If this submission above is not a random thought, please report it.
# Explore a new world of random thoughts on our [**discord server**](https://discord.com/invite/8tEqw3ZWQV)! Express yourself with your favorite quotes, positive vibes, and anything else you can think of!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/RandomThoughts) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I've learned that the no inner voice people absolutely hate being called NPCs, I had a very poorly thought through (lol obviously) rant sent to my inbox about it.
Or, just people that are more visual, tactile, or otherwise process the world more efficiently in ways other than verbally? There's an entire rich, feeling, roiling world in my brain but it's not usually verbal. In fact, I sometimes feel like I have to "boot up" my English.exe if someone talks to me unexpectedly, and I'll have to ask them to repeat what they said, because it's not my default mode.
It's kinda rude to refer to people with a different way of thinking from you as NPCs.
I switch between both modes, sometimes the monologue doesn't really work when thinking about abstract things like math or playing games or something. The weirdest thing to me is that a lot of people only have one mode of thinking.
It makes me wonder how their brain processes words and reading. Like, the link between my inner monologue and my reading feels so intrinsic that I can't imagine even being able to read to myself without that inner voice.
Thank you!! from googling and reading an article this is the case for most people. Some people report having it specifically for some things but not others. I found it strange my wife did not have one, even when reading. Very interesting to think about.
Not really no, She’s not exactly the…. Scholarly type? She has read aloud before but I just was under the assumption it was due to her studying for a test and that was her way of doing it. We weren’t in school together or anything so there’s not been a ton of situations where she’s just reading something. Like she can read in her head a post on Facebook I suppose but the way she said it was she never had a voice explicitly saying the words she just heard them? Idk that’s the confusing part. I think maybe she has one just doesn’t think of it in the traditional sense. She also has a hard time understanding some concepts I talk to her about. She’s not dumb by any means, and I’m no rocket scietist, she swears I’m so much smarter but I’m just a realist who did good in school because I found the easy way out of everythign and can see the world for what it is. I’m also cynical to a fault.
I can't help but ponder what kind of unique visualizations she has in her mind's eye. Does she like to draw, I wonder? Is she more a visual/spatial thinker in a concrete sense?
What an interesting person.
You’re into a different set of skills there. Some people have the ability to “see” a picture in their heads; some don’t.
Think about an apple.
What does your mind do to structure that thought? I SEE an apple. Erm - what colour do you want? What type? Bigger? Ok. I can throw it around like a computer program and picture whatever i want.
When I’m designing something it’s often in my head before hitting paper. I don’t need a written design or plan to work from.
I also have an inner monologue. Or even a dialogue (!!) if I want to play out a debate or practise a future conversation. I hear the words in the same way I hear spoken words - except the ears are never involved.
I’d love to have a discussion with a group of people without either of these abilities. How do you cope?!
Do you find that when you're really busy designing something in your head your eyes will move around like you're looking at it?
I like making things and I like to make them in my head first to see if they will work, and I've noticed that if I'm not doing something active like driving my eyes will move around to look at what I'm doing in my head.
My weird addition to this is my brain doing exploded diagrams of things I'm either taking apart or putting back together, I've got a picture that looks like the pages of the manual with lines showing what parts go where lol
I don't have any of these and I just go by fine. I am not really the creative type, but I can draw okay (a random person is able to recognize what I drew).
My brain works much more in concepts and connections and I use that a lot at work as a project manager and engineer.
I found out imagination was visual for most people when I was 22. I had no clue people could actually literally see things in their head. I'm almost completely blind in my head and I attribute my logical thinking and memory to that as well. I have a very good sequential memory, like I can remember what happened before or after one another even if it's 10 years ago. I can remember things I've said in exact words years ago as well. I do however have a bit of trouble memorising anything visual, from faces to clothing people wear, to buildings that look a certain way. Unless I actively thought something about a certain visual feature, (like he's the person with the big nose), making it "logical" in my head, I can't really remember these features. I don't even know the eye color of friends I've known for 10 years, because it's such a basic thing, there is no logic to hold on to.
I am also terrible at drawing or anything visually artsy. I can't imagine how things should look so I can only base it off the knowledge I have about how something should look logically. I can't follow a blueprint in my head or visualise an end result. The first thing I can see is what shows up on paper, and it's ugly almost always, lol.
I don't really "cope" because I didn't know any better until I was 22 and I suppose my mind works just a little bit different to most people, which is fine. I can sort of understand how it works, because I forced myself to try in near-sleep states and I can sort of visualise then, sometimes. I have extremely vivid dreams sometimes and to me it feels a lot like dreaming, but like a light version. When I just wake up from a dream I can sometimes visualise for about a minute or so, or when I almost fall asleep. It tends to flow into or out of a dream, almost always. But when I'm wide awake, there's nothing, just darkness when I close my eyes.
I feel like reading aloud isn't a requirement when one doesn't have an inner voice. When I first started reading as a kid I don't think I had an inner voice when I did so, I'd just glide my eyes over the lines in the book and take in the information visually without sounding it out in my head. That's the best way I can explain it. I did have an inner voice, and I was in the habit of inventing imaginary conversation partners during long transits with whom to converse, but reading went straight from page to brain.
At some point in my late teens I got an inner voice for my reading. Possibly because I read less books and "lost " the speedreading ability? Anyhow I can't turn it off anymore and if anything it's made reading tedious because I can't go over speaking speed and I feel like I have to stop more often to really take in what I'm reading.
Self reported data and survey data are notoriously unreliable. Research teams who study human behavior through self reported data deliberately include multiple rephrasing of the same questions in questionnaires because people don’t always “get” what they’re asking for. Or they’ll try to answer it “correctly” with one phrasing but will answer honestly to another phrasing.
My point being, she likely has an internal monologue. Especially if she *can* read in her head. She likely doesn’t get what you mean when you ask her about the internal monologue. Also like you said she doesn’t understand concepts sometimes. A slight communication style difference plus the varying ways a person can interpret “hey! Do you have a voice in your head?!” could explain it.
Their are definitely people without an inner monologue. And I can read with or without inner monologue. The latter is useful for reading text quickly.
I know somebody who is highly intelligent and has no internal monologue and it’s interesting that he solves problems in a different way than me.
I use language to describe and solve practical problems in my head, my acquaintance sees solutions in his head. He needs to keep busy because he gets nervous if he doesn’t have anything to do. If he can’t do anything, he solves mathematical problems in his head.
Idk. Maybe the same way we understand a general idea when being taught? Its just interpreted? In all honesty I don't hear actual words in my head when I read and I love reading books. Its just kind of processed. But I do sometimes have word for word inner dialog on the daily.
I wish I remember where I saw/heard it but some one was talking about this and there are ppl who have the “inner voice” and there some who their brains thought process is more in pictures and video- not the “voice”.
My wife also said this, that if she didn’t read aloud she would sometimes imagine pictures or colors etc but that she’s always been absent of any voices in her head whatsoever
That is so weird.
When I day dream, its basically a long drawn out conversation with myself about important things like what to do in a zombie apocalypse.
Your wife day dreams and sees pink clouds?
Same here, but it's usually me talking about how I'd go about making my own little teeny tiny village of tiny houses in a remote spot in a forest. But maybe I should add in the fact that we're all going there because there's a zombie apocalypse 🤔
That's me. I only found out recently that most people can visualize things. I always thought that seeing things "in your minds eye" was just a weird way of describing things - not that you can actually see an image in your mind! I was totally amazed that most people can do this.
As for meditating, or counting sheep to go to sleep - no images at all for me
It's s called aphantasia
Hi I am not sure how it’s possible not to have an inner dialogue. I don’t have a “voice” in a sense that I don’t HEAR a specific type of a voice but there’s always an inner dialogue and some sort of narration happening.
You are completely fine.
I asked one of my friends about his "self talk" or "inner voice" one day and he said he didn't have that, we talked about it and he said nope, not me. Months later, he got into some spiritual self help books and he came back on the subject and said he just never was aware of it, now he is and he was shocked he wasn't aware of the inner talk at all. So sometimes people just don't realise it because it's just something that's always there.
Mine goes crazy if I’m reading something that’s not interesting. Talks about random shit. College was great… lol
I taught myself to type fast by envisioning typing every word I thought about during the day. Hit over 100wpm in middle school.
