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 don’t even know how to explain it to you. With the chair example, I can imagine a chair in terms of what it is, how it feels, even what it looks like (in descriptive terms) but not visually. It’s hard to explain when that’s just how your brain works!

My nightmare scenario is being the only witness to a terrible crime as I simply could not visualise the face of the criminal.

Right now I’m looking at the dishwasher - if I close my eyes and try to picture it, there’s nothing. I am imagining a dishwasher, just not seeing it. I know this makes no sense if you do see images.

Very rarely in my life I’ve had the odd flash of an image but it’s like it’s made of smoke that quickly disintegrates and there’s nothing.

I lost my mum a few years ago and I can “remember” her face but I can’t visualise it. If I daydream about something there’s no images to it. It’s like my brain retains information about visual things in a different way so I have a sense of them, just not a picture.

I’m sorry, I don’t know how to explain this!

@nibdedibble and @Lifeisgenerallyfun - I'm somewhere between you two, and I thought most people were similar, but you know I'd always assumed everyone was similar until I spent time on MN; it never occurred to me that others experienced consciousness differently. Not sure if there is a name for that condition?!

I also found out about anaphantasia on here and was describing it to the family at home, reading from a thread and saying hey can you believe this never heard of that blimey - and all of a sudden DD16 piped up "I'm like that, is it wrong?!"

It’s so interesting thanks for explaining @SinkGirl

I am so funny with the crime thing, I often look at dodgy people and think ‘ooh let’s remember that dodgy person’ so I have way too many potential criminals in my mind for no reason 😂

My DD has a lot of ASD and ADHD traits and she doesn’t seem to have an internal voice. She has pictures though.

I cant see pictures in my head unless I try very very hard (rubbish with faces too), but my Internal voice doesn't shut up and pisses me off sometimes.

If I want my internal monologue to shut up I have to be doing something else really intense. So for me gardening or watching something gripping on TV. If I’m reading a book I’m not that into, I realise I can read pages of words and instead of them being realised from my eye to my brain they aren’t, because my internal monologue has taken over. But I have definitely read words and turned pages without realising.

Also the daydreaming thing is big for me, especially if I’m not happy, I will just take up all the space in my mind with a daydream of how I would like my life to be. I think it’s really unhelpful and stops me from moving forward because it’s basically real for me.

I also strongly visualise things and can talk in exact replicas of others peoples voices and accents, they sound exactly the same. I can’t do that out loud though

I’m also very good at visualising. It’s like I have a mask on that takes me to another dimension and I can walk through a garden for example - as me. I can run or walk slowly etc. It’s completely 3D and I pretty much can visually recall everything and everyone! So I think I would be pretty good in a crime situation!!!!

But if you can’t visualise that that mean your memory isn’t very good? Because if I think of something it’s like a 3D hologram of that exact moment in time

I have a question because I thought I was on one side of this discussion but then I think I'm maybe not and I've been too literal.

There is no voice, no distinct conversation like word for word. So no one saying "shall we have eggs?" "No you don't like eggs" "but the kids like eggs" etc

I have an abstract pattern of thoughts. Like a giant spider diagram of thought. So eggs leads to fried/scrambled/poached leads to cadburys leads to tesco offer someone was talking about when o walked past them leads to tesco crisps leads to 😥 cos Tesco direct stopped leads to tesco sale leads to I wish I wore grown up clothes leads to I don't like printed leggings.

No voice and sometimes the leads splinter so I'll simultaneously think about Tesco Easter eggs and Asda Easter egg offer and Tesco finest prawn cocktail crisps at the same time with mental images of leggings with the geo Aztec style print and how big my thighs would look in them

To summarise - no voice but a clear-ish thought pattern. Is this an inner monologue or just too much sugar

This has blown my mind. I was astounded by the fact that not everyone sees pictures in their head, but this?! I just imagine not having a voice in my head. I actually seem to have a group of little people living in my head, they have conversations and arguments! They remind me things and help me to make decisions. It's a bit like the film 'Inside Out' but I can hear them

I wish I could do this inside my head. I have to talk to myself out loud to have that kind of conversation and can only do that in private. I’d love to be able to talk between A and B all the time and wherever I was.

I have no pictures and am a bit crap with faces and names but ok once I have met someone a few times, and it's not ages since I saw them.

I think in words all the time and there is always music. I didn't understand earworm either when people talked about it as there is always music!

If I shut my eyes and think of a thing I get an ishness and other things. Eg a beach I know I can hear the sea, feel the wind and the sand or pebbles under my feet, smell the salt. If I imagine eg someone touching my arm I can feel it like a ghost sensation.

