To think it's impossible to have no thoughts or internal dialogue?

[IAteAllTheTomatoes]

Is it true that some people have nothing going on in their head? No thoughts, ideas, or internal dialogue?

I'm not being bitchy or talking about intelligence but I just always assumed your brain is thinking or you are silently talking to yourself? Like, will my parcel arrive today? What will I make for dinner later? Something anything? Future plans? Pondering on something in the news etc?

Someone told me yesterday there is nothing in their thoughts, except maybe music, until they are asked a question?

I would love to have no thoughts? It is possible?

I'm explaining this poorly but I suppose what I'm wondering is can people shut down their thinking and if so, how?

The thing I think is mad, is that I often have my internal monologue chattering away - in a voice I can “hear” simultaneously to just thinking in a conceptual way. The power of the human brain really blows me away.

The chatter in my head is constant, but weirdly, I don’t find it exhausting. It’s often soothing for me. There’s nothing I like more than a good chat in my own head…😂 but my internal monologue isn’t negative/ I don’t have intrusive thoughts which must make a difference.

Well, I imagine it's the difference between introspection and living completely in the moment.

Animals obviously have thoughts but the vast majority don't reflect on things I'd imagine.

@RoseslnTheHospital I'm sorry if I caused you any offence. It just seems less efficient as a thinking process to me because I don't think that way but that doesn't mean I think that people with inner monologues are slow thinkers. A process can be more labour intensive without taking any or much more time.

As other posters have mentioned people that read using an inner voice are generally slower as a result than people that just absorb the words. It might be that the people that have inner monologues take in more because they have more time to process it. I'm sure there are pros and cons to both sides in many different ways.

No internal monologue doesn't equal not thinking!

I have no monologue, no voices, no sound and I am far from "stopping thinking" just because I'm not having a conversation in my head doesn't mean I'm not intelligent. Same with "seeing" I have no pictures in my head either, if I close my eyes I just see black.

It took until my 40s to realise other people are different.

I am the same! I have mostly daydreams, long running storylines going on in my head that have no basis in reality, like novels. They take up a lot of my brain's energy - images, music, feelings etc. I can be at work but a part of my brain is still on this, 24/7, in the background.

My thoughts based on reality are usually short and instinctive, like picturing a baked potato for dinner, rather than think a whole sentence about it.

The chatter in my head is constant, but weirdly, I don’t find it exhausting. It’s often soothing for me. There’s nothing I like more than a good chat in my own head…😂 but my internal monologue isn’t negative/ I don’t have intrusive thoughts which must make a difference.

Yes, I find it soothing too. I can't imagine any other way I guess.

I find this so hard to imagine.

So you can turn your brain off completely? What about your senses? How do they not trigger thoughts?

Reading the thread it is very weird to me that some people seem to feel superior about their “way” of doing it! Rather than it just being human difference!

I have an internal monologue @Curseofthenation but I don’t use it to plan out what I say in advance- unless there’s a specific reason to take care in constructing something. Words come out of my mouth without having “heard” them in my brain first. My work is public speaking related and taking is actually an area where I have “flow”. I can read transcripts of what I said after the event and be amazed that all that came out so coherently without me “thinking” any of it.

This is so interesting.
I am an extrovert and very verbal.

But I don't have a constant internal monologue, when I walk the dog for example, for some of the time I am actively thinking. Thinking about a situation, sometimes verbalising that in my head (how would I explain that to that person).
Then for a mile or so I might just be pottering along, looking at trees and clouds and listening to the birds.

I don't 'think things through' before I say them. I don't know how you would do that while the other person is talking. But I do sometimes think about it in advance if I have a difficult conversation coming.

If I am home alone, I tend to have radio/music/tv on. I find it soothing, because provides white noise (although I do actually listen to it)

If there is no radio on, I can be thinking actively (like planning something) or I can be drifting, eg sewing and letting my thoughts wander, and be fuzzy, unclear, which is relaxing.