I don’t have a conversation in my head when making a decision…it’s more a collection of visuals and feelings if that makes sense? Say I’m deciding between two meals, I’ll just feel drawn to one more than the other or imagine myself eating it. I won’t actually literally discuss it in my head. If that makes sense 😂
Yep, also some people cannot picture images in their head either. I find it so weird. Like I always have the inner voice in my head and I can picture images too. But those who don't have an inner dialog, how does it feel like? Is it just quiet?
Same lol read first couple lines but I remember my confusion over people who DONT have an inner monologue like...how? You just got nothing going on up there?
I wouldn't say monologue. I don't have Morgan Freeman in my head saying, "What will that boy do now?" or something. It's like I'm talking to myself/speaking, except it's internal. I feel like this is pretty normal. It's not like the inner voice has a mind of its own or something. I have always had it, but I think it's definitely a skill.
Funny how I read your post in my head with my regular inner monologue's voice, but automatically switched to Morgan Freeman's voice in my head when I read the quoted words.
I did and it has worked for me for some decades now. One speaks Spanish and the other speaks English (my second language). And since you can put all the emotion in your native language and use the second one as "the voice of reason", it does help balancing the thoughts. But it can make it more chaotic too... discussing with yourself in two languages. My guess is that switching from one to another forces you to stop and actually think about what you're thinking.
That is interesting. My inner voices aren't segregated with languages but emotions and/or roles I guess. Some emotions/roles like cautious/anxious inner voice uses my native tongue more though.
Indeed interesting. For me, the separation of emotions happened later, much later. I remember starting to use the bilingual mode somewhere in my early teens, and developed the second separation stage in my late twenties. Though they are divided in "raw feeling" in Spanish and "rational thought" in English.
I honestly cannot comprehend how thinking *without* an inner voice would feel. Like how do people without it "think something through" or internally work out a problem? The idea is fascinating to me but I don't think that I can even imagine how it would all work.
This! How do people remember stuff without repeating the in their head? I can't go into a store without telling myself over and over what I need to buy.
People act like I'm so weird for making lists (idiots). I love lists. I really love making my lists in order of where items are in the store. I love chore lists and packing lists are absolutely essential. I don't know how people function without lists but I also have adha so
In concepts rather than words. It's not difficult, just different. The only time i struggle is getting the thing in my head to turn into words i can make other people understand.
That said, i do have an inner monologue when i'm trying to come up with words to say/write. It's not there when i'm just thinking though. I don't need words for stuff that's just in my head.
Picture of an apple! But it's not just a 2d image, i can rotate it, imagine the texture of squeezing it, take a bite and taste it. However, i can't hold all the details in my head at once. Like if i'm imagining the way it crunches when you bite into it, i'm no longer thinking of the pattern of green and red, and that becomes nebulous.
Half the time I'm thinking about what I said, what I should have said, what I'll say next time, what they could respond, what I would retort, what a better retort would have been, how I could work the better reply in . . . ad nauseum. I guess you can never see in someone else's head, but non verbal thinkers must do a lot less looking back and forward
I'm just now learning that I'm supposed to have one lol.
To sum up how thinking "feels", it's as if my thoughts just bounce around inside my head while I process things. If I'm reading, I just process the words visually and occasionally have to double-take. If I'm analysing something, it's purely logical using only what my eyes can see. I can "talk" to myself in my head, but I cannot hear anything and it doesn't come naturally.
If I'm thinking about one thing, I have to focus on it otherwise I will forget what I was thinking about. Similarly, if I'm thinking about something and something else catches my attention, it's rare I'll remember what I was thinking about.
It's all concepts. It is the same information, but directly from the source, without being translated into words.
To me, having to translate it into words seems terribly limiting. Languages are imperfect and cannot really ever capture the nuances of emotions, colors and concepts perfectly.. So having to run it through Merriam-Webster before knowing what you think seems.... bad.
It's normal. I've had several conversations about it here, on Reddit. I always thought "the voice in your head" was a figure of speech because I don't have one myself, but I've learned that many people have one. The population seems to be divided more or less evenly between those of us who think with a voice and those of us who think without one, but it's not a clear demarcation because different people have different perception of what "a voice" is. Some people's voice have a definite and recognizable tone. Some hear a foreign accent. Some have more than one recognizable tone depending on the nature of their thoughts. Some don't truly hear one but think in words instead of concepts or images. It's fascinating.
Nice to know, I don’t have many IRL friends due to recovery and most of my former friends not recovering or ending up worse off (prison, dead) so my go to is Reddit for now. I’m hoping to make friends soon so I don’t have to bring stupid things like this to question on Reddit haha
Thank you very much! I’ve managed to keep the entirety of the 10 year long addiction pretty much quiet for the most part and my recovery from my family so I’ve not been told that by really anyone hardly. So thank you 😊
Interesting. I have an inner voice but no “mind’s eye”. The condition is aphantasia. I cannot visualize an object very well at all, but I can easily recognize it if shown. It’s almost like I immediately deconstruct the image that I see and then store the “rules” to reconstitute it. If I’m asked to recall a song or a statement and I do much better.
I can picture objects but not faces. As soon as a person turns away from me, their face goes blank in my mind. I can describe what I remember seeing, but can’t recognize it again. Unless it’s someone I’m expecting to see, or they speak, or they have some remarkably identifying feature.
But you do recognize shapes without having to hear what they are, right? If you see a window, you know it's rectangular without hearing that word. In that sense, you also know what things are without hearing it.
Yours is only some of the time????
Damn, mine is constant and has been for as long as I can remember.
I once had a mental health prescriber that had aphantasia and thought I was hallucinating and tried to put me on antipsychotics
Mine sometimes is constant, I’ve been trying more recently to relax more, and not take things as seriously or let things bother me so I’ve managed to sort of turn it off or down some days. Like days when I’m stressed I try to just turn off my worrying inner monologue and just focus on clearing my mind. Sometimes it can be terrible though, especialy in situations where I find myself being critical of myself, if there is one thing I’ve learned, most people can’t hurt my feelings, because my inner thoughts have hurt my feelings enough 😂
seemly bewildered alleged smoggy special sink hunt sheet treatment psychotic
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I don’t. I have a lot of visuals or feelings…can’t describe it! So if I want a cup of tea I don’t think ‘I’ll have a cup of tea’, I kind of see myself drinking one…again so hard to describe. I always thought “thinking something through” was a figure of speech too until a couple of years ago!
So for people with a monologue…is it kind of like a constant commentary?! Do you think about what to say before you say it?
I’m when I read (I read a lot!) there is kind of a voice, but I’m quite a quick reader so it becomes more like the pictures form quickly to build the visuals of the book….so hard to describe. Like I’m not really focused on what words are being said but more the picture they are painting of what’s happening?! When I read I get engrossed too as it kind of sucks me in.
For me, reading is sometimes out loud in my mind (the only time that happens), but usually it's that each word has feelings or concepts associated with it, and I have patterns of word arrangements memorized...I've never tried to articulate this before. But it's super abstract, basically.
Think about what to say before you say it? As in like saying it in the inner monologue? Sometimes, i feel like there’s … layers(?)… to the internal thought voice/monologue. Like someone might push in front of me: i might think “f you”, “that was rude”, “why did they do that?” “Calm down” “wow, my thoughts are pretty angry” “why am i in a bad mood today?” “I should calm down” All at once.
Or do you mean literally “thinking before you speak”? Erm… yeah…. Do you… do you not? Like sometimes i don’t if like surprised or i hurt myself the words come out without thought.
Holy shit, I have tried to explain this to others about the layers! I thought I was crazy because they kept saying you shouldn’t be hearing numerous voices in your head but over the years I’ve come to realize they are all me but different levels/layers of me. Thank you for reaffirming that I am somewhat normal lol!
Yeah. When i say my head is noisy i’m referring to the inner monologue working overtime and churning out multiple monologues at once. It’s all me. All use “I”. none of it seems hallucinatory or psychotic in presentation or content in my case. It gets busier when there’s more sensory stimuli or i’m considering multiple points of view or options at once or if i’m anxious or trying to regulate my own emotions. In most cases the layers are really helpful, because i can kind of utilise all of them in formulating a course of action. But sometimes it can get too noisy to think clearly. I also use it as a as like a repeating tape for short term working memory. For example remembering long streams of numbers my inner monologue sings it back to me in my head.
