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

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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!

Oh, and my DS says that when he reads, it's my voice he hears! When he was younger, if he was reading to himself but I was next to him, he'd tell me to stop reading along... except that I wasn't! He was hearing the words in his head in my voice. He's visually impaired, and I read a lot to him as a small child.

This is so interesting - I assumed everyone had an internal monologue. Just asked my husband and he has no idea what I’m talking about - couldn’t even imagine having it. He’s dyslexic.

I'm just like you @haba - and, coincidentally or not, I was also a very early reader.

I think I must 'see' words (though not in a way that's like seeing a picture, or a word on a page) because I always know how many letters there are in a word, and it astonishes me that other people don't. I went through a stage as a child of constantly noting whether words had even or odd numbers of letters, and finding it very distracting and a bit obsessive - I remember trying to tell my mum about her and her looking at me like I had two heads!

I definitely have an internal monologue sometimes, but other times I think more semantically (just ideas and concepts) which is much faster

I've been trying to shut mine up with therapy and meditation, and it's working.

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My students often tell me that when they're doing exams they hear my voice as an inner monologue telling them the answers!

Haha @OopsPregnantAgain! That would be very useful

@LisaSimpsonsbff I'm so glad someone else has this too! I like the shape of words on a page too, some are far more pleasing than others.
My visual skills are far inferior to my reading skills, presumably they're not developed very well because reading got so much practice. I struggle with faces, but I'm getting better at that now I'm older (and coincidentally reading less due to children). I don't find visual media as stimulating as reading (I don't watch television at all, and don't watch films very often, though I do enjoy them, I still get more from a book). I pick up far more information from reading things quickly than I would if someone read aloud to me. I listen to the radio a great deal, but often miss pertinent pieces of information!

I just don't think very much! I associate it with anxiety, what other people seem to describe as thinking. To me it sounds like ruminating and it makes me unhappy. But actually I think that's just the nearest thing to what they are describing and they are talking about something else that I don't experience at all. I don't know if it's connected but I also can't relate to the way a lot of people talk about their bodies as a separate thing. I am my body. It's not a thing "I" direct in the world.

I'm a coder and am good at problem solving and puzzles but I don't really think about them when I'm not actively in flow. I feed them in and answers come out later, but they don't occupy a verbal part of my mind. I guess I have a sort of landscape I move through. I have a gesture when I'm talking through a complex problem where I start sort of shaping air and drawing with my hands that makes Dh laugh. He's always like 'get that woman a pen! Maths is incoming!'

The thing about always translating is it's probably easier to pick up NEW programming languages or new software because the concepts are not deeply embedded in the expression, but it might be harder to think really natively in a particular language. I notice this in some large subset of other programmers - we work out the logic or problem first and then figure out how that solution is expressed in whatever code we are working in. First what to do, then how to do it.

I am always hearing a prose monologue in my head, except if I'm asleep. It's sort of like an ongoing narration.

Otoh, I don't see visual images in my mind's eye at all.

Brains are very odd.

I do have an internal monologue but it’s a description of my thoughts which aren’t verbal by and large so sometimes I don’t bother with it. I tend to think/dream in the medium most appropriate to the content of the thought. So if I am thinking about a road for example I will see, smell and feel the rose. I can then describe the rose if I need to. I do find it helpful to use words to reason through my thoughts and do it habitually but it’s nit necessary.

@IrmaFayLear I tend to think more while reading/watching something. I usually have a few streams of things going on in my head while occupied. When I am looking out a window though I’ll typically maximum have one additional thought stream to what I am experiencing. Sometimes I won’t think anything at all though.

I have words and pictures as well as a really cool ability to set my mind a problem and check in on progress periodically / brain tells me when it's got the answer. Some tricky things can take a month or two and once I get a solution it gets stress tested for multiple scenarios.

Dreams - my dreams are movies in colour. One memorable one was a Braveheart-esque epic with the antagonists being Mel Gibson vs Sean Connery. Got to the final battle scene, clash of the forces. They just met and my bloody flatmate woke me up. Never knew how it ended!

So those of you who don't have an internal monologue, what does your brain do when you are say walking around a shop deciding what to buy?

I will be thinking I need juice, bread, oh I forgot the cheese, oh the self serve tills aren't busy I'll use those, need to go and get cash out now. Etc. Do you not have those sorts of thoughts?

