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.

I’ve just had this conversation with DH and he describes it just the same as you, that he absorbs the words but doesn’t sound them. He said that he thinks in pictures, whereas my thoughts are in language. My mind is completely blown! It’s amazing how different we all are.

Ah I can't remember what this is called but I studied it in my psychology degree. It does have a name!

Oh wow, my mind is BLOWN. I didn’t even realise an internal monologue was a thing!! I don’t have one.

Similarly to @SquitMcJit, I absorb the words but don’t necessarily hear them. I know their meaning in my head but there’s no-one narrating this. Writing is also a significant part of my job and I just know when words flow and when they don’t. I can make a voice in my head to read it back, but it doesn’t happen subconsciously. Often I use Word’s Read Aloud function to hear it being read back to me.

If I remember it’s bin night and I need to put the bins out, I see a picture of the bins and have an internal understanding to remember to put the bins out later.

There is absolutely no narrative going on in my mind at other times. The idea that this is normal to everyone is absolutely mind blowing. To me, that just sounds overwhelmingly chaotic.

This is so interesting!

I cane across this stat a few years ago.

It’s not about reading in your head. It’s about having an inner voice that has a life of its own.

If you are sitting in silence, with nothing. Your eyes closed. Do you end up having a conversation in your head or do you hear absolutely nothing?

I wish my inner voice could be quiet sometimes. I always wondered if it was my conscious- then realised I just overthink.

Thank you for articulating so perfectly what I experience!
I’m fascinated by the idea that some people have an internal monologue because I just don’t have that, and like @StamppotAndGravy describes when I read it’s just sort of absorbed somehow. There’s certainly no voice and i’m an avid reader.

I hear absolutely nothing, and in fact if I was to sit like that with my eyes shut and didn’t nod off then it’s like my thoughts switch off all together…..but I become hyper aware of my surroundings and physical being. Like I can’t go into myself….I sort of go out!

I’m not sure it automatically correlates with mental illness. I have always had an inner monologue and haven’t ever had anxiety or depression. It’s just something that’s always been there.

To be honest it never crossed my mind that anyone didn’t have it until now.

Come to think of it some people definitely think more in pictures than words.

My dd & dh have one, dd has anxiety, dh has adhd.
I don't and neither does ds (according to dd we're the mentally stable family members!)

@SquitMcJit
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.

@StamppotAndGravy 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.

@Anonym00se I’ve just had this conversation with DH and he describes it just the same as you, that he absorbs the words but doesn’t sound them. He said that he thinks in pictures,

@SquitMcJit When I read I’m reading really fast ............ 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 just know when words flow and when they don’t. I can make a voice in my head to read it back, but it doesn’t happen subconsciously.

@ForSale2024 If I remember it’s bin night and I need to put the bins out, I see a picture of the bins and have an internal understanding to remember to put the bins out later.

yes, yes and yes - all of these! You've all put into words what I've always felt, but just didn't have the words to describe

What an interesting discussion, thank you! @Barrol

(edited to include PP names)

So, if you are someone who does not have an internal monologue - are you really good at listening?

For example, when I'm listening to people talking on the radio, my mind wanders off on a train of thought about what they are saying and I sometimes wish I could rewind and hear what I've missed.
I'm guessing that people with no internal monologue don't miss anything as their mind never wanders?

Do people with no internal monologue never daydream? or think about what they're going to say on their way to an interview / the doctors / to visit a friend in hospital / to a break up chat with a partner etc?

I can't imagine not practising these situations before I arrive at them.

Isn’t an internal monologue simply thinking?

This whole thread is blowing my mind. I genuinely can’t figure out if I have one or not.

When I read or write I’m thinking the words in my head but not in my voice, or any voice. They’re just there.

This is how I read too and I’m a quick reader.

So if you were in a white quiet room with no stimulus what would be happening internally? This is very interesting to me! I can’t imagine it.

@MBappse 🤣🤣

@Em308 Isn’t an internal monologue simply thinking?

Possibly so ...........but it's fascinating to see all the different ways there are of 'simply thinking'

It's interesting that an internal monologue is not necessarily an advantage, you would think it would be, but it seems like there are some clear advantages to not having one.

Right?! The whole voice do hear when you read kind of has me stymied … I don’t really read in any voice, I just sort of immerse my mind into what I’m reading. Couldn’t describe it if I tried.

There is an exception, if I read book that I’ve previously listened to the audio version, I will read in all the characters voices from the narrator.

Daily though I do have an inner dialogue that is going on in the background along with random songs that can switch between tv theme songs, children’s songs, and heavy metal.

I think the real challenge is that when you try to think about it it, you can’t. It’s the equivalent of describing the full process of breathing, You just do it naturally.

For me, I still have thoughts but there’s no conversation in my head. I’m so confused, is it like having a little person on your shoulder talking to you? 😂

I speak you myself out loud probably more often than is normal.

I do all of those things you’ve just said, but I don’t ’hear’ it in a narrative in mine or anyone else’s voices. It’s more of a feeling / internal understanding of a train of thought.

I can make myself hear a narrative in my head, for example practicing for interviews. But that always feels forced and less natural.

This is all fascinating to me as an inner verbal diarrhoea-er.
So @Shoopstoop in a white quiet room what would be happening in your head? Peace and quiet? I cannot imagine not thinking anything - it's probably lovely but it sounds a bit scary tbh!

I have no internal monologue and have aphantasia. Thoughts are just totally abstract, neither words nor pictures, they’re just… thoughts (to me! Obviously it’s all I’ve ever known).

My mind is racing all the time and I am medicated for anxiety. But as I don’t think in words, it manifests as a general panicked feeling and being unable to relax.

I too read by absorbing full sentences or paragraphs at a time, extremely fast. I can reread books quite happily because they don’t really sink in properly, though I still enjoy them. Non fiction books aren’t as easy to read because I can’t really do that.

If you read with your voice in your head, do you have to read at the same speed as you talk? Surely otherwise it would sound very strange? I can’t imagine reading that slowly, I would hate it 😂

My internal monologue is a way of slowing thoughts down so I can catch hold of them. When I was younger I used to find it really annoying that to truly think a thought I had to think it into words before it made sense. I spent years trying to work out if I could short cut the process and just take the raw thought, to speed thinks up a bit and have more time available for more thoughts, but it never works.

How mine works is that all the voices argue until the real thought actually gets spoken in my head in proper words.

If I’m “practising for a conversation” in my head it’s different as then both sides of the conversation come all the way to a single thought first. Sometimes I forget whether I’ve had the real conversation with the person I’m planning to talk to (and the conversation never goes to plan).

My monologue never turns off, I assume that’s what comes out when I sleep talk!

Before reading this thread I’d never even considered that some people might not have the monologue at all, I assumed people would have them at different speeds and levels of useful, but silence would be weird (deafening!).

I'm glad others are wondering about this.

I am totally bemused by the idea of constant chatter or constant conversations in your head. But I do have thoughts. But just a normal amount I think. I'm not sure now. I don't know how I read and whether it is pictures or words. It just happens.

I'm assuming if I had a very prominent inner voice I'd know about it?

I’d be thinking, but I wouldn’t hear the thoughts as words, more feel the gist of them. Or like a PP described as thoughts surfacing like bubbles. The exception would be if I’m actually thinking about verbalising something like rehearsing a conversation, or rehashing a conversation, which will still happen a lot. I’m a terrible insomniac, but not highly anxious, and am kept awake by thoughts that won’t shut off, but I’m not necessarily experiencing them as a monologue.