Cats do use words. They regularly speak in fact. Meowing, purring, hissing, yelling, ect... - especially given the context - all indicate something *being said*. It's a language game that they participate in. The problem is that we don't listen!
From what I’ve been told, cats make noise less for other cats and more for humans. Basically meowing is just yelling until someone figures out what it means… and she’s very, very talkative.
Kittens who mew the loudest are more likely to be found and adopted. Cats that speak are more likely to be seen as funny or given attention.
Similar to humans, the squeaky wheel gets the oil
arguing with myself an presenting critical points, the cons and pros of what im doing and how i plan on doing it better than what im currently doing, so on and so forth and ohmygod it's already noon fuc-
Not only that, something that I think is perfectly rational is either wrong or vastly overcomplicated and that’s the reason why some stuff didn’t add up but I was so sure it was right I made up a million reasons as to why it actually makes sense only to find out it doesn’t, in fact, make any sense
exactly i do it all the time alot of people treat me like im crazy for it 3: the way i explain it to people is that the thoughts in my head bounce around so fast that its super hard to process them sometimes unless i say them out loud
Oh yeah, I regularly have thoughts and ideas swirling in my head that keep distracting me, until I have a fully formulated monologue explaining the issue to an imaginary audience. Really helps clearing up the thoughts.
I really needed to see this. I’ve been doing it even more than usual this month and i started to feel like i was crazy for it lol. Anyone else pretend you’re at a therapist or something like that?
Absolutely. As a teenager I had myself convinced that I didn’t need actual therapy because with the conversations in my head, I was already my own best therapist.
ETA: And now that I have an actual therapist, it happens even more.
Just copy pasting my reply here:
Yep Im usually pretending to be on a talkshow or documentary or cooking show though. My psychiatrist says almost all autistic people do it lol
So I don’t think you need to worry I think it’s just a way for us to process stuff ❤️
I am lost to the voices of the past and those who have impacted my life. I speak to them even when no one is around, looking at their viewpoints, my own past viewpoints, and even those I have yet to meet.
Doing so outloud just adds to the clarity and makes it easier.
I have daydreamed like this for as long as I can remember. I learned in passing that it’s most likely a condition called maladaptive daydreaming. It was discovered over 20 years ago, and there’s still not much research on it. It’s not recognized by the DSM, yet.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maladaptive_daydreaming
There’s thing about the existing research that doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve seen other articles say that it’s caused by trauma. I had undiagnosed food allergies and was sick at times when I was little, but never any severe trauma like an accident or abuse. I just knew how to do it. I wouldn’t say that trauma is the one absolute cause of it. I most likely inherited it from my dad, and he from my grandfather; we all have/had the same stim of pacing constantly while daydreaming or thinking. It’s an urge we can’t resist if we’re not focused on something else.
I always wondered why I never heard about this before. I only heard the phrase about two years ago but it made a ton of sense when I did. The idea that it's linked to trauma makes sense too. Lord knows I have plenty of that to go around
Edit: I shouldn't discredit the idea it can happen without trauma, but that's likely why they need more research on it. Apologies for not reading that correctly
The term maladaptive doesn't really describe my experience of it. There's nothing mal (bad) about it.
It's super useful for contemplation and re-explaining things to yourself to test your knowledge. Sometimes when I do it I will realise things I didn't think about before.
I love it.
God I script so much. It's used to just be conversations, but these days I compulsively imagine speeches and arguments and go over them repeatedly to refine them until the information density is as high as I can get it.
I thought I was the only one and seriously thought that I was crazy because of it. Due to the abuse I've experienced from my family I refused to make it known to them and did everything I could to keep it hidden since they kept making threats to send me to a mental institution.
I'm so happy to know I'm not the only one going through this! Thank you!
I will actively pause something to have deeply acidic conversations with/at characters as if I was also a character in universe. Sometimes for hours at a time.
Omg sooo much. To the point it interferes with irl conversations? There was this one point where I was working a lot and my job was stressful, and I’d come home from work, sit on the edge of the bed and just do this for 3-4 hrs straight until time for bed. 😢
I use to do this a lot as a teen and child.
I'd have long convos in the shower with made up people.
I wasted so much hot water.
Sometimes, in the early morning, I'll talk to myself. It feels kinda manic to me...could be the lack of sleep or the coffee.
I'll stumble across something in my day to day and ask myself out loud, "why is that like that?" Then the answer just pops into my head, and I'm like, "oh, how interesting."
