have conversations going on in my head with myself or imagine what I'd say to others.

I imagine music playing, I can 'hear' the voices in my mind of other people and scenarios where we're talking , and am basically constantly thinking of something or other.
But there's no 'audio noise' as such. So I'm a bit confused if whether I actually have an internal monologue if my head is quiet and there's no sound. I'm hoping that makes sense!

I'm fairly extroverted, my head is never quiet.
Sometimes I have many conversations going on at once and I really have to concentrate to get things done. I tell them all "one at a time"!!

I think I might have ADHD.

I can definitely hear music in my head.

I think it's strange there are people who DONT have an inner monologue!

I picture mine like a mixing desk in a recording studio.

There’s the track with the main chat, the one that’s singing along with a musical, the one that’s cogitating about where the missing T-shirt went, the one paying attention to the sound of the wind and deciding whether or not I need a jacket when I go out, one fretting about the sad ending of the trilogy I just finished reading and how I wish it had gone…

I can pull one to the fore or mute another for a bit. I can turn the whole lot off for short periods and just be present in the moment, but that took a LOT of practice.