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!

I'm dyslexic and I'm pretty sure I have an internal monologue.
But I also have internal films playing out too if I'm thinking about certain situations.

Is it weird that in my head when thinking about actions I think in terms of "we need to do this.." like brain is chatting to body? Rather than thinking "I need to do this, then that"?

You know I once had this discussion with my friends. When I read a book, I can hear my reading voice in my head. I will read with different accents of characters as well. Dh thinks I'm very odd? I think he is odd! How can you not read with expression in your head?

I definitely have an internal monologue. It goes on at me alllllll day!

Is that why it takes everyone so long to make a decision, because you are actually discussing it with yourself

No I do everything very quickly. I'm definitely not one of life's faffers!

Also I often rehearse conversations before they happen. I also suddenly realise that I am singing a song in my head too. I speak in my head almost exactly as if I do in real life. I actually have conversations with myself and, like a PP it gets worse when I'm trying to do yoga or be quiet!

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

I read very quickly too. I don't seem to fit into the pattern.

Read quickly.

Think and make decisions quickly.

But have a constant conversation going on inside my head (and outside it if eg I am on my own at home or in the car I talk to myself).

I am quite peevish too, as you've probably noticed from my posts on here

I watched a ted talk on internal monologues, can't remember much about it though so not useful. My dd has been asking me if the voice in her head will change. I don't have the answer to that. I see the internal monologue as your consciousness and and just a form of processing information. Could be that there are other ways of processing information without it as pp mentioned and maybe your brain decided how it processes information best.

My internal monologue is annoying at times as I read verbalise what I read or type in my head but then my mind can wander. Like having an argument with myself to concentrate.

I have an internal monologue and it is generally peevish. Same here @Durgasarrow 😄 Although I'd probably go as far as 'definitely tetchy' this morning!

I literally talk to myself (in my head) all day long. It's nice to have conversations with someone who agrees with you on everything

Interesting thread. I learnt recently about aphantasia, where many people can’t picture things in their mind’s eye. In other words, they can’t conjure up a mental image of their own child, partner, dog, house or whatever without actually seeing it in front of them. Some people with this thought the term “mind’s eye’ was a figure of speech and were equally surprised that others could ‘see’ things in their thoughts.

I was telling my partner about this and he said he was one of them! That explains a lot! When discussing things like say, decorating, I can just mentally picture a room painted a specific colour, or with a new item of furniture in it. He doesn’t have that mental picture. There are a lot of people like this, it’s not rare or anything. It’s just some do, some don’t, like the internal monologue. I do hear an internal voice, but I’m glad to say it’s not a monologue that never shuts up! I’d find that exhausting! I suppose we all think people have the same basic mind structure as others, so it’s a revelation to find they don’t!

I do both. I think most of the time I am thinking abstractly and more in concepts, but I have moments where I do have an internal monologue, usually when I have a moment alone. It always pipes up when I pop to the loo during a busy day or social occasion.

However I do struggle to visualise things, it takes a lot of mental effort and the things I visualise are compartmentalised. For example if I was imagining the house I grew up in I can picture the layout but cannot simultaneously picture the way it was decorated and the furniture. If I wanted to think of how it was decorated I would only be able to think about a very narrow view of it e.g. I can see the wallpaper only. I cannot picture the room as a whole with the wallpaper, carpet, layout and furniture all together, it is fragmented. It means it takes a lot of effort to visualise things as I have to visualise all the separate fragments one at a time. I also cannot remember most people's faces outside my closest friends and family. I noticed how much of a problem it was when I could not really distinguish between classmates who were similar builds, hair colours and styles until they start talking. Also if they change a distinctive feature like by getting a haircut or dying their hair I struggle to recognise them as I rely on that feature to identify them rather than their face.

I do have an internal monologue it’s not constant. I suppose it depends on how tired I am as to whether or not it’s there. It’s useful when I know I’m unreasonably angry about something so I’ll have a nice tirade in my head about the situation whilst remaining as pleasant as possible outwardly, worked a treat when I worked in customer services and complaints as I could use it to stop myself reacting when I was reasonably angry at the way I was being spoken to, but didn’t want to lose my job 😂

IrmaFayLear, that's what makes the constant use of phones etc so bad for mental health and brain development, especially in the young.

