To not believe that some people don't have an internal monologue?

[BirdieFriendBadge]

Even though I've just read this:

ryanandrewlangdon.wordpress.com/2020/01/28/today-i-learned-that-not-everyone-has-an-internal-monologue-and-it-has-ruined-my-day/

I can't quite understand if. Hoping some MNs of the non-monologue type can help me out.

Especially with the reading part.

When I'm reading descriptions fast I don't properly say the words in my head, more of a picture forms I guess. But I'm hearing any dialogue words.

And chattering away to myself in my head all day long. Must be nice not to!

I also just have a jumble of words, images, thoughts and feelings. Definitely not a continuous monologue. There's no language in my dreams, unless there is dialogue.

Right now I have more continuous language because I'm writing this.

I'm a Speech and Language Therapist, working with people with language difficulties. Most do not have an internal monologue, and find it hard to access internal language. This can create challenges for emotional regulation, and general decision-making.

The fact that some people can't stand in front of a mirror trying on clothes and have a conversation with themselves without saying it out loud! I want to ask DH and children if they have an internal monologue - but I'm afraid of their response.

I do have an inner voice, but a lot of the time I don’t really think in words. So if I have to (for example) put the bins out, I won’t think “oh I need to put the bins out now”, it’s more abstract, like a feeling. I also don’t generally “hear” words when I read them. I can do, if I consciously decide to, but most of the time I don’t. Surely it must slow you down if you read everything at speaking pace?

Most do not have an internal monologue, and find it hard to access internal language. This can create challenges for emotional regulation, and general decision-making.

This is interesting, because I actually feel like I make decisions faster than average, or that I can reach a conclusion faster than others when we’re presented with the same information and I was just wondering if it was because I don’t have to think through the words, just the concepts. I don’t have any language difficulties though, so maybe that’s the difference.

Jaysus mine never shuts the fuck up. Always planning and scheming and. I do yoga every morning and there is always a short meditation before and after class and I really notice it then. Don't really see images but I have a very strong emotional memory so I get triggered alot and that sets off the chatter.

Nope, it's pretty quiet in my head. I can sort of rehearse speech for a specific reason/scenario but otherwise there's not a lot going on in here. I don't have a lot of thoughts! I listen to music in my head sometimes. When I talk or write I am always translating into language from... something else.

I feel like a lot of my cognition happens somewhere else.

When I had anxiety I had an internal monologue and found it stressful. Even then, it was mainly replaying actual events, not some kind of new monologue.

I had an internal monologue that was relentlessly critical. It's my mother, basically. I've learned to tune it out, and think nicer things about myself- and other people.

It's pretty chatty in here, to be honest. I daydream too. And catastrophise if I'm not careful!

There's a teaching strategy about encouraging children to think out loud. I think it was called pole bridging. Children work in groups and explain things to each other to help them articulate ideas.

Then later they can think quietly! Just as you read out loud before you read silently.

That probably is the difference @TheGreyInThisCity. It's a bit chicken and egg because many of my clients have other issues which impact on emotional regulation, but lacking language that identifies internal states or supports internal reasoning is definitely an additional challenge.

I teach Maths to people who have always struggled with it. Quite a few of them are numerate, have good factual knowledge and demonstrate insight and problem solving ability when in conversation, either one to one with me or in a group. Left to their own devices - especially in exams - they lose this. I’ve long thought it’s a lack of internal monologue.

Addendum: and I try to help them develop the internal monologue, or at least externalise it by drawing or writing, or by imagining a conversation they have with me.

I don’t ‘hear’ a voice, it’s just ... there...

I’m really good at visualizing things though. Like going through a process or journey and planning.

I meant to say also that a lot of people who have language difficulties also lack internal visualisation. So if I say "make a picture of a cat in your head" that would be a real challenge. So for those people the lack of internal language AND internal visualisation leaves them in a kind of unfettered emotional soup. One thing I do to support language development is work on internal visualisation, because of the structure it can provide.

