Do you have an inner monologue

[AngerDanger]

Both, I guess.

I have feelings and desires and am then impelled to articulate them before verbalizing them. If I try really hard, I can go from one thought to the next before articulating, but it feels like supressing a sneeze. For the most part it's a running monologue.

Isn't this essentially like not having a conscious? Or a diminished one?

I don't think so. It's not like we're super concerned with where our monologues comes from, so I don't know why it'd be all that different if our monologues were generated verbally instead of internally.

Gotta wonder if our decendants will ever read this study in an histisotical archive and be like, "Wait, there are people without pre-inner-monologues that just thought the first thing that popped into their minds?!"

 

[LizKat]

Don't we naturally tend to feel first and then think?

In theory humans don't seem to reliably apply judgment to impulses or other feelings until our brains have finished basic development sometime in our mid-20s. That doesn't explain much about why some of us never seem to get there, or why some of us spend so much time in interior dialogue arguing for or against ever having a good time at all. 😻

 

[Septembersrain]

Don't we naturally tend to feel first and then think?

In theory humans don't seem to reliably apply judgment to impulses or other feelings until our brains have finished basic development sometime in our mid-20s. That doesn't explain much about why some of us never seem to get there, or why some of us spend so much time in interior dialogue arguing for or against ever having a good time at all.

Mine is a mental illness. I never shy away from this fact. I fight stigma. Anxiety and depression cause your inner voice to be quite hostile at times. It's unnerving and also in direct conflict with itself.

For example my anxiety may tell me that it needs to be busy. I must clean, no time to waste. Things to do. Yet my depression may counter with it's not worth it. It'll just get dirty again and you'll still have anxiety anyways.

 

[LizKat]

Mine is a mental illness. I never shy away from this fact. I fight stigma. Anxiety and depression cause your inner voice to be quite hostile at times. It's unnerving and also in direct conflict with itself.

For example my anxiety may tell me that it needs to be busy. I must clean, no time to waste. Things to do. Yet my depression may counter with it's not worth it. It'll just get dirty again and you'll still have anxiety anyways.

It is a struggle to deal with alternating depression and anxiety... been there, have had to work hard sometimes not to get back there. Our human feelings are always valid but it can be really difficult to apply rational brakes on them sometimes... even when we're aware that how we feel should probably not be guiding decisions to act.

Sometimes I just throw up my hands and visualize putting my addled head on a shelf to chill out for awhile... and in the meantime I go get some exercise. It doesn't resolve my indecision when that is caused by conflicting feelings, but it gets some oxygen into my brain and distracts me from the idea that I even have "to decide" about whatever I'm conflicted over. Once in awhile I realize a decision is not necessary because it doesn't matter whether I choose this, that or stay parked at the fork in the road. After all how much can it matter whether I put the blue fabrics away this afternoon or leave them out in case I might want to paw through some of them again tomorrow for some other project I'm working on....

I admire you for working so hard to retain and/or regain better functionality and comfort inside your own self. It's not easy, even if sometimes our ability to get there just arrives again with a next morning or evening, --and mysteriously at that. It would be so great if that could show up along with some explanation of how we got there... something we can tuck away and consult again when it would come in handy!

 

[Huntn]

The majority of everything I think about is accompanied by my inner voice, which sounds like my voice but at a whisper. The origination of the thought is silent, and if it is a trip to the store, likely a visualization of the store, or its name and a verbalized list of items to purchase will be mentioned at least once.

For motor skills like driving my stick shift Fiat or Miata, no talking about the mechanics of driving or directions (Shift up, turn left, etc).

When playing a video game, mostly no inner talking making tactical and strategic decisions, unless I am communicating or lamenting about the stupid players on my team.

 

[Gutwrench]

I hate everyone and not on speaking terms with anyone — including myself.

I used to read in pictures. Reading was so enjoyable. Anymore I drag my finger across the page and move my lips.

 

[LizKat]

I hate everyone and not on speaking terms with anyone — including myself.

I used to read in pictures. Reading was so enjoyable. Anymore I drag my finger across the page and move my lips.

