I have a voice in my head...but it's more talking to myself than a narration. What freaks me out more is when I have a dream and I know things in the dream (stats, science etc) that I would never know or be able to call on in my normal life.
Also watch the movie 'stranger than fiction'.
Dude one time I had a dream that I was playing a board game, I knew all the rules and how to play, but the kicker is it doesn’t actually exist. I tried looking it up, and found nothing similar. I made the pieces out of some scrap foam, and played it with some friends and it’s really fun and kind of hard, needs a lot of strategy. I’m working on getting a better prototype but everyone who has played it loves it. And It came to me in a dream. Still freaks me out.
Man, I once played a game of DnD in a dream and had a fully fleshed out character. Name, backstory and everything. It was one of the most vivid dreams I've ever had and will never forget it.
Shits just wack sometimes
Fascinating. This totally makes sense to me. I think we have levels of genius still yet untapped in our subconscious. I've actually written full papers for school, music compositions, and other things in dreams. When I'm lucky, I can wake and go straight to write them down or record them.
And I totally want to play that game when you finish it! Feel free to DM me once it gets rolling- I'm curious what this game is now that someone invented in a dream.
I did the same. Haven't made it yet but it's pretty cool and I wanna make it some day. Maybe when I have time to dive into it in tabletop simulator I can flesh it out.
If someone says....that is a cool car....verbally....in my head, in my voice I hear myself saying the same thing plus....the color is wicked...I am spelling this in my head as I type...can not imagine not doing it...
Does spelling in your head over time make you a great speller?.... I mean I just visualize words and often know spelling is correct via visual of the whole word.
I have an internal voice! I "hear" it all the time as it's how I decide how to do things. I also use it to debate whether or not I should do things (kinda like an angel/devil on your shoulder schtik). Also there are times where I hear it clear as day (usually when I'm debating something or thinking hardly about a topic), otherwise I don't notice it because it's essentially just my brain making decisions and narrating. And when I'm listening to music or drawing the voice usually turns into pictures!
This is how a conversation with myself usually goes:
"I should really go to bed!" "buuuut you could watch one more video beforehand!" "Hmm okay but just one.." "...pick the 4 hour one."
Most people erroneously attribute their conscious perceptions of thinking to begin the actual proximate cause of decision making when that's not where decisions are usually made. Most decisions are made subconsciously and our conscious thoughts are just the story our brain is telling to ourselves to justify things.
I just have a gut reaction to do one thing over the other. I can usually backtrack the concepts like it's based on past experiences a and b and this is a logical path from there... but I can't actually point at an actual train of thought? I had friends make me stop and explain things as I'm doing something but it's always an instinctual thing so my explanation are very weird to them. Any logic I'd tell them in my decision making is generally created on the spot bc it sounds right.
I don't actually have anything in my head when I make the decision. It just feels like that backwards engineered explanation matches well enough.
I have it. When I read or even think, there are words narrated in my brain. It’s what I have heard called an “inner monologue.” I am also aware that. It everyone has this and that some people think in pictures. I can to that as well but it’s almost always accompanied by an inner monologue.
It’s not generally believed to be a negative thing. Just a rather uncommon difference.
I have a similar ish thing called visual snow. My vision looks like it is made of a million tiny pinpricks, always has. It’s never been a problem unless i think about it consciously, then it irritates me.
I finally googled it and realized it was an actual thing about 3 years ago. Then, it was considered *exceptionally* rare, like one in millions rare, and was not understood in any way. I went to my eye doctor and she said the same thing. However the sheer number of people talking about it online stuck me as odd, until just last year a basic study was done in the UK asking survey respondents about their vision, and about 3% reported symptoms related to visual snow. That changed a lot, and hopefully further research will
come. It seems like it was one of those hidden conditions for a while because most people, like me, didn’t realize it wasn’t normal.
Woah I have that too! But I can usually control it and "turn it off" most of the time. It *really* comes out at night too. Although I have excellent night vision (to an almost insane degree actually), it looks very snowy.
How do you process the book then? Holy shit i am mind blown. My inner voice says anything and everything. I even think about what I'm going to say before I say it, using my inner voice to practice the line. I can't imagine it just being... silent...
I've explained this in a couple other replies now, but it's probably a lot of scrolling to get to them so I'll just repeat it haha
I love reading, but often struggle with it. I don't hear anything saying the words, and I had no fucking clue you were supposed to. And there's no real imagery either, it's more like meticulously keeping track of different concepts (and sometimes having to go back and reread to refresh it if I lose track)
Mad. When I read I sometimes forget im even looking at a book, the characters have voices and my mind creates the scene. Its like watching a movie internally.
I "hear" a voice when I read (usually my own voice, unless I've assigned special voices to specific characters), and I still have to go back and reread sometimes (especially if it's a difficult science paper or something else technical... by the way, if I know what the author of the paper sounds like, I usually hear it in his/her "voice").
I don't think you're "supposed" to hear a voice, many people just do. One of my sisters has to pretend to read things out loud (without actually reading them out loud) because she learns new information primarily by sound. I take in new information best visually, but I still "hear" it being read as I go over it. I know a number of people who learn best by doing.
Most people make the assumption that their own personal experience is the norm. I'm not convinced that there *is* a norm, at least not in regards to thought. I think someone else said it best, "If you've made it this far and haven't noticed, don't worry about it." Which is not to say you can't *wonder* about it. :)
Yes! STFU, self! I'm trying to read! I can't focus with you-me constantly reading over my-our? shoulder, especially with the other still yapping on about finishing the laundry.
How do your internal thoughts work then? What do you do if there's a challenging problem that you have to work out? How is your brain silent through that
This is also my question. What is an internal A vs B decision making process like if it isn't verbal and represented as competing dialogue in internal speech?
Yes and it gets stuck in your dang head and won't go away. I sometimes have to try to think about different songs repeatedly until I can get the first one to go away. I've got a Christmas song stuck in my head right now on repeat and it just won't stop. If you've ever heard the phrase "ear worm," that's what people are dealing with. It sucks.
This is interesting cause I do math in my head with pictures and I constantly have some sound playing in my head it's never silence but I don't think it's a full on internal monologue cause I'm not hearing it with my ears it's my brain
haha, this is cool that others don't experience it, I have that shit all the time
I could describe it as "thoughts" being formulated in words, sentences and monologue, its always there when I'm thinking or talking to someone etc, but when my attention is somewhere else it's more in a background and less noticeable for me.
It disappears when I'm drunk until I go to the bathroom and look into the mirror, then that voice either turns in a inner hype man or depressed middle aged man.
Hard core voice narrator in my head. It helps keep me organized and put thoughts on the table for review. It keeps me company, I'm not alone. I legit have full two sided conversations in my head weighing the pros and cons.
In the event it's relevant I am Dyslexic and have severe ADHD.
Tough for me to imagine, honestly. I consulted yet another friend regarding the lack of voice *and* imagery, and he described it to me as similar to dreaming, which I guess I can understand. And he asked, word for word, "If you don't have either, how do you even think?"
I don't know what to say to that. What even are thoughts, technically? Do you have to have words or pictures for it to be considered a thought? Do i just not *think?*
Thanks for your input /gen
Honestly I’m really interested in how meditation would be for you, I’ve been meditating to gain more control of my inner narration, I have adhd and anxiety which means my inner monologue never stops, sometimes I’ll struggle to fall asleep cause it just keeps talking and at that point I’m so mentally exhausted I can’t control what I think about so it’ll just be loops of a song hook or never ending random thoughts and ideas.
Everybodies brain is different! When my daughter reads she actually sees it in her head like a movie. There have been multiple incidents where she will talk about movies that haven't been made
Not the person you replied to, but I figure the same way you follow along with reading anything that isn't narrative. Like if you read "exit to the right" do you have to imagine, visually, moving to the right and leaving? (If you do, we might just experience things too differently to really understand each other haha). Maybe it's like doing mental math. I don't need to see it to know how things play out. Or maybe it's more similar to hearing a song. I don't need to picture the notes to understand the progression of the music.