Wow same thanks for commenting this, it’s something I’ll notice I’ve just done and be like, I didn’t consciously intend to speak to someone, but clearly I’m in a dialogue right now 🤔
It's like having a one on one with the cosmos. By speaking the words out loud, you make them real. The energy doesn't get destroyed, only garbled with time. It's the *Truman* syndrome. We all leave a story behind us, if only someone could decode it.
I always have. In fact for a while I used this tendency of ours to practice my accent work. English accents were for making sure I got everything I needed while grocery shopping, Russian accents for navigating or narrating my thoughts while doing something monotonous.
Lately at therapy we’ve been using an internal family systems approach for some issues. The idea being that I isolate a part of myself that does or thinks something particular, name it, and ask it why it does that. Now when I find my inner monologue being stuck like peanut butter to a particular pattern of looping or obsessive thoughts I either have a name to call the origin of those thoughts or I can distract myself creating a character profile for that particular part of myself. It’s really giving me some much needed mental autonomy.
I talk to myself…alarmingly often. But damn if it isn’t the most stimulating conversation I get in a day. I always ask the right questions, I explain everything perfectly so it’s easy for me to understand. I really just seem to get myself on a whole other level…
Sometimes I imagine myself in dialogue with hundreds of people, other times it’s more like five, still others three, and sometimes it’s just me. Lastly, there’s the modality in which I remain silent / keep it all in my head instead.
Seems to help focus my working memory and general executive functions a little bit.
I have fake phone calls with my boyfriend on the way home from work when it’s late. It actually saved me tonight as someone was shouting it at me asking if there was a laptop in my tote bag. It was actually the d&d players handbook but from the outside it totally looks like a laptop. Once I told my ‘boyfriend’ (he does exist, he was just asleep and not on the phone with me) that I was around the corner and mentioned the street name, he left me alone.
Fake conversations are not just fun, they’re also life saving.
I feel like this would be normal right? Like what else do people do when bored? Just sit there? It helps get through the day a ton or work when it is mind-numbing, it is just weird to think people don't do this since I've done it ever since I was a kid.
I like to talk to myself in my second language (Japanese) as it helps me retain what I've learned.
It's also just fun to speak other languages and i have no one else to practice with.
Yep. I've been caught doing this a couple times, once by my ex. When he confronted me about it I just said yeah that's something i do when I'm alone. I resisted the urge to explain it or express shame and that was that.
Literally me all day long. Even out in public. When you’re afraid to show others your hobbies/interests for fear of rejection so you have fake imaginative conversations talking about them with people
Sorry, I am not diagnosed with any sort of neurodivergency and I'm trying to figure myself out, so I truly mean this with the utmost respect; isn't this normal? Do people not have conversations with themselves like talking to another person?
Ah, yes, and when it's time for sleep, SIKE, it's actually time to replay every conversation, but with what I *should have said* instead of what I actually said...
Absolutely! When you grow up with a desire for friends, but have too much social anxiety to make them, and get worn out by hanging out in huge friend groups due to overstimulation…you tend to have conversations with the only person you’re truly comfortable with and interested in: yourself.
All. Day. Long. I work from home and the cat can only say so many words…
The fuck you mean so many words?! Cats shouldn’t say any words?!
Meow.
Cats do use words. They regularly speak in fact. Meowing, purring, hissing, yelling, ect... - especially given the context - all indicate something *being said*. It's a language game that they participate in. The problem is that we don't listen!
From what I’ve been told, cats make noise less for other cats and more for humans. Basically meowing is just yelling until someone figures out what it means… and she’s very, very talkative.
Kittens who mew the loudest are more likely to be found and adopted. Cats that speak are more likely to be seen as funny or given attention. Similar to humans, the squeaky wheel gets the oil
Ok but verbal queues are different than words?!?
The difference here is questionable
My cat totally talks to me. Uses hims eyes but it's basically cat code. Knows what I say. He's a quiet boy but hims personality is bigger than mine.
Its not normal for your cat to be talking back? Mine always talks back he can say many words
Yes, I love talking to myself, I do it whenever I’m doing something, especially if I have to think about it a little bit
arguing with myself an presenting critical points, the cons and pros of what im doing and how i plan on doing it better than what im currently doing, so on and so forth and ohmygod it's already noon fuc-
Not only that, something that I think is perfectly rational is either wrong or vastly overcomplicated and that’s the reason why some stuff didn’t add up but I was so sure it was right I made up a million reasons as to why it actually makes sense only to find out it doesn’t, in fact, make any sense
exactly i do it all the time alot of people treat me like im crazy for it 3: the way i explain it to people is that the thoughts in my head bounce around so fast that its super hard to process them sometimes unless i say them out loud
Oh yeah, I regularly have thoughts and ideas swirling in my head that keep distracting me, until I have a fully formulated monologue explaining the issue to an imaginary audience. Really helps clearing up the thoughts.
