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?

@BlairWaldorfLovesShopping

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.

Thank you! I'm glad I'm not alone. I do have a very visual mind, images and memories. And can "replay" sounds I've heard. But I certainly do not think in words or voices. My verbal/ written skills are great - it's what I do for a living - but that is always thought translated to text. Not thought composed in text.

I think I have a minute of both
Sometimes really visual, or musical, or emotional
Other times it’s a full blown conversation.

My inner critic is a total bitch to me, though. She is the reason I am still awake at 5am (yes, STILL awake. Not gotten one wink of sleep)

*mixture

(Inner critic now berating me for getting that wrong)

@Wherediditgo

*mixture

(Inner critic now berating me for getting that wrong)

Tell your inner critic to fuck off. It's being wholly unreasonable.

@TheSandman

Natsku, yes! I sometimes get a sentence stuck in my head that I repeat over and over again.

It's even worse when it's just a fragment over and over. Just part of a sentence.

I usually tell myself it's just a phrase I'm going through.

I'll get my coat...

Oh yeah, when its just a fragment of a sentence, that my inner dialogue has decided it didn't say right or something, and goes on and on and on until I want to smash my head against a wall.

I'm mainly like you, OP - conceptual. I do sometimes have an inner 'voice' (e.g. when I started to mentally compose this reply) but generally, no. I do sometimes wonder whether it's linked to memory, too, because I struggle to remember exactly what people have said to me, say, in an argument 10 minutes ago. I'll be left with a strong impression of their rudeness or unreasonableness but will often really have to struggle to remember exactly how the back and forth went and recreate it exactly in my mind.

I also couldn't believe it when I realised that some people actually have a genuine running commentary going on in their heads - I thought it was a kind of metaphor!

Also, just to clarify for other posters, it's not that there's nothing going on in my head - I would say I have a very busy mind in a way that's quite annoying and am also quite a daydreamer. It just doesn't take the form of a stream of words for me. It's more visual and 'conceptual' as the OP says.

Fascinating thread!

I don't! Not a verbal one anyway! I'm like you op. E.g I was thinking about painting my DDs room on the weekend. So in my head there's the idea of painting, then some pictures in my head of various colours etc. Then a feeling of yes or no of whether a particular colour was right or not. But I thought this was what people meant by internal monologue?! I had no idea people thought in sentences!!! I suppose the odd phrase or whatever gets stuck in my head.

HalcyonSea
Neither. It doesn’t sound like ‘me’ as a recording, or as the sound I hear when I speak. It’s an inner voice, a sort of ‘control voice’ or ‘narrator’ voice.

It’s not loud to me or or obtrusive or chatty or constant as others have suggested. It doesn’t interfere with my day or my thoughts, it ‘is’ my day and ‘is’ my thoughts.

I do, I think most people do (to various extents) - I’m quite mindblown you don’t - so you don’t verbalise thoughts in your head as a rule?? How do you think about more complex stuff? - or do you switch over then.

I had no idea people thought in sentences!!!

I was aware that other people didn't think exactly as I do, but it's really interesting to read all the descriptions of thought processes. I can't get my head round the idea of people expressing thoughts in pictures or what a 'feeling of yes or no' would be like without the words. For me it's constant words, sentences and dialogue. Doesn't matter if it's something simple like "I need a wee, I'll go up to the loo" or if I'm trying to get to grips with a really complex issue that takes me years to think about. It's always expressed in sentences.

The monologue in my head does not stop even when I sleep. I am sometimes aware that I am dreaming and telling myself that I had this dream already and can we go right this time please instead of left 🙄. Also it switches between my native language and English depending on where I am and what I am doing.

@miafeta

The monologue in my head does not stop even when I sleep. I am sometimes aware that I am dreaming and telling myself that I had this dream already and can we go right this time please instead of left 🙄. Also it switches between my native language and English depending on where I am and what I am doing.

Oh wow - I do this too!

99% of the time I know I’m dreaming and I can change bits. I really miss an old house I used to live in. When I’m dreaming I’m in a building, I Change it to that house so I can walk around it again.

I can also usually go back to the same dream if I stir and change it to how I want.

It does mean that I never feel well rested though. My brain is always on the go.

On my drive home last night I made an effort to observe how I thought because reading everyone's posts here had my really confused. When I'm consciously thinking about something I think in words but when I'm kind of zoned out I just think but don't think in words, if that makes sense?

I engender being really happy when a friend confessed that a lot of the time their inner voice would take the form of either narration (like they were the star of aTV show) or an interview (also like they were some kind of fascinating celebrity). Because that's what mine does, and I felt a little less like an idiot knowing I wasn't alone.

Yes, I have a constant inner voice but my thoughts are a combination of words, pictures, colours, emotions and hunches. But my inner monologue is the strongest I think. I have endless hypothetical discussions with myself on any topic I absolutely know nothing about! And often I'm not me in the discussion, I'm someone else either talking to me, or talking to someone else! It's weird I know.