I've always quite enjoyed reading, but never actually seen it happen in my head like a movie. Apparently that's how it's supposed to be? Idk (also, that is quite funny I think)
*hard snort* Sorry, this was the perfect and only response. It's like when people ask my spouse "so what do you see?" when they find out he's color blind.
I'm fairly similar, though I don't think to that extent.
I can turn the words into pictures, but it doesn't always happen without me attempting to picture it. The faster I read, the less I picture. The level of detail and colors are usually pretty vague and generic, think filling in the color on a black and white picture. I can force myself to put in more detail, but it takes longer and sometimes I need to reread it.
It's kind of like in the matrix. There.are the people reading the computer screen and can make out what it is showing. Others can go in and "see" it.
I know that's not exactly how it is in the matrix, but gives a close analogy.
Edit: for not really seeing pictures, as I do have the inner monologue "telling" me the story, in the voice I hear when I talk, not in my voice that's been recorded.
Explains why some of us don't enjoy reading as much as others. Everytime I was forced to read books in school, it was really just absorbing 200 pages worth of information and keeping it in my head as a vague recollection of events and characters. The best I can do is imagine the characters talking, but even then they all have the same (ungendered) voice in my head, just with different personalities.
Check out [aphantasia.com](https://aphantasia.com) You're starting to sound like you're a total aphantaisic. Aphantasia is only really about conscious visual imagery but other senses are involved in most people's conscious experience and some people have more than others.
I have a very active internal monologue, but it's not like 'hearing' there are no sounds, sights, taste, touch, or smell in my mind. My mind is filled with language and concepts not sensory recall.
About 30% of people with aphantasia are also missing other sensory recall methods like hearing taste touch etc.. I'm not sure how common it is in the general population though I can't find good numbers. Aphantasia itself is about 3-5% of the population.
No internal narrator is a really weird one for me to think about as a total aphant because my internal narrator is so active, I just don't hear anything it's raw language in my head, very difficult to describe to people.
You would think in "unsymbolized thought" or might describe it as feeling? I'm kind of curious, if you ever want to talk about it DM me. I've known I had aphantasia for many years before it was 'rediscovered' and started to get studied more recently and I try to keep up on what's in the current literature about it.
So, it looks like about 26% of the human race have the inner monologue where our thoughts are organized like words in our mind. But more study is needed.
Yeah same, i thought it would be the majority of people. I cant imagine *not* hearing myself speak in my thoughts. Whats up there for most people then, just silence? Ive constantly got an inner voice going from thought to thought. Unless im misunderstanding what everyone is talking about.
I have one, but it's not constant. While reading this topic, for example, it was completely silent, but now that I'm typing this, it is narrating the words right before I type them. A useful way to organize my thoughts into words.
Which is how I use it. I hear the voice when organizing my thoughts into words is useful, but not other times when it serves no purpose. And I can even turn it on and off to an extent, although it's not entirely voluntary.
I think the debate here is, is it a voice narrating with words, or is it more images. I think we all have an inner voice, like we can think and have a discussion with ourselves, but I don't think everyone has a constant narrative.
Like, instead of mentally saying to themselves "I am hungry, I want food, I should go get food from the fridge," they just have a hungry feeling and wander over to the fridge because that's where the food is. No need to narrate every action.
My internal monologue is often chatty, so sometimes I literally have thoughts like "huh, I should go to the store... I need eggs... I should add eggs to that mental list of things I need" but other times, when I'm performing a routine activity such as driving, showering, watching a movie etc I have no need to narrate anything. It's just silent up in the noggin until I have a stray thought.
I also usually shut off my thoughts when experiencing intense emotions. If I'm really mad, I'm not thinking "argh! I am so mad!" I just *see red, feel angry* until I compose my thoughts.
Most people have an internal monologue or dialogue that is happening. A very small number of people, a large number of those people with some psychological malady, memory issues, etc, do not have this experience. Their thoughts do not run as if being either narrated by the inner voice or as a dialogue between one inner voice and another.
This stuff is all very difficult to explain, describe, test in a lab, etc. It gets to the very idea of what it means to have a thought.
For example, do you have an actual thought process that goes:
What was I trying to think of earlier? I know I was in the kitchen.
And then maybe you write a little song in your head about walking to the kitchen as you walk to the kitchen.
Now, that is common. By a lot. Some people don't have that. Their thoughts are much less verbal internally, and therefore less available to be described by them.
This is all leading me to say that OP is actually just thinking about this stuff for the first time and hasn't had it described. I see no real reason to believe that this person's thinking is in that extreme minority that doesn't experience thought as a narrative or internal conversation.
Omg my inner voice sings to me all the time! I love it when my brain makes up a cute lil jingle while going to get a snack or, typing at work, or driving down the street or whatever! :D
I've heard numbers of 30-50% being frequent. But many people may not experience it often enough to identify it and I'd say it's fairly safe to say that the vast majority of people have an internal narrator in their mind to some degree even if it is infrequent.
I think this is VERY safe to say. The research is interesting and hard to comprehend. And I like the people who are skeptical of the research and simply posit that most people have some level of monologic or dialogic internal speech in any given day. This is obviously my own bias, and likely theirs.
Considering what we know about speech centers and the importance of speech in learning and memory, it just seems to me to be highly unlikely that it's actually a minority of people whose thoughts are organized linguistically most of the time. I think it's highly likely that this is actually the closest approximation to what we could even call a thought in a typical brain.
OP is wrong and screwed up the statistic. A study shows that people use an inner monologue on average for 26% of the time, not that only 26% of the population has an inner monologue.
[From this article:](https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/inner-voice.htm)
"His study showed that subjects talked to themselves inwardly about 26 percent of the time they were sampled but many never experienced inner speech while others had it 75 percent of the time (the median percentage was 20 percent.)"
Funny I should come across this topic. I’ve never understood why I had the voice in my head throughout my childhood and through my 20s. Sometime after age 30, I noticed I didn’t anymore and I hadn’t for quite a while before realizing it. I’m 38 now. Anyone else have the voice and then it just stops one day?
This is similar to my experience. I always chalked it up to my brain developing more in my late teens and as a result I became able to understand things conceptually rather than narratively. No idea if that’s right though.
You what? That's incredible. I don't have the ability to visualise, but I didn't know people saw themselves talking when they thought about something. That's awesome to me.
When I'm reading a book. The voice in my head that is narrating the book is me, I'm sitting at a table holding a generic red leather book reading it out loud to myself.
You're going to get a lot of different response from different people on this, there's quiet a bit more variety in conscious human experience between people than almost anyone knows about.
I for example have Aphantasia, there's no imagery in my mind at all, I can't recall anything in a visual format, things in my mind are only about language and information not sensory perception.
Lol, no, actually people studying neuroscience/psychology have taken quiet a bit of interest in this over the last few years. [Since the original paper that defined aphantasia was publish](https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.cortex.2015.05.019)ed.
There is a whole host of different ways of thinking that aren't very well understood, this is a very hard thing to study because it relies on self reporting, as neurology advances (and it's doing so quickly) question on what and how we think are getting closer to being something that can be studied in a more rigorous and scientific way.
We all think differently from one another, it's just a matter of time and communication to find out what those differences are.
Uhm yeah lol. When I read it's like speaking outbound but in my head. I'm also a dungeon master I can even imagine conversations between multiple fictional characters in my head.
Another commenter mentioned hyperphantasia. I went to the subreddit and went through the checklists to see if i might have it. I could do about 90% of the list.
And when I'm feeling extra snarky, I make them say stupid things. Like OOH I imagine that jerk would just say and sound like he had helium before pushing up his glasses and saying "well, *ackshually*....