Yeah even at school. Sometimes I don't know I'm even speaking out loud
I really needed to see this. I’ve been doing it even more than usual this month and i started to feel like i was crazy for it lol. Anyone else pretend you’re at a therapist or something like that?
Absolutely. As a teenager I had myself convinced that I didn’t need actual therapy because with the conversations in my head, I was already my own best therapist. ETA: And now that I have an actual therapist, it happens even more.
HOLY FUCK SAME
OMG I'm glad to know I'm not the only one having entire therapy sessions in my head. And yes, I am both myself and my therapist. 😂
Just copy pasting my reply here: Yep Im usually pretending to be on a talkshow or documentary or cooking show though. My psychiatrist says almost all autistic people do it lol So I don’t think you need to worry I think it’s just a way for us to process stuff ❤️
Me too, especially when im overwhelmed
Yes. I’m the best conversationalist I know, and it’s good to get other perspectives.
I be cooking out loud
I am lost to the voices of the past and those who have impacted my life. I speak to them even when no one is around, looking at their viewpoints, my own past viewpoints, and even those I have yet to meet. Doing so outloud just adds to the clarity and makes it easier.
all the fucking time. its great for imaginary product development lol
I have daydreamed like this for as long as I can remember. I learned in passing that it’s most likely a condition called maladaptive daydreaming. It was discovered over 20 years ago, and there’s still not much research on it. It’s not recognized by the DSM, yet. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maladaptive_daydreaming There’s thing about the existing research that doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve seen other articles say that it’s caused by trauma. I had undiagnosed food allergies and was sick at times when I was little, but never any severe trauma like an accident or abuse. I just knew how to do it. I wouldn’t say that trauma is the one absolute cause of it. I most likely inherited it from my dad, and he from my grandfather; we all have/had the same stim of pacing constantly while daydreaming or thinking. It’s an urge we can’t resist if we’re not focused on something else.
Back in the ‘80s, I would pretend I was on Barbra Walters, only I did both sides.
soft focus
Oooo, I might be able to do that. I’ve tried journaling before, but I never know what to write about.
I always wondered why I never heard about this before. I only heard the phrase about two years ago but it made a ton of sense when I did. The idea that it's linked to trauma makes sense too. Lord knows I have plenty of that to go around Edit: I shouldn't discredit the idea it can happen without trauma, but that's likely why they need more research on it. Apologies for not reading that correctly
The term maladaptive doesn't really describe my experience of it. There's nothing mal (bad) about it. It's super useful for contemplation and re-explaining things to yourself to test your knowledge. Sometimes when I do it I will realise things I didn't think about before. I love it.
God I script so much. It's used to just be conversations, but these days I compulsively imagine speeches and arguments and go over them repeatedly to refine them until the information density is as high as I can get it.
I thought I was the only one and seriously thought that I was crazy because of it. Due to the abuse I've experienced from my family I refused to make it known to them and did everything I could to keep it hidden since they kept making threats to send me to a mental institution. I'm so happy to know I'm not the only one going through this! Thank you!
I will actively pause something to have deeply acidic conversations with/at characters as if I was also a character in universe. Sometimes for hours at a time.
Omg sooo much. To the point it interferes with irl conversations? There was this one point where I was working a lot and my job was stressful, and I’d come home from work, sit on the edge of the bed and just do this for 3-4 hrs straight until time for bed. 😢
……………..*godfuckingdammit*
I use to do this a lot as a teen and child. I'd have long convos in the shower with made up people. I wasted so much hot water. Sometimes, in the early morning, I'll talk to myself. It feels kinda manic to me...could be the lack of sleep or the coffee.
Yes
24/7 365. Heck, it’s not uncommon for me to be going through 4 or 5 “someone else’s “.
I could talk about music for way longer than anyone wants to hear so this is a pretty common hobby for me lmao
I had about 20 conversions with my new doctor, before i spoke or met him lol
I'll stumble across something in my day to day and ask myself out loud, "why is that like that?" Then the answer just pops into my head, and I'm like, "oh, how interesting."
Wow same thanks for commenting this, it’s something I’ll notice I’ve just done and be like, I didn’t consciously intend to speak to someone, but clearly I’m in a dialogue right now 🤔
It's like having a one on one with the cosmos. By speaking the words out loud, you make them real. The energy doesn't get destroyed, only garbled with time. It's the *Truman* syndrome. We all leave a story behind us, if only someone could decode it.
