To ask: do you have an inner-monologue?

[allthatgrace]

I don't have an inner-monologue and never realised that some people do. My thoughts are rapid, abstract and conceptual rather than verbal.

For example, if I am thinking that I'm hungry and want to start making dinner it takes the form of something like: concept of hunger+concept of dinner+concept of it being the evening/dinner time. After speaking to my family members they would have an inner-voice that actually says "I'm hungry, I think I'll go start dinner".

I have also always been confused about the idea of having an inner-critic that berates you. I've never heard an inner-voice say, for example, "nobody cares what you have to say, don't bother speaking, everything you say is stupid", instead I would just feel the sensation of shyness and wanting to stay quiet.

I can make myself have an inner-voice and I will use it occasionally, for example if I'm trying to remember a particular phrase or something but my default thinking is not an inner-monologue.

Which kind of thoughts do you have?

This thread is so fascinating. I have no inner monologue, no mind’s eye, and some degree of face blindness. There are no noises or anything to see inside my head at all. I am not inside my head. (I think I would put myself in my eyes - never thought about this before!) I also do the “absorbing skim reading” thing. I’d love to know more about why people are one way or the other.

@HalcyonSea kudos to you for explaining it so well in all your posts - I identify with everything you said.

People who have an inner monologue and can’t understand those who don’t - surely you realise that you don’t narrate every single thought? Like “move arm” or “open mouth” or “press clutch” like PP have mentioned. Those of us who have no inner voice just experience all our thoughts that way. Some we are more conscious of than others, but they are all abstract.

Think you took it the wrong way 😂 I was talking about how I'd personally feel if I didn't have one.

I talk to myself in my head. I don't criticise myself though. I also can't see imaged when I close my eyes but I can imagine what something looks like if I concentrate but my eyes have to be open. I have very vivid dreams though. So strange

This isn’t something I’ve ever really thought about or realised I had until reading this thread but yes I do, my inner monologue never shuts up.
I have often found myself physically expressing what’s going on in my head or sometimes its out of my mouth before I even realised. My neighbours must think I’m nuts as I’m often chatting away to myself. The the times I’ve blurted out something like you stupid cow, what did you do that for? Right now you’ll have to start again! Do it properly this time.

I also think vividly in pictures as well the two kind of go hand in hand. So everything conjures up a picture but it’s like it’s there in front of me in full 3D. It’s like a constant movie but Not on a screen, I’m physically there.

Like the poster above if I need to drive somewhere, I will talk myself through the directions but I will also mentally see the road in front of me as if I’m already driving it

I get totally immersed into a book and can see everything described as if it was stood in front of me. Almost like watching a play but There’s no separation of the stage. I’m there alongside the characters seeing what they see, feeling what they feel and hearing their voices.

I find when I’m doing stuff that’s long and monotonous, (like painting and decorating) hard going sometimes as I’ve often said to my mum, “I’ve got too much time to think,” as there’s no distraction from it and there’s no off switch. My brain never shuts off.

Dh doesn’t think in pictures and cannot visualise it’s hard for me to understand how he does think. He can’t explain it either.

Ooh lovely thread - I’ll read later with a cup of tea.

I’ve often wondered if there’s a link between introversion and inner monologue? I’ve often been genuinely puzzled by my dc declaring that they’re bored in the absence of external stimulation, until I realised that I feel something quite similar at parties or in company when I can’t enjoy my internal world.

Also, I was thinking when you get really good at a foreign language, people often say they start thinking directly in that language instead of translating, suggesting that they think in, or at least process thoughts in words?

I'm learning French. I'm not to the stage where I can think in French but I will occasionally find myself being aware that I'm reading something rather than translating it - at which point I 'fall out' of reading it and find myself translating again. It's an odd internal misstep - like taking one too many steps up a stairs you are very familiar with.

Yes I have a constant, horrible, critical inner monologue and I’m so jealous of you lol!