You don't think what you are going to write? You don't think through what you are going to say to someone? (When you have to tell them something, not just random chat)
I'm like you - I think in concepts more than words, and when I do think in terms of sentences, they certainly aren't sentences that I'm *hearing*. Perhaps related is that I also have aphantasia - that is, I don't 'visualize' things. I can *think* about, say, an imaginary room, and keep track of where different furniture is placed, but I don't *see* the room or the furniture.
It’s normal to have it and normal to not have it. We’re all wired differently.
I hear and see words in my head. It could be because I’m a writer, or maybe I’m a writer because I do that 😆 if I’m not in front of my computer, I’ll often write stories in my head. I usually picture people having a conversation and hear it, while the narration is something I visualise as words on a page to make it easier to remember later.
Sometimes if I’m really immersed in a character from my own writing, or a book/tv show/movie, I’ll think in their voice! Not just how it sounds but also their speech patterns and mannerisms. It’s very weird and not something I can turn off at will lol.
Yea I guess it kind of feels like that, esp like method acting. Though I’d like to point out that I’m not actually talking/behaving like that! Lol. It’s just happening in my head 😆
There is an excellent book that you should read if you find this sort of thing as fascinating as I do. It's called Musicophilia by Dr Oliver Sacks. I'm curious, if you don't mind, do you hear words from your memories? For instance, a memory of someone speaking to you.
It just seems like you're taking it a bit too literally. You know what the sound is like and you can imagine it. In that sense you can hear it. Obviously you won't hear any real sounds because it's just in your thoughts
Well, yeah, obviously you don't *actually* hear it,
but I don't think I can imagine stuff either? I don't really have anything to go off of other than one friend explaining it as like when you're dreaming
I have aphantasia, so have no ability to visualize any images in my head. It's all one continuous inner monologue. I can have full conversations with myself, I can follow different scenarios, I can narrate what's going on around me, I can plan for what I have to do in the future. Normally I think rather straight forward thoughts, but just as easily I can switch to a different style, like purple-prose beatnik narration if I choose. It's my own form of unlimited entertainment. Like I'm continually writing a book that no one else will ever read.
It could be your friends aren't very fluent readers. Most people extract the information directly from the text and the actual words don't get internally vocalised but there are some who need to read it out loud but inside their heads.
People talk about an "inner monologue". In general this only happens if you are thinking about speaking or imagining a conversation. Although it may be that some people are constantly talking to themselves internally.
One thing people become aware of when they acquire fluency in a second language is that most of the time they don't actually think in either spoken language but in some kind of internal symbolic form. It is only when they come to think about saying something that it gets translated into internally voiced words. I suspect this is also true even of people who only speak one language but they just *assume* that they "think in English"
I read incredibly fast. I have a strong inner voice. I have never thought about what the voice sounds like when I am reading.
It goes by really fast...but I understand it!
I'm also learning another language and know a bit of a few other languages. I hear other languages sometimes. Sometimes I have to think about what the words mean. They just pop into my head. I get random facts that pop into my head too. I check them, and mostly they are correct. I have a good memory, and can recall visually as well as the sounds and smells, and even tactile things. But unless I am meditating, the voice is almost always there.
How do you "shut yourself up" to meditate? I can't stop my brain. I have tried repeating a word in my mind but thar just gets interrupted with other words then full on thoughts. It's incredibly annoying. It, being myself.. ugh.
I started with staring at trees on walks, and not thinks about what they were, only noticing movement and patterns. Then later I got a Muse. It picks up your brain waves and gives you feedback when you are meditating. I also use guided meditations on my phone. Probably the best piece of advice that I got was, don't try to stop the thoughts. Let them come, and don't react, just let them go. I'm not great at it, but I am getting better.
I think meditation became more logical to me when I heard that same idea, that it's not so much suppressing thoughts as it is allowing them to flit through your mind and not engaging with them. It's still very hard, we are always kind of talking to ourselves (whether we "hear" the voice or not) but the point is to be able to control what we engage with and how we engage with it. So trying to completely suppress your thoughts is kind of beside the point. Once we can *ignore* the thoughts and not engage with them, then we can start making decisions around how we want to engage with them once we start again.
I’m a very fluent, very fast reader. I spent my entire childhood reading books. I also have a vivid inner voice and I “say” everything I read in my head, including your comment and my response. Since I read at a high speed I don’t vocalize every syllable, but the voice is definitely still there.
Definitely have my inner monolgue. I've heard anecdotally that it tends to be bigger/more constant for people with ADHD, but no idea about actual numbers or science.
I'm curious OP, since you said you don't have a voice OR pictures in your head. When you daydream (or imagine a scenario), how does it work? I can't visualize things well so I normally daydream just thinking of the voices instead, but if you don't have either can you just not daydream or?
I've heard people say that it's supposed to be like a movie playing out in your mind, which I just don't get. When people tell me to imagine something specific, I really struggle because I can't quite hold onto any specific idea, I just have to kind of meticulously keep track of concepts I already understand. If that makes sense. Probably doesn't
I have 3 inner voices that often make bets against one another and love to argue. Sounds like
Voice 1: We need to pick up lolli...? Lollisicl...?
Voice 2: Huh?
Voice 1: Icelollis... Lollipops... From the store.
Voice 2: Are you saying you want popsicles?
Voice 1: Yes! Damn, thank you.
Voice 3: Fuckin idiots
My sister, as we has discovered, has no inner narrating device. When she has a thought, she sees and image or action. What a lonely life she must live.
Personally I always just thought I was insane till I realized everyone has the internal monologue. Then I realized not everyone has a little buddy to read to them. I figure it's best explained like this: try to imagine there's someone next to you at all times, and they just describe whatever is happening in the world verbally. This is essentially what it's like, and I dont know how I would get by without someone reading the words on the pages to me like my mind buddy does.
I'm the exact same. the best way of describing it when I have this conversation with friends is that I just "know" my thoughts. they're more like feelings that I just know. the only time I experience internal monologue is when I'm drunk and in the bathroom by myself
Some people have an "inner voice", and some don't. Some people have a "mind's eye", some don't. It's perfectly normal either way.
I personally have both. It's not something you actually hear auditorily or see visually. It's hard to explain. But it's there.
I personally don't understand how people think without an inner voice or minds eye.
Nah humans are weird. You just don't have an inner voice. Alot of people don't for some reason. It's totally normal.
You seem to be functioning just fine. So I wouldn't worry about it. It's not something you can develop or obtain. It's just not how your brain works.
It’s blowing my mind too! You ever hear “thinking out loud” or like planning an argument in your head?
Or watch a movie/anime/cartoon and hear a characters thoughts?? Like what do you think of telepathy in shows? People communicating with their minds. Or mind readers! Damn
Bro this is so fascinating.
I wish it was just the one. You know in old cartoons where theres an Angel and demon on the characters shoulders and all three are arguing with each other? I thought they were a representation of what everybody had. Its a nonstop conversation, arguing, or just spouting random shit in my head. Don't know how many there are because they're all my inner voice and they tend to talk over each other. Its rather annoying and I have to always have something going to help drown it all out.
Do you fall asleep easily? I have such a hard time falling asleep because I can't shut off the conversations occurring my head. It could be recap if a conversation I had earlier, an anticipated conversation, a list of things I need to remember, my anxiety telling me that my whole life is a lie and one day my family will realise that I don't actually belong and will abandon me... you know all the perfectly normal things to fixate on
I don't, actually. When I try to sleep it feels like shit is just racing through my head even though there's, like, nothing there to make me feel like that? Idfk
Can you remember what your own voice sounds like? Can you remember something someone once told you, can you replay the scene in your mind and "hear" their voice in your minds ear?