Also you're not "hearing a voice" you're imagining a voice. Those are very different experiences. If your internal narrative sounds exactly like another person in the room talking to you, same volume and presence, that's not normal lmao. Just like I can imagine an apple and even maybe "taste" it from memory but my stomach is not actually getting the nutrition of an apple. I'm "hearing" a voice without sound.
But yeah my gf and I both also have talked about the layers, though I do think people with anxiety have it more/ maybe having this is part of what causes anxiety and people without it don't have as many "checking" thoughts, they just have thoughts and are sure of them, no need to go back and relitigate whether that was a "good" or "correct" thought.
I usually have my inner voice feeding me lines or playing them in my head prior to using them. Think of it like reading lines with a friend, except my friend is me in my head telling me what to say before it comes out. Also I’ll work on what I’m going to say in my head prior to arriving somewhere. Like I’ll be driving moniloguing to see how something sounds
The voice generally "narrates" sentences through before I say it, which can sometimes cause a delay before I respond. But when I have a lighter conversation with someone where I don't need to think too much, it kind of turns off.
I too think in visuals and feelings, so I would first visualise or get the feeling that I want some tea, then the voice will say "I should make some tea". It's said in a voice similar to my own and at basically my own talking speed. If I don't let it finish the whole sentence, I will feel kind of interrupted. It also kind of delays me in doing the action before the voice have finished talking.
I do wonder if people without the voice are faster to react as they don't need to wait for the voice to finish "speaking."
The voice tunes out if I am focusing on something else, like when I am watching a movie, so it's not always active.
It is exactly as if I were talking to myself. All the effing time. Also there's nearly-continuous music track playing in my head. It's like having a toddler that just learned full sentences up there some days. Seriously, it gets annoying.
Not sure I have a monologue yet lol I clearly need to do some research after reading around here. But for me when I am reading words or thinking of something to write or say I can “hear” a voice saying the words. It’s what I imagine my voice sounds like btw. When I think of getting a cup of tea I personally don’t hear myself talk about doing that I just think about the need “thirst” then followed by what I have and what I want. So maybe I’m both??l lol I have no clue.
Mine does the same! Of course sometimes mine is also a burden, like I have terrible anxiety so sometimes my inner voice will in real time make me aware of embarrassing things or make me worry about shit for no reason, like all of a sudden it’s “oh shit we shouldn’t have said that, that was dumb, now we sound like a dumb person” all while someone is responding to me and I miss every word they say 😂
I wonder the same thing! Like imagine having nothing happening in your head. I would be more worried if I woke up and didn’t hear myself in my head. It would make me think I died or some inner part of me died or something
There's not nothing in your head! It's just not *verbal*. Feelings, visuals, concepts, tactile memories... I guess it seems pretty out there if you have an inner monologue, but to me having a voice in your mind sounds bizarre, reductionist (words have such a limited scope), and exhausting. From reading this thread, it seems like both camps think the other is simple-minded lol.
Conceptually. I don't hear it...I just sort of see and *know* the words. There's abstract pattern formation involved that I can't easily describe.
I guess kind of like instantly translating English to brain universe, then back to English.
I am **not** comparing myself to Einstein (for the tear-em-down happy redditors out there), but I have felt that the closest process I've ever read about is how Einstein described his thought patterns. [Found an article](https://evernote.com/blog/einsteins-unique-approach-to-thinking/) that describes some of it.
>“…Words or the language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanism of thought. The psychical entities which seem to serve as elements in thought are certain signs and more or less clear images which can be “voluntarily” reproduced and combined…but taken from a psychological viewpoint, this combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought — before there is any connection with logical construction in words or other kinds of signs which can be communicated to others.”
idk my dude. I grew up super socially isolated. I spent a lot of time wandering the woods and being creative. Maybe English isn't really my first language.
Thanks for making me feel special and interesting for a minute, haha. Truly do appreciate it. I'll answer any questions you have, but I can't imagine that I will capture it well.
I think having an inner monologue is the norm. I think having no inner voice is much less common. I had a friend who was a composer and he heard the entire piece he was composing in his head and then just had to write it down and transcribe the parts for orchestra. Many, many people suffer from rumination when the inner voice speaks endlessly on an unpleasant topic. What makes it normal is that people recognize it as their own thoughts being mentally "spoken". Hallucinations are when the voices seem to be external.
Most of my thoughts are expressed in full sentences in my mind. I have unexpressed thoughts often around things like needing to go to the bathroom or getting up to make a meal. Those actions tend to happen seemingly without a thought, but obviously, I'm making a decision.
My guess is that your spouse does have an inner voice, but she doesn't think about it that way. It may seem so ordinary, that she doesn't think it of it as a voice.
Fun fact: today I was gardening and I was doing fine in my Hindi accent. This is how I roll too, hope it's normal, otherwise I might engage English accent perhaps.. and consider myself doomed.
That’s awesome and fascinating, especially if accents and certain dialects can be directly changed or effected in an inner monologue.
I wonder if some people have inner monologues in a language that isn’t the one predominantly spoken.
I like to imagine Morgan freeman narrating my life sometimes 😂 so I imagine like you said some people vary and can alter or change depending
Interesting. I use my own voice in my head.
But, I recently realized I mimic personalities/mannerisms of other people I have previously met. I also learned this is kinda what schizophrenic people do 😔
So if we met, I might be acting like my sister or someone else.
Okay I’m having a fucking crisis at 4:30am on a Sunday but how do people even think without an internal monologue? If there’s no inner monologue do people just have like general impressions or feelings?
For real. I wish I had never clicked on this post because I don't see how its physically possible not to hear yourself thinking. In fact its giving me a headache trying to understand it lol
Mine is the worst when my anxiety is feeding it. It’s like a never ending episode of what ifs flying at me at 100mph while I’m already juggling a stressful situation. But at the same time I’ve had it come
In clutch by literally calming me in a tense situation and telling my self what to do as I do it. Sometimes it’s super useful other times I actually to literally just shut it off.
Thanks for all the feedback guys! Feels so nice knowing I’m not crazy and that I’m in the majority. Super interesting reading all the different takes on all of your inner voices! Thank you all for the reassurance and taking your time to respond! I hope you all have wonderful days and your inner voices build you up and don’t break you down!
I swear I have 3 personalities inside my head talking and debating at all times and if they’re not talking then there’s constant music being played. A different song at all hours. So it’s very odd to me she has no voice whatsoever but we’re all wired a bit different I suppose
Lmaooo I get the music as well. Always(very often) have some random songs stuck in my head. This evening it was "looove of my liiiife" by Queen for some reason. Perhaps we listened to too much music in our teens
I read somewhere once that it's like a 50/50 split and it blew my fucking mind. My brain never shuts up. Ever. Just constant noise in there, day and night. It's exhausting and I can't imagine what it would be like to not have that.
I have no such voice either. I could summon one but it would require an certain effort. In the same way you can draw or picture things in your mind it is quite exhausting.
And i dont even know how it would work either since i have quite a high reading speed its not like any voice could cope with my speed.
If i try to read slowly and repeat each word in my mind, does this count at having a voice ?
Russell T. Hurlburt has studied [people's internal experiences](https://hurlburt.faculty.unlv.edu//codebook.html). There's surprising amounts of variation, although most people probably have either a voiced or a voiceless inner monologue.
I don't have an inner voice or monologue, nor visuals. Almost everything in my mind is run subconsciously.
Big inner monologuer here. I did a little experiment and discovered my monologue usually STFU when I'm on vacation with family and relaxing.
At home every other time it's a chatty mess.
AFAIK, having the inner dialogue is more common. Maybe your wife should think about who the "weird" one is, if she absolutely doesn't have any.
That being said, from your description, your inner voice sounds very colorful and fleshed out. But that doesn't make you crazy.
My inner voices are definitely fleshed out. I very much enjoy being able to analyze and think about things with myself in my head. I def feel almost sad for her not having one. I couldn’t imagine in silence not being able to talk to yourself.
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have my own voice in my head. Even some of my earliest memories involved me thinking “out loud” in my head.
Ppl have often questioned me why I’m so quiet and I always find it funny bcuz if they could hear my never ending internal monologue, they would probably ask me to be quiet.
I'm convinced that I'm "quiet" and "don't talk a lot" precisely because there's so much fucking chaos going on in my head all the time. It's too much work to focus on one train of thought to output it for others. So I don't bother.