Yes I have a voice in my head all the time. After reading some of this thread yesterday I purposely noticed my voice/thoughts this morning.

Once I had showered and dressed (which I was thinking about as doing it i.e. shall I condition my hair today or just wash it, what shall I wear etc) I was then thinking "oh it looks sunny I think I'll put a wash on. Should be able to get it dry on the line".

Took the washing downstairs while thinking "get the dog food, feed the dogs, feed the birds blah blah" As I walked into the kitchen I start thinking "oh need to water that plant, better check if the bin needs emptying, I'll put away the washing up that DH did, oh maybe put the washing on first then put the washing up away"

It just goes on and on like that but I will also argue with myself or have discussions about different things with myself like what to have for tea or what colour we should paint the living room.

I can also have a song or piece of music going round and round at the same time as the voice/thoughts.

Sometimes I get lots and lots of thoughts crowding in at the same time about different things and feel I can't think straight. I have to try and calm my mind down.

I can start thinking about something then my voice goes off track and I forget what I was thinking about originally. Very annoying when it is something important.

I just can't meditate as I can never have a silent mind. I often struggle to get it shut up enough to fall asleep but do find counting backwards from 100 can help as can praying.

I can visualise things in my head but not in really good detail

Meditation really helps to calm the monkey mind but you have to keep doing it.
It's an amazing feeling when the monkey finally shuts up but it's always waiting in the background ready to start commenting, criticising and distracting.

Oh meant to say that when I read I hear each word in my head. Often though I struggle to concentrate as so many other thoughts are going on and I find that really annoying.

The same if I try to listen to a podcast, audio book etc.

HalcyonSea
Yes, agree if I was reading a book set in Italy I wouldn’t read/hear a character with an Italian ‘lilt’ but if there was something special about a characters speech I would hear it (I.e if they were whispering I would hear that lowered voice). I wonder, if you are recalling a conversation with someone, playing it back in your mind, as it were, how does that work if you don’t ‘hear’ the words? On top of that I hear my mum’s voice when I think of something she said last week, or I can recall my late Grandad’s laugh and jokes in his West Mids accent. Is this normal? I have no idea!

Scuds typos

😆 Excuse the typos...

Reading this thread and I am confused! I thought I had an inner monologue but now I'm not sure...I can hear words if I try to so I thought I did but I don't hear constant chat from my own voice?
I hear music a lot and that's how I usually fall asleep by playing music in my head.
It would be interesting knowing if there's a general difference between men and women with this too

@TheSandman

Also, I was thinking when you get really good at a foreign language, people often say they start thinking directly in that language instead of translating, suggesting that they think in, or at least process thoughts in words?

I'm learning French. I'm not to the stage where I can think in French but I will occasionally find myself being aware that I'm reading something rather than translating it - at which point I 'fall out' of reading it and find myself translating again. It's an odd internal misstep - like taking one too many steps up a stairs you are very familiar with.

I speak two foreign languages extremely poorly (no-where near fluent) but I still, if I have been using one or the other or practicing it dream in those languages. Often they are frustrating dreams where for example all the conversations re quite stilted because the "characters" that are speaking dont have the language they need to express themselves. The picture parts of the dream should be unnafected but the whole thing ends up very disjointed and confusing (more than a normal dream).

But what is wierd is. for example, "me" in the dream isnt thinking of the word she wants to say in English and searching for the right word in French. Dream me is thinking/talking completely in French but in an unfluent way.

It seems like some people think that no inner monologue equates to having no thoughts. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Now I understand why I can read so fast. I ‘absorb’ the words and understand them without ‘hearing’ them as a voice formulated in my head. Even those of you who have this inner voice can’t surely think everything in words such as, “turn the wheel on the car, press the brake pedal, lift the sandwich into your mouth” etc etc but you still do those things and think to do them right?

So that’s how those of us who don’t have an ‘inner voice’ think. It’s a kind of mixture of feeling and instinct with some visuals.

