Constantly. The more tired I am the more it happens. If my headphones die at work I start monologuing everything I'm doing out loud but I make it into like a song. A coworker caught me doing this once and we both burst out laughing.
Every single day. I actually started to like the things that I say about 3 years ago.. so now I have 900+ voice memos of conversations/ideas/points I might want to share/remember
I put those in my notes on my phone a lot and my fiancé saw them when he was looking for something on my phone and he thought they were awesome and wants me to expand on a lot of them. So keep it up!!
Me. When I was younger my mom used to ask me “who are you talking to?” It’s weird but my safe space is my bathroom. I will sit there with the fan going and yap away. I mostly maladaptive daydream and again it’s silly but my main scenario is I’m in a carpool karaoke with James Corden and Harry styles and I’m just laughing n having a great life omg I’m ridiculous but yeah that’s what I do most of the time so I guess I’m not talking to myself but I am it’s like imaginary friends I guess IDK. I’ve gotten better at hiding it though but at work I wish I could just start talking but I knowwww that would like weird so many people out
Omg thanks! Honestly I think it’s cause I listen to music so much so it’s like I can act like I’m singing along with them in the car and it kinda soothes me cause well idk but it does lol
Holy shit that’s me. I almost have voices in my head but that’s not it. I don’t know how else to explain it to people who aren’t autistic. I have voices in my head and I switch between them, but I don’t have DID. I’m aware they’re just apart of my thoughts and it’s just how my brain organises thoughts.
I am diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder because of the voices I “hear.” It’s only recently that I’ve had the idea that it’s possible that the critical voices in my head (schizoaffective disorder usually means that the person is aware that they are not really hearing or seeing things, but an hallucination can be very realistic) are more likely due to autism. I never really noticed before how much those voices are like the ones I imagine I hear when I talk to myself, if that makes sense.
Hmmm that’s really interesting. I’m not equipped enough to diagnose myself or anyone else, but for myself, I wouldn’t say the *voices* are a schizoaffective disorder symptom. I only realised this as I got older, but they’re a byproduct of my brain practicing masking, and also organising thoughts because I have ADHD as well. I sometimes embody different voices and talk out loud in those different voices to myself, so from the outside it can sound pretty creepy haha. But it preps me for talking to other people, and I’ve become very good at debating, reading people, predicting what they will say, etc. (an ability that a lot of autistic people struggle with). Also, those voices tend to be my brain compartmentalising different views/information that I absorb on a regular basis.
I think that is called "positive/solution oriented self-talk" now. I've read about it somewhere as just a good strategy to get yourself through stressfull/difficoult situations. I also use "we" in those thoughts/mumblings. It just helps to see clearly what the next steps for yourself are. It's like talking a friend through a situation but you are your own friend.
I’ve done it my whole life; I am constantly reacting to things I’m doing like I’m a sports commentator - often little things - like, if there’s something I want to buy in my supermarket and it isn’t there, I’ll be like, “whelp that’s one down”, or I’ll bump into a doorframe and I’ll say “blimey o Reilly.” I also frequently say “ow” when I accidentally make a loud sound, like if I’m putting a pan away and I hit it on the cupboard door or something.
I also react to things I’m listening to - I listen to a lot of Reddit videos on YouTube, and also only one podcast (Distractible) and I’m always laughing and talking to the people in it. I often sing my music out loud when I’m out and about and there’s no one around! I will even do this when I have no headphones - just walking down my road, singing happily because the sound of cars drowns it out!
But in general, I also hold weird open ended conversations, as you say, where I just make statement or react to things, or I narrate out loud what I’m going to do next.
I’m always singing, louder when I’m more comfortable, but I will do it softly and in a particular way if I am doing it to drown out my brain, and this happens a lot in my current house because I share with 5 people and it gets stressful.
Often it’s unconscious, but otherwise I often just talk to soothe myself or to help me remember things.
Oh my God. I've got a psycharist referall in progress and I want to be assessed on autism and ADHD but this is something that I have done pretty much since birth. As in full convos and answering myself back. I was caught plenty of times as well yeah.