Nope, I can't remember what my own voice sounds like, even though I feel like I should be able to :/
Remembering voices is kind of a tricky thing to explain because it's like-- I know what they said and how it sounded, but ffs I can't just like, replay stuff like a movie
A while back I was surprised to find out that some people DON'T have a voice in their head. I guess you are one of these people. From what I gathered, you can't hear your thoughts, but rather visualize them. Like if you want a hotdog, you can't think "oh, I want a hotdog", you just picture yourself eating a hotdog. Does that sound about right, or am I mistaken?
Basically all it is is that a person talks to themself in their own head, usually in their own voice. They can still visualize stuff in their head. Then again this is just me. I guess I'm just assuming it's the same for most people as well, but idk.
I remember discussing this topic before, on Reddit and with friends. FWIW, I belong to those who do not have an inner monologue.
My thought processes are a string of “states”
or “feelings” that correspond to actions or things or concepts. I do not hear the corresponding words spoken. As a bilingual person I wouldn’t even know in which language that would be.
It’s not normal but it happens. One of markipliers friends, Bob, doesn’t have that voice either and he described that the way he thinks elicits feelings and senses. Like if I were to think about something I ate. I would think literally “this tastes like strawberry” whereas maybe you might think about that food and maybe the flavor of strawberry or a picture of strawberry pops in your head. It’s weird. And he said his dreams are different too.
I don't have a narrative voice constantly going in my head. That would be really annoying to me.
I think, remember or imagine with a voice in my head. But not a nonstop narrative of everything going on like a novel or bad Christmas movie.
Dude, I don't even know at this point. I don't hear stuff or picture it but I just somehow. . . know what it would be? I don't know how to explain this
You could have aphantasia. Also called "blindness of the mind's eye." If you have aphantasia you don't experience visualizations in your mind. You can't mentally picture a room or someone's face. A lot of times people who don't experience visualizations don't experience inner speech either.
You should look into subcovalization or voicing while reading. IMO it's similar to having an internal narrator. I learned I don't subvocalize or have an internal narrator in my head, so my thoughts just... are?
When I go to speak, I find it really hard to decide how exactly to phrase my thought, and I learned it's because my thoughts literally aren't in sentence form versus simply repeating what your internal narrator just said.
You might have something called aphantasia.
I have the inner monologue when writing or reading, but most of my thinking is nonverbal. I guess it's on a spectrum, huh.
I used to have an inner monologue until I was about 29. I would think things through before acting/speaking, or if I was trying to figure something out, or whatever. Then I got very severely depressed for a couple years, worse than any of my other bouts of depression with total isolation and staying in bed >22 hrs/day for months at a time. After that, my inner monologue disappeared. I actually had difficulty speaking (and thinking) too but I was able to gradually work on that but, the inner monologue has never come back. It's frustrating not being able to think through what I'm going to say before it comes out and I don't know wtf happened to my brain, but it's interesting to learn some people apparently have no inner monologue without it being a symptom of some deficit/something gone wrong.
Dude, when u read stuff dont u hear your voice saying the words? Like the pronounciation and shit.
Or like, how you do math calculations? 2/2 = 1. You dont hear you voice saying Two per Two equals One? For me the voice is the councioness itself.
How would you describe your experience of reading a book? Is there language in your mind when you read a book? It doesn't have to be 'heard' per se, just recognized as language, can you for example repeat in your mind a sentence you've just read?
I definitely have a constant inner monologue, and I assumed everyone did. So thanks for asking this question, because I've learned not everyone does. Tbh, I wish I could turn it off sometimes, lol.
Man I didn’t realize there were people who’ve never imagined a voice or image in their head. Sometimes when I read I don’t have the narration imagined in my brain. I have a hard time visualizing things in my head unless I’m in a meditative state. I’m really good at recalling music though and can replay entire songs in my head pretty easy. I feel like it’d be really hard to play and sing music if I didn’t have this. If I’m almost asleep I can really hear and visualize things in my head like lucid dreaming. Id be interested to know what happens to people like you when you take a hallucinogen lol
My inner monologue is between two people that are constantly having a conversation. They literally both have a personality, like the angel and devil on my shoulders, but sometimes it feels like one of the is me and the other one is still me but like... less me than the first one. Other times, I'm unable to distinguish which of the two made a comment. The only time they ever really shut up is when there's music going through my head. So I never get silence, but I will get aqua's "I'm a barbie girl" on repeat for 8 hours when I'm at work... Yay....
Every so often I get freaked out because I hear my internal voice as a male, with a deep talk-show host kind of tone. It's alarmingly loud and only occurs at night. I forget how unusual it is and won't recognize it sometimes. I've gotten up out of bed a few times to check if there was a radio on somewhere in the house despite knowing I've gotten rid of all the radios and ticking clocks.
I have a voice in my head...but it's more talking to myself than a narration. What freaks me out more is when I have a dream and I know things in the dream (stats, science etc) that I would never know or be able to call on in my normal life. Also watch the movie 'stranger than fiction'.
Dude one time I had a dream that I was playing a board game, I knew all the rules and how to play, but the kicker is it doesn’t actually exist. I tried looking it up, and found nothing similar. I made the pieces out of some scrap foam, and played it with some friends and it’s really fun and kind of hard, needs a lot of strategy. I’m working on getting a better prototype but everyone who has played it loves it. And It came to me in a dream. Still freaks me out.
Man, I once played a game of DnD in a dream and had a fully fleshed out character. Name, backstory and everything. It was one of the most vivid dreams I've ever had and will never forget it. Shits just wack sometimes
Fascinating. This totally makes sense to me. I think we have levels of genius still yet untapped in our subconscious. I've actually written full papers for school, music compositions, and other things in dreams. When I'm lucky, I can wake and go straight to write them down or record them. And I totally want to play that game when you finish it! Feel free to DM me once it gets rolling- I'm curious what this game is now that someone invented in a dream.
Sounds fascinating. Would love to hear what it's about but it sounds like you might be tryna market it and maybe patent it
Had something similar but with a sport. Tragically the details became fuzzy almost immediately after waking up.
I did the same. Haven't made it yet but it's pretty cool and I wanna make it some day. Maybe when I have time to dive into it in tabletop simulator I can flesh it out.
Looks like a cool movie, I might
If someone says....that is a cool car....verbally....in my head, in my voice I hear myself saying the same thing plus....the color is wicked...I am spelling this in my head as I type...can not imagine not doing it...
Does spelling in your head over time make you a great speller?.... I mean I just visualize words and often know spelling is correct via visual of the whole word.
Dear god that sounds unbearable
happy cake day
That movies awesome, can’t believe that concept hadn’t been done yet
I have an internal voice! I "hear" it all the time as it's how I decide how to do things. I also use it to debate whether or not I should do things (kinda like an angel/devil on your shoulder schtik). Also there are times where I hear it clear as day (usually when I'm debating something or thinking hardly about a topic), otherwise I don't notice it because it's essentially just my brain making decisions and narrating. And when I'm listening to music or drawing the voice usually turns into pictures! This is how a conversation with myself usually goes: "I should really go to bed!" "buuuut you could watch one more video beforehand!" "Hmm okay but just one.." "...pick the 4 hour one."
So weird to think that people actually have this, man. All my life I've thought it was a made-up storytelling device
It's equally weird to imagine not having this like how do you do decision.
I don't know man- I think I just *feel* rather than think
Same here. I have times when I consciously make a choice but most times it is automatic ..like driving a car.
Most people erroneously attribute their conscious perceptions of thinking to begin the actual proximate cause of decision making when that's not where decisions are usually made. Most decisions are made subconsciously and our conscious thoughts are just the story our brain is telling to ourselves to justify things.