I also have so many dream/made-up scenarios like films/stories running through my mind that are so real they make me cry, or cloud my mood for the whole day even though it's all in my head. Some of the stories have been ongoing for years, since I was a teenager and they adapt with the times and how I'm feeling or with what's going on in my life. It's like a soap opera, with characters and everything!

Until recently I didn't even know this was a recognised psychological 'thing' called maladaptive daydreaming. I thought I did it because I had a very restrictive over-controlled childhood and that I maybe did it out of escapism. But perhaps my brain is just naturally wired like this? I dunno!

I think it's why I find chatty people in real life difficult to cope with, it's noisy enough to start off with

This is so true! I'm very happy in my own company too, my brain is too busy sometimes to take in anything external. I also have to mute the TV when ads are on because my brain just wants to think and then the room feels like its too full of people or something!

I don't just have an inner monologue in my own voice sometimes the monologue is in a different accent...so weird

When ds1 was a baby, I chattered away to him about everything that was going on and for a while my inner monologue was very much in mommy mode. The first time I got away by myself to do some grocery shopping, I attracted an odd look before I realised I needed to switch the monologue back to internal and no one needed to look at those bright yellow bananas or know how yummy they would be mashed up with milk
Thankfully the chirpy mommy has been ousted and the grumpy cynic is back so if I do slip up and say something out loud, it’s not so embarrassing.

OMG!!! This thread is mind blowing - I had no idea others did not have a party going on in their head all day every day. It must be so quiet not to have a constant stream of chat going on in your head? I particularly like it when I have the house to myself so can actually have the chat out loud at the same time as in my head.
I wonder if there is any correlation with being an extrovert/introvert and being happy in your own company. I think I would be find alone for a very long time no problem because I can easily fill the lack of company with my own internal chat. I wonder if those without an internal monologue would find being alone for any length of time more difficult?
I also wonder if upbringing has an impact on whether or not people have an internal monologue eg are those who were left to their own devices in childhood more likely to have an internal monologue compared to those whose parents were much more present/hands on?

My mind’s a bit blown by this.
I hear nothing and see nothing in my mind.

I was a bit sad when I learnt (thanks to mumsnet) that other people could visualise things - I always knew I didn’t really understand what people meant when they said to picture something but never really appreciated that other people really could see pictures. But I’m glad there is no voice!

I do talk to myself when daydreaming. But that’s different. Maybe I talk to myself because there is no voice?

I think in thoughts, which are totally different to pictures or voices.

I wonder if those without an internal monologue would find being alone for any length of time more difficult?
No! I like being alone. I get to think. I really struggle with background noise of voices though, like I can’t differentiate them. Maybe that’s because I’m not used to hearing them?

@partyatthepalace

I do, I think most people do (to various extents) - I’m quite mindblown you don’t - so you don’t verbalise thoughts in your head as a rule?? How do you think about more complex stuff? - or do you switch over then.

I'm like the OP and my first reaction is the opposite - I don't understand how people think about anything complex with all this noise and chatter in their heads and with needing to filter it all through words.

I've always been a really quick thinker - that sounds really boastful but it's not that my thoughts are particularly amazing but that I just seem to be able to think quicker than average (for instance I was always very good at exam essays and amazed at how long other people had to spend planning whereas I could just quickly do it in my head and then start writing) and I wonder whether it's because I don't turn my thoughts into dialogue and sentences, which seems so long-winded to me.

My mind is calm and I can happily zone out and enjoy the peace. Very happy on my own but love to see friends too

Undoubtedly the most fascinating thread in 15 years of MN.

I do the reading thing - I absorb/skim/take in whole paragraphs. My read speed is stupidly fast. I can read aloud whilst thinking about other stuff.

My mind talks in full sentences and even paragraphs too very quickly in a flash. I therefore can plan and structure my life and am very organised. I seem to predict pitfalls with this 'skill'. I find other people frustrating as they work through situations much more slowly.

Whoever said about not being able to visualise with their eyes closed I HAD NO IDEA but I can't either. I can picture anything open but closed is just black.

I don't watch TV anymore. No patience for it with my chatty brain. Always talk radio or loud house repetitive music. I don't sleep well. I get lost in fiction with a whole mind map of the story, characters and locations.

I can't draw.

DS 10 has my mind. Possibly a bit ADHD - can't sit still and I think I was the same as a child. Excellent readers. He is an excellent mental mathematician but I'm not at all.

DD 14 can draw - both from an image and from inside her mind. She is exceptionally talented at this. But she doesn't seem to ever 'think' or 'plan' and is always 20 paces behind DS and I linguistically.

Thank you to so many of you - I'd quote but on phone.

Questions though for the mind talkers - would you say you were traditionally quite clever - in the sense of UK academic schooling ?
Is your mind faster than many other people you meet?

How is your mental maths?
Mental recall for pop songs or film actors?