I would find it exhausting to have a constant monolgue.

But it's not more labour intensive... that's your erroneous impression.

Having an inner monologue doesn't mean that reading is also done with an "internal voice". That's not how I read for example, I "just absorb the words" as words, as you say.

Having an inner monologue doesn't take more time to process things. It's just different.

Sorry to pick on you @Curseofthenation but why do you assume that people with an internal monologue read in it? I certainly don’t. I can but mostly won’t do so.

I wonder how this relates to anxiety?

I have a couple of friends who have anxiety and one of the phrases they use is that they overthink things. With one of them, when encouraging them in something, one comment is always - but what if....

Please don't misunderstand me, I am not saying that inner monologue = anxiety, but I wonder if that is where her - but what if... is coming from, like an inner monolgue that is malfunctioning/switched into overdrive?

I'm always thinking the worst , so maybe my internal monologue isn't a good thing!
I often say something , then might replay it over in my mind too in case I upset that person!

I didn't say all people with an inner monologue use it to read! I said that it had been mentioned in this thread that some people read this way. I think it's time to let this lie, we aren't getting anywhere.

I don't know if I would describe it as a monologue - that implies order.

I have a muddle in my head, and I flit between them.

Did I feed the dog? Why is the floor sticky? Oh God, I didn't send that email. Oooh nice cup of tea. Did I feed the dog? Shall I defrost chicken or sausages? Oh, mustn't forget my Wordle. Need to ask my boss about the insurance letter. Did I remember to reinsure our car. Did I feed the dog. Oooh nice cup of tea.

Some of it is words, my voice in my head. Some of it is pictures, like the Wordle logo.
Some of it is flashes of colour, like the colouring in my dog's coat.

It's more like it flicks between standby mode and thinking.
My senses dont trigger thoughts, ive just looked out of my study window and my view is a huge clematis in full bloom, just saw it, it looks lovely, but it didnt take my brain off standby and into thinking something about it.

After my mother died, something in my head snapped, and Ive always describe it as someone went into the filing cabinets in my brain, rummaged about, and took some files away. So it's comforting to know that someone else sees their brain in the same way.

I cant run film in my head either, I can summon up an image of something or someone, but adding in movement/words is not possible for me. Flash images only.

described*

I rarely see images in my mind - I tend to describe things to myself instead and if I do manage to see an image, it's like a faded photograph seen through a muddy, out of focus lens.

I do talk to myself in my mind but don't have constant dialogue. I have a very quiet mind and can go several hours without thinking anything.

Everyone has thoughts, but not necessarily in words. My thoughts are in more abstract senses and images.

If I wondered when my parcel will arrive, I'd suddenly have the image of the parcel in my mind and a sense of anticipation, but not literally the words "where's my parcel" in my head.

Can't you have thoughts without words??

This is me too. My subconscious hums along in the distant background sorting everything (all thoughts, worries and emotions) out conceptually and words don't even come into it until I need to communicate with someone else through speech or writing. Occasionally an unfinished concern pops into my main brain and I either communicate about it to someone else or send it back to my subconscious to get better organised. My role at work is all about communication!

This is so interesting. I don’t have a monologue running in my head. I have thoughts like I have to print that later then it goes but nothing in between. I also as another poster have nothing when I close my eyes just darkness. If I try to imagine a flower I do t get a picture I just know what a flower looks like. I also don’t remember my life prior to 15 either, it’s so weird. I would love to have a photographic memory though.

If someone tells me to meet somewhere I know well , I'll immediately picture the building in my head!

No voice or pictures here either. Like pp my brain gives me thoughts/concepts and I love thinking about things but I also find it relatively easy to clear my mind during yoga etc. I have a friend who says he has a literal voice chattering all the time in her head which sounds totally awful to me!

I use podcasts to drown out my own thoughts.

I'm often having heated discussions with other people in my head.