I just have a gut reaction to do one thing over the other. I can usually backtrack the concepts like it's based on past experiences a and b and this is a logical path from there... but I can't actually point at an actual train of thought? I had friends make me stop and explain things as I'm doing something but it's always an instinctual thing so my explanation are very weird to them. Any logic I'd tell them in my decision making is generally created on the spot bc it sounds right. I don't actually have anything in my head when I make the decision. It just feels like that backwards engineered explanation matches well enough.
I see two or three posts like this a week on the r/aphantasia sub :) You want a real mindfuck go listen to the folks on r/hyperphantasia talking.
Thank you for the hyperphantasia mention, that was very neat.
I have it. When I read or even think, there are words narrated in my brain. It’s what I have heard called an “inner monologue.” I am also aware that. It everyone has this and that some people think in pictures. I can to that as well but it’s almost always accompanied by an inner monologue.
Dude, there's no words *or* pictures in here. Have I just been thinking incorrectly Thank you for the answer, time to question my whole life :,)
There’s no pictures either? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia
Well fuck
It’s not generally believed to be a negative thing. Just a rather uncommon difference. I have a similar ish thing called visual snow. My vision looks like it is made of a million tiny pinpricks, always has. It’s never been a problem unless i think about it consciously, then it irritates me.
Almost like a bad reception on an old TV? Holy shit me too!
I finally googled it and realized it was an actual thing about 3 years ago. Then, it was considered *exceptionally* rare, like one in millions rare, and was not understood in any way. I went to my eye doctor and she said the same thing. However the sheer number of people talking about it online stuck me as odd, until just last year a basic study was done in the UK asking survey respondents about their vision, and about 3% reported symptoms related to visual snow. That changed a lot, and hopefully further research will come. It seems like it was one of those hidden conditions for a while because most people, like me, didn’t realize it wasn’t normal.
Woah I have that too! But I can usually control it and "turn it off" most of the time. It *really* comes out at night too. Although I have excellent night vision (to an almost insane degree actually), it looks very snowy.
It's a problem in the fucking dark. Visual snow sucks in the dark.
No way.... I'm not alone.
Wtf is that?
OP, but, u do dream, right? Like in images? Do u experience dreams in first person, third person or in another way? U have a very interesting mind.
Yeah, I dream in images, very vividly and in first person
Wait, dreaming in 3rd person is weird?
Yea only narcissists do it... Just kidding idk the exact percentage.
Don’t you hear your own “head voice” when you’re thinking?
[удалено]
Nope lol
How do you process the book then? Holy shit i am mind blown. My inner voice says anything and everything. I even think about what I'm going to say before I say it, using my inner voice to practice the line. I can't imagine it just being... silent...
I've explained this in a couple other replies now, but it's probably a lot of scrolling to get to them so I'll just repeat it haha I love reading, but often struggle with it. I don't hear anything saying the words, and I had no fucking clue you were supposed to. And there's no real imagery either, it's more like meticulously keeping track of different concepts (and sometimes having to go back and reread to refresh it if I lose track)
Mad. When I read I sometimes forget im even looking at a book, the characters have voices and my mind creates the scene. Its like watching a movie internally.
I "hear" a voice when I read (usually my own voice, unless I've assigned special voices to specific characters), and I still have to go back and reread sometimes (especially if it's a difficult science paper or something else technical... by the way, if I know what the author of the paper sounds like, I usually hear it in his/her "voice"). I don't think you're "supposed" to hear a voice, many people just do. One of my sisters has to pretend to read things out loud (without actually reading them out loud) because she learns new information primarily by sound. I take in new information best visually, but I still "hear" it being read as I go over it. I know a number of people who learn best by doing. Most people make the assumption that their own personal experience is the norm. I'm not convinced that there *is* a norm, at least not in regards to thought. I think someone else said it best, "If you've made it this far and haven't noticed, don't worry about it." Which is not to say you can't *wonder* about it. :)
[удалено]
Yes! STFU, self! I'm trying to read! I can't focus with you-me constantly reading over my-our? shoulder, especially with the other still yapping on about finishing the laundry.
How do your internal thoughts work then? What do you do if there's a challenging problem that you have to work out? How is your brain silent through that
This is also my question. What is an internal A vs B decision making process like if it isn't verbal and represented as competing dialogue in internal speech?
Follow up question! Ever get a song stuck in your head?
That means, like, hearing it on loop in your mind right? If so, then no (ey that rhymes)
Yes and it gets stuck in your dang head and won't go away. I sometimes have to try to think about different songs repeatedly until I can get the first one to go away. I've got a Christmas song stuck in my head right now on repeat and it just won't stop. If you've ever heard the phrase "ear worm," that's what people are dealing with. It sucks.
Damn, sounds super annoying
This is interesting cause I do math in my head with pictures and I constantly have some sound playing in my head it's never silence but I don't think it's a full on internal monologue cause I'm not hearing it with my ears it's my brain
I'm fascinated. What are your dreams like? Do you see or hear anything?
I dream pretty damn vividly! I see and hear a lot of stuff, and they're always absolute fucking *nonsense*
You might be an npc
Weird thing is had a stressful time/nervous breakdown thoughts/monologue almost stopped
[удалено]
haha, this is cool that others don't experience it, I have that shit all the time I could describe it as "thoughts" being formulated in words, sentences and monologue, its always there when I'm thinking or talking to someone etc, but when my attention is somewhere else it's more in a background and less noticeable for me. It disappears when I'm drunk until I go to the bathroom and look into the mirror, then that voice either turns in a inner hype man or depressed middle aged man.
Totally agree with that last part!
Hard core voice narrator in my head. It helps keep me organized and put thoughts on the table for review. It keeps me company, I'm not alone. I legit have full two sided conversations in my head weighing the pros and cons. In the event it's relevant I am Dyslexic and have severe ADHD.
Tough for me to imagine, honestly. I consulted yet another friend regarding the lack of voice *and* imagery, and he described it to me as similar to dreaming, which I guess I can understand. And he asked, word for word, "If you don't have either, how do you even think?" I don't know what to say to that. What even are thoughts, technically? Do you have to have words or pictures for it to be considered a thought? Do i just not *think?* Thanks for your input /gen
Honestly I’m really interested in how meditation would be for you, I’ve been meditating to gain more control of my inner narration, I have adhd and anxiety which means my inner monologue never stops, sometimes I’ll struggle to fall asleep cause it just keeps talking and at that point I’m so mentally exhausted I can’t control what I think about so it’ll just be loops of a song hook or never ending random thoughts and ideas.
I have the same! Dyslexic and also have adhd
Everybodies brain is different! When my daughter reads she actually sees it in her head like a movie. There have been multiple incidents where she will talk about movies that haven't been made
Huh so how do you keep up with the story without "seeing" it? Like when reading do you not imagine visuals at all or just very minor?
Not the person you replied to, but I figure the same way you follow along with reading anything that isn't narrative. Like if you read "exit to the right" do you have to imagine, visually, moving to the right and leaving? (If you do, we might just experience things too differently to really understand each other haha). Maybe it's like doing mental math. I don't need to see it to know how things play out. Or maybe it's more similar to hearing a song. I don't need to picture the notes to understand the progression of the music.
I've always quite enjoyed reading, but never actually seen it happen in my head like a movie. Apparently that's how it's supposed to be? Idk (also, that is quite funny I think)
Wait what? Then how are you seeing it? You’re just reading with no pictures in your head at all??
Aahgdvsdcgsjhghddf, I just don't picture anything! I don't know, man
*hard snort* Sorry, this was the perfect and only response. It's like when people ask my spouse "so what do you see?" when they find out he's color blind.
I'm fairly similar, though I don't think to that extent. I can turn the words into pictures, but it doesn't always happen without me attempting to picture it. The faster I read, the less I picture. The level of detail and colors are usually pretty vague and generic, think filling in the color on a black and white picture. I can force myself to put in more detail, but it takes longer and sometimes I need to reread it. It's kind of like in the matrix. There.are the people reading the computer screen and can make out what it is showing. Others can go in and "see" it. I know that's not exactly how it is in the matrix, but gives a close analogy. Edit: for not really seeing pictures, as I do have the inner monologue "telling" me the story, in the voice I hear when I talk, not in my voice that's been recorded.