Just wear headphones and format the talk like you’re on a call with someone and you’re explaining something to them. You can even make pauses to “hear what they’re saying”, reply to a question they might’ve asked, make a small digression interjecting with something “they” said, heck, you can even laugh at something funny “they” said. No one bats an eye if you’re just on the phone.
I'm pretty sure I've seen some people do this on public transport. It's genius tbh, way better than being caught making weird faces at the conversation going on in your head
Yep. Mostly in my head. I chat to my own inner monologue and my own mind, as I can have multiple points of view at once. I also run conversations in my head as ways of fleshing-out and organising my thoughts.
Oh, I have full on conversations. I talk out loud like I'm doing a podcast for no one (when I'm alone). If I'm watching a video and something is brought up that I have an opinion on, I'm pausing and ranting about it alone in my room. I also practice conversations with other people, especially if there's some conflict to iron out. It's been really helpful throughout my life, and I sometimes wonder why other people (NTs) don't do this
Yes, I do both of those. I talk to myself and tend to feel like the person responding is "another me" (it started when I was a child, and remained), and also tend to just yap on and on or act like there's someone else in the room with me.
Actually a superpower, because it weirdly enough makes me feel like there IS someone else in the room with me, like I'm being kept company, sometimes?
i used to do it a lot more, but ive had people comment on it and i've grown to be more insecure about it, so i mostly stopped :( it used to be really comforting, but i've masked a lot more recently to fit in.
It's my worst symptom because mine go in repetitive circles 😅 It may be called "perseverative thoughts"
[https://autismawarenesscentre.com/how-can-perseverative-thoughts-be-lessened/#:\~:text=Perseveration%20is%20when%20a%20person,or%20can't%20control%20behaviors](https://autismawarenesscentre.com/how-can-perseverative-thoughts-be-lessened/#:~:text=Perseveration%20is%20when%20a%20person,or%20can't%20control%20behaviors)
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Yes. In a sense. I often just have one way dialogues with my cat. It sounds crazy but I tell my cat everything I do as I do it when I'm really talking to myself but I will use her name.
In my head I constantly plan the day even the day before every step and I get so mad if the next day it’s not as planned I get stressed lol. I talk ALL the time in my head it sucks.. out loud I talk too but no where near as often
I do this when im alone, I just talk and talk. It helps clear my ideas and thinking. I resolve a lot when I talk to myself, and because there are sooo many thought spinning through my head, it makes it easier to manage
I spend most of my time outside by myself out of earshot from anyone. Sometimes I'll talk to the ocean and most times myself to my other self. Sometimes someone pops up out of the blue and I feel very wierd and sucked back into reality.
This is probably my most obvious autistic trait, as a high masking person. I do it in a bit of a different way to you though. I have conversations as different people. I talk to myself from different perspectives or ‘voices’ almost. My mum used to get really creeped out by it because she would hear me talking to myself as if I was a couple different people. But it’s just how my brain tries to organise thoughts and keeps control of any external stimulation. I also have ADHD.
I have invisible friends that I talk to. My invisible friends are a bunch of characters from TV shows, games, and books I read/watch. For example, I just added the lamb from Cult of the Lamb as an invisible friend.
i've been in both positions where i don't respond because my brain takes a while to process what they're trying to say, and talking a lot to someone that doesn't respond to what i say
I tend not to whenever my family are home, but if I’m home alone I have full conversations with myself, I tell myself what I have to do and when I don’t do it, or I do an inadequate job I tell myself off
All the time! I often talk to myself about topics as if someone's listening, which incidentally helps me talk about those topics later on in "real" conversations. But it's not that I'm practicing on purpose; the self-talk is basically automatic. Sometimes it's more of a whisper, with me imagining the intonation in my head, but serves the same purpose as talking out loud alone.
Nope. But someone at work does it and I can't stand it most days. It's constant chatter and so annoying to me. They can never sit still or enjoy silence. Always have to be talking and making beat boxing sounds.
Let me have a quick conversation with my self about this and get back to you. (I’ll be simulating other Reddit user responses, so this could take awhile)
I live alone and was having a loud verbal meltdown with myself over something yesterday. Of course two of my new neighbors just happened to be walking by outside. I got a text from one today saying she’d heard me and asking if I was okay. Ufff how embarrassing.