Your alter ego for interior monologues is akin to King Don.

Your regular persona reads poetry of Mary Oliver and stuff like bios of Churchill, so...

So as they say in back alleys of Sesame Street... "you are messed up!"

 

[Gutwrench]

Your alter ego for interior monologues is akin to King Don.

Your regular persona reads poetry of Mary Oliver and stuff like bios of Churchill, so...

So as they say in back alleys of Sesame Street... "you are messed up!"

Mary Oliver rules! Henry Wadsworth Longfellow drools.

 

[LizKat]

Mary Oliver rules! Henry Wadsworth Longfellow drools.

LOL !!

How about Samuel Taylor Coleridge....

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is actually a ripping good read.... with a moral one can sensibly derive from it: never kill an albatross if it decides to light on your sailing vessel.

 

[Gutwrench]

LOL !!

How about Samuel Taylor Coleridge....

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is actually a ripping good read.... with a moral one can sensibly derive from it: never kill an albatross if it decides to light on your sailing vessel.

Indeed, my friend. You are tastefully well read. One of my all time favorites is by Coleridge.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man

 

[LizKat]

Indeed, my friend. You are tastefully well read. One of my all time favorites is by Coleridge.

I was fortunate, as was one of my brothers, to have a particular English teacher in our high school who taught us as he might have taught college students. He really turned us on to poetry, by reading it aloud in class and having us learn to read it that way too. A lot of kids our age at that time apparently just got told to read certain poems for homework and then to show up for what seemed like dry discussions of it in class. Anyway several Coleridge poems surely affected anyone who listened to that guy read them aloud. A public high school too... "those were the days..."

 

[Septembersrain]

I hate everyone and not on speaking terms with anyone — including myself.

I used to read in pictures. Reading was so enjoyable. Anymore I drag my finger across the page and move my lips.

I had a psychologist tell me that I'm misanthropic. I don't know why I've got such feelings towards myself and others. I fight myself daily with pessimism as well.

I am at least honest with this.

My internal struggle feels like a war. The voice inside my head never seems to be as rational as I'd like. I've learned to say and act in ways that are opposite from what my natural reaction would be.

I suppose extreme abuse as a child and bad influences set the tone. Now it's up to me to do better than the nurture or lack thereof left me with.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I talk with myself all the time, but not as a second person, as one person thinking. I have a lot going on in my head so I always had to write it down to keep from getting stressed. Kept masses of handwritten journals as a kid growing up. Now, I use Day One to output what is in my head - I have thousands and thousands of entries (quite a few are more than 4 pages, some 15 pages).

I find if I don’t empty my thoughts down on paper I get really depressed unable to handle what life throws at me. I guess it really isn’t a monologue as much as it is thinking out loud and processing it as it happens (kinda like this post).

Yes, it does freak me out to find out that people think differently than I do. But I’ve found this to be a point of interest... finding out why people think they way they do can be a very interesting adventure. Too often we find someone not agreeing with us being a point of conflict instead of trying to find out why they do things a certain way. I’ve had to learn to do this with my wife.

I can’t imagine someone not having an inner self to process thoughts with. It is how one grows, no?

 

[MacNut]

My inner monologue is what keeps me sane.

 

[chown33]

My inner monologue is what keeps me sane.

That's what they all say.

 

[LizKat]

For motor skills like driving my stick shift Fiat or Miata, no talking about the mechanics of driving or directions (Shift up, turn left, etc).

Yeah with behavior long since relegated to motor memory, it's good not to let the mind try to address it anew. If I start thinking about how to braid my hair, tie shoelaces or even walk up a flight of stairs, I'm likely to mess up.

Professional musicians often have at least one horror story about being in concert and suddenly thinking about rather than feeling what they're playing --without sheet music-- and being unable to continue. Sometimes they can relax and let motor memory find the way forward. But it's also possible to panic and be unable to stop trying mentally to chase something down in visual memory of a score they haven't laid eyes on in 20-40 years.

