How can I tell if I have an internal monologue?

[Barrol]

I learned recently from my teen that ~ 30 to 50% of people don't have an “inner voice.”

I’m sure I do. As I type I hear my voice in my head. But am I just assuming I can? I’m confused. So maybe I am in the minority of people who don’t have an inner monologue. When I read I say it a loud in my head I think.

Please can anyone familiar with this topic elaborate.

When I take my ADHD stimulant medication it makes my mind quieter and I feel calmer, it's
reduced anxiety and moods more stable. I still have an internal monologue but not so much a box of bees with fewer negative thoughts.

I'm likely also autistic and often it feels like 2 people having a tug of war in my brain as want opposing things. I can't imagine not having one though, be too quiet.

Silly question to those who don’t have an internal voice: When you’re reading, do you not hear your own voice saying the words in your head? How can you think without words?

This is really fascinating! I thought that everyone heard their own voice in their head. I can’t imagine what ‘thoughts’ are without it.

Oh I've always wondered about this too. I've constantly got internal chatter going on as well as whatever song is my current earworm. One thing I do a lot is repearedly go over conversations or rehearse future conversations. I'm quite a worrier and something that I worry about is saying the wrong thing. I often wonder what a healthy inner monologue sounds like - mine definitely isn't!

This describes me too!

That totally blows my mind! My internal voice never stops. I am an insomniac because of its constant chatter. Sometimes there is more than one voice alongside a soundtrack. Trying to meditate leads to great adventures going off in my head - you know, picturing the calm place, gentle rain music and then a t-Rex arrives ....

This is mind blowing!
I have a constant internal monologue going on. Only stops when I sleep.

I have an internal monologue, I think. I don't actively hear it but I can feel the words in my being. Edited to add: I definitely think in words.

I don't have anxiety. I was a prolific reader as a child and am relatively prolific now.

Unless I'm detail reading I don't hear everything I read in my head though, because that slows me right down when I do that. I just sort of absorb it a paragraph or sentence at a time.

I hear a narrator when I read. My late husband didn't - he told me that he "saw" a technicolor film.

i thought everyone did this!! (repeating conversations or rehearsing future ones). And the chatter! Blimey. I had no idea until I read this thread that this wasn’t 100% of people. The things I learn!

Thank you to OP for highlighting the difference in all of us :)

I wish my inner voice would shut up.

I have adhd so without my medication I have about five internal monologues (is that grammatically possible?) at once. Absolutely cannot imagine not having any at all!

I only do this if I'm stressed or worrying. Otherwise I don't have a monologue. Thoughts just surface, like bubbles. Often there are multiple there at once but they only take shape when I focus. Like fish in a pond. I wave my hands a lot when I talk and feel like the shapes and feel come faster than the words.

I hear words when I type, but not when I read. They just go straight to thoughts. The same is true in my second language, but not in my third and fourth languages which aren't as strong. I have to concentrate on the words individually and they don't go straight to thoughts. I only learnt the extra languages as an adult, so I'm not bilingual, but having a wide vocab in English, plus now a couple of other languages, means that no thought or concept has been associated with a single word since I was little.

This is why I constantly have an AirPod in my ear playing podcasts to stop all the chatter

Pretty much the only time I don’t have one in is when I’m washing my hair

I do have an inner monologue . It’s sometimes quieter than other times. I reason things out verbally in my head. I don’t think I’m excessively anxious at present but the inner monologue is there whether I’m anxious about things or not.

Ditto. It’s just chatting away all the time. I’m starting to hate it generally but it’s a nightmare and the cause of my insomnia since I was a teen.

but if it shuts down completely, that’s normally a bad sign. I don’t understand how it all works.

I'm not sure, I think I'm somewhere in between.

When I read/write I hear a voice in my head as if I was reading aloud, and sometimes when I'm rehearing or rehashing a conversation.

But the majority of the time my brain is quiet of voices. Thoughts of things I have to do will pop up, but there's no internal debate or competing voices as people describe here.

I have an internal monologue, and definitely think in words (I have aphantasia and so cannot think in pictures even if I try my hardest). But I can turn it off, it’s essentially the same as speaking - I can do it or not do it.

No anxiety and generally quite good at coping with stress and pressure.

I don’t have an inner monologue and didn’t realise for a long time that others do. I’m thinking lots of random things all the time, but I don’t hear a voice narrating anything.

When I read I’m reading really fast (I didn’t realise that until someone tested me and said I couldn’t be reading and taking it in). I just sort of absorb the words - if I consciously think about it and slow down and sound it out then it’s very slow and not as enjoyable.

I write in my work and again don’t hear a voice sounding it out. I’m a natural proof-reader and my eye can just see things in the page (I will now obviously have made loads of mistakes in this post after saying that…)

Mine never stops from morning to night. Ever.
I talk myself to sleep every night. It's exhausting to be honest!

That’s a really good way of describing it for me too - when I’m reading, the words go straight to thoughts, I’m not hearing or sounding out the individual words like hearing an audiobook.

I have ADHD and three types of internal monologues going on all the time

1. Constant reminders to myself to do stuff because I will forget, I often sing it so I remember
2. Constant thought process of everything going on around me, what I see, what's next etc interspersed with snatches of music when I hear phrases that remind me of songs
3. role playing conversations that need to be had but haven't happened yet

When I wear noise cancelling AirPods but with no music etc on them, all the above reduce massively

I do this! Now I write it down in the notes on my phone then delete it a day later.
It stops me going over and over it in my mind so it ends. I do it for both past and future conversations

This is so interesting!

That actually sounds really lovely. Like having a constant buddy!

Interesting, I was wondering whether anyone else did this! I have one in constantly, with a podcast or book going. I stop it to have direct conversations, that’s about it.

I just cannot begin to imagine what it’s like to not have an internal monologue. Interesting point about meditation - I wonder whether people with or without one are more successful!