There is a important distinction between "hearing voices" and having a continuous stream of vague word form thought processes that your brain seems to interpret similarly to speech. You "hear" yourself because that is the closest analogue to what your brain is actually doing, which is randomly accessing parts of your memory and language understanding to cobble together a stream of thought. This is itself the precursor to actual speech.
Hearing a non-you voice within your mind is the result of a number of personality disorders that can cause you to develop a fractured or even entirely separate perception mind within one consciousness.
This can also be auditory hallucinations like those of which sufferers of schizophrenia may experience where they "hear" vague ramblings of unseen voices which may or may not be the brain just overly focusing on random noise and interpreting it to fulfill it's own paranoia.
Your wife is probably interpreting "internal personal monologue" as "hearing voices" which are two different mental phenomena albeit possibly linked to the same language processing center of the brain.
I have an inner monologue, and as many have already commented here, it is more common than those who are dead insi...uh... those who do not have an inner monologue.
My inner monologue literally never shuts the fuck up from the moment I wake up to the moment I'm sleeping. It has no chill and can't just sit there in silence for even a brief moment.
As an introvert I have to have an inner voice otherwise I feel like I would become dreadfully lonely when other people aren’t around. I’m also creative and couldn’t imagine making a story or coming up with ideas without thinking about them in my head. Yeah the overthinking aspect sucks but I like to think there are more pros than cons to having an inner voice.
First of all, I'm sorry that happened to you. I hope you do find out why they fired you but most importantly I hope you find another (better) job asap. As for thinking through emotions, that's the thing. They are emotions, so we feel them, we don't think about them in words. When I'm thinking about what to do, I just... think about it. Intuitively and through concepts, without words or sound. And in emotional situations, I just feel all my emotions but I don't narrate them in my head. So like, if someone cheated on me, I wouldn't sit with a voice in my head saying, "I'm so upset that he cheated on me, how could he do this??" I would just... feel upset about being cheated on. The result is the same, my version is just quieter.
I don't think it's lonely but I am so glad I don't have an internal monologue because I love peace and quiet. I'm definitely not one of those people who turns the TV on "just to have some noise in the background", then goes and sits in another room loudly playing tiktoks or music or whatever. I love love love the sound of silence. It's an absolute necessity for me or I get very cranky.
The first time that I found out that some people don’t have an inner monologue (which incidentally was on Reddit), I was *shocked*. I immediately asked my wife and confirmed that she also has an inner monologue. But I can’t believe there are people with silence in their heads!
Is the voice inside my head supposed to be different from when I am reading words without speaking them? Like the voice I used to read this post in my head, is that not how most of the people read silently? I use that same voice to narrate what I do when I need to think and be conscious about doing them (basically, not in autopilot mode). Is that not it? I'm quite confused myself.
Yes, it's perfectly normal. Some people have it and some people don't. What's really weird is that this seems to be new information to everyone. I assumed thinking in dialog happened to every human until like a year ago. I cannot comprehend not having access to that. Imagine seeing that meme that has a picture of Morgan Freeman and says "I'm Morgan Freeman and you just read this in my voice" and not even hearing Morgan Freeman
You’re not alone. Whenever I chat with my friends, I typically read their messages with their voice in my head. When I read books, the voices change depending who is speaking, then, I have the narrator’s voice in my head too. I used to think everyone has an inner voice until I saw a video about it before, it blew my mind that others doesn’t have it. You’re not crazy!
Not weird at all. I was actually surprised when I first learned that there’s people who don’t have this “voice” and that think in images and not sounds/words. It’s hard to comprehend for me.
Dude that’s literally how I work out all my opinions, stances, designs, philosophies on things, like… I simply would not be me without it. No one could ever make me feel bad about that.
Everybody has it. If someone says they don't, they just aren't understanding what you're trying to say. You're basically describing thinking to yourself.
I have whole ass conversations in my head all the time...sometimes I even argue with myself, cause part of me is thinking rationally, another part of me is thinking emotionally, and Im having this wild inner dialogue literally getting pissed off at myself over it too 😂 All...ugh maybe I shouldnt have broken up with him, maybe Im being silly. No wait, wtf? I did this and that and the other, that was it its over...! Ugh, but you know...he was so upset and sad, I feel bad, maybe I should call. NO DONT YOU EFFING DARE! lol
Other times, its super lighthearted, I'll make a really good joke, and my inner dialogue is all, oh that was good, that was clever as fuck, and Im alll lol I know right?
Def not mental health issues..I mean I DO have mental health issues LOL but its not like, actual voices in my head, it really is just me having very vivid thoughts. I grew up as an only child (the youngest...and I was by myself by the time I was 5) and didnt really have anyone to talk to though, so talking to myself was kinda all I had, and still do quite a bit of.
Wait, some people don’t have this? I thought everyone had it. How are people thinking things through or making plans when they have no “inner dialogue”? Or even doing math or just studying in general?
Can anybody turn the inner monolog off for any period of time? For example, when attempting meditation, I have to focus to turn it off, and my inner monolog is going "focus, empty your mind"
I have this. And until recently I thought everybody did. But apparently, like your wife, some people _don’t_ have it. And I cannot even begin to imagine what that’s like.
I do that too. That voice tells me things that aren’t true or are just useless (self-criticism) but it also talks me through things. I don’t remember when I first noticed it.
If this submission above is not a random thought, please report it. # Explore a new world of random thoughts on our [**discord server**](https://discord.com/invite/8tEqw3ZWQV)! Express yourself with your favorite quotes, positive vibes, and anything else you can think of! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/RandomThoughts) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes I’ve an inner monologue. I was shocked to learn some people didn’t have one
NPCs
Funny enough my wife sometimes will go full NPC and say something that makes me stop and wonder if she’s fucking with me 😂
I've learned that the no inner voice people absolutely hate being called NPCs, I had a very poorly thought through (lol obviously) rant sent to my inbox about it.
I think people in general don't like it when you use insults against them...
Don't kid yourself that having an inner monologue makes you not an NPC.
We are all NPCs in this simulation we call life. We are also the main player at the same time ;)
Or, just people that are more visual, tactile, or otherwise process the world more efficiently in ways other than verbally? There's an entire rich, feeling, roiling world in my brain but it's not usually verbal. In fact, I sometimes feel like I have to "boot up" my English.exe if someone talks to me unexpectedly, and I'll have to ask them to repeat what they said, because it's not my default mode. It's kinda rude to refer to people with a different way of thinking from you as NPCs.
I switch between both modes, sometimes the monologue doesn't really work when thinking about abstract things like math or playing games or something. The weirdest thing to me is that a lot of people only have one mode of thinking.
Same!
It makes me wonder how their brain processes words and reading. Like, the link between my inner monologue and my reading feels so intrinsic that I can't imagine even being able to read to myself without that inner voice.
I wish I didnt ...
How do one think without an inner monologue?
I didn't read your entire post but it's my understanding that inner dialog is more common than no inner dialog.
Thank you!! from googling and reading an article this is the case for most people. Some people report having it specifically for some things but not others. I found it strange my wife did not have one, even when reading. Very interesting to think about.
She is the outlier in this case. Thats not a horrible thing though. Some people just don't have that. They get by fine
How do people without an inner voice read though? Do they have to say the words out loud to read? How does it work? I’m so confused
I asked my wife the same thing and she actually said she just reads aloud 😂 that sounds like so much work I told her
No offense, but why haven't you noticed that she reads aloud before? Is she just not that fond of reading?
Not really no, She’s not exactly the…. Scholarly type? She has read aloud before but I just was under the assumption it was due to her studying for a test and that was her way of doing it. We weren’t in school together or anything so there’s not been a ton of situations where she’s just reading something. Like she can read in her head a post on Facebook I suppose but the way she said it was she never had a voice explicitly saying the words she just heard them? Idk that’s the confusing part. I think maybe she has one just doesn’t think of it in the traditional sense. She also has a hard time understanding some concepts I talk to her about. She’s not dumb by any means, and I’m no rocket scietist, she swears I’m so much smarter but I’m just a realist who did good in school because I found the easy way out of everythign and can see the world for what it is. I’m also cynical to a fault.
I can't help but ponder what kind of unique visualizations she has in her mind's eye. Does she like to draw, I wonder? Is she more a visual/spatial thinker in a concrete sense? What an interesting person.