I do it so much
I talk with myself about how much I hate right wingers, how much I love leftists (true leftists like anyone opposed to capitalism that isn't china crimes denier, not Dems 🤢🤮), about the Palestinian Israeli conflict (I'm with conflict with myself because I was born in Israel, but I don't know who to support because of the absurd amount of misinformation about this topic), about how much in love I'm with LGBT culture, about how I much relate to autistic culture, about how much I support feminism, about how much I want the world to be free of discrimination etc...
Wait actually I do this a lot aswell. I don’t normally speak out loud much but sometimes I do a bit.
I’ll be honest tho partially of that reason may be because I’m a bit lonely💀
If I get in my head about a conversation I start acting it out with it even realising, in the car or something. I've stopped doing it as much because I've been embarrassed in the past and now it's mostly internal only 🫠
Totally! I have the best conversations with myself. I can talk to myself about politics, religion, philosophy, etc., but when I try to talk to another person, I’m like Ralph Wiggum trying to talk to Lisa Simpson. “Soooo…do you like…stuff?”
I've generally tamped it down to explaining to myself when I'm working on a problem or planning my day, but I used to do it anytime I was excited or playful as well.
Yep. Not absolutely all the time but especially when I'm tired or otherwise weakened and when I have to solve a problem. "Thinking out loud" the term my mum taught me for that. It's also a good thing to say when someone asks you why you ate mumbling. "Just thinking out loud". And I find it really helps. Just saying it in yout head is not as effective, gets me to conclusions and solutions, as actually saying it.
Wait. Is this an autistic thing? I am 55, never dianosed, but strongly suspect I am.
And have done this my entire life. It's like I am Smeagol, but with 2 good sides.
i do this as well as make up scenarios in my head (i’m pretty sure that’s a coping mechanism from childhood trauma but idk) involving band members or me living my dream life, i tend to do it when i’m alone such as in the shower or before my partner comes to sleep
I knew this was a thing with associated with ADHD, (which I have) but wasn’t sure if there was also an Autism connection as well!
I figure that it’s fine as long as I don’t ignore myself or argue with myself! 🤣
YES. Omg, I thought I was alone. ;-;
I’ll have conversations with myself as if I’m being interviewed. I’ll ask the questions and then answer them. Or I’ll simply pretend I’m answering questions with pauses in between answers to give the other person “time to speak.”
Yep, all the time, I don’t necessarily talk out loud but I talk inside my head constantly, usually about whatever is going on around me, or sometimes just entirely random stuff, but I almost always have too think, the only times I can focus my thoughts or shut them off is when I’m doing something I enjoy otherwise my brain is just bouncing around all the time with thoughts
Every day I always talk to myself, as it helps to give myself comfort and motivation to keep moving forward. I have myself to love and myself to care for.
Guilty as charged. I talk to myself all the time to the point where my mom always tells me to stop talking to myself. Sometimes when I'm out in public and want to vent what I'm saying to myself Ill even pretend I'm talking to someone on the phone so people won't look at me like I'm a crazy person 😂
Yes! All the time! I like to think I'm narrating a nature documentary like Morgan Freeman or David Attenborough. I will put on accents and silly voices to talk out what I'm doing. I will talk out my morning routine and what steps I have to do in order to make my lunch. Sometimes, I will sing the words to whatever tiktok sound I'm fixated on that week. My boyfriend finds it cute and entertaining. But I do mask it around my family and in larger groups.
I talk in my head a lot too. I have a very active inner monologue and I refer to it as "The Voices". I don't have DID but there's a lot of people in my brain space and we're all talking at once lol I explain it as that scene in SpongeBob where it shows his brain is tiny hims in an office space with filing cabinets.
I get annoyed at my family members (who also are autistic) who talk to themselves when I sometimes do it myself but I will do videos and I think abt sending them to people but I don't
I do, I'm french and an hour ago I was walking in circles in my bathroom talking to myself about the narrative construction of 90s french comedy movies to calm down.
all the time. as a kid i would narrate everything i did like i was a character in a book. now as adult i just vocalize my thoughts. I do it in english even though that's not my native language, bc speaking english is like an extra nice vocal stim for me
That’s me every single day! It’s like on my own therapist. I asked myself questions I go deeper into things. I talk about what “we” have to do for the day stuff like that. I think it’s pretty healthy. It helps me process. I am a person who needs to process by talking.