I definitely do

@LibertyMole

‘Those with no inner dialogue, are you able to rehearse for an interview in your head? Like, go over the possible questions and your answers?’

Yes. And I can learn lines for a play. I can talk in my head if I have to, but find it boring because it both limits and slows down my thinking.

People with inner monologues, are you able to think multiple contradictory thoughts at the same time, or do they have to queue? What about feelings? Does a voice announce, ‘you are now feeling love?’

Yes, I have a monologue, thoughts, feelings, images

@OlympicProcrastinator

It seems like some people think that no inner monologue equates to having no thoughts. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Now I understand why I can read so fast. I ‘absorb’ the words and understand them without ‘hearing’ them as a voice formulated in my head. Even those of you who have this inner voice can’t surely think everything in words such as, “turn the wheel on the car, press the brake pedal, lift the sandwich into your mouth” etc etc but you still do those things and think to do them right?

So that’s how those of us who don’t have an ‘inner voice’ think. It’s a kind of mixture of feeling and instinct with some visuals.

I'd say that, with an inner voice, conscious thoughts have a "voice", whereas for something like driving or eating which is largely muscle memory, there's no conscious thought behind it (usually). I know when learning something new though there's a lot of "now I'm doing this, next I will do that, don't forget to do the other thing" going round in my head.

Non-stop monologue unless I deliberately switch it off for a bit (learned to do this through meditation) or unless I'm doing something that requires full concentration. I'm very word-based, have a very good verbal memory but a rubbish memory for other stuff (directions, events, sequences of movements etc). I can picture things, but not especially clearly. I sort of hear the words in my head when I read, but very fast, and I don't tend to picture people or settin books when I read. I've occasionally had dreams with written/typed words, like subtitles .

Yes to inner monologue and yes to visualising things too - constantly! I have to spend a lot of time winding down at night, otherwise I have night terrors. I also dream very vividly and have a very good memory for the minutiae of events and places (things like numbers less so). I look for hidden meanings in everything. I often wish my mind was quieter. I overthink and catastrophise things a lot and I tend towards being anxious.

@Doyoumind

I have a constant inner monologue. I'm also a maladaptive daydreamer though and I don't think you can be a daydreamer without one.

I'm very happy in my own company. I've often wondered if that's because I'm very chatty with myself!

I don't have an inner monologue. But i definitely daydream frequently (and probably maladaptively). Like others have said, i can create a verbal conversation in my head, and will frequently think about what i am saying to another person in my daydream (and what they in return). But in general life, there is no voice, its just concepts.

@OlympicProcrastinator

It seems like some people think that no inner monologue equates to having no thoughts. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Now I understand why I can read so fast. I ‘absorb’ the words and understand them without ‘hearing’ them as a voice formulated in my head. Even those of you who have this inner voice can’t surely think everything in words such as, “turn the wheel on the car, press the brake pedal, lift the sandwich into your mouth” etc etc but you still do those things and think to do them right?

So that’s how those of us who don’t have an ‘inner voice’ think. It’s a kind of mixture of feeling and instinct with some visuals.

Yes this sums up exactly how i feel as another person with no inner monologue. Im not that visual a person (but i can visualise), im a strongly verbal person in terms of my strengths (i.e. my verbal reasoning is much better than my visual-spatial reasoning). But like others have said, if im reading, i don't say the word in my head i just absorb the meaning. Im a fast reader possibly for this reason. I also do what a PP mentioned in that i will often read a book to my child and be thinking about something totally different for the entire time. Then get to end of book and have taken none of it in. Possibly this is common for parents though. I find this whole area SO fascinating. I never realised until a few years ago that the phrase 'voice in your head' was a literal voice! i thought it was just a saying.

This is so interesting. @Trillio I said every word of you post in my head as I read it and I’m saying every word I’m now typing in my head as I type it . I am quite a slow reader. I picture everything in my head as I’m reading too.