To think that everybody as a constant inner monologue running through their mind?!

[BeUpStanding]

I've just been told not everyone has a constant inner monologue running non-stop through their mind. Is that true?!

It's so fascinating to think how different our mental landscapes might be from other people's without realising. I've just remembered there was a thread on here ages ago (couple of years?) about whether you could see pictures in your mind... those of us that can were astonished to realise not everyone could, and vice versa. I think the OP was doing research for a psychology degree...

Anyway, do you constantly have a voice chattering away in your head, or is that another thing that people experience differently?

Constant internal dialogue in my head and there's lots of different voices that like to argue with each other. Its very annoying sometimes but other times it does make me laugh. I do have anxiety and am a terrible over thinker.

I also have the jukebox that plays random bits of music over and over.

I do. And sometimes it sounds a little like Alan Bennett.

There are times when I wish I could turn the chat off. Never when it is Alan though.

If I am ever idle it likes to replay clumsy conversations and awkward encounters from years ago and remind me just how embarrassing they were

YES! When I’m trying to go to sleep usually. Scenarios from YEARS ago, 30 plus years! If I get to sleep the dreams start. Awkward or dangerous situations in them. Sometimes they wake me up, ie ive list something and I wake up trying to find it. Exhausting!

I never knew that people didn't have this!

Constant, internal chatter - yep
Seeing in pictures - yep
Can conjure up the smell - yep
Doesn't switch off at night - yep
Earworms, for days sometimes - yep
Anxious, overthinker, worrier - yep
Replays stuff over and over and over, even years later- yep

If I'm supposed to be paying attention, I have to try hard as the chatter in my head will make me zone out and I won't be paying attention. Even worse if it's something that is boring, I can hardly even force myself not to drift into my mind. I can be standing, looking at someone, smiling along with the conversation and not hear a single word.

Definitely have an internal monologue.

Does anyone else draw pictures in their mind? I have a go-to shape that I draw over and over again in my mind when I'm doing something like driving or waiting for something...

Oh and "I'm a little teapot" is constantly in my head. It never ends...

Yeah I have a constant internal monologue, complete with pictures and sounds

I also remember old dreams, it's just snatches of the dreams but I know that they're old dreams, it's quite strange.

And when I'm trying to sleep I imagine one of those window cleaner squeegee things and wipe the screen clear. It's strangely quite effective even if I need to do it three or four times!

So the voices are other people's voices? Saying things other people might say - unexpected things? Or are they clearly manifestations of you, 'putting on a voice'?

Are they in the front of your head, or the back? I ask that because my own internal voice, such as it is - it is just me, internally vocalising my thoughts - is very much at the front, behind my face. But the one time i experienced something like an intrusive voice, it was much further back.

The random memory or word or snippet of conversation popping in out of no where is what I meant earlier when I asked about ear pops! I find the more you pay attention to them the more you have them, they're a well investigated phenomenon considered normal.

I don't see pictures at all, now and again smell something, I often have psychosomatic symptoms from imagination, if I'm doing a very mundane tasks I will often run through fake arguments, if im talking to someone for ages or reading a book my inner word sort of mirrors their voice.

I do have anxiety but for some strange reason I can shut my eyes and sleep peacefully, it all switches off thankfully. Mindfulness is a godsend during the day, I need to get back into it really.

I have music all the time. It doesn't bother me, although I do sometimes wonder why a particular song has popped into my head. I used to find that it was something my DM had been singing recently or had heard on the radio/TV and was in her head, so I wonder now if it is a song that either of my DC has heard.

Sometimes, particularly when I was younger, I would think about strange or appealing sounding phrases, words or names in my head on repeat for a while and would sort of air write them in cursive with my index finger at the same time. Discreetly, with my arm hanging down, though. A strange habit which I've largely grown out of. Whilst I don't have an inner monologue, I'm an anxious person and worrier. These are mostly in picture and feeling form, though. Still annoying, but can mostly be pushed back (at least for a bit) by concentrating on something else.

NooNooHead that sounds really distressing

I have constant monologue. It's all in my own voice. Often it's practical- "right you need to buy milk". I think I've always replayed incidents in my head when I did things wrong/made mistakes. Since I've had depression (about 20 years) inner monologue is often critical and I have dialogues with myself
"You're useless" "you're not useless, you made a mistake" "you're useless and stupid and pointless" "you're not useless". I practice mindfulness meditation and that helps as does distraction such as speech radio.

I can conjure up smells or images consciously but don't have them just running.

Quite a bit - and it changes to the style of the book I'm reading at the time. Which can be weird.

I do quite enjoy the musical references that pop into my head sometimes. Something happens, is thought or said and a tune pops in - that I then realise is connected to whatever has just occurred, usually through a lyric, sometimes a meaning. I sometimes have to think a bit to recognise the connection. It often amuses me.