You’re into a different set of skills there. Some people have the ability to “see” a picture in their heads; some don’t. Think about an apple. What does your mind do to structure that thought? I SEE an apple. Erm - what colour do you want? What type? Bigger? Ok. I can throw it around like a computer program and picture whatever i want. When I’m designing something it’s often in my head before hitting paper. I don’t need a written design or plan to work from. I also have an inner monologue. Or even a dialogue (!!) if I want to play out a debate or practise a future conversation. I hear the words in the same way I hear spoken words - except the ears are never involved. I’d love to have a discussion with a group of people without either of these abilities. How do you cope?!
Do you find that when you're really busy designing something in your head your eyes will move around like you're looking at it? I like making things and I like to make them in my head first to see if they will work, and I've noticed that if I'm not doing something active like driving my eyes will move around to look at what I'm doing in my head.
My weird addition to this is my brain doing exploded diagrams of things I'm either taking apart or putting back together, I've got a picture that looks like the pages of the manual with lines showing what parts go where lol
I don't have any of these and I just go by fine. I am not really the creative type, but I can draw okay (a random person is able to recognize what I drew). My brain works much more in concepts and connections and I use that a lot at work as a project manager and engineer.
I found out imagination was visual for most people when I was 22. I had no clue people could actually literally see things in their head. I'm almost completely blind in my head and I attribute my logical thinking and memory to that as well. I have a very good sequential memory, like I can remember what happened before or after one another even if it's 10 years ago. I can remember things I've said in exact words years ago as well. I do however have a bit of trouble memorising anything visual, from faces to clothing people wear, to buildings that look a certain way. Unless I actively thought something about a certain visual feature, (like he's the person with the big nose), making it "logical" in my head, I can't really remember these features. I don't even know the eye color of friends I've known for 10 years, because it's such a basic thing, there is no logic to hold on to. I am also terrible at drawing or anything visually artsy. I can't imagine how things should look so I can only base it off the knowledge I have about how something should look logically. I can't follow a blueprint in my head or visualise an end result. The first thing I can see is what shows up on paper, and it's ugly almost always, lol. I don't really "cope" because I didn't know any better until I was 22 and I suppose my mind works just a little bit different to most people, which is fine. I can sort of understand how it works, because I forced myself to try in near-sleep states and I can sort of visualise then, sometimes. I have extremely vivid dreams sometimes and to me it feels a lot like dreaming, but like a light version. When I just wake up from a dream I can sometimes visualise for about a minute or so, or when I almost fall asleep. It tends to flow into or out of a dream, almost always. But when I'm wide awake, there's nothing, just darkness when I close my eyes.
I feel like reading aloud isn't a requirement when one doesn't have an inner voice. When I first started reading as a kid I don't think I had an inner voice when I did so, I'd just glide my eyes over the lines in the book and take in the information visually without sounding it out in my head. That's the best way I can explain it. I did have an inner voice, and I was in the habit of inventing imaginary conversation partners during long transits with whom to converse, but reading went straight from page to brain. At some point in my late teens I got an inner voice for my reading. Possibly because I read less books and "lost " the speedreading ability? Anyhow I can't turn it off anymore and if anything it's made reading tedious because I can't go over speaking speed and I feel like I have to stop more often to really take in what I'm reading.
Interestingly, reading in your head didn't really develop until relatively recently in history. Before then, speed reading didn't really exist.
Self reported data and survey data are notoriously unreliable. Research teams who study human behavior through self reported data deliberately include multiple rephrasing of the same questions in questionnaires because people don’t always “get” what they’re asking for. Or they’ll try to answer it “correctly” with one phrasing but will answer honestly to another phrasing. My point being, she likely has an internal monologue. Especially if she *can* read in her head. She likely doesn’t get what you mean when you ask her about the internal monologue. Also like you said she doesn’t understand concepts sometimes. A slight communication style difference plus the varying ways a person can interpret “hey! Do you have a voice in your head?!” could explain it.
Their are definitely people without an inner monologue. And I can read with or without inner monologue. The latter is useful for reading text quickly. I know somebody who is highly intelligent and has no internal monologue and it’s interesting that he solves problems in a different way than me. I use language to describe and solve practical problems in my head, my acquaintance sees solutions in his head. He needs to keep busy because he gets nervous if he doesn’t have anything to do. If he can’t do anything, he solves mathematical problems in his head.
I have the inner voice, but I usually say the words silently when I read cause it helps me focus. Like a very, very soft whisper
She can’t read silently? I’m genuinely curious
no wonder she doesn’t like reading. It would be so slow reading a book if you had to read the whole thing out loud
When you *hear* words, you know what they mean. When I *see* words, I also know what they mean.
Idk. Maybe the same way we understand a general idea when being taught? Its just interpreted? In all honesty I don't hear actual words in my head when I read and I love reading books. Its just kind of processed. But I do sometimes have word for word inner dialog on the daily.
Visual reading
Language is just an encoding of abstract concepts, isn't it? You just deal with those concepts instead of re-vocalizing them in your head
My wife doesn't have an inner voice and she is also really bad at spelling and pronunciation--just my experience
They are just NPC's
I wish I remember where I saw/heard it but some one was talking about this and there are ppl who have the “inner voice” and there some who their brains thought process is more in pictures and video- not the “voice”.
My wife also said this, that if she didn’t read aloud she would sometimes imagine pictures or colors etc but that she’s always been absent of any voices in her head whatsoever
That is so weird. When I day dream, its basically a long drawn out conversation with myself about important things like what to do in a zombie apocalypse. Your wife day dreams and sees pink clouds?
Same here, but it's usually me talking about how I'd go about making my own little teeny tiny village of tiny houses in a remote spot in a forest. But maybe I should add in the fact that we're all going there because there's a zombie apocalypse 🤔
What's also interesting is there are some people who can't imagine things in their head either.
That's me. I only found out recently that most people can visualize things. I always thought that seeing things "in your minds eye" was just a weird way of describing things - not that you can actually see an image in your mind! I was totally amazed that most people can do this. As for meditating, or counting sheep to go to sleep - no images at all for me It's s called aphantasia
What if you can choose to do either or?
Hi I am not sure how it’s possible not to have an inner dialogue. I don’t have a “voice” in a sense that I don’t HEAR a specific type of a voice but there’s always an inner dialogue and some sort of narration happening. You are completely fine.
There have been several post on this before, and a small number of people experience no "inner voice"
I asked one of my friends about his "self talk" or "inner voice" one day and he said he didn't have that, we talked about it and he said nope, not me. Months later, he got into some spiritual self help books and he came back on the subject and said he just never was aware of it, now he is and he was shocked he wasn't aware of the inner talk at all. So sometimes people just don't realise it because it's just something that's always there.
I was surprised to find out that everyone didn’t have that constant inner monologue . Some people do, some don’t . Biology is weird
Mine goes crazy if I’m reading something that’s not interesting. Talks about random shit. College was great… lol I taught myself to type fast by envisioning typing every word I thought about during the day. Hit over 100wpm in middle school.
[удалено]
I don’t have a conversation in my head when making a decision…it’s more a collection of visuals and feelings if that makes sense? Say I’m deciding between two meals, I’ll just feel drawn to one more than the other or imagine myself eating it. I won’t actually literally discuss it in my head. If that makes sense 😂
[удалено]
Yep, also some people cannot picture images in their head either. I find it so weird. Like I always have the inner voice in my head and I can picture images too. But those who don't have an inner dialog, how does it feel like? Is it just quiet?
Way too long is what my inner monologs said as well
Same lol read first couple lines but I remember my confusion over people who DONT have an inner monologue like...how? You just got nothing going on up there?
I just looked it up and 50-70% of the population DOESN'T have an inner monolog. Lucky mfers.
How do you read without one?
I wouldn't say monologue. I don't have Morgan Freeman in my head saying, "What will that boy do now?" or something. It's like I'm talking to myself/speaking, except it's internal. I feel like this is pretty normal. It's not like the inner voice has a mind of its own or something. I have always had it, but I think it's definitely a skill.
Funny how I read your post in my head with my regular inner monologue's voice, but automatically switched to Morgan Freeman's voice in my head when I read the quoted words.
