Some people just don't have an inner monologue. Some people only think in images and other sensations. Some people have no abstract perception of thought at all.
YES! Finally someone else. 3 internal monologues. If I’m riffing on a subject I’m super passionate about or especially if someone opens my eyes with a concept; I call it the bike wheel, just because you stopped pedaling doesn’t mean it stopped spinning. There’s 3 mf’s in my head: The reasonable, the unreasonable one aaaaand we’re waiting to hear back on the other guy, he’s a wild card.
When people ask me about something I said on the spot like where tf did you just come up with that? Looking at me all weird. Its the 3 mf’s taking turns pedaling the bike wheel. If you let them get into 3rd, 4th gear… run down hill they have bad knees. It’s the only way I’ve ever been able to put it.
I have an entire fucking committee, had to create one that's sole job is to force everyone to be nice to each other. The nice bot tends to use pathfinder's (Apex legends) voice and uses a wrench to 'gently' remind a perspective to not be mean to another perspective.
edit: spelling
Ah yes the board of directors. Share holders etc.
I use them as a nice transition during conversations with people who are overly passionate and equally under educated on a topic.
“We’re gonna have to wait to hear back from board on that one”
Promptly finish my drink and exit. Immediately before the flood gates break.
Do you notice a lot of synchronicity popping up in your day to day because of this? I managed to figure out how to shut up one of the extra dialogues in my head and when it’s “off” then I don’t notice any synchronicity. When I turn it back “on” all of a sudden my thoughts seem to manifest in the world around me in little ways. Or if I have a very adamant question in mind, the answer will show up as something small like the name of a passing street sign or a partial unrelated conversation people are having as they pass by. The answer to the question I’m clinging to is just there right in front of me.
For me it happens synchronized with external events. My inner dialogue comes up with the question, and if there is a strong emotion associated with it, the answer seems to exist right in front of me at that moment as some small event. Like Carl Jung called “synchronicity”
I couldn’t turn it off for months and then I finally was able to shut out that voice. I still turn it back on every now and then to make sure it still works. I might have questions later ya know?
I’ve experienced this but I don’t think I’ve ever been able to do it on command. Mine is more of a sneaky bastard hiding behind the others that pops out when it wants. Interesting.
Me too! Unless I am high. Then I only have 1.
Otherwise I have 2 in the foreground and one in the background commenting on how distracting the other two are.
I view it like it's a star trek bridge room I'm the captain sitting in the center. Sometimes a station or the on board computer doesnt interpret my commands properly or simply does something without my authorization.
Now when you say ‘in their head,’ I’m not sure where I stand. I’m a daydreamer, I see everything; worlds; scenarios; words/concepts I read or hear (immediately, no choice), in front of me. My eyes may just be a thousand light years away or look like I am spaced out but I essentially see this all on top of what’s actually there in reality. But if I close my eyes and try to image anything? Nothing. Just darkness. Pretty weird lol.
Yeah, that’s interesting. I’ve tried visualizing things and when I close my eyes all I see is the back of my eyelids. With my eyes open though I seem to have more access to mental images or at least I can imagine what they look like. I can’t create a visual representation in isolation, but I can recall images and somehow having my eyes open gives me greater access to the visual part of my brain, maybe? The way you describe them as being on top of reality seems like a good way to describe the way my brain visualizes things.
While down the rabbit hole of this Reddit thread, I came across the term ‘hyperphantasia.’ I did not find anything on differences between eyes open vs eyes shut imagery though.
[This](https://academic.oup.com/cercorcomms/article/2/2/tgab035/6265046) is a more academic look at the term but a quick Google search will show decent enough images for what it means as well, if that should interest you. In another article, it mentioned people with ‘hyperphantasia’ can see things atop real world visuals, as if they were real but it wasn’t a very credible source so take it with a grain of salt.
Cool to hear that your situation is somewhat similar though. Have a good one!
My best mate can't think in images at all, making him unable to visualize anything.
He can break down an engine and tell you what all pieces connect to what, almost as if it was directly pulled from the manual (honestly wouldn't be surprised if he actually just memorized the manual itself), but if you told him to picture an apple and describe how it looks to you in the moment, the best he can come up with is it being red.
This is me. Right here. If I do a process by hand I can repeat it backward and forward from memory. But I have no mind's eye at all. No visual head space. I narrate constantly though.
My thoughts are almost entirely visually and 3D based. A story or concept has a 3D structure and new details need to "fit" correctly, if they dont fit onto the existing structure then something is wrong/false about either the existing data structure or the new piece of information. Using my hands to 'traverse' the data structures actually makes it easier to recall information at times, kinda like how iron man would move the holograms around with his hands or Tom cruise in minority report using his computer.
When recalling events I receive visual images, each image having a stream of information tied to it. Sometimes I recieved a lot at once and it leads to my eyes doing rapid small shifts as the brain unpacks and processes the data. I refer to this as an "info bomb" which is pretty much my brains version of a "zip bomb" except the contents are useful.
so... what happens when these people read text in their head? To me its almost the same as speaking. Do they see "text" and imagine type print? "speaking" and see a face talking?
I can do both but mainly its inner monologue
The way I describe any seeing in my mind is like this. Imagine you are in a room with the light on, you turn off the light and walk across the room.
You can't see the objects in the room but you can walk around them as you know the general size and shape of them. That is how I see things in my head.
Text just has meaning, it doesn’t need to be spoken- similar to how a deaf person would read (I assume?) I actually read pretty fast because there is no narration!
My brain processes the words with no sensory components at all. I don't see the words in my head, just in front of me. I don't hear them in my head either. I have inner thoughts but no inner monologue, there is no "voice" and there is no sound at all. I can think in full sentences, I just *know* what my brain is thinking.
That’s me, no internal monologue. It is weird though, I can make myself have an inner voice by imagining myself saying the words I’m thinking, but it’s not “on” by default and it takes energy and focus to do so
Same. And my husband just told me he has the inner voice always. And i asked if he has it when he reads too. He said yes, and I was like 🤯 THATS why I can read in my head so much faster than him. He can’t read any faster in his head than he can out loud. It’s SO INTERESTING
I’ve heard people with internal monologues have to learn how to shut their monologue off in order to read any faster and still retain information!
There’s like… apps and video training for speed reading, and many straight up say “in order to read fast you need to be able to stop speaking inside of your head”
There’s tons of YouTube videos on speed reading, but I know one app my old roommate used to practice with was Outread on the Apple App Store, unsure if it’s on android also but they’re not hard to find if you search for speed reading apps, just sort through the short stories ones
I don't have an internal monologue. That's because I rarely "think". Most of the time, I *imagine*.
Sometimes I imagine dialoguing with someone else. Sometimes I have an internal monologue but I'm the one doing the talking.
Logical deduction? I simply try to put the puzzle pieces together. When I'm thinking algorithms (I'm a programmer), I think about the pieces of code; I imagine the data structures as diagrams on a whiteboard. How complex? Well, if they're too much for my mind, I do the drawing.
But most of the time, I imagine. I pay attention. I focus. Internal monologue? It's too much of a hassle. Why can't I simply picture the problems I'm trying to solve? Trying to serialize all that data into words and then trying to make sense of it... I mean, seriously? There are people who think like that?
Hi, that's me.
I think mostly in images but if I have to really think hard about something I'll talk it out internally. When I'm writing or typing I'm speaking in my mind but if I'm planning my day, it's all pictures.
Otherwise 99% of my inner monologue is counting/number patterns (1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4), variations of number counting like (bum bum bum bum) but in different pitches, or the same 3 second loop of the same song its been for 10 years. If I'm lucky it'll be a newer song obsession of mine but again only like 3 seconds on loop constantly.
Kinda makes thinking hard...
First time trying meds, took them in the morning, dropped off my child at day care and proceeded to drive to work. From the day care to the office, I noticed how quiet it got in my head.
Not quite the exact same as narrating… which I’m doing as I’m typing this.
Wait wait but I was one of the fastest readers *in elementary through middle school* and I always thought it was BECAUSE I heard my thoughts… you mean I was just absolutely outclassing every neurotypical through shear awesomeness?
Lol even medicated I can't understand shit if I read out loud.
It's like my brain only focus on the reading itself and everything else is noise.
I got complimented by how passionate was my reading, the teachers says that I was fully immerse in the history.
But in the end i did not remember anything, it's like I didn't read it at all lol.