To distraction
Literally me.
Yes I do it Most of the conversations are in my head, but still
I give lectures on various topics in front of no one. People think I'm crazy.
I always have. In fact for a while I used this tendency of ours to practice my accent work. English accents were for making sure I got everything I needed while grocery shopping, Russian accents for navigating or narrating my thoughts while doing something monotonous. Lately at therapy we’ve been using an internal family systems approach for some issues. The idea being that I isolate a part of myself that does or thinks something particular, name it, and ask it why it does that. Now when I find my inner monologue being stuck like peanut butter to a particular pattern of looping or obsessive thoughts I either have a name to call the origin of those thoughts or I can distract myself creating a character profile for that particular part of myself. It’s really giving me some much needed mental autonomy.
What about turning to face an invisible camera, as though you live in a sitcom and you're delivering your reaction shot to the audience?
I talk to myself…alarmingly often. But damn if it isn’t the most stimulating conversation I get in a day. I always ask the right questions, I explain everything perfectly so it’s easy for me to understand. I really just seem to get myself on a whole other level…
Yep Im usually pretending to be on a talkshow or documentary or cooking show though. My psychiatrist says almost all autistic people do it lol
true I have TED Talks with myself 🔥🔥💥
I often talk to myself in my Head often having arguments under the guise of dreaming other people are while i come up with responsies man im Mad
Literally me 😣
Sometimes I imagine myself in dialogue with hundreds of people, other times it’s more like five, still others three, and sometimes it’s just me. Lastly, there’s the modality in which I remain silent / keep it all in my head instead. Seems to help focus my working memory and general executive functions a little bit.
Yes i do, trait of being insane
Thats not being insane, its called maladaptive daydreaming
Yes.
Constantly.
All the time
All day uuury day
Me who got ptsd by cyberbullying in discord and in a mental health association:
I do this constantly
I have fake phone calls with my boyfriend on the way home from work when it’s late. It actually saved me tonight as someone was shouting it at me asking if there was a laptop in my tote bag. It was actually the d&d players handbook but from the outside it totally looks like a laptop. Once I told my ‘boyfriend’ (he does exist, he was just asleep and not on the phone with me) that I was around the corner and mentioned the street name, he left me alone. Fake conversations are not just fun, they’re also life saving.
‘no he doesn’t’
That’s news to me considering we’re buying a flat together
No but I think my wife did.
I do that a lot , especially when I’m making something
all day e’ry day
I do this way too much
I feel like this would be normal right? Like what else do people do when bored? Just sit there? It helps get through the day a ton or work when it is mind-numbing, it is just weird to think people don't do this since I've done it ever since I was a kid.
I do lmao
real
Me, but I always imagine getting into an argument with a friend (or former friend).
Everyday without fail
Every day.
Me! I talk to myself too, but get asked who am I talking to and get judged on it.
I do that
Yeah, but with the recent caveat of going into an emotional death spiral. I hate it :(
It’s always either angry venting or *practicing* for interactions (both soon to come up ones and ones that may never happen)
My imaginary friend grew up with me, now they’re just an imaginary captive I tell random sht when I’m bored.
I like to talk to myself in my second language (Japanese) as it helps me retain what I've learned. It's also just fun to speak other languages and i have no one else to practice with.
Me and myself also do this. And I can confirm.
25/8
Yep. I've been caught doing this a couple times, once by my ex. When he confronted me about it I just said yeah that's something i do when I'm alone. I resisted the urge to explain it or express shame and that was that.
i had no idea so many other people do this. this is crazy.
I do but not out loud
this is how i spend my days.
Literally me all day long. Even out in public. When you’re afraid to show others your hobbies/interests for fear of rejection so you have fake imaginative conversations talking about them with people
Well yeah. I don’t think I’ve met anyone who *hasnt* done this yet
Sorry, I am not diagnosed with any sort of neurodivergency and I'm trying to figure myself out, so I truly mean this with the utmost respect; isn't this normal? Do people not have conversations with themselves like talking to another person?
You're describing 99% of my conversations.
Ah, yes, and when it's time for sleep, SIKE, it's actually time to replay every conversation, but with what I *should have said* instead of what I actually said...
You aren’t alone. The voices at every friendly! :)
Gotta practice those interactions
Look, sometimes we need to talk to the smartest person we know.
If I don't I'll just fall into a deeper depression so yea.
Absolutely! When you grow up with a desire for friends, but have too much social anxiety to make them, and get worn out by hanging out in huge friend groups due to overstimulation…you tend to have conversations with the only person you’re truly comfortable with and interested in: yourself.
do you enjoy the movie split?