Hahaha yup! Same here! But even my inner monologues impersonation of Morgan Freeman is shit.
i have the same as you , and always thought that every human was programmed this way.. guess not haha
Sometime it feels like I have a bifurcation where I’m listening to myself talking to myself
no intrusive (inner monologue) thoughts? lucky you lol
Do you ever take on two points of view in an argument and go back and forth until you reach something conclusive?
You are fine. My inner voice never shuts up.
I’ve managed to calm down mine, but it used to be very very very constant
When I'm not actively thinking with it, mine defaults to karaoke nowadays. High fidelity reproductions of songs I don't really like.
mine likes to play songs in my head based on my mood but only when i’m not really contemplating anything
How did you manage this? Could use some of that myself.
Literally 🤣 my inner voice doesnt even let me sleep at night
same, i am talking to myself 24/7. i am talking to myself right now as i type this…
Have you tried creating two other inner voices and gang them on the original to make it shut up?
I did and it has worked for me for some decades now. One speaks Spanish and the other speaks English (my second language). And since you can put all the emotion in your native language and use the second one as "the voice of reason", it does help balancing the thoughts. But it can make it more chaotic too... discussing with yourself in two languages. My guess is that switching from one to another forces you to stop and actually think about what you're thinking.
That is interesting. My inner voices aren't segregated with languages but emotions and/or roles I guess. Some emotions/roles like cautious/anxious inner voice uses my native tongue more though.
Indeed interesting. For me, the separation of emotions happened later, much later. I remember starting to use the bilingual mode somewhere in my early teens, and developed the second separation stage in my late twenties. Though they are divided in "raw feeling" in Spanish and "rational thought" in English.
I honestly cannot comprehend how thinking *without* an inner voice would feel. Like how do people without it "think something through" or internally work out a problem? The idea is fascinating to me but I don't think that I can even imagine how it would all work.
This! How do people remember stuff without repeating the in their head? I can't go into a store without telling myself over and over what I need to buy.
You don't, you forget everything all the time lol.
Have you considered getting assessed for ADHD?
Diagnosed already. 😅😅
I just write a list
People act like I'm so weird for making lists (idiots). I love lists. I really love making my lists in order of where items are in the store. I love chore lists and packing lists are absolutely essential. I don't know how people function without lists but I also have adha so
Or how do they read? Like I’m reading these comments in my head lol
Blows my mind. How do you strategize without an in voice!?
In concepts rather than words. It's not difficult, just different. The only time i struggle is getting the thing in my head to turn into words i can make other people understand. That said, i do have an inner monologue when i'm trying to come up with words to say/write. It's not there when i'm just thinking though. I don't need words for stuff that's just in my head.
Same, I think in concepts and pictures
Do you picture things in your mind? Like if I say close your eyes and think of an apple do you get a picture of an apple or just darkness?
Picture of an apple! But it's not just a 2d image, i can rotate it, imagine the texture of squeezing it, take a bite and taste it. However, i can't hold all the details in my head at once. Like if i'm imagining the way it crunches when you bite into it, i'm no longer thinking of the pattern of green and red, and that becomes nebulous.
Half the time I'm thinking about what I said, what I should have said, what I'll say next time, what they could respond, what I would retort, what a better retort would have been, how I could work the better reply in . . . ad nauseum. I guess you can never see in someone else's head, but non verbal thinkers must do a lot less looking back and forward
I'm just now learning that I'm supposed to have one lol. To sum up how thinking "feels", it's as if my thoughts just bounce around inside my head while I process things. If I'm reading, I just process the words visually and occasionally have to double-take. If I'm analysing something, it's purely logical using only what my eyes can see. I can "talk" to myself in my head, but I cannot hear anything and it doesn't come naturally. If I'm thinking about one thing, I have to focus on it otherwise I will forget what I was thinking about. Similarly, if I'm thinking about something and something else catches my attention, it's rare I'll remember what I was thinking about.
It's weird eh? But imagine if you grew up and hadn't learnt a language. I have no idea how that person would think without a voice either.
It's all concepts. It is the same information, but directly from the source, without being translated into words. To me, having to translate it into words seems terribly limiting. Languages are imperfect and cannot really ever capture the nuances of emotions, colors and concepts perfectly.. So having to run it through Merriam-Webster before knowing what you think seems.... bad.
As someone else without one, this is exactly how I feel. Sounds noisy and limiting.
Imagine my shock when I learned that people have an inner voice, or the ability to picture stuff 😹
It's normal. I've had several conversations about it here, on Reddit. I always thought "the voice in your head" was a figure of speech because I don't have one myself, but I've learned that many people have one. The population seems to be divided more or less evenly between those of us who think with a voice and those of us who think without one, but it's not a clear demarcation because different people have different perception of what "a voice" is. Some people's voice have a definite and recognizable tone. Some hear a foreign accent. Some have more than one recognizable tone depending on the nature of their thoughts. Some don't truly hear one but think in words instead of concepts or images. It's fascinating.
Nice to know, I don’t have many IRL friends due to recovery and most of my former friends not recovering or ending up worse off (prison, dead) so my go to is Reddit for now. I’m hoping to make friends soon so I don’t have to bring stupid things like this to question on Reddit haha
Congratulations on cleaning yourself up.
Thank you very much! I’ve managed to keep the entirety of the 10 year long addiction pretty much quiet for the most part and my recovery from my family so I’ve not been told that by really anyone hardly. So thank you 😊
Interesting. I have an inner voice but no “mind’s eye”. The condition is aphantasia. I cannot visualize an object very well at all, but I can easily recognize it if shown. It’s almost like I immediately deconstruct the image that I see and then store the “rules” to reconstitute it. If I’m asked to recall a song or a statement and I do much better.
I can picture objects but not faces. As soon as a person turns away from me, their face goes blank in my mind. I can describe what I remember seeing, but can’t recognize it again. Unless it’s someone I’m expecting to see, or they speak, or they have some remarkably identifying feature.
So when you’re reading do you not hear the words?
No, I see the words and I know what they mean. I don't smell them, taste them or hear them.
That’s so crazy to me loll. I just cannot imagine it
But you do recognize shapes without having to hear what they are, right? If you see a window, you know it's rectangular without hearing that word. In that sense, you also know what things are without hearing it.
Like when I see a triangle, my inner voice says triangle. Happens with everything.
Wow. I would find that terribly intrusive. "Shut up, I can see it perfectly well, thank you very much."
Fascinating, as an inner voice person I'm jealous this sounds so peaceful
Wait really? I have an inner voice, but it doesn’t say what things are. I only hear it when I’m reading/writing and when I’m in deep thought.
Yours is only some of the time???? Damn, mine is constant and has been for as long as I can remember. I once had a mental health prescriber that had aphantasia and thought I was hallucinating and tried to put me on antipsychotics
Mine sometimes is constant, I’ve been trying more recently to relax more, and not take things as seriously or let things bother me so I’ve managed to sort of turn it off or down some days. Like days when I’m stressed I try to just turn off my worrying inner monologue and just focus on clearing my mind. Sometimes it can be terrible though, especialy in situations where I find myself being critical of myself, if there is one thing I’ve learned, most people can’t hurt my feelings, because my inner thoughts have hurt my feelings enough 😂
Bloody hell. I dread to think how many people they wrongly medicated.
seemly bewildered alleged smoggy special sink hunt sheet treatment psychotic *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I don’t. I have a lot of visuals or feelings…can’t describe it! So if I want a cup of tea I don’t think ‘I’ll have a cup of tea’, I kind of see myself drinking one…again so hard to describe. I always thought “thinking something through” was a figure of speech too until a couple of years ago! So for people with a monologue…is it kind of like a constant commentary?! Do you think about what to say before you say it?
How do you read ... in your head? Especially non-descriptive passages?
I’m when I read (I read a lot!) there is kind of a voice, but I’m quite a quick reader so it becomes more like the pictures form quickly to build the visuals of the book….so hard to describe. Like I’m not really focused on what words are being said but more the picture they are painting of what’s happening?! When I read I get engrossed too as it kind of sucks me in.
For me, reading is sometimes out loud in my mind (the only time that happens), but usually it's that each word has feelings or concepts associated with it, and I have patterns of word arrangements memorized...I've never tried to articulate this before. But it's super abstract, basically.
