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.

Ah yes the sheep. Nope, can't see them either. I can Kind of imagine them if I'm awake and eyes open. But I think I'm more describing to myself what they should look like. I think that's the best way to describe it for me.

I read you're more likely to be neurodiverse/ASD if you have an inner monologue.

This is me.

No inner voice and my head is just empty and quiet lol

I have an internal monologue in terms of reading involving an internal voice reading along at the speed of speech, and "must do this next" commentary that happens in my head at times.

I can switch it off whenever I want and then there's silence, or rather a realisation that the white noise hum I hear these days when it's quiet is tinnitus.

It's why I find meditation boring as the "empty your mind" step is instant and then I'm wondering what's supposed to come next.

This astounds me, in order to think a lot of the time I’m talking in my head to myself, how do these non internal monologuers do it?! Are they just in pure silence, so odd !

@thaegumathteth lol yup , I've been told that people actually see things , my daughter and partner can see pictures in their heads . My partner tells me that he can picture our holidays like films when he closes his eyes and my daughter can see places and people she knows .
Try as I might I just can't see anything with my eyes closed 🤷‍♀️ .

@Adviceneeeeded I'm exactly the same , I know what things look like but I can't see them like others do .

This has blown my mind. I honestly didn't think this is what people were growing.

Doing not growing ffs

@thaegumathteth I know what you mean , I only found it out this year through Facebook , I went round asking people what they could see when their eyes were closed lol .

I have no internal monologue. I tend to vocalise my actions.

'Right. Now I have to go and water the plants. Eugh, I hope the slugs haven't eaten them again.' Etc.

My husband always thinks I'm talking to him 😂

That's interesting, I wondered if there was any correlation.

I have ADHD and my mind chatters away most of the time, I actually think it's why I'm good with my own company - I keep myself entertained😄

I've asked quite a few friends and the ones who are diagnosed/suspected neurodiverse all have internal monologues. Most can also visualise things in their mind too.

I can't imagine what it must be like to have a quiet brain, I'm not sure I'd like it!

@PorkPieForStarters I'm autistic without one. Most other autistics I know are without internal monologues too.

Seriously folks are you saying you do not think? So if you sit in silence you don't think to yourself? You just switch off like some weird robot doll?

For me, I don't narrate or everything I'm doing but I might think and hear my own voice in my head saying "OK, I'll just stick the kettle on and I'll empty the dishwasher while that's going", but I don't hear things like "lift up the kettle, take off the lid, turn on the tap, fill the kettle, turn off the tap, put the kettle down, switch the kettle on" etc. Maybe it depends on how familiar a task is to me, I'd say it's more abstract most of the time but sometimes it helps me plan things.

I think some of my thoughts are subconscious, like I don't always know what I'm about to say, but if I've been trying to put my thoughts in order during a conversation, I might have an idea of what's coming. Planning what I'm going to say never works though, I stumble on actually saying it out loud, so I just let it come organically.

Mine is mainly just chatter, really, like having a friend you natter away to. I do hear that at my normal talking speed. Some thoughts, I'm conscious of but don't hear them.

It's so weird and fascinating isn't it, I love that everyone has their own experience!

I've always had multiple layers of thoughts running in my head, but only 1 or 2 strands at a time are in words - and that didn't start to develop until my mid to late teens. Before that they were just 'thinks' - can't really describe them. So arguably before that point I didn't have an inner monologue as such. But I certainly didn't have the 'not thinking' experience some people have described

Never had any level of anxiety, they aren't stressed thoughts most of the time. Just thoughts. Chatter about what I'm doing, pondering the origin of words or steps in evolution, counting, making observations about things around me, writing a poem or an email, remembering bit of history or books or past conversation, planning a DIY project. Can be anything at all. Often I'll get a word-based earworm as well.

The word layer is slower than the thinks, so I have to pause and loop the thinks sometimes while the words catch up if both are dealing with the same thought strand.

Occasionally the words do something a bit unusual. Recently I had Werner Herzog as guest narrator for a couple of days.

Oh that's interesting! Perhaps more linked with ADHD then.

Imagine if having an inner voice was all that was needed for ADHD assessment. It'd cut NHS waiting times dramatically!

@Superlambaanana I think, but my narration is out loud. I don't think 'I'd better empty the dishwasher' I say it, even if no one else is there.

As a PP said my thoughts are abstract not word based. Not sure how else to describe it.

This is me

Love this. Mine are just full blown conversations with myself

Seriously me too

This is something that I often ask myself

I carry around a small toy cat and project one of me onto the cat and then disucss with the cat "Small cat, how many lengths shall we swim today? 20?". Small cat is such a taskmaster and wants 24.

Having read the thread, I don't know if I have one or not!

When I type or read I definitely hear a voice. If I've read a book (I don't do it that often as I get super into it and will read a whole book in a day so don't have time often!) I might find myself narrating my actions in the style of the writer for then next few hours, but not on a daily basis.

At night when I'm trying to sleep is probably when my brain is "noisiest" but this tends to be snippets of conversations that don't really form a narrative (when I was younger I thought it might be my brain processing any conversation I had heard but not listened to iyswim - like in a crowd...) or images - I have to focus to notice them though or they're in the background and I start thinking without realising.

I am a very visual thinker - so if I'm recalling a conversation I get an image of what I was looking at when it happened.

DH says I have an external monologue. I fill silences constantly, I also often hve to explain my train of thought and how one topic leads to another (usually based on images like above IE: "I saw Sally on wednesday" - image of sally wearing a blue jumper when I saw her, followed by "don't forget about my mums too" - because i left a blue t-shirt at hers and I need to collect it, but poor DH can't see my thoughts and has no idea I've left it there or that I need to get it because I want to wear it to an event so I'll then say "what time are we leaving at the weekend by the way". So mentioning seeing Sally has gone through 3 thought transitions by the time I finish a sentence. But I won't have necessarily thought about, and I definitely haven't had a voice making the connection in my head, I've just had images of sally; blue jumper; my mum's living room; a calendar and the destination we are going to (or the people we are going with).

I think in a combination of language and visualization. So usually a monologue plus corresponding imagery. Sometimes I’m thinking about one subject using language and another subject using imagery at the same time. When I read I do both, so I see and hear the dialogue of the characters as I imagine them but the narrative is in my own monologue voice.

The only times they fall silent and I’m just living in the moment, as it were, are when I’m riding, surfing, or encountering a wild animal. But even then my mind is in absolute overdrive, just in a different way. I can remember every single detail and piece of sensory input from those moments, even years later.