AIBU to ask whether constant mental chatter is normal?

[blubberball]

To ask is your brain like this all the time? Is this normal? With a couple of songs playing in the background as well

https://youtube.com/shorts/jewuMZEX3jQ?si=4Dg3vBnUQt7LhTi1

I know the video says ADHD brain, but what about neuro typical brains? Is this just life and what having a brain is?

Yep. It's constant. Before bed it's worse as nothing else to concentrate on. Isn't that literally the point of meditation? To quiet the inner voice?

I also have OCD ruminations to contend with as well-fun times!

No. My mind is quiet. Very little going on up there! Never get any music, pictures just popping up.

Also, if i close my eyes and try to imaging a red apple, the sea or a face (or anything else) I cant see it. Nothing.

Constant conversation in mine, quite often arguments, I'm NT as far as I know.
My dm often sees my lips moving and asks me who I'm talking to

I don't really understand what the difference is between normal and ADHD, if most people have these racing thoughts and it's normal. Is it just that some people can deal with it and some can't?

Yeah pretty normal

Yes. I do have ADHD. If you’d asked me 2 years
ago if i have ADHD, I would have said ‘definitely not’. (DC2 got diagnosed and offered me an an appointment with a very short wait because I think she could see I was an obvious case and needed help).

I have a constant stream of thought with music. Sometimes the music is so loud it is actually distressing. Awaiting ADHD and autism assessment. One of my guides was medicated recently and told me it was so quiet in her head that she completed her work 3 hours quicker. The struggle is real.

Yes I talk to myself almost all the time “at rest”. I very often wake up with a song in my head. I don’t have adhd I don’t think, but I do have some traits so maybe this is just one of them. It got noticeably better when I gave up gluten which wasn’t the reason I gave it up, but was a welcome side effect.

Yes. I can be watching TV, in a meeting etc then realise I have no idea what's been said for a couple of minutes as my brain has been running non-stop.
I have to work with music on to try and keep my thoughts on track. I hate silence.

Mine is like this
I describe it as having too many tabs open
Its always words and music, never images
Negative for ADHD but I have CPTSD, ,there are some overlapping symptoms!

I've got adhd, it's not just constant chatter for me or a song playing on loop it's like I've got 50 tabs in my brain open and it rapidly cycles through them relentlessly. If I try to concentrate on something it's difficult as my brain will quickly drift away to the chatter. If I'm having a conversation with someone and they've been talking awhile il realise I've drifted away to my own thoughts and have no idea what they just said. Or if it's an engaging convo my brain will quickly think of something relatable that's happened to me and I have to bite my tongue to stop myself butting in.

Yes, my head is normally like this, and when I’m depressed the noise gets nasty. But when I’m really depressed it gets quiet and that’s when I know I’m in trouble.

I am NT.

Oh God yeah I’m always talking to myself 🤦🏻‍♀️ I wear my headphones out and about so people think I’m on a call.

I have a constant inner monologue which I think is normal, but not ‘chatter’. That short clip makes it look exhausting.

After saying I havent had a song in my head on waking for many months now, which is unusual for me, I wake up this morning and Ive got a bloody Michael Jackson song sitting there on replay.

V annoying. Its not even one of his best or that I like (thats quite common, I couldnt tell you hafl the time where the song comes from or who its by and I dont always like them or the artitst) but also I am no longer a fan after all the stuff about him has come to light.

You know when you're told to picture something, I can't do that (for example, during a minor medical procedure they suggest picturing a nice beach, etc)

I have constant mental chatter, my own voice rehearsing or repeating conversations, songs, memories, but my DH doesn't. He claims he only thinks about things when he wants to think about something, the rest of the time is quiet/blank. He also doesn't dream in images (mine are kind of like a film, I can remember sequences from them visually like I've seen them, whereas he claims he doesn't "see" anything). I think he's more unusual than me!

I only recently learned some people don’t have this (including dh) but it’s a normal way of processing and not unique to nd world. No autism or adhd here. It is more common in women.

sil can’t visualise anything, gets no images when reading. I find that bizarre.

I have ADHD and this is a thing. But it's not exclusively to ND people.

There was some articles in the last couple of years that discovered some people did not have an inner/ internal monologue. Google it, it's a thing but not necessarily an ND thing.

Mine is constantly on.

Yeah same with my DH. Says he just sees the words, whereas I see everything in detail like a film and my mind fills in whatever details aren't specified. Sounds really boring tbh so I'm glad to have the imaginative brain I have, even if the chatter can be annoying sometimes!

I once read a book and years later I was adamant it was a film because I could see the film… nope, that was the images my imagination created. I love it. The committee meetings are annoying but do help me work through stuff.

Yes, my mind is full of conversations, images and thoughts, with occasional songs mixed in. I don't have ADHD. It can be distracting, fortunately I have gotten rid of the dark, self-accustory type of thoughts which were miserable.

Thank you for changing my song, there's been far too much Disney in my head lately!

I have constant chatter and constant music

I also have spatial sequence synesthesia!

I don't have ADHD