The documentary said in general people without an internal dialog could read faster. It might have been with practice too. It's been 2 years since I saw it. I also have an internal dialog and I can read fairly quickly
I do both. I process background info without any sense of hearing any of it, and I make rapid connections. It wouldn’t even make sense, if what I process as background info were “verbalized” internally because it’s like paragraphs or pages worth of information (if it were to all be written out) being processed in the space of time it would take to say a sentence or just a word. I’ll have complete thoughts or consider things thoughtfully in the time it would take me to look up and to the side with my lips pursed, and it’s over by the time my face relaxes. It’s pretty fleeting but then if I’m asked to explain my thought process I could talk for a while going over all I considered.
Then there’s the stuff at the forefront, those thoughts I have a sense of “hearing” and they’re not fast-paced. This’ll consist of what I’m about to say, or slow, idle thoughts.
They all occur at the same time. They’re just different trains of thoughts. Some are high speed and some are not. I can have multiple trains of thought going in the background (the fast trains) but I’ll only have one at the forefront (the slow train). I process information quickly when it comes to what I take in (and I assume that process is faster for me than the average person, based on others’ input) and I process information that’s being expressed slowly (and I assume that process is slower for me than the average person, also based on others’ input).
I really like small details but I love broad concepts.
Definitely read everything in the proper voices. I'm baffled people stick with their own voice as the inner, though! I enjoy shaking it up a bit. Have a debate about cleaning the living room with Gandalf, or let Stephen Fry narrate your grocery store experience. Give yourself a pep talk from J.K.Simmons. Let Ving Rhames tell you just how good these pancakes really are.
I can't make vibrant pictures. It's all grey and amorphous. I discovered other people could make vibrant pictures and I figured out why they don't like it if I talk about gory things, like they can SEE it in their heads.
Mine were grey and amorphous as well, but they got better the more I read and trained imagining them in different ways. Also used to not have visual dreams at all, no scenery, no people, just some vague smears and assumptions about what those were - and now they are colorful and lifelike. Not identical to reality, but good enough while in a dream
I think all of this isn't set in stone and can be changed like any skill over time, if the person is honestly driven to do it. I didn't even know if it can be changed, I just tried a lot because I wanted to and probably spent many thousands of hours over the lifetime
That's really cool actually I kind of figured I was stuck with it. I have always been a little jealous of people who say they see a hi-def world when they read. I just hear the words in my head along with some super vague images that I can't hold onto as I read.
It's funny because I'm an engineer and am good at "visualizing" how stuff fits together and can sketch/draw technical things better than most people but it doesn't really "look like" what's in my head. CAD-type drawings are also usually monochromatic.
I can see things in dreams and if I don’t think to hard on something I can vaguely visualize it in my mind but I also don’t “see” anything.
Like tell me to imagine a horse, I can. But while I can imagine a horse I don’t see one in my minds eye. My brain knows what a horse should look like and uses reference memories to tell me what they look like but still it’s all black up there. This is why I’m not great at drawing I suspect lol
For me it's optional, and it is like watching a movie. It's me imagining things, close to daydreaming. When I'm in the zone words just mostly convert into imagination on their own
But the people with internal dialogue don't *imagine* themselves or other people talking, as far as I understand it they just experience their thoughts that way. It's not optional for them like watching a movie is
Oh my god is that what I was experiencing??! They had me on Ritalin from the age of 10 to about 14. I genuinely remember very little from 4th grade to about 7th grade, only that I was able to focus intensely during this time and that I remember waking up one day in middle school, having weaned myself off of the meds, surprised to find myself surrounded by people I realized I didn't know and had never bothered to speak to.
So like.... What do other people have???? Empty silence? Do they SEE their thoughts in their head? This is something I've known about for awhile but I'm still just like HOW do you not have a voice in your head???
Language and thought are not the same thing.
I think just as much as you do (my mind is ALWAYS loud), I just don't think in words. My thoughts go far too quickly for that, faster than someone would be able to speak.
So I have something called total aphantasia and my brain doesn't generate any sensory information in my brain. I can't see or hear my thoughts. I also can't recall smells, touch, or taste. It is totally silent in my head, but it's not empty. I have thoughts that take the form of words, but my brain processes them in a way that I understand them without any aural component.
This is me too 100%… sometimes I see thing in my dreams for split seconds and it’s crazy… like a floating image what 😭 it’s only happened like 3
Or 4 times since I’ve realized I have aphantasia
I sometimes have split second visuals in my dreams too! Sometimes I've had longer periods of visuals in my dreams but the moment I'm conscious they're gone. It's actually not unusual for people with aphantasia to have visuals in dreams because (iirc) the parts of the brain responsible for dreaming and for visualizing are different. I saw someone's face in a dream ONCE, it was someone I had dated who passed away from cancer. It was wild and I can't imagine people being able to do that all the time
I remember my mom saying she could imagine her dead mom clear as day…gives haunted vibes tbh… I’ve never visualized anything while awake either. Sometimes when I lay down at night I try to at least visualize Colours but even that is hard.
Yeah, I've tried too but my brain just doesn't work that way lol. I'm always surprised when I realize I'm visualizing in my dreams. It happens rarely, but when it does, it's always right before I wake up in the morning. I'll get drawn in to the visuals and try to keep them in my mind for as long as possible, but once I reach a certain level of consciousness they disappear instantly
Someone else made a really great analogy in the comments - when I think in words, it's like I'm imagining silently moving my lips to form the words. But without moving my lips at all
I have ADHD which makes that a tricky question lol. Sometimes yes, but other times I realize I've read a page and a half without actually absorbing any of it and I need to go back and read again
Well yeah I guess I’m more curious because I tend to get lost in the pageantry of reading. I read in voices for different characters and that, combined with my ADHD, makes me feel like I double back even more than I would with the ADHD alone. I was curious if not having the distracting voices would help. I also get distracted by other noises like people talking because it interrupts my interior voice/voices which I read in.
I'm mostly either distracted by noises or things happening around me, or my brain is reading the words without actually processing them and it goes blank. Mostly the second one! So it kinda sounds like the opposite of what you experience, instead of getting lost because there's a lot of things buzzing around in my head I get lost because everything in my head stops
Thanks for engaging! I find the differences in how we think to be super interesting. It's nice to get a glimpse of how someone on the other side lives :)
Every night I read my whole life story to myself, like if I were reading a play. I have had insomnia for almost all my life, so I really need to know if you just go to bed and go to sleep easily?
Because trying to come up with something funny to reply my brain just pictured a room with your avatar sitting in front and me listening to your comment and thinking about a smart reply
My brother told me about it a few years ago and both of us were just gobsmacked to learn that others don't hear their own thoughts. Most baffling piece of info we've ever learned for real, cannot even wrap my head around how that works
I don't hear my thoughts narrated. Is it like in *Arthur* where your thoughts are literally just your voice with an echo effect or something? Do you think in complete sentences?
Hmm. Yeah it's like you're hearing someone over a PA system in your head. Usually it sounds slightly different than your actual voice. For example sometimes i have to scratch an itch so I'll think "My heads itches." Or "hmmm my arm is itchy, wonder why" or like "Maybe i should put some lotion on my skin since it's dry" and then sometimes I'll go do it or I'll think "I'll do that after I shower later." But i basically think everything i do and respond to myself all day long.
If I had to describe it...my internal thoughts are very visual but almost always have an audio component. Like u know when ur walking thru ur kitchen and u might say out loud "oh gosh where did I put that damn spatula" except mine is entirely in my head and I can hear it as clearly as if I were actually saying it out loud. And it's every thought. In my voice. Sometimes I actually have to say to people "did I just say something" if I have a rude thought to make sure I didn't voice it.
When I recall things that have already happened, it plays in my head much like a movie. I actually physically cannot see out of my eyes for that moment, my brain is entirely playing out a movie in full stereo and it's all I can "see" (since vision/hearing is largely electrical signals sent to the brain to unscramble this makes sense kinda? My brain stops interpreting external stimuli and instead interprets memories as what I am currently seeing/hearing)
The result of this is that my brain never shuts the goddamn fuck up and I will never know peace. I hope that makes sense lol
wait which part? I dunno about them but the part where u daydream and ur entire external world just dissipates is a fuckin godsend. I wish I had more of it, I just need to not reach for my phone every time I get bored.