It isn't just the lack of downtime, but also we aren't engaged in a good way.

After doing Buddhist meditation and visualisation, I found I can switch off the monologue. It's nice to be able to operate with internal silence.

I wonder if this is the reason CBT etc works for some and is of no use to others?

I'm constantly nattering away to myself in my head, hearing it like it's a voice inside. Mine is of the 'okay now we're doing this, and after that we'll do that, where's the thing, there it is, must remember to pick up milk but I'll forget if I don't write it down' and all that fun stuff! It shuts up if I'm engaged with a movie or reading a book (most the time). However it did turn off once when I took ashwaganda supplements and I did not enjoy that at all! I need the little inner voice to help order my working day. Without it manual thinking and focusing was such a chore.

I have a voice in my head which never shuts up! I also have conversations with myself all the time.

For instance in the morning I am thinking "I need to get the dog food out of the fridge, feed the dogs, wash their bowls, give them clean water, put bird food in a bowl, take it outside, put it in the feeds. Oh while outside I need to go to the freezer and get out bread, peas".

It drives me mad at times because I can feel that I have so many thoughts they all jumble together and I actually need to stop and sort through them!

I have never been able to meditate because I just can't stop the voice. Also when I pray (and I try to every day) thoughts just keep interrupting and I lose my chain of thought.

Even though it's annoying I can't imagine not having it.

I sing songs in my head a lot too. Can people who don't have a voice do that?

It must be so quiet without the voice! I always have a monologue running, and I often have a piece of music or a song running concurrently to that in a different bit of my brain. It's very useful for daydreaming when I haven't anything to do - I can also run long detailed "films" in my head except that I'm not on the outside looking in, I'm actually in it. Occasionally I blurt out stuff which is to do with the internal monologue, and yes I tend to talk out loud to myself when alone or move my lips, especially when making decisions (I actually caught myself choosing bread in the supermarket out loud the other day ). It's only annoying when I'm stressed, as it barges in and makes me stop doing what I'm doing in order to plan out what else I have to do, or I have to pause the video I'm watching to talk through what I think about it.

Lynsy I'm the same with praying, I have to do it outloud otherwise I wander off in my brain

its very noisy in my head.. I wish it would shut up.

I spend a lot of time on my phone/tablet/computer or with my nose in a book because it keeps my inner monologue occupied.

When i'm NOT occupying it, it likes to go over conversations, discuss how we ought to have done things.. it likes to take things i've done/said, interactions i've had and imagine the future.. so I can enact (all in my head) years of a fantasy relationship with someone.

It likes to occasionally tell me i'm a terrible person, makes me incredibly anxious about ridiculous things.. tells me no-one really likes me..

It sings bit of songs, recalls bit of books... always DOING something.

I'd love to know what silence feels like.

I’m 😮 that people have a constant chattering away in their heads! I don’t; if I think about something it’s more like an abstract concept, almost a picture and feeling, rather than an internal chat with myself.

When reading, I don’t hear the words as such, just read and interpret them. If I’m reading a novel, for example, I read the words and have a sort of picture/movie showing in my mind’s eye. It’s as if it was being projected out in front of me and to my right, like just being able to see it out of the corner of my eye. I don’t really hear a voice in my head.

If I’m writing, the words just sort of flow from these abstract concepts. The only time I hear a voice if if I have to pause to think of a word or work a sentence out. Or if I’m writing/typing too slowly for my brain and then I can hear the next part of the sentence as I write

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

I feel my way in. So if it’s a decision, I can imagine the two choices ( what they feel like, and the visuals), and go from there.

This is so interesting!

I've been thinking about those people who can't visualise since there was a thread on here not that long ago and I just can't imagine it at all - how would you find your way anywhere without imagining the route first, and do you not know what your living room looks like if you're away from home?