When I was in art school, one of our lecturers used to tell us to focus on our painting until the voice in our head went quiet and we'd start to produce our more creative work. We had to silence the left (logical, wordy) side of our brain to access the visual, wordless artistic side. Silencing that voice can be a form of meditation and losing yourself in your task. Today, being a mum has left me with a blank, quiet brain as much that I do cannot be expressed in words. It started when I was pregnant, even thouvh I am a writer. Naomi Stadlen describes it as making brain space for the baby, so it seems that it's not only me.

Constantly. I always have conversations with myself in my head and I’m convinced it’s the reason for me always grinding my teeth/clenching my jaw. I catch myself doing it and have to force myself to relax my face. It’s obvious too, I quite often get asked why I’m making a face, I must get too into the conversations I have with myself.

I do remember when I was really young (6?) I was watching Kylie on Top of the Pops at the time, not relevant but an example of where my mind wanders to sometimes, asking my mum about it and if she did the same thing. She just gave me a confused look and said no. These things will pop into my head sometimes as well as hideous embarrassing memories that make me cringe, lists of what I need to do, what I might do next and then I often end up giving myself reasons of why what i’m doing is pointless and what I should be doing instead. Rambling as I am now, mostly.

It’s all pretty exhausting really. I’d love to do yoga but I don’t think I could focus enough on just breathing.

My brain never stops.. I'm sure I'm slowly going insane. It's as if it is on speed, and is ready for the next topic immediately, and will often have several things going on at one time. It's exhausting, and there not even interesting conversations going on up there. I'd love to be able to turn it off now and then, for some much needed peace. I tend to be 'quiet', as I'm sick of hearing my own voice, although I've hardly spoke .
Glad to hear I'm not alone, interesting thread!

I have a constant internal monologue although sometime twos ton each (which can be confusing and is probably why I sometimes stutter while trying to talk as well!). Often a song as well in the background.

One of the things I sometimes love and sometimes love about toddlers us that the monologue is not yet internalised...

I meant I sometimes find it annoying that toddlers have an external monologue. Mostly find it very cute though.

I have music, past conversations, pictures, my own thoughts rattling around, it's relentless and exhausting. Audiobooks help damp it down, but the time I realised I had relief from the racket was after GA and once when unconscious after a fall. I remember how peaceful it was as I lay there, coming around, and didn't want the silence to end.

I also have very vivid dreams, and often when I waken it can take some time to figure out whether they were real. When my sleep is disrupted I rapidly become resentful that I haven't had a decent busy dream.

Interesting about dyslexia. Hubby and DD, both dyslexic, sleep like logs, never remember dreaming, and have no inner monologue. I used to feel really sorry for them, just lying there sleeping and nothing happening! Now I wish I could turn it off and exoerience silence.

I have a constant internal monologue. Most of the time it isn't a problem, it's just commentary, and it's either benign, banal or mildly entertaining. But when I'm worried about something it will not quieten down, and I have to read (usually Mumsnet) literally until I fall asleep to drown it out, and then it starts again the second I wake up. I'm also very aware sometimes that my monologue is noisily saying "all fine, nothing to see here" when it definitely isn't.

I'm really interested by the idea that people who yack non-stop have no internal monologue. I think there's probably a lot of truth in that theory.

I'm not sure if I have a monologue but I think all the time, about what I need to do things I have done. Made up stories, I usually have a song and I think a lot about my parents who have died, I generally think of death a lot I have been seriously ill and the fear is still there.
I often think about 2 or 3 things at once and I often find it hard to sleep. I have Intrusive thoughts sometimes and I have found that if rather than trying to stifle them I deliberately think them for a while they will move on more quickly.
I am unable to do meditation or mindfulness as I can't stop thinking but I have found that tai chi is really good as I have to concentrate so hard on doing the moves right there is no room for anything else.

Me too! It's constant and exhausting. I think the multiple computer windows description is accurate, but it's also layers upon layers of thought. I think about what I'm thinking about, and then think about that too all at the same time IYSWIM? I once counted 5 layers to it. And YY to endlessly re-running conversations, often running slightly different scenarios to work out if a different outcome was possible.
Meditation doesn't work to shut it down but something very immersive like a good video game can. Sadly I don't have time to dedicate to that sort of hobby anymore
I am happiest when doing a physical task alone which I can do without placing demands on my brain, and therefore I am free overthink (if I can't remove the overthinking, at least other mental drains are removed to ease things). The hardest thing I've found with having children has been dealing with the never-ending external noise: when added to the internal noise it can be deafening and disorienting.

I'm not sure if I have this or not?

I have conversations with myself in my mind, about what I need to do, what I'd like to do, thinking about other people.

I daydream a fair bit too. Before I go to sleep I always like to think about how I'd have my dream house.

I also often sit quietly and listen to other people's conversations pretending I'm not.

But I'm a worrier and I think I've learnt to zone out, so I think I can switch off my own thoughts, or at least take them somewhere nice.

I can just sit and zone out and think of nothing, be a bit floaty almost.