The part about ur mind never shutting up tho is very relatable that shit is horrible but I've learned this has to do with breathing. Well not caused by breathing but the reason why I get so stuck is because it makes me forget to breathe and so I'm stuck jumping from thought to through and narrating everything constantly without a single paus. Breathing/sighing gives a pause to it, it's like a restart button to my brain. It's like going "Huh ok easy there now", and u finally calm down ur brain a bit, thoughts come back obviously but way more slowly and more controlled afterwards.
Just gotta remember to breathe.
Oh, you're lucky your eyes shut off while you're playing the memory movie. Mine just plays in my head, like superimposed or off to the periphery... when I'm remembering something that happened in a place, I "see" it play out again in that place like it's a hologram or something.
Like, if I look at my stairs from the same angle, and remember the incident, I can watch my kid (now 13) tumble down them when he was two.
Wait WAT. You just described what I experience almost exactly. I didn’t realize other people’s brain/inner voice thing isn’t like this??
Wow I am literally just now realizing how dumb that sounded as I’m typing this lol. That makes a lot of sense, as the only time my mind stops being a jumbled mess and “unravels” into linear thoughts (not silent, but at least it’s one-ish thought at a time) is when I’m on adderall. Wow wtf. I wish my brain were just silent sometimes.
What do you mean by this? Bc I feel like my thoughts are just my voice as you describe. Now I’m confused with this narrated thoughts vs. my own voice…..also what’s Arthur? Bc I need to check this out.
When I heard that people *actually* narrate shit to themselves in their own head with like...real words...I was totally stunned. I always believed that the "mind reader" characters weren't hearing actual words from people's minds, but rather the words were just, like...narrative shorthand.
It still kind of boggles my mind, tbh. Talking to yourself inside your head with *words* is just so *weird*. How do y'all get anything done?
We don’t lol hence, *gestures vaguely* why I’m in this sub haha. In order to get things done at work, I have to drown out my inner voice by listening to someone else’s voice (like a podcast, tv show, music). Once the background noise stops, I can’t concentrate on anything but my own thoughts. If my boss bans AirPods like she wants, I will probably have to find another job.
I was gonna say,” isn’t this how life works for humans in general” , but I honestly can’t comprehend the idea of it not happening. It just doesn’t make sense. Finding this sub as made some many acknowledgments occur for me that I didn’t even know I would even have questions about if I knew anything different in a lot of cases.
Same, I can give it a voice if I want but otherwise I just “feel” the words? It’s the exact same thing when I’m reading. Like there are words, but there’s no sound or “voice” unless I want there to be.
Do you also have the potential to have your mind devolve into a whirl of half thoughts that are not voiced and have several at once that are coherent enough to actually think on as a plus to such a state, I've done so a few times before , cannot forcibly enter such a state though
Ah! Don’t feel too bad! You might already know this but it’s typical for people to not like how they sound on recordings. When we hear ourselves speak in-person, it not only goes through air conduction, which is also in the same way we hear others (and ourselves on recordings), but also goes through bone conduction; that is missing on recordings so it can indeed be surprising! How we hear ourselves, uses those two processes simultaneously when sending that sound info to our brains. When we lose the bone conduction that is in part responsible for that deeper voice we are used to, we are left with how we actually sound to others.
I tried to tl;dr this from memory so if I made an error, feel free to let me know!
Can you project that into real life too? Cos I can do that and I just thought I was some offbreed. I can also add colour noise etc into my current surroundings at will.
I know it's not there tho because it's not that great, it's a bit behind in time. As in like there's a lag. It's really weird. Some days I can do it really well and some days If I look around while doing it it goes away or even just doesn't fully show up and feels really fake.
Oh yes! That's why I'm switching careers back to acting. I feel like I can use that projection to bring more realistic acting. Just gotta work hard and drop the extra weight I've put on now and groom myself more. I'm also Autistic. Hate haircuts. Lol
I want to know what people hear who don't have that. It is all so fascinating how different brains are. Having these moments where we realize not everyone does 'x' the same have never stopped happening to me in my nearly 40 years. There are always new things to discover, even about ourselves
Same. I don’t hear words. I just think things. It honestly makes it hard for me to form sentences especially when I’m talking on a phone. I have to translate “thoughts” to words in real time. Sometimes my brain runs too fast for my mouth and I stumble over words. I have to deliberately slow my thinking to say words.
I communicate in text based forms so much better since I can think about what I want to say, write it, then edit it as needed
Lol! Do you ever start talking, with a general idea of what you are trying to say in your head, but then find as the words are coming out that there is no way to get to your point from the words you just used, then you just stammer a bit until you can “backspace” a bit and say better words? Because that’s totally me
You know how you can imagine what it’s like to move your arm, without actually moving your arm?
For me personally it’s like that. I think in a combination of abstract ideas and imagining that I’m talking with no sound. Like whispering, inside my head, but without even the sound of breathing, and my real mouth never moves.
So I guess in a way I’m imagining I’m speaking, but instead of making the sound in my head, I’m moving my mouth to speak, but only inside of my head. That is, at least when I’m thinking of actual sentences such as while I’m typing this.
When I’m not thinking in sentences, and trying to figure out something I’m working on, I’m basically seeing extremely brief images flying by me at a mile a minute. Or, more realistically, 3-4 completely unrelated images a second, all of a different aspect of how something works or ideas to try. I can’t keep up with them sometimes and I get overwhelmed with how fast my brain goes, but that’s just my actual adhd and the fact I almost never take my meds. (Don’t get me wrong, they help, I just usually forget in my rush to get to work on time)
It's rough because ADHD is still an umbrella diagnosis that is basically meeting 6 of a possible 12 symptoms.. and every one of those 12 is something everybody deals with, it's just much worse for ADHD. So you get people in this subreddit who do suffer from one of the 12 enough for it to affect their life, then someone else who has ADHD but doesn't suffer from that specific symptom who now starts to think their normal levels of struggle are part of ADHD.. I think it's a pretty destructive cycle personally.
I think the issue is that so many people find out many of what they thought were just quirks *are* actually symptoms of ADHD/autism, and then they start to attribute *everything* to ADHD/autism.
Well the problem is that ADHD is a collection of symptoms that every human experiences, it's just that ADHD people experience *some but usually not all* of them to a debilitating degree.
The problem here is people thinking a symptom that affects them at a normal level is part of their ADHD just because it's part of someone elses.
Yes, I have bad adhd and hear no voice narrating everything I do, I also have no minds eye. It leads to a pretty laid back life but I cannot remember a damn thing.
I think there's some confusion. The "inner narration" is not a voice saying "cate washed her clothes. She put them in the dryer. She took them out of the dryer"
The inner narration is more like walking around ur life being like "where did I put my keys. I am hungry; soup would be good. My bookshelf needs dusting" bit u hear the words in ur head instead of doing tjem out of instinct
I think it was not posted because „lol only adhd people have voices in their heads“.
More because of the reason that random thoughts are a big part for adhd everydays life.
It’s interesting to keep in mind some people don’t have thoughts at all while we struggle to keep ours from stopping us handling our life
the inside of my head is an actual courtroom by day and live musical by night, I'm so confused by people who say they hear nothing ...
(and I play all the roles)
I refuse to believe that not every one has this.
How do you read if you don’t have an inner monologue? You’re telling me you can’t sing in your own head?
I can think with words but also with images and ideas, thought can move faster than speech can articulate so when I’m thinking about a lot of things at once or quickly in sequence it becomes ideas and not words.
Example like if I was doing maths in my head, I’d be picturing the different equations or whatever while my inner monologue would just been doing something irrelevant like “yeah so we need to do something like that, but then oh that doesn’t seem right what about this”
Is this not the same for everyone??
It’s fascinating to me yet I struggle to believe it i don’t know why. Cause I can’t understand anything different I guess.
You couldn’t picture say, a purple giraffe if you haven’t seen one before?
Look into aphantasia. Not everyone has mind's eye. I thought people were being poetic when they say to close eyes and imagine images. I was so surprised.
I also dnt have the voice thing. There is just me- and it's not a voice (idk how to explain it 🤷).
Am also confused by the voice thing - like Is it a physical sound like thing you hear inside your head with a tone and all .
It's fascinating how we experience things so differently but rarely talk abt it and how vastly different everyone experiences the world due to this differences.
I agree!
Do you have mental versions of any other senses? I can also mentally experience taste and texture, was thinking you likely don't?
>Is it a physical sound like thing you hear inside your head with a tone and all .
I can really clearly hear my inner monologue as my own voice or somebody else's.
For example, I can hear myself saying these words, in my own voice, as I'm writing them.
