It was recently brought to my attention that most people don’t. I find that…literally impossible to believe.
So, do you have an inner monologue? Do you talk to yourself? Do you get lost for hours in your imagination? Just spend time thinking? When you read, is there a voice that reads the things or do you just…see the words or something.
It's more of a never ending dialogue between myself and also myself
for me, my inner voice does go into the “background” If I’m doing something etc. otherwise I essentially talk “at” myself. It’s sometimes arguing between two selves but usually just one self (me) talking and thinking and deciding etc.
Yeah “monologue” isn’t quite right, there’s definitely a back and forth but both of them are me.
No I have no inner monologue. My thoughts take the form of incorporeal ideas rather than a run-on concrete sentence
Do you ever become aware of your voice and get annoyed by it? Like manually breathing or something
I’m always aware of my inner voice. It’s how I interpret the world, analyse stuff, think etc. But sometimes it goes into the “background” like if I’m engrossed in a show or a book or talking to someone.
Now I'm suddenly wondering if there's any correlation between thinking in words vs. ideas/pictures and being able to rotate 3D objects in your brain
…what
Like, can some people not rotate 3D objects? Lol. I have trouble with 4D objects but 3D is basic.
i used to be much better at it but over time my ability to hold images of any kind in my head has broken down as my working memory has degraded. faces of friends are amorphous and nondescript - more placeholders for the idea of a face than an actual detailed image whereas i used to be able to visualize in extreme detail.
i've had pretty bad cognitive decline over the years via depressive pseudodementia/lack of stimulation and my memory got particularly fucked up after i had electroconvulsive therapy so i'd imagine that's why
that being said i have a very strong inner monologue that i know i at least partially consciously developed as a way to cope with isolation and loneliness - i would talk to myself and narrate what i was doing or thinking because i rarely if ever talked to anyone else. as a child i thought more directly in concepts and images instead of words.
I have periodic dissociative states that will happen maybe once a year for 5-10 minutes and during that period I can't visualize objects with proper proportions, like if I imagine a person their hands or legs will be comically oversized. It's apparently a known phenomenon that a teacher brought up once but it's happened to me since I was small.
I've had one of those! I'd see my partner as if they were really far away, then blink and feel like they were right at my face, plus other crazy stuff - time was choppy, couldn't get oriented spacially, etc . Felt like I was stuck in a shitty short film from a kid that didn't know how to edit, light or operate the camera. It lasted a whole morning
Who knows, maybe some people have 2003 era intel extreme graphics crammed into their brains.
I can't render visuals at all. I do see things when I'm dreaming and when I'm drifting off to sleep, but otherwise when I close my eyes it's just black. It's more like my brain stores a bunch of interconnected information about an object - thoughts, feelings and memories associated with it - that could be generated into an image if run through the right interpreter. I still sort of know what an object looks like, though, and I work as a graphic designer for a living.
So how does a normal day work for you? When you’re hungry, do you feel the hunger pangs, and mentally say “I’m hungry, I should eat.” And then think (in words and sentences) of the different things to make or to order food or buy it etc? And after that conversation you decide what to do?
No I feel the hunger pangs and I imagine myself eating or making a sandwich (or whatever), and that propels me to action
So what is your experience with reading like? And if you're typing out a comment on this thread, do you think of what you're going to say beforehand, or do the words just appear on the screen without conscience thought?
Reading is kind of like what that other commenter in the thread said about "observing the meaning of words as if they were logograms". Maybe if a character is speaking I'll give them a voice in my head but when nobody is talking I'm busy trying to construct the scene with the description the author gives me.
As for typing a comment, that's kind of like speaking, so I need to have a voice in my head that's telling me what I want to say.
As for typing a comment, that’s kind of like speaking, so I need to have a voice in my head that’s telling me what I want to say
That sounds kind of like an internal monologue
Do you ever think in words or sentences? When does it happen?
Sure, perhaps when I'm trying to process a difficult sentence or something similar to that I can think in words and sentences. But that's not what my brain defaults to.
How do you work through complicated instructions/processes? I have to walk myself through it as if I were reading the instructions to someone else, whether it's an inner monologue or out loud
The first "complicated process" that comes to mind is an algebra problem, and for things like that I often visualize what needs to happen. For example if a number needs to be subtracted to go on the other side I picture the number physically moving to the other side of the equation in my brain
I sure do. I can even modulate it to sound like various people, as I mentioned in the Disco Elysium related thread I made.
I'm actually intrigued by people that don't do that, because that means that you think without that "noise" inside, which I can't even fathom.