I don't know how people work things out or think things through without one. How does one think without an internal monologue?

When I talk or write I am always translating into language from... something else. I feel like a lot of my cognition happens somewhere else.

Wow, that's really really interesting! As my username would suggest, I'm very word-based. I don't have aphantasia (where people can't picture things) but I don't have a very clear mind's eye. My internal dialogue is very busy. I like to try and pause it sometimes, either through actual meditation or just by deliberately stopping it. I sometimes see words as part of my monologue and have occasionally dreamed 'in the written word' (kind of like subtitles).

If you do have one then do you find yourself talking out loud when on your own?

I wish my internal monologue would piss off - she’s a pain in the arse.

Mine never shuts up - ever. I'm always playing conversations and replaying them in my head, thinking what I'll say, remarking on this and that, composing stuff... it's exhausting!

Years ago I did discover that some people just don't think. I was astonished. Some people are just in the here and now and don't spend hours cogitating and imagining and just "being" inside their own head.

That's weird.
I remember it being a total mindfuck when I found out that some people saw actual pictures in their head, I'd never considered voices!
I don't have either, just 'thoughts' which are not analagous to anything external

Years ago I did discover that some people just don't think

I think that's quite common 😂 but yes, I know what you mean and agree.

So for those people the lack of internal language AND internal visualisation leaves them in a kind of unfettered emotional soup.

I’ve never really thought about it before but that’s so interesting, no wonder they struggle with their emotions and to express themselves, it must be so hard.

I feel like I'm not quite sure what people mean when they say they have this - do you mean you can really 'hear' it (like when you consciously imagine a sound?)? Is it full sentences? Because mine is neither and I assumed when people talked about internal monologues it was a metaphor? But I had a similar revelation with the internal eye when that was being discussed recently - I find it very hard to consciously picture things and certainly don't do it without trying. Again, I had always assumed it was a metaphor.

For what it's worth - I write for a living and I have a humanities PhD. It definitely isn't that I don't think! I think I'd generally be described as a thoughtful person, and I certainly don't blurt things out. I do think I might think in written words, though - but not in full sentences, more in a conceptual way. I am (I know this sounds immodest) known for being very quick thinking and I grasp new ideas very easily, and I'm now wondering if the way I think has some bearing on that? On the other hand, I have very little visual sense (ie I'm crap at deciding the layout of a poster or planning to decorate a room) and I'm also much less into music than most people, so perhaps that's also linked to the fact I don't seem to have internal sight and sound in the way some people describe?

I am thinking all the time. If you don't - what does your mind do when you're sitting on the sofa, say? I don't really get it either, everyone thinks.

However, I remember reading on MN a few years ago that some people don't visualise. For example, I need to walk into town shortly and I can see the route in my mind. But people were saying on here that they don't visualise. I'm not a very visual person, not arty at all, but that really blew my mind.

Like @AwdBovril I was an exceptionally early reader, and don't have an internal monologue. I can have one if I want- but reading is so slow when I do! I read in paragraphs, not word by word, somehow the words just get into my head. Probably because I was so young when I learnt, I became so proficient, the process is too quick for me to perceive.

But... I sort of see words in my head all the time. If anyone remembers the advert from about 25 years ago (possibly for a bank, or for mobile phones) - it was browns and a cityscape but everything formed of words- so the shapes of the buildings said "skyscraper" IYSWIM. That's how I see things...

Sounding like the oldie that I am here, but does the mobile phone eliminate the chance to think? If I am waiting or travelling somewhere and not reading, I'll stare into space, look around, and all the while be thinking. Most people nowadays don't break eye contact with their phone for one second . (And I'll include dh in that ) . How can they have time for any inner voice or thoughts if every waking moment is occupied with scrolling?

Is it like being at work when if one is very busy one is totally in the moment? Or if watching a very absorbing Netflix series? Do some operate 24/7 like this?