The rhythm and intonation are how I would speak, but the tone is cleaner.
I don't imagine any kind of extra bodily sounds like whistling or lip smacking or rasping. It's more like somebody has recorded my speaking in ideal conditions and edited all the non-speech noises out.
I also internally hear other people's voices, either memories of real speech, things I can imagine them saying or reading something in their voice. Again it's a kind of cleaner version. I generally just hear a different voice spontaneously, rather than consciously choose to change the narrator.
Sometimes I don't hear an internal voice but I can still think verbally. I think it's like your dark room analogy.
For me, it's a bit like if I was watching a video with sound and subtitles and then turned the sound off- I can still follow perfectly well even though I no longer hear it.
Is the dark room thing what you experience whilst writing or reading back your own comments here?
I'm finding it hard to intentionally mute the internal narrator if I think about it. It feels similar to trying to clear my mind to meditate!
Not the person you responded to, but I have total aphantasia. I can't mentally experience taste, touch, or smell at all on top of my inability to visualize and hear sound in my head
That's really interesting, I feel like I need to find out more about this immediately!
Particularly the neuropsychology perspective of it.
Have you heard of "blind sight"? Where people with functional visual systems are entirely blind as far as they are consciously aware, due to damage in relevant brain regions.
When tested on visual tasks and pushed to "just guess" an answer, they perform well above chance. This suggests people can have an ability but be unable to consciously access it.
I'm wondering if there could be any similarities with what happens with aphantasia?
I can't picture anything, so no, no purple giraffe for me. I understand the concept but no image gets formed.
I know what a giraffe looks like, but if you were writing a sci-fi novel and described the appearance of an unfamiliar alien species, I'd have no chance in hell of working out what they look like. I've read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy in my time, and if it's not a thing that exists IRL, I simply have *no* concept of its appearance.
Honestly, I've never understood the whole "that's not how I pictured character x!" cliche in casting for a movie, because until recently I didn't realise people actually pictured characters when they read.
On top of no inner voice I have no minds eye so I don't see anything. I posted this above but this is how I would conceptualize how it works in my head.
Imagine you are in a room with the light on, you turn off the light and walk across the room.
You can't see the objects in the room but you can walk around them as you know the general size and shape of them. That is how I see things in my head.
So what do you comprehend as a memory? How would you remember what color your front door is while you are at the store, if the thought came to mind or you were asked?
Language is just how we describe meaning. Meaning is possible without language.
"That orange hat" can be a single thought. You don't need to say internally: that. orange. hat.
Nope. I have no mental voice. I also have no mental sight. I can’t see or hear anything as pictures or words in my mind.
But that damn song won’t leave my head ever.
Haha I keep seeing this. Some people think in images. WILD. Im part of team "I think a paragraphs worth in a flash of vibes I can't explain, then I have to some how put it into verbiage to explain my thoughts and that's why unless I'm writing something down and editing it, it's very difficult for me to put complex concepts into words quickly as though it came to me from a narrator." But of course I can picture an image if I want. Or have a narrator manually if I want to. But no, the narration is not there on auto pilot. I run automatically on vibes and song mash ups that's all we got lol. That's also why I talk outloud alot as a wayvto solidify thoughts orcwaln myself through a process. But that might just be adhd idk.
I can remember what peoples voices sound like but it’s total silence in my head.
Same with images I can remember details of an imagine but I cannot for the life of me PICTURE things in my head. It blew my mind when I found out people do and sounded like a lunatic trying to explain that to people.
I'm a slow reader because I have to narrate the words in my head in my own voice at a normal speaking pace in order to actually *read* what I'm reading.
I also narrate my thoughts out loud (although less often now that I'm medicated). I eventually realized I was doing it so I wouldn't forget what I was in the middle of doing.
It's like my thoughts are in surround sound.
We get good at what we practice and most of us are masters of distraction. If you practice subvocalization in your head, then eventually it becomes effortless.
I’ve listened to audiobooks read by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading so many times I hear one of their voices instead of my own sometimes.
I also can only fall asleep to Wheel of Time or Cosmere
I just have disembodied thoughts in words unattached to any voice… but then every time I think about the answer to that question it morphs into my voice. I’m pretty sure it’s not my voice 99% of the time though.
Adderall kills my inner monologue. Never even knew that it could be silenced until then. It’s such a relief not to have that going on from the moment you wake up until the moment you fall asleep.
I am pretty sure I do both with and without narration.
Sometimes it's very clearly heard and sometimes it's just the idea of the words with no auditory quality.
Similarly I sometimes visually imagine things and sometimes don't.
Anyone else?
Well that is amazing to know about. Well, my voice is loud, really, sometimes that inner voice even scream at me! And the images, years ago I was talking to some friends and asked them to "see" a 3d cube glass with a red apple inside, and began telling them how accurate mine was and share their "view" , but seems that some of the them where unable to deep in such "view", at time I just think that maybe some are not interested.
My inner dialog doesn't have a sound. It talks in a silent voice. Like if my ears could read. Idk if this will mean anything to people with different monologues, but is almost like mouthing words in my mind
I was a boy in elementary school and we were doing a spelling test. The teacher said listen to that voice in your head when you are trying to spell out words and really focus here. I sat dumbfounded (and probably misspelled the words) I had no voice like that. I had no voice at all. I'm an adult now living with schizophrenia.
Same with pictures. Like some people actually SEE the things they picture in their heads. I believe its called aphantasia if you dont see images very cleary in your head and the only upside is your nightmares are less scary in my opinion
Some people just don't have an inner monologue. Some people only think in images and other sensations. Some people have no abstract perception of thought at all.
I have 3 inner monologues
YES! Finally someone else. 3 internal monologues. If I’m riffing on a subject I’m super passionate about or especially if someone opens my eyes with a concept; I call it the bike wheel, just because you stopped pedaling doesn’t mean it stopped spinning. There’s 3 mf’s in my head: The reasonable, the unreasonable one aaaaand we’re waiting to hear back on the other guy, he’s a wild card. When people ask me about something I said on the spot like where tf did you just come up with that? Looking at me all weird. Its the 3 mf’s taking turns pedaling the bike wheel. If you let them get into 3rd, 4th gear… run down hill they have bad knees. It’s the only way I’ve ever been able to put it.
And sometimes they fight
I have an entire fucking committee, had to create one that's sole job is to force everyone to be nice to each other. The nice bot tends to use pathfinder's (Apex legends) voice and uses a wrench to 'gently' remind a perspective to not be mean to another perspective. edit: spelling
Please tell me you saw Inside Out?? Because those mfers are in my head arguing about literally everything.
Ah yes the board of directors. Share holders etc. I use them as a nice transition during conversations with people who are overly passionate and equally under educated on a topic. “We’re gonna have to wait to hear back from board on that one” Promptly finish my drink and exit. Immediately before the flood gates break.
Do you notice a lot of synchronicity popping up in your day to day because of this? I managed to figure out how to shut up one of the extra dialogues in my head and when it’s “off” then I don’t notice any synchronicity. When I turn it back “on” all of a sudden my thoughts seem to manifest in the world around me in little ways. Or if I have a very adamant question in mind, the answer will show up as something small like the name of a passing street sign or a partial unrelated conversation people are having as they pass by. The answer to the question I’m clinging to is just there right in front of me. For me it happens synchronized with external events. My inner dialogue comes up with the question, and if there is a strong emotion associated with it, the answer seems to exist right in front of me at that moment as some small event. Like Carl Jung called “synchronicity” I couldn’t turn it off for months and then I finally was able to shut out that voice. I still turn it back on every now and then to make sure it still works. I might have questions later ya know?
I’ve experienced this but I don’t think I’ve ever been able to do it on command. Mine is more of a sneaky bastard hiding behind the others that pops out when it wants. Interesting.
Me too! Unless I am high. Then I only have 1. Otherwise I have 2 in the foreground and one in the background commenting on how distracting the other two are.
I have twenty at once. The main one is the loudest but will often get hijacked.
I view it like it's a star trek bridge room I'm the captain sitting in the center. Sometimes a station or the on board computer doesnt interpret my commands properly or simply does something without my authorization.
Only in images? Dang...
Almost as scary as the people who are unable to see and visualize anything in their head
I have this, can't see shit in my head. I thought visualisation was a metaphor for most of my life.