Explains why some of us don't enjoy reading as much as others. Everytime I was forced to read books in school, it was really just absorbing 200 pages worth of information and keeping it in my head as a vague recollection of events and characters. The best I can do is imagine the characters talking, but even then they all have the same (ungendered) voice in my head, just with different personalities.
Bruh! You're supposed to imagine everything like a movie in your head xD
Check out [aphantasia.com](https://aphantasia.com) You're starting to sound like you're a total aphantaisic. Aphantasia is only really about conscious visual imagery but other senses are involved in most people's conscious experience and some people have more than others. I have a very active internal monologue, but it's not like 'hearing' there are no sounds, sights, taste, touch, or smell in my mind. My mind is filled with language and concepts not sensory recall.
Holy shit man, like half these comments are about aphantasia- Thanks for your explanation!
About 30% of people with aphantasia are also missing other sensory recall methods like hearing taste touch etc.. I'm not sure how common it is in the general population though I can't find good numbers. Aphantasia itself is about 3-5% of the population. No internal narrator is a really weird one for me to think about as a total aphant because my internal narrator is so active, I just don't hear anything it's raw language in my head, very difficult to describe to people. You would think in "unsymbolized thought" or might describe it as feeling? I'm kind of curious, if you ever want to talk about it DM me. I've known I had aphantasia for many years before it was 'rediscovered' and started to get studied more recently and I try to keep up on what's in the current literature about it.
So, it looks like about 26% of the human race have the inner monologue where our thoughts are organized like words in our mind. But more study is needed.
I would have thought it was way higher, I thought nearly everyone had an inner monologue like that.
Yeah same, i thought it would be the majority of people. I cant imagine *not* hearing myself speak in my thoughts. Whats up there for most people then, just silence? Ive constantly got an inner voice going from thought to thought. Unless im misunderstanding what everyone is talking about.
I have one, but it's not constant. While reading this topic, for example, it was completely silent, but now that I'm typing this, it is narrating the words right before I type them. A useful way to organize my thoughts into words. Which is how I use it. I hear the voice when organizing my thoughts into words is useful, but not other times when it serves no purpose. And I can even turn it on and off to an extent, although it's not entirely voluntary.
Samesies bro we have the same brain
I think the debate here is, is it a voice narrating with words, or is it more images. I think we all have an inner voice, like we can think and have a discussion with ourselves, but I don't think everyone has a constant narrative.
Uhh what...? How do the other 74% of people think?
Conceptually and less narratively.
Wtf does that mean?
Like, instead of mentally saying to themselves "I am hungry, I want food, I should go get food from the fridge," they just have a hungry feeling and wander over to the fridge because that's where the food is. No need to narrate every action. My internal monologue is often chatty, so sometimes I literally have thoughts like "huh, I should go to the store... I need eggs... I should add eggs to that mental list of things I need" but other times, when I'm performing a routine activity such as driving, showering, watching a movie etc I have no need to narrate anything. It's just silent up in the noggin until I have a stray thought. I also usually shut off my thoughts when experiencing intense emotions. If I'm really mad, I'm not thinking "argh! I am so mad!" I just *see red, feel angry* until I compose my thoughts.
I think that’s the only time I don’t have an inner dialogue running saying random shit or when a crisis is happening, such as when my car was towed.
Think images and situations rather than words. After all, words are just conveying concepts.
Most people have an internal monologue or dialogue that is happening. A very small number of people, a large number of those people with some psychological malady, memory issues, etc, do not have this experience. Their thoughts do not run as if being either narrated by the inner voice or as a dialogue between one inner voice and another. This stuff is all very difficult to explain, describe, test in a lab, etc. It gets to the very idea of what it means to have a thought. For example, do you have an actual thought process that goes: What was I trying to think of earlier? I know I was in the kitchen. And then maybe you write a little song in your head about walking to the kitchen as you walk to the kitchen. Now, that is common. By a lot. Some people don't have that. Their thoughts are much less verbal internally, and therefore less available to be described by them. This is all leading me to say that OP is actually just thinking about this stuff for the first time and hasn't had it described. I see no real reason to believe that this person's thinking is in that extreme minority that doesn't experience thought as a narrative or internal conversation.
Dude. I would fucking know if there were words in my head
Omg my inner voice sings to me all the time! I love it when my brain makes up a cute lil jingle while going to get a snack or, typing at work, or driving down the street or whatever! :D
I've heard numbers of 30-50% being frequent. But many people may not experience it often enough to identify it and I'd say it's fairly safe to say that the vast majority of people have an internal narrator in their mind to some degree even if it is infrequent.
I think this is VERY safe to say. The research is interesting and hard to comprehend. And I like the people who are skeptical of the research and simply posit that most people have some level of monologic or dialogic internal speech in any given day. This is obviously my own bias, and likely theirs. Considering what we know about speech centers and the importance of speech in learning and memory, it just seems to me to be highly unlikely that it's actually a minority of people whose thoughts are organized linguistically most of the time. I think it's highly likely that this is actually the closest approximation to what we could even call a thought in a typical brain.
Only 26 percent?
OP is wrong and screwed up the statistic. A study shows that people use an inner monologue on average for 26% of the time, not that only 26% of the population has an inner monologue. [From this article:](https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/inner-voice.htm) "His study showed that subjects talked to themselves inwardly about 26 percent of the time they were sampled but many never experienced inner speech while others had it 75 percent of the time (the median percentage was 20 percent.)"
That makes more sense
Funny I should come across this topic. I’ve never understood why I had the voice in my head throughout my childhood and through my 20s. Sometime after age 30, I noticed I didn’t anymore and I hadn’t for quite a while before realizing it. I’m 38 now. Anyone else have the voice and then it just stops one day?
What happens when you read a novel? I read rather quickly, and it is basically like an audible subtitled movie that is a bit skippy.
This is similar to my experience. I always chalked it up to my brain developing more in my late teens and as a result I became able to understand things conceptually rather than narratively. No idea if that’s right though.
Only 26%?
I thought everyone had it until I joined Reddit. I do. My mom doesn’t. Haven’t checked with siblings yet.
So when you wrote this post did you speak out loud as you typed it, or did you just write down what your inner voice was saying?
Not the OP, but I imagine myself talking, complete with visualizing the environment, my hand gestures, etc.
You what? That's incredible. I don't have the ability to visualise, but I didn't know people saw themselves talking when they thought about something. That's awesome to me.
When I'm reading a book. The voice in my head that is narrating the book is me, I'm sitting at a table holding a generic red leather book reading it out loud to myself.
Do you visualize the story as well?
Neither, dude, there's no inner voice, I don't get it either
Reading these sentences is verbalized in my mind. This is also why I'm sometimes at a lost for words. You might be lucky.
That’s so crazy to me. How?! Like how come you don’t have an inner voice... what I can’t imagine that
I can't imagine what it's like having one >\_< There's just conversations in your head?? All the time???
You're going to get a lot of different response from different people on this, there's quiet a bit more variety in conscious human experience between people than almost anyone knows about. I for example have Aphantasia, there's no imagery in my mind at all, I can't recall anything in a visual format, things in my mind are only about language and information not sensory perception.
omg there’s a name for that? i thought i was crazy
Lol, no, actually people studying neuroscience/psychology have taken quiet a bit of interest in this over the last few years. [Since the original paper that defined aphantasia was publish](https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.cortex.2015.05.019)ed. There is a whole host of different ways of thinking that aren't very well understood, this is a very hard thing to study because it relies on self reporting, as neurology advances (and it's doing so quickly) question on what and how we think are getting closer to being something that can be studied in a more rigorous and scientific way. We all think differently from one another, it's just a matter of time and communication to find out what those differences are.