I don't really have an off-switch for my internal monologue and that can be bad sometimes.
The only way I can go to sleep is if I’m dead tired and don’t even have the energy to think. Just hit the bed and start snoring.
I have an outer monologue. If you can't talk to yourself who can you talk to?
I know I make different physical expressions when I’m talking to myself lol. I imagine people get unnerved by that.
My inner monologue frequently becomes an outter monologue. Especially if no one is around.
I have one, it's pretty great. I can also picture things in my head fairly vividly as well. The inner monologue is my voice but I can change it if I think about it, but if I lose focus then it'll go back to my voice. Also when I'm really sleep depraved I hear my name being called by lots of voices, also the sound of the McDonalds deep fryer beeping
Oh yeah, I can change it if I try but it always sounds fake.
Did you used to work at McDiks?
I sure did, the overnights too so I'd get home between 3 and 7am and go to sleep with that damn beeping playing non-stop in my head
There are people that don’t? That’s baffling. Do they just not have thoughts lol
Yeah I did read that the inner monologue is associated with depression and stuff. You could try Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.
I have never once looked at anyone and thought the way they bought soda is weird. You're definitely fine
The voice when you read is bad for you. Its called subvocalization and sets the limit to your reading speed. Try to get rid of it and absorve the meaning of the words as if they were logograms.
Reading faster isn't always better. Some of the fastest readers I've met only absorbed what they read on a blue curtains level.
I agree. And there are many things you shouldnt read too fast or for very long like some textbooks. But subvocalization would stll be a bad habit for regular reading.
Yeah, and an external monologue too sometimes lol
What's weird is I "hear" the words as I'm thinking or reading them, but I can't pin an actual voice on it. Internal monologue has my own mannerisms but no actual "sound." It's like there's some of the same neurons firing as if I'd heard the words, but since there's no actual audio coming in it just kinda parses as a silent voice?
YES. I can “shout” in my inner voice and it’s the same “volume” as just whispering or speaking normally in my inner voice. It trips me out.
Mine literally never shuts up, and sometimes I end up mumbling/talking to myself because of it.
Same lol I have to be careful when I’m in public or else they’ll think I’m k-razy
Hahaha I get called out by my husband all the time. I have full blown arguments between my inner monologue and some made up person with shitty politics all the time. Apparently I have a look or expression when I'm doing it.
But on the flip side, I can articulate my opinions really well. When someone wants to argue, I'm usually really prepared to defend myself because I've already had that argument. In my head. Weeks ago.
I know the exact look you're talking about because I make it all the time. I can't have political discussions with normies anymore because I've rehearsed them all to death in my head.
I don't have a monologue so much as a dialogue. Especially when it comes to parsing new ideas or resolving internal conflicts, it's necessary for me to give voice to multiple perspectives and talk it over like a conversation. Generally they can either operate together, fusing into one perspective, or take turns, but any time I feel conflicted about something I conceptualize it as a relationship disagreement between the two voices. I think lots of people do this but maybe not to the same extent, for me, they are distinct personalities.
I don't think any voice in my head is like a real voice, I couldn't describe them specifically and I would never hear a voice and think it sounds like an internal voice, it's more like there's the content of what they're saying and then a vibe attached to it. Kinda like old school RPGs where there's the text and then a sound effect at a certain pitch to represent the voice, it doesn't sound like that exactly because there are words, but it's similar in that it's not as detailed as a real voice.
Edit: I just realized that I can actually "hear" Sans Undertale saying "You're gonna have a bad time" in my head, based on the sound effect when he talks, but I couldn't articulate it and if I heard audio of it I think it'd sound different/weird.
You should look into the "internal family systems" theory in psychology. This is basically the underlying premise.
It’s possible lol. I’m already talking to myself all the time! I can’t deal with anyone else!
Well, for me it’s more like talk at myself. Just one voice in here.
Yes I talk to myself but try to separate the thoughts into different entities. One of them is more rational and objective which pisses me off because I just want to be miserable without being criticized
I have a really strong inner monologue, it's like having someone else read every thought I have through a set of bone induction headphones. It sounds different than my actual voice too, more of a GAE or Great Lakes accent and it takes on a very similar cadence to NileRed or Chinese Cooking Demystified on YT whenever I'm reading instructions/following a process. No clue where it got those traits from, seeing as I've never lived near that the great lakes and the only other accent I picked up as a kid was a strong Canadian one.
My inner voice is how I think I sound like. It’s so what I’m used to that when I record myself or hear myself in a recording I have to mentally prepare myself. I hate my actual voice and wish my inner voice was the real one.