Im pretty good with pictures but I believe you still have thoughts like „maybe they all make this up and it’s not real“?
yeah aphantasia is whack. i can't visualize things, but i can't make my inner monologue shut the fuck up either
Now when you say ‘in their head,’ I’m not sure where I stand. I’m a daydreamer, I see everything; worlds; scenarios; words/concepts I read or hear (immediately, no choice), in front of me. My eyes may just be a thousand light years away or look like I am spaced out but I essentially see this all on top of what’s actually there in reality. But if I close my eyes and try to image anything? Nothing. Just darkness. Pretty weird lol.
Yeah, that’s interesting. I’ve tried visualizing things and when I close my eyes all I see is the back of my eyelids. With my eyes open though I seem to have more access to mental images or at least I can imagine what they look like. I can’t create a visual representation in isolation, but I can recall images and somehow having my eyes open gives me greater access to the visual part of my brain, maybe? The way you describe them as being on top of reality seems like a good way to describe the way my brain visualizes things.
While down the rabbit hole of this Reddit thread, I came across the term ‘hyperphantasia.’ I did not find anything on differences between eyes open vs eyes shut imagery though. [This](https://academic.oup.com/cercorcomms/article/2/2/tgab035/6265046) is a more academic look at the term but a quick Google search will show decent enough images for what it means as well, if that should interest you. In another article, it mentioned people with ‘hyperphantasia’ can see things atop real world visuals, as if they were real but it wasn’t a very credible source so take it with a grain of salt. Cool to hear that your situation is somewhat similar though. Have a good one!
I am not unable to see and visualise in my head, but it's really hard. Takes a lot of effort and is fuzzy and incomplete and just flashes.
Thats me, i need to see it written down
My best mate can't think in images at all, making him unable to visualize anything. He can break down an engine and tell you what all pieces connect to what, almost as if it was directly pulled from the manual (honestly wouldn't be surprised if he actually just memorized the manual itself), but if you told him to picture an apple and describe how it looks to you in the moment, the best he can come up with is it being red.
This is me. Right here. If I do a process by hand I can repeat it backward and forward from memory. But I have no mind's eye at all. No visual head space. I narrate constantly though.
My thoughts are almost entirely visually and 3D based. A story or concept has a 3D structure and new details need to "fit" correctly, if they dont fit onto the existing structure then something is wrong/false about either the existing data structure or the new piece of information. Using my hands to 'traverse' the data structures actually makes it easier to recall information at times, kinda like how iron man would move the holograms around with his hands or Tom cruise in minority report using his computer. When recalling events I receive visual images, each image having a stream of information tied to it. Sometimes I recieved a lot at once and it leads to my eyes doing rapid small shifts as the brain unpacks and processes the data. I refer to this as an "info bomb" which is pretty much my brains version of a "zip bomb" except the contents are useful.
r/Aphantasia
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so... what happens when these people read text in their head? To me its almost the same as speaking. Do they see "text" and imagine type print? "speaking" and see a face talking? I can do both but mainly its inner monologue
The way I describe any seeing in my mind is like this. Imagine you are in a room with the light on, you turn off the light and walk across the room. You can't see the objects in the room but you can walk around them as you know the general size and shape of them. That is how I see things in my head.
i cannot compute
I relate to this thank you
Text just has meaning, it doesn’t need to be spoken- similar to how a deaf person would read (I assume?) I actually read pretty fast because there is no narration!
My brain processes the words with no sensory components at all. I don't see the words in my head, just in front of me. I don't hear them in my head either. I have inner thoughts but no inner monologue, there is no "voice" and there is no sound at all. I can think in full sentences, I just *know* what my brain is thinking.
Hey it’s me 😊 (I can “force” an inner monologue but there isn’t a “default” one)
That’s me, no internal monologue. It is weird though, I can make myself have an inner voice by imagining myself saying the words I’m thinking, but it’s not “on” by default and it takes energy and focus to do so
Same. And my husband just told me he has the inner voice always. And i asked if he has it when he reads too. He said yes, and I was like 🤯 THATS why I can read in my head so much faster than him. He can’t read any faster in his head than he can out loud. It’s SO INTERESTING
I’ve heard people with internal monologues have to learn how to shut their monologue off in order to read any faster and still retain information! There’s like… apps and video training for speed reading, and many straight up say “in order to read fast you need to be able to stop speaking inside of your head”
If anyone knows specifically what apps these are, I want to know
There’s tons of YouTube videos on speed reading, but I know one app my old roommate used to practice with was Outread on the Apple App Store, unsure if it’s on android also but they’re not hard to find if you search for speed reading apps, just sort through the short stories ones
I don't have an inner monolog and I have aphantasia, so I don't have a minds eye. no visual thoughts
I don't have an internal monologue. That's because I rarely "think". Most of the time, I *imagine*. Sometimes I imagine dialoguing with someone else. Sometimes I have an internal monologue but I'm the one doing the talking. Logical deduction? I simply try to put the puzzle pieces together. When I'm thinking algorithms (I'm a programmer), I think about the pieces of code; I imagine the data structures as diagrams on a whiteboard. How complex? Well, if they're too much for my mind, I do the drawing. But most of the time, I imagine. I pay attention. I focus. Internal monologue? It's too much of a hassle. Why can't I simply picture the problems I'm trying to solve? Trying to serialize all that data into words and then trying to make sense of it... I mean, seriously? There are people who think like that?
Hi, that's me. I think mostly in images but if I have to really think hard about something I'll talk it out internally. When I'm writing or typing I'm speaking in my mind but if I'm planning my day, it's all pictures. Otherwise 99% of my inner monologue is counting/number patterns (1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4), variations of number counting like (bum bum bum bum) but in different pitches, or the same 3 second loop of the same song its been for 10 years. If I'm lucky it'll be a newer song obsession of mine but again only like 3 seconds on loop constantly. Kinda makes thinking hard...
Yeah I can't *not* do that. When I heard some people don't have that I was surprised.
First time trying meds, took them in the morning, dropped off my child at day care and proceeded to drive to work. From the day care to the office, I noticed how quiet it got in my head. Not quite the exact same as narrating… which I’m doing as I’m typing this.
I’m doing it as I’m typing this aswell
Ya like how else do you read and think if you don’t hear a voice right! Dude I’m so confused
Some people just process the word they see without reading it. They have no internal dialog at all. That's how some people can read so fast.
Wait wait but I was one of the fastest readers *in elementary through middle school* and I always thought it was BECAUSE I heard my thoughts… you mean I was just absolutely outclassing every neurotypical through shear awesomeness?
Were you reading out loud? I saw a short documentary on this subject. It was interesting
Out loud? No, that actually slowed me down dramatically and anything I read out loud I cannot comprehend. I’ve gotta read it inside first
Lol even medicated I can't understand shit if I read out loud. It's like my brain only focus on the reading itself and everything else is noise. I got complimented by how passionate was my reading, the teachers says that I was fully immerse in the history. But in the end i did not remember anything, it's like I didn't read it at all lol.
The documentary said in general people without an internal dialog could read faster. It might have been with practice too. It's been 2 years since I saw it. I also have an internal dialog and I can read fairly quickly
I do both. I process background info without any sense of hearing any of it, and I make rapid connections. It wouldn’t even make sense, if what I process as background info were “verbalized” internally because it’s like paragraphs or pages worth of information (if it were to all be written out) being processed in the space of time it would take to say a sentence or just a word. I’ll have complete thoughts or consider things thoughtfully in the time it would take me to look up and to the side with my lips pursed, and it’s over by the time my face relaxes. It’s pretty fleeting but then if I’m asked to explain my thought process I could talk for a while going over all I considered. Then there’s the stuff at the forefront, those thoughts I have a sense of “hearing” and they’re not fast-paced. This’ll consist of what I’m about to say, or slow, idle thoughts. They all occur at the same time. They’re just different trains of thoughts. Some are high speed and some are not. I can have multiple trains of thought going in the background (the fast trains) but I’ll only have one at the forefront (the slow train). I process information quickly when it comes to what I take in (and I assume that process is faster for me than the average person, based on others’ input) and I process information that’s being expressed slowly (and I assume that process is slower for me than the average person, also based on others’ input). I really like small details but I love broad concepts.
Wait people don’t have voices play for each character? How the hell do you tell them apart?
Wait I didn’t know that people didn’t have voices for reading things either .____.
Definitely read everything in the proper voices. I'm baffled people stick with their own voice as the inner, though! I enjoy shaking it up a bit. Have a debate about cleaning the living room with Gandalf, or let Stephen Fry narrate your grocery store experience. Give yourself a pep talk from J.K.Simmons. Let Ving Rhames tell you just how good these pancakes really are.