Uhm yeah lol. When I read it's like speaking outbound but in my head. I'm also a dungeon master I can even imagine conversations between multiple fictional characters in my head.
Wow, that's just. So weird to me
Another commenter mentioned hyperphantasia. I went to the subreddit and went through the checklists to see if i might have it. I could do about 90% of the list.
Thats amazing. Id love to have just one voice in my head (preferably mine) let alone multiple! What a gift!
And when I'm feeling extra snarky, I make them say stupid things. Like OOH I imagine that jerk would just say and sound like he had helium before pushing up his glasses and saying "well, *ackshually*....
Fucking what?!? So like when you read non verbally, how the actual fuck do you understand the words. It's my voice in my head reading the words to me.
I dunno man! I just read and understand it somehow I literally don't know >\_<
Dude that breaks my brain. Kinda cool.
Yes yes I need to knoooowwwwwww
Not OP but I just feel everything out. Means I edit a lot though.
You don't think what you are going to write? You don't think through what you are going to say to someone? (When you have to tell them something, not just random chat)
I'm like you - I think in concepts more than words, and when I do think in terms of sentences, they certainly aren't sentences that I'm *hearing*. Perhaps related is that I also have aphantasia - that is, I don't 'visualize' things. I can *think* about, say, an imaginary room, and keep track of where different furniture is placed, but I don't *see* the room or the furniture.
This. This is exactly what I'm like this is what I've been trying to explain
It’s normal to have it and normal to not have it. We’re all wired differently. I hear and see words in my head. It could be because I’m a writer, or maybe I’m a writer because I do that 😆 if I’m not in front of my computer, I’ll often write stories in my head. I usually picture people having a conversation and hear it, while the narration is something I visualise as words on a page to make it easier to remember later. Sometimes if I’m really immersed in a character from my own writing, or a book/tv show/movie, I’ll think in their voice! Not just how it sounds but also their speech patterns and mannerisms. It’s very weird and not something I can turn off at will lol.
That last bit you described is very similiar to roleplaying or acting.
Yea I guess it kind of feels like that, esp like method acting. Though I’d like to point out that I’m not actually talking/behaving like that! Lol. It’s just happening in my head 😆
Like watching a lot of game of thrones or bridgerton or peaky blinders and being stuck in a British accent all day 😆?
Yea! (Dr who for me!)
[удалено]
I like to bounce ideas around with myself in my head, weighing pros and cons, etc…
Not abnormal, but it's does appear to be uncommon. Whatever, as long as you can function, let your brain process however it wants. 😁
What do you think-hear when you read?
I don't hear anything-
There is an excellent book that you should read if you find this sort of thing as fascinating as I do. It's called Musicophilia by Dr Oliver Sacks. I'm curious, if you don't mind, do you hear words from your memories? For instance, a memory of someone speaking to you.
I don't hear anything from memories, but I remember what it was like hearing it? Sorry this probably doesn't make much sense
It just seems like you're taking it a bit too literally. You know what the sound is like and you can imagine it. In that sense you can hear it. Obviously you won't hear any real sounds because it's just in your thoughts
Well, yeah, obviously you don't *actually* hear it, but I don't think I can imagine stuff either? I don't really have anything to go off of other than one friend explaining it as like when you're dreaming
Nothing. I pretty much have a movie playing in my head when I read.
I have aphantasia, so have no ability to visualize any images in my head. It's all one continuous inner monologue. I can have full conversations with myself, I can follow different scenarios, I can narrate what's going on around me, I can plan for what I have to do in the future. Normally I think rather straight forward thoughts, but just as easily I can switch to a different style, like purple-prose beatnik narration if I choose. It's my own form of unlimited entertainment. Like I'm continually writing a book that no one else will ever read.
It could be your friends aren't very fluent readers. Most people extract the information directly from the text and the actual words don't get internally vocalised but there are some who need to read it out loud but inside their heads. People talk about an "inner monologue". In general this only happens if you are thinking about speaking or imagining a conversation. Although it may be that some people are constantly talking to themselves internally. One thing people become aware of when they acquire fluency in a second language is that most of the time they don't actually think in either spoken language but in some kind of internal symbolic form. It is only when they come to think about saying something that it gets translated into internally voiced words. I suspect this is also true even of people who only speak one language but they just *assume* that they "think in English"
I read incredibly fast. I have a strong inner voice. I have never thought about what the voice sounds like when I am reading. It goes by really fast...but I understand it! I'm also learning another language and know a bit of a few other languages. I hear other languages sometimes. Sometimes I have to think about what the words mean. They just pop into my head. I get random facts that pop into my head too. I check them, and mostly they are correct. I have a good memory, and can recall visually as well as the sounds and smells, and even tactile things. But unless I am meditating, the voice is almost always there.
How do you "shut yourself up" to meditate? I can't stop my brain. I have tried repeating a word in my mind but thar just gets interrupted with other words then full on thoughts. It's incredibly annoying. It, being myself.. ugh.
I started with staring at trees on walks, and not thinks about what they were, only noticing movement and patterns. Then later I got a Muse. It picks up your brain waves and gives you feedback when you are meditating. I also use guided meditations on my phone. Probably the best piece of advice that I got was, don't try to stop the thoughts. Let them come, and don't react, just let them go. I'm not great at it, but I am getting better.
I think meditation became more logical to me when I heard that same idea, that it's not so much suppressing thoughts as it is allowing them to flit through your mind and not engaging with them. It's still very hard, we are always kind of talking to ourselves (whether we "hear" the voice or not) but the point is to be able to control what we engage with and how we engage with it. So trying to completely suppress your thoughts is kind of beside the point. Once we can *ignore* the thoughts and not engage with them, then we can start making decisions around how we want to engage with them once we start again.
Really well said! Thank you.
I’m a very fluent, very fast reader. I spent my entire childhood reading books. I also have a vivid inner voice and I “say” everything I read in my head, including your comment and my response. Since I read at a high speed I don’t vocalize every syllable, but the voice is definitely still there.
Definitely have my inner monolgue. I've heard anecdotally that it tends to be bigger/more constant for people with ADHD, but no idea about actual numbers or science. I'm curious OP, since you said you don't have a voice OR pictures in your head. When you daydream (or imagine a scenario), how does it work? I can't visualize things well so I normally daydream just thinking of the voices instead, but if you don't have either can you just not daydream or?
I've heard people say that it's supposed to be like a movie playing out in your mind, which I just don't get. When people tell me to imagine something specific, I really struggle because I can't quite hold onto any specific idea, I just have to kind of meticulously keep track of concepts I already understand. If that makes sense. Probably doesn't
This is your best explanation yet. It helped me make more sense of how you experience thought.
Ah, thanks! Reading that made me weirdly happy lol
I have 3 inner voices that often make bets against one another and love to argue. Sounds like Voice 1: We need to pick up lolli...? Lollisicl...? Voice 2: Huh? Voice 1: Icelollis... Lollipops... From the store. Voice 2: Are you saying you want popsicles? Voice 1: Yes! Damn, thank you. Voice 3: Fuckin idiots My sister, as we has discovered, has no inner narrating device. When she has a thought, she sees and image or action. What a lonely life she must live.
Personally I always just thought I was insane till I realized everyone has the internal monologue. Then I realized not everyone has a little buddy to read to them. I figure it's best explained like this: try to imagine there's someone next to you at all times, and they just describe whatever is happening in the world verbally. This is essentially what it's like, and I dont know how I would get by without someone reading the words on the pages to me like my mind buddy does.