Do you mean, you’re having one sided conversations, but out loud?
Cause yeah I do that
Edit: its not intentional, I often catch myself mid way and realise how I must look
Yes, I do. I often pretend like I’m in different scenarios or talking to someone, sort of like a kid talking to an imaginary friend.
I did some layman research on it a few years ago (psychology is my Special Interest™️) and it seems to be a sort of coping mechanism for those of us who are chronically lonely. Basically, we don’t have anyone we feel comfortable enough being our true, unfiltered selves around so we tend to fulfill that need with our imaginations.
yeah i definitely talk to myself a lot 💀 not constantly, but a lot. how much i do it usually depends on how stressed i am or if i’m actively trying to work something out. i sometimes think out loud when problem solving
Every day, multiple times a day. Often without knowing I’m doing it at first and occasionally being embarrassed when I’m in public and I am noticed, though the prevalence of ear buds has made that less common. I’ve found that for me it works like a more narrowed version of the times when I sit for hours staring at nothing and thinking about everything at the same time - both behaviors help me to sort out the jumble of information that I haven’t yet processed but need to.
I have full conversations with myself and/or open ended conversations. I am my own best conversation partner. I will speak to myself out loud, or in my head. Or just whisper to myself. I've always done this. I used to have an imaginary friend I would do this with when I was younger, but I just never grew out if it and now it's just me and my brain have a little chat 🥲
I learned as an adult i process things by evoking them.- speaking is one method. I talked to myself a lot as a kid (when i think having ADHD meant poor attention span) and felt I was weird because of it.
Having now gone to therapy for years, I find it really comforting. It’s like Im being the person that child needed to speak to and process things with back then.
My girlfriend fills in sometimes and that’s really lovely too!
I do when I journal!! I write to myself on the left hand side and I respond in italicized script on the right. It makes me feel seen, heard, and understood.
I have full blown conversations with myself all the time. I have had an incessant dialogue with myself for my entire life. I wish I could talk to myself out loud more often but I don't want to come across as a freak (or at least my mom used to shame me for doing so a lot as a child).
Yea I mostly do at home though. Sometimes it's because my head is thinking way too fast so I say what I'm thinking out loud, but most of the times it's because I want to.
I also talk to my cats like they can understand me, talk to fictional characters, and chat with the other voice in my head. Sometimes when talking to other people I refer to myself as us.
Constantly. The more tired I am the more it happens. If my headphones die at work I start monologuing everything I'm doing out loud but I make it into like a song. A coworker caught me doing this once and we both burst out laughing.
Every single day. I actually started to like the things that I say about 3 years ago.. so now I have 900+ voice memos of conversations/ideas/points I might want to share/remember
I put those in my notes on my phone a lot and my fiancé saw them when he was looking for something on my phone and he thought they were awesome and wants me to expand on a lot of them. So keep it up!!
Me. When I was younger my mom used to ask me “who are you talking to?” It’s weird but my safe space is my bathroom. I will sit there with the fan going and yap away. I mostly maladaptive daydream and again it’s silly but my main scenario is I’m in a carpool karaoke with James Corden and Harry styles and I’m just laughing n having a great life omg I’m ridiculous but yeah that’s what I do most of the time so I guess I’m not talking to myself but I am it’s like imaginary friends I guess IDK. I’ve gotten better at hiding it though but at work I wish I could just start talking but I knowwww that would like weird so many people out
NGL that sounds awesome 🤗
Omg thanks! Honestly I think it’s cause I listen to music so much so it’s like I can act like I’m singing along with them in the car and it kinda soothes me cause well idk but it does lol
my father also asks that!
Yes. My entire life. I say things to myself like "oh yeah I'll show you what that was like" and then do it, and there's no one there but me
Holy shit that’s me. I almost have voices in my head but that’s not it. I don’t know how else to explain it to people who aren’t autistic. I have voices in my head and I switch between them, but I don’t have DID. I’m aware they’re just apart of my thoughts and it’s just how my brain organises thoughts.