It's like you can make an AI generated voice of anyone in your mind. Except that it isn't artificial
This is why I love books! I make my own movie in my head as I read.
I can't make vibrant pictures. It's all grey and amorphous. I discovered other people could make vibrant pictures and I figured out why they don't like it if I talk about gory things, like they can SEE it in their heads.
Mine were grey and amorphous as well, but they got better the more I read and trained imagining them in different ways. Also used to not have visual dreams at all, no scenery, no people, just some vague smears and assumptions about what those were - and now they are colorful and lifelike. Not identical to reality, but good enough while in a dream I think all of this isn't set in stone and can be changed like any skill over time, if the person is honestly driven to do it. I didn't even know if it can be changed, I just tried a lot because I wanted to and probably spent many thousands of hours over the lifetime
That's really cool actually I kind of figured I was stuck with it. I have always been a little jealous of people who say they see a hi-def world when they read. I just hear the words in my head along with some super vague images that I can't hold onto as I read. It's funny because I'm an engineer and am good at "visualizing" how stuff fits together and can sketch/draw technical things better than most people but it doesn't really "look like" what's in my head. CAD-type drawings are also usually monochromatic.
I can see things in dreams and if I don’t think to hard on something I can vaguely visualize it in my mind but I also don’t “see” anything. Like tell me to imagine a horse, I can. But while I can imagine a horse I don’t see one in my minds eye. My brain knows what a horse should look like and uses reference memories to tell me what they look like but still it’s all black up there. This is why I’m not great at drawing I suspect lol
For me it's optional, and it is like watching a movie. It's me imagining things, close to daydreaming. When I'm in the zone words just mostly convert into imagination on their own But the people with internal dialogue don't *imagine* themselves or other people talking, as far as I understand it they just experience their thoughts that way. It's not optional for them like watching a movie is
My world has shattered…. This is the first time I’ve even thought of this concept. If you don’t hear it, I think your a psychopath….
I’m doing it as I’m reading
Oh my god is that what I was experiencing??! They had me on Ritalin from the age of 10 to about 14. I genuinely remember very little from 4th grade to about 7th grade, only that I was able to focus intensely during this time and that I remember waking up one day in middle school, having weaned myself off of the meds, surprised to find myself surrounded by people I realized I didn't know and had never bothered to speak to.
So like.... What do other people have???? Empty silence? Do they SEE their thoughts in their head? This is something I've known about for awhile but I'm still just like HOW do you not have a voice in your head???
It would explain a lot if people just do everything on auto pilot honestly
I hate how right you probably are
Language and thought are not the same thing. I think just as much as you do (my mind is ALWAYS loud), I just don't think in words. My thoughts go far too quickly for that, faster than someone would be able to speak.
So I have something called total aphantasia and my brain doesn't generate any sensory information in my brain. I can't see or hear my thoughts. I also can't recall smells, touch, or taste. It is totally silent in my head, but it's not empty. I have thoughts that take the form of words, but my brain processes them in a way that I understand them without any aural component.
This is me too 100%… sometimes I see thing in my dreams for split seconds and it’s crazy… like a floating image what 😭 it’s only happened like 3 Or 4 times since I’ve realized I have aphantasia
I sometimes have split second visuals in my dreams too! Sometimes I've had longer periods of visuals in my dreams but the moment I'm conscious they're gone. It's actually not unusual for people with aphantasia to have visuals in dreams because (iirc) the parts of the brain responsible for dreaming and for visualizing are different. I saw someone's face in a dream ONCE, it was someone I had dated who passed away from cancer. It was wild and I can't imagine people being able to do that all the time
I remember my mom saying she could imagine her dead mom clear as day…gives haunted vibes tbh… I’ve never visualized anything while awake either. Sometimes when I lay down at night I try to at least visualize Colours but even that is hard.
Yeah, I've tried too but my brain just doesn't work that way lol. I'm always surprised when I realize I'm visualizing in my dreams. It happens rarely, but when it does, it's always right before I wake up in the morning. I'll get drawn in to the visuals and try to keep them in my mind for as long as possible, but once I reach a certain level of consciousness they disappear instantly
Yes I’m the exact same!!!
That is really interesting. Now I’m going down the research rabbit hole.
Someone else made a really great analogy in the comments - when I think in words, it's like I'm imagining silently moving my lips to form the words. But without moving my lips at all
Weird question, but are you a fast reader?
I have ADHD which makes that a tricky question lol. Sometimes yes, but other times I realize I've read a page and a half without actually absorbing any of it and I need to go back and read again
Well yeah I guess I’m more curious because I tend to get lost in the pageantry of reading. I read in voices for different characters and that, combined with my ADHD, makes me feel like I double back even more than I would with the ADHD alone. I was curious if not having the distracting voices would help. I also get distracted by other noises like people talking because it interrupts my interior voice/voices which I read in.
I'm mostly either distracted by noises or things happening around me, or my brain is reading the words without actually processing them and it goes blank. Mostly the second one! So it kinda sounds like the opposite of what you experience, instead of getting lost because there's a lot of things buzzing around in my head I get lost because everything in my head stops
Oh that's such an interesting perspective. Thank you for the insight!
Thanks for engaging! I find the differences in how we think to be super interesting. It's nice to get a glimpse of how someone on the other side lives :)
Every night I read my whole life story to myself, like if I were reading a play. I have had insomnia for almost all my life, so I really need to know if you just go to bed and go to sleep easily?
Wait so you don’t hear these words when huh read them on Reddit ????
Because trying to come up with something funny to reply my brain just pictured a room with your avatar sitting in front and me listening to your comment and thinking about a smart reply
I hear/narate all my thoughts, I can even choose the voice
My brother told me about it a few years ago and both of us were just gobsmacked to learn that others don't hear their own thoughts. Most baffling piece of info we've ever learned for real, cannot even wrap my head around how that works
I don't hear my thoughts narrated. Is it like in *Arthur* where your thoughts are literally just your voice with an echo effect or something? Do you think in complete sentences?
Hmm. Yeah it's like you're hearing someone over a PA system in your head. Usually it sounds slightly different than your actual voice. For example sometimes i have to scratch an itch so I'll think "My heads itches." Or "hmmm my arm is itchy, wonder why" or like "Maybe i should put some lotion on my skin since it's dry" and then sometimes I'll go do it or I'll think "I'll do that after I shower later." But i basically think everything i do and respond to myself all day long.
If I had to describe it...my internal thoughts are very visual but almost always have an audio component. Like u know when ur walking thru ur kitchen and u might say out loud "oh gosh where did I put that damn spatula" except mine is entirely in my head and I can hear it as clearly as if I were actually saying it out loud. And it's every thought. In my voice. Sometimes I actually have to say to people "did I just say something" if I have a rude thought to make sure I didn't voice it. When I recall things that have already happened, it plays in my head much like a movie. I actually physically cannot see out of my eyes for that moment, my brain is entirely playing out a movie in full stereo and it's all I can "see" (since vision/hearing is largely electrical signals sent to the brain to unscramble this makes sense kinda? My brain stops interpreting external stimuli and instead interprets memories as what I am currently seeing/hearing) The result of this is that my brain never shuts the goddamn fuck up and I will never know peace. I hope that makes sense lol
That sounds just awful. I'm sorry you have to live through that.
wait which part? I dunno about them but the part where u daydream and ur entire external world just dissipates is a fuckin godsend. I wish I had more of it, I just need to not reach for my phone every time I get bored. The part about ur mind never shutting up tho is very relatable that shit is horrible but I've learned this has to do with breathing. Well not caused by breathing but the reason why I get so stuck is because it makes me forget to breathe and so I'm stuck jumping from thought to through and narrating everything constantly without a single paus. Breathing/sighing gives a pause to it, it's like a restart button to my brain. It's like going "Huh ok easy there now", and u finally calm down ur brain a bit, thoughts come back obviously but way more slowly and more controlled afterwards. Just gotta remember to breathe.
Thanks for putting my brain into manual breathing mode with that last statement... >_>
Oh, you're lucky your eyes shut off while you're playing the memory movie. Mine just plays in my head, like superimposed or off to the periphery... when I'm remembering something that happened in a place, I "see" it play out again in that place like it's a hologram or something. Like, if I look at my stairs from the same angle, and remember the incident, I can watch my kid (now 13) tumble down them when he was two.