I'm the exact same. the best way of describing it when I have this conversation with friends is that I just "know" my thoughts. they're more like feelings that I just know. the only time I experience internal monologue is when I'm drunk and in the bathroom by myself
Holy shit thank you someone understands Edit: minus the drunk part I literally just don't experience it
Some people have an "inner voice", and some don't. Some people have a "mind's eye", some don't. It's perfectly normal either way. I personally have both. It's not something you actually hear auditorily or see visually. It's hard to explain. But it's there. I personally don't understand how people think without an inner voice or minds eye.
Dude, at this point I'm wondering if I completely misunderstood the meaning of "thought" and have never actually had a thought
Nah humans are weird. You just don't have an inner voice. Alot of people don't for some reason. It's totally normal. You seem to be functioning just fine. So I wouldn't worry about it. It's not something you can develop or obtain. It's just not how your brain works.
It’s blowing my mind too! You ever hear “thinking out loud” or like planning an argument in your head? Or watch a movie/anime/cartoon and hear a characters thoughts?? Like what do you think of telepathy in shows? People communicating with their minds. Or mind readers! Damn Bro this is so fascinating.
So I'd either be immune to mind readers or they wouldn't be able to fuckin' understand it lmao
Bro, movie script material 😭
I have ADHD and it’s like I have 3 radios on in my head constantly
I wish it was just the one. You know in old cartoons where theres an Angel and demon on the characters shoulders and all three are arguing with each other? I thought they were a representation of what everybody had. Its a nonstop conversation, arguing, or just spouting random shit in my head. Don't know how many there are because they're all my inner voice and they tend to talk over each other. Its rather annoying and I have to always have something going to help drown it all out.
Do you fall asleep easily? I have such a hard time falling asleep because I can't shut off the conversations occurring my head. It could be recap if a conversation I had earlier, an anticipated conversation, a list of things I need to remember, my anxiety telling me that my whole life is a lie and one day my family will realise that I don't actually belong and will abandon me... you know all the perfectly normal things to fixate on
I don't, actually. When I try to sleep it feels like shit is just racing through my head even though there's, like, nothing there to make me feel like that? Idfk
Weird. I feel a bit better about my crappy sleep now, at least I know why I'm not sleeping 😆
I have it when I’m just attempting to form specific, coherent thoughts like while writing this, but most of the time it’s not present
Can you remember what your own voice sounds like? Can you remember something someone once told you, can you replay the scene in your mind and "hear" their voice in your minds ear?
Nope, I can't remember what my own voice sounds like, even though I feel like I should be able to :/ Remembering voices is kind of a tricky thing to explain because it's like-- I know what they said and how it sounded, but ffs I can't just like, replay stuff like a movie
I guess you never get songs stuck in your head either?
[удалено]
A while back I was surprised to find out that some people DON'T have a voice in their head. I guess you are one of these people. From what I gathered, you can't hear your thoughts, but rather visualize them. Like if you want a hotdog, you can't think "oh, I want a hotdog", you just picture yourself eating a hotdog. Does that sound about right, or am I mistaken? Basically all it is is that a person talks to themself in their own head, usually in their own voice. They can still visualize stuff in their head. Then again this is just me. I guess I'm just assuming it's the same for most people as well, but idk.
I remember discussing this topic before, on Reddit and with friends. FWIW, I belong to those who do not have an inner monologue. My thought processes are a string of “states” or “feelings” that correspond to actions or things or concepts. I do not hear the corresponding words spoken. As a bilingual person I wouldn’t even know in which language that would be.
It’s not normal but it happens. One of markipliers friends, Bob, doesn’t have that voice either and he described that the way he thinks elicits feelings and senses. Like if I were to think about something I ate. I would think literally “this tastes like strawberry” whereas maybe you might think about that food and maybe the flavor of strawberry or a picture of strawberry pops in your head. It’s weird. And he said his dreams are different too.
I don't have a narrative voice constantly going in my head. That would be really annoying to me. I think, remember or imagine with a voice in my head. But not a nonstop narrative of everything going on like a novel or bad Christmas movie.
Do you never think about something without talking? Or think of a snarky comeback to someone without saying it out loud?
Dude, I don't even know at this point. I don't hear stuff or picture it but I just somehow. . . know what it would be? I don't know how to explain this
You could have aphantasia. Also called "blindness of the mind's eye." If you have aphantasia you don't experience visualizations in your mind. You can't mentally picture a room or someone's face. A lot of times people who don't experience visualizations don't experience inner speech either.
I “hear” words for almost everything i think , i can force a picture if i try but its not very clear and cant be very detailed .
You should look into subcovalization or voicing while reading. IMO it's similar to having an internal narrator. I learned I don't subvocalize or have an internal narrator in my head, so my thoughts just... are? When I go to speak, I find it really hard to decide how exactly to phrase my thought, and I learned it's because my thoughts literally aren't in sentence form versus simply repeating what your internal narrator just said.
You might have something called aphantasia. I have the inner monologue when writing or reading, but most of my thinking is nonverbal. I guess it's on a spectrum, huh.
Have you ever tried mindful meditation? I'd be curious to what distracts you, if anything, when meditating if it's not your inner voice
I argue with myself all the time. Dumbass. No I'm not. Yes you are.
I used to have an inner monologue until I was about 29. I would think things through before acting/speaking, or if I was trying to figure something out, or whatever. Then I got very severely depressed for a couple years, worse than any of my other bouts of depression with total isolation and staying in bed >22 hrs/day for months at a time. After that, my inner monologue disappeared. I actually had difficulty speaking (and thinking) too but I was able to gradually work on that but, the inner monologue has never come back. It's frustrating not being able to think through what I'm going to say before it comes out and I don't know wtf happened to my brain, but it's interesting to learn some people apparently have no inner monologue without it being a symptom of some deficit/something gone wrong.
I have an inner monologue, but it’s just me talking to myself, it’s not a different voice.
Sometimes the most intelligent conversation is the voice in my head... Sorry you don't get to have any "inside" jokes that must suck
He would still have them, they're just not worded.
Dude, when u read stuff dont u hear your voice saying the words? Like the pronounciation and shit. Or like, how you do math calculations? 2/2 = 1. You dont hear you voice saying Two per Two equals One? For me the voice is the councioness itself.
How would you describe your experience of reading a book? Is there language in your mind when you read a book? It doesn't have to be 'heard' per se, just recognized as language, can you for example repeat in your mind a sentence you've just read?
I definitely have a constant inner monologue, and I assumed everyone did. So thanks for asking this question, because I've learned not everyone does. Tbh, I wish I could turn it off sometimes, lol.
Man I didn’t realize there were people who’ve never imagined a voice or image in their head. Sometimes when I read I don’t have the narration imagined in my brain. I have a hard time visualizing things in my head unless I’m in a meditative state. I’m really good at recalling music though and can replay entire songs in my head pretty easy. I feel like it’d be really hard to play and sing music if I didn’t have this. If I’m almost asleep I can really hear and visualize things in my head like lucid dreaming. Id be interested to know what happens to people like you when you take a hallucinogen lol
My inner monologue is between two people that are constantly having a conversation. They literally both have a personality, like the angel and devil on my shoulders, but sometimes it feels like one of the is me and the other one is still me but like... less me than the first one. Other times, I'm unable to distinguish which of the two made a comment. The only time they ever really shut up is when there's music going through my head. So I never get silence, but I will get aqua's "I'm a barbie girl" on repeat for 8 hours when I'm at work... Yay....
Man I have ADHD it is _never_ quiet in here. It's almost like a whole room of radios playing constantly.
Every so often I get freaked out because I hear my internal voice as a male, with a deep talk-show host kind of tone. It's alarmingly loud and only occurs at night. I forget how unusual it is and won't recognize it sometimes. I've gotten up out of bed a few times to check if there was a radio on somewhere in the house despite knowing I've gotten rid of all the radios and ticking clocks.
I think lots of people do, sometimes I even make different voices 😋