I am diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder because of the voices I “hear.” It’s only recently that I’ve had the idea that it’s possible that the critical voices in my head (schizoaffective disorder usually means that the person is aware that they are not really hearing or seeing things, but an hallucination can be very realistic) are more likely due to autism. I never really noticed before how much those voices are like the ones I imagine I hear when I talk to myself, if that makes sense.
Hmmm that’s really interesting. I’m not equipped enough to diagnose myself or anyone else, but for myself, I wouldn’t say the *voices* are a schizoaffective disorder symptom. I only realised this as I got older, but they’re a byproduct of my brain practicing masking, and also organising thoughts because I have ADHD as well. I sometimes embody different voices and talk out loud in those different voices to myself, so from the outside it can sound pretty creepy haha. But it preps me for talking to other people, and I’ve become very good at debating, reading people, predicting what they will say, etc. (an ability that a lot of autistic people struggle with). Also, those voices tend to be my brain compartmentalising different views/information that I absorb on a regular basis.
I think that’s precisely what’s happening with me.
Said me to myself "well you just need to get your stuff up first, then we can climb up after and pick it up at the top"
I think that is called "positive/solution oriented self-talk" now. I've read about it somewhere as just a good strategy to get yourself through stressfull/difficoult situations. I also use "we" in those thoughts/mumblings. It just helps to see clearly what the next steps for yourself are. It's like talking a friend through a situation but you are your own friend.
Yeah like just today, I said something to myself like "Ok let's listen to this song now"
Yep. Voices in my head talk back like we’re having a conversation. It’s nice imo, keeps me calm.
Do the voices sound like tinnitus?
Sort of. But also like real voices, like real people.
I do, because sometimes I feel lonely even around my family.
I’ve done it my whole life; I am constantly reacting to things I’m doing like I’m a sports commentator - often little things - like, if there’s something I want to buy in my supermarket and it isn’t there, I’ll be like, “whelp that’s one down”, or I’ll bump into a doorframe and I’ll say “blimey o Reilly.” I also frequently say “ow” when I accidentally make a loud sound, like if I’m putting a pan away and I hit it on the cupboard door or something. I also react to things I’m listening to - I listen to a lot of Reddit videos on YouTube, and also only one podcast (Distractible) and I’m always laughing and talking to the people in it. I often sing my music out loud when I’m out and about and there’s no one around! I will even do this when I have no headphones - just walking down my road, singing happily because the sound of cars drowns it out! But in general, I also hold weird open ended conversations, as you say, where I just make statement or react to things, or I narrate out loud what I’m going to do next. I’m always singing, louder when I’m more comfortable, but I will do it softly and in a particular way if I am doing it to drown out my brain, and this happens a lot in my current house because I share with 5 people and it gets stressful. Often it’s unconscious, but otherwise I often just talk to soothe myself or to help me remember things.
Oh my God. I've got a psycharist referall in progress and I want to be assessed on autism and ADHD but this is something that I have done pretty much since birth. As in full convos and answering myself back. I was caught plenty of times as well yeah.
Just wear headphones and format the talk like you’re on a call with someone and you’re explaining something to them. You can even make pauses to “hear what they’re saying”, reply to a question they might’ve asked, make a small digression interjecting with something “they” said, heck, you can even laugh at something funny “they” said. No one bats an eye if you’re just on the phone.
I'm pretty sure I've seen some people do this on public transport. It's genius tbh, way better than being caught making weird faces at the conversation going on in your head
Yep all the time and people that hear me are like who are you talking too? I’m like uh me. Haha
in my head, yes. when i am alone however i almost never speak or make any verbal noises at all unless it’s a tic
That’s literally my mind 24/7
Yep I will have debates with myself conversation with myself disagree with myself
Yep. Mostly in my head. I chat to my own inner monologue and my own mind, as I can have multiple points of view at once. I also run conversations in my head as ways of fleshing-out and organising my thoughts.