No pics though!

My inner voice is just me though not a conversation generally and always with music

I will just take up all the space in my mind with a daydream of how I would like my life to be. I think it’s really unhelpful and stops me from moving forward because it’s basically real for me.

OMG yes! I have an entire parallel life in my head - although it’s more of a series of vignettes where the dialogue between alternative-me and whoever else is involved is the main focus, rather than visual images of the alternative house I’m living in or whatever - I have to work quite hard to hold pictures in my head.

But if you can’t visualise that that mean your memory isn’t very good?

I’m not much of a visualiser but up until about my late 30s, my memory was excellent.

This thread is fascinating! I too have very clear, involved daydreams which I do much more if I'm unhappy. At one point I could only get to sleep by going through a particular scene in an alternative life.
I have a related question - does anyone else have a "replay" function? As in, if there's a pause in the conversation do you/ can you replay what the other person has just said in your head? Sometimes important or embarrassing conversations get stored in my brain, so I can replay them in the right voices whenever. I never realised this was unusual until I did French gcse and was baffled as to why people found it hard to decode the listening exercises - I simply replayed them in my head during the silence, slowing them down so that I could separate the words properly and understand what was being said

@Bakedpotatoandgin

I do that. I can easily pause and go back to the convo - replay it over and over and over and over and over - it’s exhausting tbh
And it’s not even real. I need to stop it somehow

I don’t have an internal monologue or ‘voice’ in my head (I can’t imagine how that would be!) and I also find it difficult to visualise things. When I try the image I get is sort of blurry and unclear.

@aroundtheworldyet thank goodness it's not just me! Yes it can get annoying, can't it? Very useful for learning languages and remembering quotes though

@Bakedpotatoandgin
I’m crap at languages

Just good at going over and over my shit life!
🤷‍♀️

@aroundtheworldyet I find listening to music a lot helps, really listening hard to separate the different instruments and parts etc so I have to concentrate. Also listening to audio books when I'm alone if I want to try and shut it up, and not allowing myself to pause them even if it wants to interrupt.
Weird about the languages though, I always assumed that was what made me good at them, maybe there's something else. The human brain is fascinating.

@Serenbunny interesting that you say that, my dd has asd and her voices/internal monologue are loud and clear to the point of bothering her. She is very aware of its presence and struggles to make sense of it and as is often with asd she worries about it changing.

We were just talking about this at work today. Everyone at lunch said they had internal voices. I find it so hard to understand how people would think without one, but reading responses here is helping me. My internal voice is going all the time. It's hard for me to "shut it off". In fact if I want to read I have to be listening to music at the same time. I think listening to the music quiets the chatty part of my brain so I can just focus on visualizing/hearing my book. I've also always been a HUGE daydreamer. All my life I've had several amazing fantasy lives going on. I still remember many of them. We did not have phones/ipads/etc when I was a kid. Long car or bus rides would really bring my imagination out. I'd just stare out the window and go to what ever my current fantasy world was. Now I tend to play this conversations out in my head that I wish I had had with someone. I've tried doing meditation but I cant shut my mind off for even a minute when it's completely quiet. I try, its just impossible. My inner voice is my constant companion and I would be very upset if it ever went away.

This has honestly blown my mind...the fact that inside some people's heads is...well...empty? I just can't imagine it (not saying I don't believe it...but I just can't get my packed full head around it 😂).

A PP said that she doesn't have an internal voice because she's an introvert...but that's not the reason! I'm an introvert and my internal voice is very chatty. I'm also exceedingly quick at decision making (actually hate faffers!!) So it's not an impairment either.

Someone else asked if you actually 'hear' it...well, no...because it's not a sound. It's 'thoughts' really...in a 'voice' that you know. Usually my own voice, but I also 'hear/not hear' other people's voices, depending on the context of the thoughts. If I'm thinking about my granddaughter and something she's done or said, it's her voice, for example. And it's very quick...so the sentence, "Should we have fish and chips or do you fancy shepherds pie instead?" (going back to the supermarket post) would be a half a second abstract thought, not taking as long as saying the whole thing out loud at all. But still in 'a voice' in my head. It's actually quite hard to explain 🤦‍♀️😳

Hope that kind of makes sense? 🤯

I think in words but don’t ‘hear’ them. I was surprised to learn some people thought in pictures and I’m even more surprised to learn from this thread that some people don’t have that constant chatter going on. I write novels and I’m curious now if those who read and write creatively are more likely to have that inner chatter because they experience language through written words more.

Very interesting how differently we all experience the world.