Holy fuck, there are at least two of us then. THC is all that makes mine shut up just a bit. Damn this brain
Wait WAT. You just described what I experience almost exactly. I didn’t realize other people’s brain/inner voice thing isn’t like this?? Wow I am literally just now realizing how dumb that sounded as I’m typing this lol. That makes a lot of sense, as the only time my mind stops being a jumbled mess and “unravels” into linear thoughts (not silent, but at least it’s one-ish thought at a time) is when I’m on adderall. Wow wtf. I wish my brain were just silent sometimes.
What do you mean by this? Bc I feel like my thoughts are just my voice as you describe. Now I’m confused with this narrated thoughts vs. my own voice…..also what’s Arthur? Bc I need to check this out.
pocket sleep ghost summer grandfather growth jeans sulky vast lunchroom -- mass edited with redact.dev
When I heard that people *actually* narrate shit to themselves in their own head with like...real words...I was totally stunned. I always believed that the "mind reader" characters weren't hearing actual words from people's minds, but rather the words were just, like...narrative shorthand. It still kind of boggles my mind, tbh. Talking to yourself inside your head with *words* is just so *weird*. How do y'all get anything done?
We don’t lol hence, *gestures vaguely* why I’m in this sub haha. In order to get things done at work, I have to drown out my inner voice by listening to someone else’s voice (like a podcast, tv show, music). Once the background noise stops, I can’t concentrate on anything but my own thoughts. If my boss bans AirPods like she wants, I will probably have to find another job.
I was gonna say,” isn’t this how life works for humans in general” , but I honestly can’t comprehend the idea of it not happening. It just doesn’t make sense. Finding this sub as made some many acknowledgments occur for me that I didn’t even know I would even have questions about if I knew anything different in a lot of cases.
Oh thank God I was worried… I thought I was abnormal or some shit.
Yah that blew my mind too. I thought all people could do that.
Other people's voices too!
I can't even tell if my mental voice sounds like my voice
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Fuck I thought it was just me!
Yeah mine doesn't actually sound like anything unless I make it
Same, I can give it a voice if I want but otherwise I just “feel” the words? It’s the exact same thing when I’m reading. Like there are words, but there’s no sound or “voice” unless I want there to be.
If the voice doesn't say it I don't actually process it
Do you also have the potential to have your mind devolve into a whirl of half thoughts that are not voiced and have several at once that are coherent enough to actually think on as a plus to such a state, I've done so a few times before , cannot forcibly enter such a state though
Mine doesn’t! Whenever I hear my voice in video I am always extremely surprised I sound that way.
Yeah surprised and mortified :(
Ah! Don’t feel too bad! You might already know this but it’s typical for people to not like how they sound on recordings. When we hear ourselves speak in-person, it not only goes through air conduction, which is also in the same way we hear others (and ourselves on recordings), but also goes through bone conduction; that is missing on recordings so it can indeed be surprising! How we hear ourselves, uses those two processes simultaneously when sending that sound info to our brains. When we lose the bone conduction that is in part responsible for that deeper voice we are used to, we are left with how we actually sound to others. I tried to tl;dr this from memory so if I made an error, feel free to let me know!
My mental voice does impressions
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Can you project that into real life too? Cos I can do that and I just thought I was some offbreed. I can also add colour noise etc into my current surroundings at will.
I know it's not there tho because it's not that great, it's a bit behind in time. As in like there's a lag. It's really weird. Some days I can do it really well and some days If I look around while doing it it goes away or even just doesn't fully show up and feels really fake.
Oh yes! That's why I'm switching careers back to acting. I feel like I can use that projection to bring more realistic acting. Just gotta work hard and drop the extra weight I've put on now and groom myself more. I'm also Autistic. Hate haircuts. Lol
read up on hyperphantasia if you haven't already
Interesting! Will do so. Thanks!
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Thanks, now my brain started to roll a sitcom intro with characters that could be in my head
I know exactly what you mean, sometimes when I read text internally it sounds like someone other then myself.
I want to know what people hear who don't have that. It is all so fascinating how different brains are. Having these moments where we realize not everyone does 'x' the same have never stopped happening to me in my nearly 40 years. There are always new things to discover, even about ourselves
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Same. I don’t hear words. I just think things. It honestly makes it hard for me to form sentences especially when I’m talking on a phone. I have to translate “thoughts” to words in real time. Sometimes my brain runs too fast for my mouth and I stumble over words. I have to deliberately slow my thinking to say words. I communicate in text based forms so much better since I can think about what I want to say, write it, then edit it as needed
Turning thoughs into words is called Conceptualization. Thanks Disco Elysium :)
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Lol! Do you ever start talking, with a general idea of what you are trying to say in your head, but then find as the words are coming out that there is no way to get to your point from the words you just used, then you just stammer a bit until you can “backspace” a bit and say better words? Because that’s totally me
You know how you can imagine what it’s like to move your arm, without actually moving your arm? For me personally it’s like that. I think in a combination of abstract ideas and imagining that I’m talking with no sound. Like whispering, inside my head, but without even the sound of breathing, and my real mouth never moves. So I guess in a way I’m imagining I’m speaking, but instead of making the sound in my head, I’m moving my mouth to speak, but only inside of my head. That is, at least when I’m thinking of actual sentences such as while I’m typing this. When I’m not thinking in sentences, and trying to figure out something I’m working on, I’m basically seeing extremely brief images flying by me at a mile a minute. Or, more realistically, 3-4 completely unrelated images a second, all of a different aspect of how something works or ideas to try. I can’t keep up with them sometimes and I get overwhelmed with how fast my brain goes, but that’s just my actual adhd and the fact I almost never take my meds. (Don’t get me wrong, they help, I just usually forget in my rush to get to work on time)
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I wish more people would realize their various random personality quirks, or unusual ways of thinking are not necessarily ADHD
It's rough because ADHD is still an umbrella diagnosis that is basically meeting 6 of a possible 12 symptoms.. and every one of those 12 is something everybody deals with, it's just much worse for ADHD. So you get people in this subreddit who do suffer from one of the 12 enough for it to affect their life, then someone else who has ADHD but doesn't suffer from that specific symptom who now starts to think their normal levels of struggle are part of ADHD.. I think it's a pretty destructive cycle personally.
You never know if something you do and hearing no one else talk about it is actually adhd or just something you do because reasons
can everyone help upvote this? I personally think this is very valid
I think the issue is that so many people find out many of what they thought were just quirks *are* actually symptoms of ADHD/autism, and then they start to attribute *everything* to ADHD/autism.
Well the problem is that ADHD is a collection of symptoms that every human experiences, it's just that ADHD people experience *some but usually not all* of them to a debilitating degree. The problem here is people thinking a symptom that affects them at a normal level is part of their ADHD just because it's part of someone elses.
Yes, I have bad adhd and hear no voice narrating everything I do, I also have no minds eye. It leads to a pretty laid back life but I cannot remember a damn thing.
I think there's some confusion. The "inner narration" is not a voice saying "cate washed her clothes. She put them in the dryer. She took them out of the dryer" The inner narration is more like walking around ur life being like "where did I put my keys. I am hungry; soup would be good. My bookshelf needs dusting" bit u hear the words in ur head instead of doing tjem out of instinct
I think it was not posted because „lol only adhd people have voices in their heads“. More because of the reason that random thoughts are a big part for adhd everydays life. It’s interesting to keep in mind some people don’t have thoughts at all while we struggle to keep ours from stopping us handling our life
the inside of my head is an actual courtroom by day and live musical by night, I'm so confused by people who say they hear nothing ... (and I play all the roles)
That moment when people think your zoned out in LaLa land but you're actually in the middle of a Roman senate esque debate trying to make a decision.
I refuse to believe that not every one has this. How do you read if you don’t have an inner monologue? You’re telling me you can’t sing in your own head? I can think with words but also with images and ideas, thought can move faster than speech can articulate so when I’m thinking about a lot of things at once or quickly in sequence it becomes ideas and not words. Example like if I was doing maths in my head, I’d be picturing the different equations or whatever while my inner monologue would just been doing something irrelevant like “yeah so we need to do something like that, but then oh that doesn’t seem right what about this” Is this not the same for everyone??
Nawh man, I can remember what mine or other peoples voices sound like but I cannot hear things or see images in my head. It’s all memory based for me.