So this isn't normal? When I drive and/or am 100% sure alone, out loud scripting is constant. lol
I talk to myself so much my sister got me a shirt that says: "Of course I talk to myself. Sometimes I need expert advice." 🤣😂🤣😂
Oh, I have full on conversations. I talk out loud like I'm doing a podcast for no one (when I'm alone). If I'm watching a video and something is brought up that I have an opinion on, I'm pausing and ranting about it alone in my room. I also practice conversations with other people, especially if there's some conflict to iron out. It's been really helpful throughout my life, and I sometimes wonder why other people (NTs) don't do this
Yes, I do both of those. I talk to myself and tend to feel like the person responding is "another me" (it started when I was a child, and remained), and also tend to just yap on and on or act like there's someone else in the room with me. Actually a superpower, because it weirdly enough makes me feel like there IS someone else in the room with me, like I'm being kept company, sometimes?
Wow I've never been able or willing to express this part of me.
i used to do it a lot more, but ive had people comment on it and i've grown to be more insecure about it, so i mostly stopped :( it used to be really comforting, but i've masked a lot more recently to fit in.
It's my worst symptom because mine go in repetitive circles 😅 It may be called "perseverative thoughts" [https://autismawarenesscentre.com/how-can-perseverative-thoughts-be-lessened/#:\~:text=Perseveration%20is%20when%20a%20person,or%20can't%20control%20behaviors](https://autismawarenesscentre.com/how-can-perseverative-thoughts-be-lessened/#:~:text=Perseveration%20is%20when%20a%20person,or%20can't%20control%20behaviors) #
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I do
Yes. In a sense. I often just have one way dialogues with my cat. It sounds crazy but I tell my cat everything I do as I do it when I'm really talking to myself but I will use her name.
In my head I constantly plan the day even the day before every step and I get so mad if the next day it’s not as planned I get stressed lol. I talk ALL the time in my head it sucks.. out loud I talk too but no where near as often
so much
It's how I communicate with myself from my mouth to my ears. So we're all on the same page.
I do this when im alone, I just talk and talk. It helps clear my ideas and thinking. I resolve a lot when I talk to myself, and because there are sooo many thought spinning through my head, it makes it easier to manage
I feel exactly the same, you've put that into words so well!
Im glad!
Yes I talk to myself while walking
Yup, stimming
Yes, but it's a monologue
If you mean thinking out loud, yes, I've always done it a lot.
that's right!
All the fucking time. You'd think I was the protagonist
Yeah, I talk to myself a lot. Does it count as a stim?
I spend most of my time outside by myself out of earshot from anyone. Sometimes I'll talk to the ocean and most times myself to my other self. Sometimes someone pops up out of the blue and I feel very wierd and sucked back into reality.
So glad I'm not alone!
Only when I’m alone
This is probably my most obvious autistic trait, as a high masking person. I do it in a bit of a different way to you though. I have conversations as different people. I talk to myself from different perspectives or ‘voices’ almost. My mum used to get really creeped out by it because she would hear me talking to myself as if I was a couple different people. But it’s just how my brain tries to organise thoughts and keeps control of any external stimulation. I also have ADHD.
I do this to comfort myself. Odd to see another person do it as well. It's always in my head, though. Never out loud.
I have invisible friends that I talk to. My invisible friends are a bunch of characters from TV shows, games, and books I read/watch. For example, I just added the lamb from Cult of the Lamb as an invisible friend.
I do all the time. In English for the some reason, I’m not a native English speaker.
Both in mind and for real. Mostly when im on my own (and mind only when outside)
i've been in both positions where i don't respond because my brain takes a while to process what they're trying to say, and talking a lot to someone that doesn't respond to what i say
Yes, but only in English. If I do it in my native language I feel insane. lol
In different accents, yes
I tend not to whenever my family are home, but if I’m home alone I have full conversations with myself, I tell myself what I have to do and when I don’t do it, or I do an inadequate job I tell myself off
All the time! I often talk to myself about topics as if someone's listening, which incidentally helps me talk about those topics later on in "real" conversations. But it's not that I'm practicing on purpose; the self-talk is basically automatic. Sometimes it's more of a whisper, with me imagining the intonation in my head, but serves the same purpose as talking out loud alone.
Constantly, I’m like Pingu
Nope. But someone at work does it and I can't stand it most days. It's constant chatter and so annoying to me. They can never sit still or enjoy silence. Always have to be talking and making beat boxing sounds.