Wait, what.
Some of you think "hmm, what sort of bread shall we have the seeded one was nice last time, but it looks a bit over cooked this time. Maybe I'll have that cheesy one DH likes, oh none left," sort of stuff in your head??? Is that why it takes everyone so long to make a decision, because you are actually discussing it with yourself, rather than going "that one"? I'm mean, if have that conversation with the kids if they were with me, but not with myself!

How do you ever get any peace? Any quiet????

I knew people could picture things and I didn't. But this is new.

It's an interesting one alright!

I will be thinking I need juice, bread, oh I forgot the cheese, oh the self serve tills aren't busy I'll use those, need to go and get cash out now. Etc. Do you not have those sorts of thoughts?

I will have those thoughts, but I won’t actually think “ok I need to get some juice, now to the bread, that’s over there so I’ll go and look to see what they’ve got...” in words, it’s more abstract than that.

I wonder if it has anything to do with introversion/extroversion. Introverts are often said to have ‘loud’ minds or a lot of internal stimulation, whereas extroverts tend to seek external stimulation. I would consider myself quite an extreme introvert and I have an unrelenting internal monologue.

It’s most obvious when things are quiet such as when I just wake up. At the weekend if I don’t have to get up straight away, I can lie in bed for half an hour just listening to this monologue. I can sit and journal without stopping for hours at a time.

As a teenager, I attended a six-week summer camp that exposed me to people almost constantly, so I didn’t get much quiet time for this ‘thinking’. It made me feel slightly crazy and like I was forgetting myself.

Is that why it takes everyone so long to make a decision, because you are actually discussing it with yourself, rather than going "that one"?

I was wondering this. My DP is an intelligent man, but he takes ages to make a decision (supermarket shopping with him drives me mad!) and I feel like sometimes he’s a beat behind me when we’re working something out. Like if we are going into town and we get to the station and the train has been cancelled, and we have a choice between waiting for the next train or catching the bus, I will very quickly make a decision. For example I might decide to wait for the train because the traffic can be unpredictable so the bus might actually take longer, I get carsick on busses, and if we wait for the train we’ve got time for a quick coffee beforehand. I will have thought through the options and made a decision several seconds before he gets there. He will make the same decision for the same reasons as me, but it takes longer. I don’t think it’s because he’s less intelligent, I think it’s the pace that he’s thinking at.

I will have those thoughts, but I won’t actually think “ok I need to get some juice, now to the bread, that’s over there so I’ll go and look to see what they’ve got...” in words, it’s more abstract than that.

This.

I have the thoughts but don't 'hear' it as a monologue/conversation - my husband does and I know others who do, but for me it's conceptual rather than conversation.

I was another really early reader and I'm now senior in a field that demands excellent writing and communication skills. But I don't 'hear' the words when I'm reading - I think this helps to make me a really fast reader. Similarly, I don't hear/see the words when I'm thinking or making decisions.

Knowing that other people do 'hear' their thoughts as a sort of voice has really helped me to understand why some people talk to themselves.

@cologne4711

So those of you who don't have an internal monologue, what does your brain do when you are say walking around a shop deciding what to buy?

I just know it or I suppose sense it. My thoughts under that circumstance would not be ‘verbal’ in my head. I’d just know it without any internal chatter. It’s abstract.

I only have a verbal thought when I’m reading or writing (like now) or if I was imagining a conversation/written piece if planning one in my head. Everything else is abstract imagery. Or that’s as close as I can describe it.

I learn visually and can imagine things clearly. DH has aphantasia and can’t imagine any images in his head. Say a name to him and he ‘sees’ the name written in his minds eye. Say a name to me and I ‘see’ the persons face or image in my minds eye.

It’s all very fascinating but means I often have to draw things out (house plans etc) for him to see what I mean as he can’t see it in his mind.

Maybe it takes me so long to decide because I'm not having an internal rational discussion with myself?

I am v much an introvert though.

@VereeViolet

I wonder if it has anything to do with introversion/extroversion. Introverts are often said to have ‘loud’ minds or a lot of internal stimulation, whereas extroverts tend to seek external stimulation.

Probably not as I’m an introvert and my mind is peaceful. No monologue.

My son doesn’t hear words but he sees pictures. He’s 8 he has autism though so different way of thinking. It’s entirely possible.

I have an internal monologue and it is generally peevish.

I don't understand this - I don't think I have one?

Can someone give me an example of their internal monologue? Is it like a conversation? Do you actually "hear" it?