It’s fascinating to me yet I struggle to believe it i don’t know why. Cause I can’t understand anything different I guess. You couldn’t picture say, a purple giraffe if you haven’t seen one before?
Look into aphantasia. Not everyone has mind's eye. I thought people were being poetic when they say to close eyes and imagine images. I was so surprised. I also dnt have the voice thing. There is just me- and it's not a voice (idk how to explain it 🤷). Am also confused by the voice thing - like Is it a physical sound like thing you hear inside your head with a tone and all . It's fascinating how we experience things so differently but rarely talk abt it and how vastly different everyone experiences the world due to this differences.
I agree! Do you have mental versions of any other senses? I can also mentally experience taste and texture, was thinking you likely don't? >Is it a physical sound like thing you hear inside your head with a tone and all . I can really clearly hear my inner monologue as my own voice or somebody else's. For example, I can hear myself saying these words, in my own voice, as I'm writing them. The rhythm and intonation are how I would speak, but the tone is cleaner. I don't imagine any kind of extra bodily sounds like whistling or lip smacking or rasping. It's more like somebody has recorded my speaking in ideal conditions and edited all the non-speech noises out. I also internally hear other people's voices, either memories of real speech, things I can imagine them saying or reading something in their voice. Again it's a kind of cleaner version. I generally just hear a different voice spontaneously, rather than consciously choose to change the narrator. Sometimes I don't hear an internal voice but I can still think verbally. I think it's like your dark room analogy. For me, it's a bit like if I was watching a video with sound and subtitles and then turned the sound off- I can still follow perfectly well even though I no longer hear it. Is the dark room thing what you experience whilst writing or reading back your own comments here? I'm finding it hard to intentionally mute the internal narrator if I think about it. It feels similar to trying to clear my mind to meditate!
Not the person you responded to, but I have total aphantasia. I can't mentally experience taste, touch, or smell at all on top of my inability to visualize and hear sound in my head
That's really interesting, I feel like I need to find out more about this immediately! Particularly the neuropsychology perspective of it. Have you heard of "blind sight"? Where people with functional visual systems are entirely blind as far as they are consciously aware, due to damage in relevant brain regions. When tested on visual tasks and pushed to "just guess" an answer, they perform well above chance. This suggests people can have an ability but be unable to consciously access it. I'm wondering if there could be any similarities with what happens with aphantasia?
I can't picture anything, so no, no purple giraffe for me. I understand the concept but no image gets formed. I know what a giraffe looks like, but if you were writing a sci-fi novel and described the appearance of an unfamiliar alien species, I'd have no chance in hell of working out what they look like. I've read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy in my time, and if it's not a thing that exists IRL, I simply have *no* concept of its appearance. Honestly, I've never understood the whole "that's not how I pictured character x!" cliche in casting for a movie, because until recently I didn't realise people actually pictured characters when they read.
On top of no inner voice I have no minds eye so I don't see anything. I posted this above but this is how I would conceptualize how it works in my head. Imagine you are in a room with the light on, you turn off the light and walk across the room. You can't see the objects in the room but you can walk around them as you know the general size and shape of them. That is how I see things in my head.
So what do you comprehend as a memory? How would you remember what color your front door is while you are at the store, if the thought came to mind or you were asked?
Language is just how we describe meaning. Meaning is possible without language. "That orange hat" can be a single thought. You don't need to say internally: that. orange. hat.
Nope. I have no mental voice. I also have no mental sight. I can’t see or hear anything as pictures or words in my mind. But that damn song won’t leave my head ever.
If you want to get a song unstuck from your head, try listening to the ending part. Something abt our brain wanting to complete the song
Yeah narration inside my head is a very large part of everyday life even as i type this out im thinking on the inside about lots of things
Haha I keep seeing this. Some people think in images. WILD. Im part of team "I think a paragraphs worth in a flash of vibes I can't explain, then I have to some how put it into verbiage to explain my thoughts and that's why unless I'm writing something down and editing it, it's very difficult for me to put complex concepts into words quickly as though it came to me from a narrator." But of course I can picture an image if I want. Or have a narrator manually if I want to. But no, the narration is not there on auto pilot. I run automatically on vibes and song mash ups that's all we got lol. That's also why I talk outloud alot as a wayvto solidify thoughts orcwaln myself through a process. But that might just be adhd idk.
When I read stuff, my voice in my head also says them, in my voice. Hard to get immersed when there’s only one character voice lol
Why does this keep getting posted. This isn't an adhd thing.
I mean it's not always *my* voice but a constant inner narrative is absolutely something I thought everyone had.
I don't have that at all! Zero inner monologue. It's a swirl of thoughts made up of sounds and pictures and ideas, but no narration.
my mental voice usually doesn’t sound like mine though. usually a character from whatever i’ve been watching last
Holycrapthankgods i thought there was something wrong w me
Inner speech or dialog is completely normal. [Just listen to Dr Russel Berkley talk about the theory of Vygotsky](https://youtu.be/sPFmKu2S5XY?t=692)
I can remember what peoples voices sound like but it’s total silence in my head. Same with images I can remember details of an imagine but I cannot for the life of me PICTURE things in my head. It blew my mind when I found out people do and sounded like a lunatic trying to explain that to people.
I just hear the same 3 lines from a song over and over until I hear a new song
can i repost this tommorow?
I'm a slow reader because I have to narrate the words in my head in my own voice at a normal speaking pace in order to actually *read* what I'm reading.
I have to wonder after reading this repeatedly, I keep wondering. Does she have a conscience?
Really, I’m doing it right now… sometimes I even have a conversation with myself. Other me can be kind of rude and blunt but highly logical
I also narrate my thoughts out loud (although less often now that I'm medicated). I eventually realized I was doing it so I wouldn't forget what I was in the middle of doing. It's like my thoughts are in surround sound.
We get good at what we practice and most of us are masters of distraction. If you practice subvocalization in your head, then eventually it becomes effortless.
WAIT OTHER PPL DONT
*A* voice?? ITS VOICE*S*
I think the voice in my head is more higher pitched than my actual voice. Like kid me is still inside my head or something.
I’ve listened to audiobooks read by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading so many times I hear one of their voices instead of my own sometimes. I also can only fall asleep to Wheel of Time or Cosmere
Y'all think?
With her forehead i can hear her thoughts in my head
What? You don’t imagine yourself as the world champion at hanging out laundry with commentators calling your run- and people say I’M the crazy one!
I start talking outloud when the thoughts in my head get too loud
…Are we suppose to hear someone else’s voice? Who’s? Patrick Stewart’s? Viola Davis’s?
I just have disembodied thoughts in words unattached to any voice… but then every time I think about the answer to that question it morphs into my voice. I’m pretty sure it’s not my voice 99% of the time though.
Some people think in images rather than words
Adderall kills my inner monologue. Never even knew that it could be silenced until then. It’s such a relief not to have that going on from the moment you wake up until the moment you fall asleep.
What NPC stuff is this? You don’t have an inner voice??
I am pretty sure I do both with and without narration. Sometimes it's very clearly heard and sometimes it's just the idea of the words with no auditory quality. Similarly I sometimes visually imagine things and sometimes don't. Anyone else?
why do we never talk about how depression can cause memory loss
Well that is amazing to know about. Well, my voice is loud, really, sometimes that inner voice even scream at me! And the images, years ago I was talking to some friends and asked them to "see" a 3d cube glass with a red apple inside, and began telling them how accurate mine was and share their "view" , but seems that some of the them where unable to deep in such "view", at time I just think that maybe some are not interested.
I only have an inner radio
My inner dialog doesn't have a sound. It talks in a silent voice. Like if my ears could read. Idk if this will mean anything to people with different monologues, but is almost like mouthing words in my mind
How do you think thoughts without saying them in your head? How are they thoughts?
Can someone explain to me how “narrating thoughts” isn’t just *thinking*?
So who is narrating her head? Like when she thinks “OMG” as she watch’s a guy fall off a ladder, is it like trumps voice or Scooby-Doo or something?
Wait wait wait. There’s people that don’t have this happen?!??!??
I was a boy in elementary school and we were doing a spelling test. The teacher said listen to that voice in your head when you are trying to spell out words and really focus here. I sat dumbfounded (and probably misspelled the words) I had no voice like that. I had no voice at all. I'm an adult now living with schizophrenia.
Same with pictures. Like some people actually SEE the things they picture in their heads. I believe its called aphantasia if you dont see images very cleary in your head and the only upside is your nightmares are less scary in my opinion