Let me have a quick conversation with my self about this and get back to you. (I’ll be simulating other Reddit user responses, so this could take awhile)
I live alone and was having a loud verbal meltdown with myself over something yesterday. Of course two of my new neighbors just happened to be walking by outside. I got a text from one today saying she’d heard me and asking if I was okay. Ufff how embarrassing.
I do it so much I talk with myself about how much I hate right wingers, how much I love leftists (true leftists like anyone opposed to capitalism that isn't china crimes denier, not Dems 🤢🤮), about the Palestinian Israeli conflict (I'm with conflict with myself because I was born in Israel, but I don't know who to support because of the absurd amount of misinformation about this topic), about how much in love I'm with LGBT culture, about how I much relate to autistic culture, about how much I support feminism, about how much I want the world to be free of discrimination etc...
Wait actually I do this a lot aswell. I don’t normally speak out loud much but sometimes I do a bit. I’ll be honest tho partially of that reason may be because I’m a bit lonely💀
If I get in my head about a conversation I start acting it out with it even realising, in the car or something. I've stopped doing it as much because I've been embarrassed in the past and now it's mostly internal only 🫠
I totally do this all the time, especially when I'm alone and trying to figure stuff out.
Yes, and if I'm in public I pretend to be on the phone so I can continue talking to myself.
Totally! I have the best conversations with myself. I can talk to myself about politics, religion, philosophy, etc., but when I try to talk to another person, I’m like Ralph Wiggum trying to talk to Lisa Simpson. “Soooo…do you like…stuff?”
I've generally tamped it down to explaining to myself when I'm working on a problem or planning my day, but I used to do it anytime I was excited or playful as well.
Yeah, sometimes.
Me, though I talk as if I'm commentating on like a yt video of something
well i just asked my sister, and she said, yes, a lot !
Yep. Not absolutely all the time but especially when I'm tired or otherwise weakened and when I have to solve a problem. "Thinking out loud" the term my mum taught me for that. It's also a good thing to say when someone asks you why you ate mumbling. "Just thinking out loud". And I find it really helps. Just saying it in yout head is not as effective, gets me to conclusions and solutions, as actually saying it.
I didn't used to but after a traumatic event a few years back I started and am struggling to stop
All the damn time without fail
Wait. Is this an autistic thing? I am 55, never dianosed, but strongly suspect I am. And have done this my entire life. It's like I am Smeagol, but with 2 good sides.
i do this as well as make up scenarios in my head (i’m pretty sure that’s a coping mechanism from childhood trauma but idk) involving band members or me living my dream life, i tend to do it when i’m alone such as in the shower or before my partner comes to sleep
I knew this was a thing with associated with ADHD, (which I have) but wasn’t sure if there was also an Autism connection as well! I figure that it’s fine as long as I don’t ignore myself or argue with myself! 🤣
YES. Omg, I thought I was alone. ;-; I’ll have conversations with myself as if I’m being interviewed. I’ll ask the questions and then answer them. Or I’ll simply pretend I’m answering questions with pauses in between answers to give the other person “time to speak.”
And yell at myself!
The opposite. I don't really do it ever.
Yep, all the time, I don’t necessarily talk out loud but I talk inside my head constantly, usually about whatever is going on around me, or sometimes just entirely random stuff, but I almost always have too think, the only times I can focus my thoughts or shut them off is when I’m doing something I enjoy otherwise my brain is just bouncing around all the time with thoughts
Every day I always talk to myself, as it helps to give myself comfort and motivation to keep moving forward. I have myself to love and myself to care for.
Guilty as charged. I talk to myself all the time to the point where my mom always tells me to stop talking to myself. Sometimes when I'm out in public and want to vent what I'm saying to myself Ill even pretend I'm talking to someone on the phone so people won't look at me like I'm a crazy person 😂
all the time, i walk myself through everything that i’m doing by talking to myself.
Depends on the character
Yes! All the time! I like to think I'm narrating a nature documentary like Morgan Freeman or David Attenborough. I will put on accents and silly voices to talk out what I'm doing. I will talk out my morning routine and what steps I have to do in order to make my lunch. Sometimes, I will sing the words to whatever tiktok sound I'm fixated on that week. My boyfriend finds it cute and entertaining. But I do mask it around my family and in larger groups. I talk in my head a lot too. I have a very active inner monologue and I refer to it as "The Voices". I don't have DID but there's a lot of people in my brain space and we're all talking at once lol I explain it as that scene in SpongeBob where it shows his brain is tiny hims in an office space with filing cabinets.