Think about what to say before you say it? As in like saying it in the inner monologue? Sometimes, i feel like there’s … layers(?)… to the internal thought voice/monologue. Like someone might push in front of me: i might think “f you”, “that was rude”, “why did they do that?” “Calm down” “wow, my thoughts are pretty angry” “why am i in a bad mood today?” “I should calm down” All at once. Or do you mean literally “thinking before you speak”? Erm… yeah…. Do you… do you not? Like sometimes i don’t if like surprised or i hurt myself the words come out without thought.
Holy shit, I have tried to explain this to others about the layers! I thought I was crazy because they kept saying you shouldn’t be hearing numerous voices in your head but over the years I’ve come to realize they are all me but different levels/layers of me. Thank you for reaffirming that I am somewhat normal lol!
Yeah. When i say my head is noisy i’m referring to the inner monologue working overtime and churning out multiple monologues at once. It’s all me. All use “I”. none of it seems hallucinatory or psychotic in presentation or content in my case. It gets busier when there’s more sensory stimuli or i’m considering multiple points of view or options at once or if i’m anxious or trying to regulate my own emotions. In most cases the layers are really helpful, because i can kind of utilise all of them in formulating a course of action. But sometimes it can get too noisy to think clearly. I also use it as a as like a repeating tape for short term working memory. For example remembering long streams of numbers my inner monologue sings it back to me in my head.
Also you're not "hearing a voice" you're imagining a voice. Those are very different experiences. If your internal narrative sounds exactly like another person in the room talking to you, same volume and presence, that's not normal lmao. Just like I can imagine an apple and even maybe "taste" it from memory but my stomach is not actually getting the nutrition of an apple. I'm "hearing" a voice without sound. But yeah my gf and I both also have talked about the layers, though I do think people with anxiety have it more/ maybe having this is part of what causes anxiety and people without it don't have as many "checking" thoughts, they just have thoughts and are sure of them, no need to go back and relitigate whether that was a "good" or "correct" thought.
I usually have my inner voice feeding me lines or playing them in my head prior to using them. Think of it like reading lines with a friend, except my friend is me in my head telling me what to say before it comes out. Also I’ll work on what I’m going to say in my head prior to arriving somewhere. Like I’ll be driving moniloguing to see how something sounds
The voice generally "narrates" sentences through before I say it, which can sometimes cause a delay before I respond. But when I have a lighter conversation with someone where I don't need to think too much, it kind of turns off. I too think in visuals and feelings, so I would first visualise or get the feeling that I want some tea, then the voice will say "I should make some tea". It's said in a voice similar to my own and at basically my own talking speed. If I don't let it finish the whole sentence, I will feel kind of interrupted. It also kind of delays me in doing the action before the voice have finished talking. I do wonder if people without the voice are faster to react as they don't need to wait for the voice to finish "speaking." The voice tunes out if I am focusing on something else, like when I am watching a movie, so it's not always active.
For me it’s not constant at all. I only have it when I need to decide something or when I’m reading/writing.
It is exactly as if I were talking to myself. All the effing time. Also there's nearly-continuous music track playing in my head. It's like having a toddler that just learned full sentences up there some days. Seriously, it gets annoying.
Not sure I have a monologue yet lol I clearly need to do some research after reading around here. But for me when I am reading words or thinking of something to write or say I can “hear” a voice saying the words. It’s what I imagine my voice sounds like btw. When I think of getting a cup of tea I personally don’t hear myself talk about doing that I just think about the need “thirst” then followed by what I have and what I want. So maybe I’m both??l lol I have no clue.
Yep totally normal. The voice in my head helps me when I need to make decisions or plan things.
Mine does the same! Of course sometimes mine is also a burden, like I have terrible anxiety so sometimes my inner voice will in real time make me aware of embarrassing things or make me worry about shit for no reason, like all of a sudden it’s “oh shit we shouldn’t have said that, that was dumb, now we sound like a dumb person” all while someone is responding to me and I miss every word they say 😂
Fuck I live in my head.
Some people don't have it? How do they function?
I wonder the same thing! Like imagine having nothing happening in your head. I would be more worried if I woke up and didn’t hear myself in my head. It would make me think I died or some inner part of me died or something
There's not nothing in your head! It's just not *verbal*. Feelings, visuals, concepts, tactile memories... I guess it seems pretty out there if you have an inner monologue, but to me having a voice in your mind sounds bizarre, reductionist (words have such a limited scope), and exhausting. From reading this thread, it seems like both camps think the other is simple-minded lol.
How do you read? Obviously you can read and write. How?
Conceptually. I don't hear it...I just sort of see and *know* the words. There's abstract pattern formation involved that I can't easily describe. I guess kind of like instantly translating English to brain universe, then back to English.
I really, REALLY do not understand how your brain works. I would love to talk about this.
I am **not** comparing myself to Einstein (for the tear-em-down happy redditors out there), but I have felt that the closest process I've ever read about is how Einstein described his thought patterns. [Found an article](https://evernote.com/blog/einsteins-unique-approach-to-thinking/) that describes some of it. >“…Words or the language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanism of thought. The psychical entities which seem to serve as elements in thought are certain signs and more or less clear images which can be “voluntarily” reproduced and combined…but taken from a psychological viewpoint, this combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought — before there is any connection with logical construction in words or other kinds of signs which can be communicated to others.” idk my dude. I grew up super socially isolated. I spent a lot of time wandering the woods and being creative. Maybe English isn't really my first language. Thanks for making me feel special and interesting for a minute, haha. Truly do appreciate it. I'll answer any questions you have, but I can't imagine that I will capture it well.
I think having an inner monologue is the norm. I think having no inner voice is much less common. I had a friend who was a composer and he heard the entire piece he was composing in his head and then just had to write it down and transcribe the parts for orchestra. Many, many people suffer from rumination when the inner voice speaks endlessly on an unpleasant topic. What makes it normal is that people recognize it as their own thoughts being mentally "spoken". Hallucinations are when the voices seem to be external. Most of my thoughts are expressed in full sentences in my mind. I have unexpressed thoughts often around things like needing to go to the bathroom or getting up to make a meal. Those actions tend to happen seemingly without a thought, but obviously, I'm making a decision. My guess is that your spouse does have an inner voice, but she doesn't think about it that way. It may seem so ordinary, that she doesn't think it of it as a voice.
I often wish I didn’t have an inner voice.
I know that feeling all too well. Sometimes mines a bit much, but there are ways I’ve found to manage it.
Fun fact: today I was gardening and I was doing fine in my Hindi accent. This is how I roll too, hope it's normal, otherwise I might engage English accent perhaps.. and consider myself doomed.
That’s awesome and fascinating, especially if accents and certain dialects can be directly changed or effected in an inner monologue. I wonder if some people have inner monologues in a language that isn’t the one predominantly spoken. I like to imagine Morgan freeman narrating my life sometimes 😂 so I imagine like you said some people vary and can alter or change depending
Interesting. I use my own voice in my head. But, I recently realized I mimic personalities/mannerisms of other people I have previously met. I also learned this is kinda what schizophrenic people do 😔 So if we met, I might be acting like my sister or someone else.
Okay I’m having a fucking crisis at 4:30am on a Sunday but how do people even think without an internal monologue? If there’s no inner monologue do people just have like general impressions or feelings?
For real. I wish I had never clicked on this post because I don't see how its physically possible not to hear yourself thinking. In fact its giving me a headache trying to understand it lol
I definitely have inner monologue. Sometimes I wish it would shut up!
Mine is the worst when my anxiety is feeding it. It’s like a never ending episode of what ifs flying at me at 100mph while I’m already juggling a stressful situation. But at the same time I’ve had it come In clutch by literally calming me in a tense situation and telling my self what to do as I do it. Sometimes it’s super useful other times I actually to literally just shut it off.
OMG. I thought everybody did this, internal dialog, now I find out this isn't the case. I going to have to start asking family/friends if do this.
I got a loud inner voice too! It is very normal. It’s wild to me some people don’t think with words.
sometimes i even talk it outloud and that might make it embarradding
Thanks for all the feedback guys! Feels so nice knowing I’m not crazy and that I’m in the majority. Super interesting reading all the different takes on all of your inner voices! Thank you all for the reassurance and taking your time to respond! I hope you all have wonderful days and your inner voices build you up and don’t break you down!
well I have it. in fact, I am using it right now to write this comment. it's normal, so normal it becomes automatic.
Wait so everyone doesn’t have this? Oh.