I saw something like that nearly happen to Sviatoslav Richter in a San Francisco concert once, somehow lost his place in the monumental fugue of Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata. He wandered around for a few essentially improvised bars before getting back on track... it was surely as nerve-wracking for anyone in the audience who knew the piece (or had a score of the thing with them) as it was for him trying to quit thinking and let motor memory take the reins again. There are times when a conscious interior monologue is a hazard for sure.

 

[TheJollyHatter]

I stumbled upon this article and got me thinking.
People Are Weirded Out To Discover That Some People Don't Have An Internal Monologue



I think the majority of people do have an inner monologue, i.e., an internal voice.

To get the ball rolling, I have an internal voice that is no different then my vocal voice. All joking aside, I find myself in having conversations internally as I debate a given decision.

Well it looks like I am the only one on here that isn't a freak haha. You all hear voices in your heads and think that is normal? Charles Manson heard voices too.
Joking aside, I only found out yesterday that my girlfriend has an inner monologue so I asked what that was and it proper freaked me out. I cannot comprehend how you get by in life with your brain chattering and wittering away to itself....it would drive me insane. I'm so fascinated by this all now.

 

[TheJollyHatter]

I'm not really sure what it's like, or how to do it justice with a description. They said they sort of feel different emotions and picture things/actions, rather than think in words.

It's more like the brain works stuff out behind the scenes and transfers it to thoughts and speech when done. If I think really deep I can observe the process happening but i can't access it...it just does all the decision making away from my outwardly concious mind. If it wasn't happening like you guys say it does then how do you think properly without these thoughts getting in the way? It's all baffling to me how you live like that haha

 

[Huntn]

Well it looks like I am the only one on here that isn't a freak haha. You all hear voices in your heads and think that is normal? Charles Manson heard voices too.
Joking aside, I only found out yesterday that my girlfriend has an inner monologue so I asked what that was and it proper freaked me out. I cannot comprehend how you get by in life with your brain chattering and wittering away to itself....it would drive me insane. I'm so fascinated by this all now.

It is your brain basically turning thoughts into words as you work through your life. As I said in my previous post, it does not happen for every thought, just some applications.

Question, when you read a book or any type written word, are you saying that there is no voice, even the most barely perceptible voice reading the words in your head? For myself this is especially important when I am composing a reply like this one to make sure it is composed the way I intend it to be.

In some long involved writing, I will read what I’ve written out loud, because sometimes when I read it in my head, I skip over or miss important punctuation errors.

And for books that I read, the really good ones, the words are accompanied by a visualization as if I am watching a movie...in my head.

For those of you with inner monologues, try reading and tell me if you can read a sentence without hearing it being pronounced in your head. I’m trying to do this as I type and so far no luck.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I was fortunate, as was one of my brothers, to have a particular English teacher in our high school who taught us as he might have taught college students. He really turned us on to poetry, by reading it aloud in class and having us learn to read it that way too. A lot of kids our age at that time apparently just got told to read certain poems for homework and then to show up for what seemed like dry discussions of it in class. Anyway several Coleridge poems surely affected anyone who listened to that guy read them aloud. A public high school too... "those were the days..."

As a teacher, there is no better feeling than knowing that you have somehow connected wth, or inspired, or opened, a kid's mind to whole new areas of knowledge.

Yeah with behavior long since relegated to motor memory, it's good not to let the mind try to address it anew. If I start thinking about how to braid my hair, tie shoelaces or even walk up a flight of stairs, I'm likely to mess up.

Professional musicians often have at least one horror story about being in concert and suddenly thinking about rather than feeling what they're playing --without sheet music-- and being unable to continue. Sometimes they can relax and let motor memory find the way forward. But it's also possible to panic and be unable to stop trying mentally to chase something down in visual memory of a score they haven't laid eyes on in 20-40 years.

I saw something like that nearly happen to Sviatoslav Richter in a San Francisco concert once, somehow lost his place in the monumental fugue of Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata. He wandered around for a few essentially improvised bars before getting back on track... it was surely as nerve-wracking for anyone in the audience who knew the piece (or had a score of the thing with them) as it was for him trying to quit thinking and let motor memory take the reins again. There are times when a conscious interior monologue is a hazard for sure.