I hadn't thought about the dialogue part! I do have internal dialogue but on and off as is useful, I think. It sort of flows between conceptual images, internal dialogue and into external dialogue with myself (e.g. "for god's sake woman!). I'm also very easily able to visualise and often daydream if I need to pass the time, imagining things I have done and made up scenarios.
I also "see" words a lot in my head and sort of have positive and negative feelings about letters and words depending on how they look and feel

It's like a full on multi-sensory jungle inside my head

I find it amazing that I can drive along, paying attention to the road, sing to the radio on autopilot and have another stream of conciousness rambling on through my head. That's at least 3 different simultaneous mental processes.

My internal monologue is pretty incessant. I can also visualise things clearly. I used to get into trouble at school for giggling a lot for no apparent reason, usually for some thought that flitted through my head, often kind of animated on top of actual vision like Mary Poppins.

Sometimes I'll lose a word and get stuck on the first letter. I was trying to remember a name the other day. I knew it was a C. Callum kept coming into my head but I knew that was wrong... it was Caleb so there was some logic going on there.

I'm scatty and find organisation a battle, not because I forget things, more that I don't remember at the right moment for action. I need tight external deadlines to focus my brain. If my mind is particularly busy, it's a bit like that scene in Harry Potter where he has to find and catch the flying key amongst all the other keys.

It is quite fast paced in my head, and I find slow, predictable speakers very frustrating because I have to wait an extra 3 seconds for them to finish saying the obvious before I can respond. I would get the flow of dialogue through the supermarket, but I am fairly descive, and want to march through the place and get the job done.

I hated silence as a child, it was incredibly distracting and I needed music or background noise to focus. I cope with it much better now, but do have the radio on for much of the day.

DS has autism and dyslexia. He has a strong internal monologue. I asked him after a similar MN thread and he seemed relieved to acknowledge the voice. He had worried that his teacher would tell him off for not being quiet when his internal voice was talking away. He says he can visualise things like a film too.

I can believe there are people without an internal monologue, and have taught pupils (teenagers) that didn't seem to be able to think without verbalising every little detail that passed through their head. I have also encountered pupils that just didn't seem to think much, and that is quite different to the much more common day dreamers who are clearly focused on something else processing through their heads. (I was a doodler, or off on my own tangent but clearly simultaneously engaged with what was going on as I'd have my hand up Hermione Granger style and rarely missed important information)

I think it's clear why I rarely post a brief response on MN

My internal monologue is usually me imagining a conversation with someone else. Favourite ones are complaints to the local council or paper about various issues (I never actually complain!) or describing what I’m doing to a visitor from a foreign country. Weird.

I've just been for a lovely walk and remembered

Mindfulness

Stilling the internal voice and being aware of what you are looking at, smelling, hearing etc. And trying not to think out loud in your head 'oh look, a robin. Why do people throw their litter around? Etc'.

Apparently a high percentage of people with dyslexia have no internal monologue. I'm one of them. Was amazed to realise other people are going round conversing with themselves!

Interesting - I've never heard of that before.

I'm dyslexic and do very much have an internal monologue but I also have very vivid pictures and well developed mind's eye as well.

As they've found people with no ablity to see in their minds eye I suppose there must be several variations ot there.

I have a multi-stranded internal "voice" (I don't actually hear it but it has inflection so I am imagining I'm hearing it I guess?). There are usually about three or four strands chattering away at any one time, different accents sometimes (I love accents irl) and very different topics ranging from the practical to rehearsing upcoming conversations to a long-running "story" I have always had going on.

Sometimes it's ok, if my environment is quiet, and I can just get on with what's in my head. If there are noises: traffic, humming equipment in the supermarket, overhead lighting, A CHILD TALKING INCESSANTLY, etc I go a little bit crazy inside. I hate this feeling. Nobody's doing anything wrong but my head won't let me concentrate, all the noise get in and is added to whatever conversation is already there. I was a pretty terrible parent in my head when my dc were younger though I tried very very hard to hide it.

Similarly I can't work and listen to music, although instrumental might be all right depending on my inner life that day. I have a friend who listens to audiobooks at work and powers through loads of them. This would drive me absolutely crazy.

Some days, if it's very very busy in my head, I have to hide away in order to get some balancing outer silence. I'm not proud of this.