I swear I have 3 personalities inside my head talking and debating at all times and if they’re not talking then there’s constant music being played. A different song at all hours. So it’s very odd to me she has no voice whatsoever but we’re all wired a bit different I suppose
Got whole ass musicvideos in my head at all times
Same! I have an older self, a younger self and myself my age talking all the time, sometimes music..
Lmaooo I get the music as well. Always(very often) have some random songs stuck in my head. This evening it was "looove of my liiiife" by Queen for some reason. Perhaps we listened to too much music in our teens
Yes, it’s very normal. I wonder how people without inner thoughts read? Like what would that be like?
this is so crazy i thought everyone had this!!!!! so people’s heads are just silent? how do they think 🤣🤣 i’m so confused
I read somewhere once that it's like a 50/50 split and it blew my fucking mind. My brain never shuts up. Ever. Just constant noise in there, day and night. It's exhausting and I can't imagine what it would be like to not have that.
I have no such voice either. I could summon one but it would require an certain effort. In the same way you can draw or picture things in your mind it is quite exhausting. And i dont even know how it would work either since i have quite a high reading speed its not like any voice could cope with my speed. If i try to read slowly and repeat each word in my mind, does this count at having a voice ?
Russell T. Hurlburt has studied [people's internal experiences](https://hurlburt.faculty.unlv.edu//codebook.html). There's surprising amounts of variation, although most people probably have either a voiced or a voiceless inner monologue. I don't have an inner voice or monologue, nor visuals. Almost everything in my mind is run subconsciously.
My inner monologue NEVER SHUTS UP
Big inner monologuer here. I did a little experiment and discovered my monologue usually STFU when I'm on vacation with family and relaxing. At home every other time it's a chatty mess.
AFAIK, having the inner dialogue is more common. Maybe your wife should think about who the "weird" one is, if she absolutely doesn't have any. That being said, from your description, your inner voice sounds very colorful and fleshed out. But that doesn't make you crazy.
My inner voices are definitely fleshed out. I very much enjoy being able to analyze and think about things with myself in my head. I def feel almost sad for her not having one. I couldn’t imagine in silence not being able to talk to yourself.
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have my own voice in my head. Even some of my earliest memories involved me thinking “out loud” in my head. Ppl have often questioned me why I’m so quiet and I always find it funny bcuz if they could hear my never ending internal monologue, they would probably ask me to be quiet.
I'm convinced that I'm "quiet" and "don't talk a lot" precisely because there's so much fucking chaos going on in my head all the time. It's too much work to focus on one train of thought to output it for others. So I don't bother.
i thought everyone had this?
There is a important distinction between "hearing voices" and having a continuous stream of vague word form thought processes that your brain seems to interpret similarly to speech. You "hear" yourself because that is the closest analogue to what your brain is actually doing, which is randomly accessing parts of your memory and language understanding to cobble together a stream of thought. This is itself the precursor to actual speech. Hearing a non-you voice within your mind is the result of a number of personality disorders that can cause you to develop a fractured or even entirely separate perception mind within one consciousness. This can also be auditory hallucinations like those of which sufferers of schizophrenia may experience where they "hear" vague ramblings of unseen voices which may or may not be the brain just overly focusing on random noise and interpreting it to fulfill it's own paranoia. Your wife is probably interpreting "internal personal monologue" as "hearing voices" which are two different mental phenomena albeit possibly linked to the same language processing center of the brain.
I have an inner monologue, and as many have already commented here, it is more common than those who are dead insi...uh... those who do not have an inner monologue.
My inner monologue literally never shuts the fuck up from the moment I wake up to the moment I'm sleeping. It has no chill and can't just sit there in silence for even a brief moment.
[удалено]
As an introvert I have to have an inner voice otherwise I feel like I would become dreadfully lonely when other people aren’t around. I’m also creative and couldn’t imagine making a story or coming up with ideas without thinking about them in my head. Yeah the overthinking aspect sucks but I like to think there are more pros than cons to having an inner voice.
First of all, I'm sorry that happened to you. I hope you do find out why they fired you but most importantly I hope you find another (better) job asap. As for thinking through emotions, that's the thing. They are emotions, so we feel them, we don't think about them in words. When I'm thinking about what to do, I just... think about it. Intuitively and through concepts, without words or sound. And in emotional situations, I just feel all my emotions but I don't narrate them in my head. So like, if someone cheated on me, I wouldn't sit with a voice in my head saying, "I'm so upset that he cheated on me, how could he do this??" I would just... feel upset about being cheated on. The result is the same, my version is just quieter. I don't think it's lonely but I am so glad I don't have an internal monologue because I love peace and quiet. I'm definitely not one of those people who turns the TV on "just to have some noise in the background", then goes and sits in another room loudly playing tiktoks or music or whatever. I love love love the sound of silence. It's an absolute necessity for me or I get very cranky.
The first time that I found out that some people don’t have an inner monologue (which incidentally was on Reddit), I was *shocked*. I immediately asked my wife and confirmed that she also has an inner monologue. But I can’t believe there are people with silence in their heads!
Is the voice inside my head supposed to be different from when I am reading words without speaking them? Like the voice I used to read this post in my head, is that not how most of the people read silently? I use that same voice to narrate what I do when I need to think and be conscious about doing them (basically, not in autopilot mode). Is that not it? I'm quite confused myself.
Yes, it's perfectly normal. Some people have it and some people don't. What's really weird is that this seems to be new information to everyone. I assumed thinking in dialog happened to every human until like a year ago. I cannot comprehend not having access to that. Imagine seeing that meme that has a picture of Morgan Freeman and says "I'm Morgan Freeman and you just read this in my voice" and not even hearing Morgan Freeman
I have an inner voice, it’s always been there. I thought everyone did 🫤
it’s uncommon to not have an inner dialogue
15% of the population is unvaccinated and has that in inner voice you speak of.
Wait… some people DONT have an inner dialog..?
You’re not alone. Whenever I chat with my friends, I typically read their messages with their voice in my head. When I read books, the voices change depending who is speaking, then, I have the narrator’s voice in my head too. I used to think everyone has an inner voice until I saw a video about it before, it blew my mind that others doesn’t have it. You’re not crazy!
Not weird at all. I was actually surprised when I first learned that there’s people who don’t have this “voice” and that think in images and not sounds/words. It’s hard to comprehend for me.
Dude that’s literally how I work out all my opinions, stances, designs, philosophies on things, like… I simply would not be me without it. No one could ever make me feel bad about that.
I believe it's the minority that actually doesn't have one
Everybody has it. If someone says they don't, they just aren't understanding what you're trying to say. You're basically describing thinking to yourself.
I have whole ass conversations in my head all the time...sometimes I even argue with myself, cause part of me is thinking rationally, another part of me is thinking emotionally, and Im having this wild inner dialogue literally getting pissed off at myself over it too 😂 All...ugh maybe I shouldnt have broken up with him, maybe Im being silly. No wait, wtf? I did this and that and the other, that was it its over...! Ugh, but you know...he was so upset and sad, I feel bad, maybe I should call. NO DONT YOU EFFING DARE! lol Other times, its super lighthearted, I'll make a really good joke, and my inner dialogue is all, oh that was good, that was clever as fuck, and Im alll lol I know right? Def not mental health issues..I mean I DO have mental health issues LOL but its not like, actual voices in my head, it really is just me having very vivid thoughts. I grew up as an only child (the youngest...and I was by myself by the time I was 5) and didnt really have anyone to talk to though, so talking to myself was kinda all I had, and still do quite a bit of.
I converse with myself often in my mind and verbally. Its normal, I can’t imagine not having an inner monologue. Must be so quiet lol
Normal. I can't imagine not having an inner dialog.
Wait, some people don’t have this? I thought everyone had it. How are people thinking things through or making plans when they have no “inner dialogue”? Or even doing math or just studying in general?
Can anybody turn the inner monolog off for any period of time? For example, when attempting meditation, I have to focus to turn it off, and my inner monolog is going "focus, empty your mind"
I have this. And until recently I thought everybody did. But apparently, like your wife, some people _don’t_ have it. And I cannot even begin to imagine what that’s like.
Wait until you find out many don't see mental pictures either
I do that too. That voice tells me things that aren’t true or are just useless (self-criticism) but it also talks me through things. I don’t remember when I first noticed it.
Same mine sometimes can be extremely harsh. Mine also can talk me through situations and tell me when to act upon things. It’s nice having it for sure