In my schooldays, and undergrad days, when I cycled a lot, I remember an unsettling feeling of wobbling on my bicycle when a similar realisation (how am I still balanced and moving on this inherently unstable vehicle?) crossed my mind.

 

[Huntn]

Yeah with behavior long since relegated to motor memory, it's good not to let the mind try to address it anew. If I start thinking about how to braid my hair, tie shoelaces or even walk up a flight of stairs, I'm likely to mess up.

Professional musicians often have at least one horror story about being in concert and suddenly thinking about rather than feeling what they're playing --without sheet music-- and being unable to continue. Sometimes they can relax and let motor memory find the way forward. But it's also possible to panic and be unable to stop trying mentally to chase something down in visual memory of a score they haven't laid eyes on in 20-40 years.

I saw something like that nearly happen to Sviatoslav Richter in a San Francisco concert once, somehow lost his place in the monumental fugue of Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata. He wandered around for a few essentially improvised bars before getting back on track... it was surely as nerve-wracking for anyone in the audience who knew the piece (or had a score of the thing with them) as it was for him trying to quit thinking and let motor memory take the reins again. There are times when a conscious interior monologue is a hazard for sure.

That’s probably why when watching a typical orchestra, they have their sheet music up and are flipping those pages, just in case.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Sometimes, that inner voice can deliver the exact same message - at different times - in a number of strikingly different tones:

1. That wasn't especially clever, now, was it? (Somewhat sarcastic but rather resigned).

2. Now, that was pretty stupid. (A statement of fact).

3. 10 out of 10 for sheer, surpassing, intelligence. (Seriously sarcastic).

 

[jkcerda]

I stumbled upon this article and got me thinking.
People Are Weirded Out To Discover That Some People Don't Have An Internal Monologue



I think the majority of people do have an inner monologue, i.e., an internal voice.

To get the ball rolling, I have an internal voice that is no different then my vocal voice. All joking aside, I find myself in having conversations internally as I debate a given decision.

not only do I have one, when I get creative I ask in English & hear the answer in Spanish ..
I had EPIC battles in the shower against my PRSI friends and WON ALL of them of course.......... God I miss that area.......

 

[Huntn]

Sometimes, that inner voice can deliver the exact same message - at different times - in a number of strikingly different tones:

1. That wasn't especially clever, now, was it? (Somewhat sarcastic but rather resigned).

2. Now, that was pretty stupid. (A statement of fact).

3. 10 out of 10 for sheer, surpassing, intelligence. (Seriously sarcastic).

It is as if it would be something that could easily be voiced out loud, for your own benefit, but instead you keep it to yourself. I would not be surprised that the more one is alone, the more one verbalizes their thoughts out loud as an illusion of not being so alone.

 

[jkcerda]

Yes, it's always running and I can't mute it either. I asked some people at work today and about 50% said they did not, which sort of blew my mind.

I bet their inner voice told them that so the loony mobile would not show up to take them to the happy place
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I talk with myself all the time, but not as a second person, as one person thinking. I have a lot going on in my head so I always had to write it down to keep from getting stressed. Kept masses of handwritten journals as a kid growing up. Now, I use Day One to output what is in my head - I have thousands and thousands of entries (quite a few are more than 4 pages, some 15 pages).

I find if I don’t empty my thoughts down on paper I get really depressed unable to handle what life throws at me. I guess it really isn’t a monologue as much as it is thinking out loud and processing it as it happens (kinda like this post).

Yes, it does freak me out to find out that people think differently than I do. But I’ve found this to be a point of interest... finding out why people think they way they do can be a very interesting adventure. Too often we find someone not agreeing with us being a point of conflict instead of trying to find out why they do things a certain way. I’ve had to learn to do this with my wife.

I can’t imagine someone not having an inner self to process thoughts with. It is how one grows, no?

I talk to myself every time I need and expert opinion in the matter. ..........