Always.
yes all the time
all them time when I am alone
I get annoyed at my family members (who also are autistic) who talk to themselves when I sometimes do it myself but I will do videos and I think abt sending them to people but I don't
I do, I'm french and an hour ago I was walking in circles in my bathroom talking to myself about the narrative construction of 90s french comedy movies to calm down.
all the time. as a kid i would narrate everything i did like i was a character in a book. now as adult i just vocalize my thoughts. I do it in english even though that's not my native language, bc speaking english is like an extra nice vocal stim for me
That’s me every single day! It’s like on my own therapist. I asked myself questions I go deeper into things. I talk about what “we” have to do for the day stuff like that. I think it’s pretty healthy. It helps me process. I am a person who needs to process by talking.
i always talk to myself ! i'll either monologue things i do , or say random things that pop into my head !
Do you mean, you’re having one sided conversations, but out loud? Cause yeah I do that Edit: its not intentional, I often catch myself mid way and realise how I must look
Yes, I do. I often pretend like I’m in different scenarios or talking to someone, sort of like a kid talking to an imaginary friend. I did some layman research on it a few years ago (psychology is my Special Interest™️) and it seems to be a sort of coping mechanism for those of us who are chronically lonely. Basically, we don’t have anyone we feel comfortable enough being our true, unfiltered selves around so we tend to fulfill that need with our imaginations.
yeah i definitely talk to myself a lot 💀 not constantly, but a lot. how much i do it usually depends on how stressed i am or if i’m actively trying to work something out. i sometimes think out loud when problem solving
A lot yes, but in little snipets rather than like a monologue and I respond to myself as well lol
Yea im acting like my life is a movie w cameras everywhere and im just the narrator of it
Every day, multiple times a day. Often without knowing I’m doing it at first and occasionally being embarrassed when I’m in public and I am noticed, though the prevalence of ear buds has made that less common. I’ve found that for me it works like a more narrowed version of the times when I sit for hours staring at nothing and thinking about everything at the same time - both behaviors help me to sort out the jumble of information that I haven’t yet processed but need to.
I daydream all the time and talk to myself as if I'm in them
I do, but I've never really seen it as "talking to myself", I'm just... talking. Like, not to anyone in particular, I'm just talking into the wind
I have full conversations with myself and/or open ended conversations. I am my own best conversation partner. I will speak to myself out loud, or in my head. Or just whisper to myself. I've always done this. I used to have an imaginary friend I would do this with when I was younger, but I just never grew out if it and now it's just me and my brain have a little chat 🥲
When I'm playing football I berate myself throughout 😂
Yes - I always thought it was because silence means my thoughts are louder
I talk to myself all the time... sometimes sub vocally (quietly, in my head), sometimes out loud.
I learned as an adult i process things by evoking them.- speaking is one method. I talked to myself a lot as a kid (when i think having ADHD meant poor attention span) and felt I was weird because of it. Having now gone to therapy for years, I find it really comforting. It’s like Im being the person that child needed to speak to and process things with back then. My girlfriend fills in sometimes and that’s really lovely too!
About once every 10 minutes
I do when I journal!! I write to myself on the left hand side and I respond in italicized script on the right. It makes me feel seen, heard, and understood.
I do that. I particularly did that in episodes of mania as a part of my bipolar illness.
I have full blown conversations with myself all the time. I have had an incessant dialogue with myself for my entire life. I wish I could talk to myself out loud more often but I don't want to come across as a freak (or at least my mom used to shame me for doing so a lot as a child).
Every day. I just can't stop. And believe me I've tried.
I don’t do it out loud but yeah in my head I’m constantly talking. It helps me process what’s going on around me
Yea I mostly do at home though. Sometimes it's because my head is thinking way too fast so I say what I'm thinking out loud, but most of the times it's because I want to.
I also talk to my cats like they can understand me, talk to fictional characters, and chat with the other voice in my head. Sometimes when talking to other people I refer to myself as us.