thoughts on thoughts? 💭

[digimon]

i can't remember if i maybe read it here or was talking about it with someone irl, but i recently learned that not everyone experiences an internal dialogue/monologue. i feel like i personally do have one, but i'm not entirely sure if the voice i hear in my head when i think sounds like my actual voice. it's hard to explain. when i don't hear myself though i feel like i always have a tune playing or something that i end up humming and tapping along to. do you have an internal dialogue/monologue? if yes, what does it sound like? if not, what do you experience when thinking or what is your process? let's talk about it

 

[seliph]

i have too many thoughts, my brain is the duke of yappington

it is my own voice but it isn't - it's what i hear when i talk which isn't your actual voice... when i found this out in middle school i had the biggest existential crisis

 

[Dwayne Johnson]

how do people with no internal monologue even think or remember things

 

[Seastar]

My inner voice constantly changes, actually. I don't know why and I don't really pay attention to that detail half the time. Also just like you, I usually have music stuck in my head if I'm not thinking really hard about anything.
There's some other things that happen but I don't feel like embarrassing myself today..

 

[xSuperMario64x]

I don't have an internal monologue, no voice in my head when I think. yet I'm constantly processing and contemplating thoughts in my exhausted little mind. it's honestly kinda strange.

 

[SkyKnight03]

I have too much internal monologue. I feel like my head ends up more in the clouds than any place else.

 

[LambdaDelta]

I wish my brain would shut up sometimes

 

[rosetti]

my thoughts on thoughts are that my thoughts are stupid thoughts about thoughts - would love to hear your thoughts over my thoughts!

 

[AccfSally]

My thoughts have thoughts of their own. I wish for them to shut up while I try to sleep sometimes. There's usually like a conversation going on in my head. I could hear my voice and whatever type of voice my mind makes up having a back and forth sometimes.

Also when I read quietly, I could hear the words so clearly as if I'm moving my mouth.

Here is an article I found online about Inner monologue if anyone is interested: https://irisreading.com/how-do-i-know-if-i-have-an-inner-monologue/

 

[Jacob]

I do not have an internal monologue, so generally i can't think with my voice

 

[cornimer]

I have an internal monologue, but it's not my own voice. It's not really any voice in particular? It's like an unpatched voice if that makes any sense - a stream of words with no sound

 

[Clock]

They're thoughts for sure that should learn to keep quiet sometimes. (intrusive thoughts I'm looking at you)

 

[Croconaw]

Thoughts on thoughts? These threads just keep getting better and better. I have a bunch of thoughts, but I learned to control them overtime. I don’t act on them.

 

[Newbiemayor]

I have an internal monolog too and it sounds like what my voice sounds like to me which I know sounds just a bit different from my actual voice. And I often have songs playing either in the background or foreground depending on if I'm actively thinking words or not. I like to call it my brain radio because I don't usually choose the songs.

 

[Zinnia.]

Now this is a good discussion topic!
My thoughts aren't always in complete sentences, but when they are I don't normally use any terms that refer to myself like "I" if I'm alone. They also don't have any sound (cornimer described this really well). I still get songs and other sounds stuck in my head all the time, but they're not constantly in the background. I get intrusive thoughts too and agree that they should shut up and let me sleep in peace.

 

[Dunny County]

I don't think, I know.

 

[OswinOswald]

I definitely have an inner monologue! I have always talked to myself (aloud/muttered under my breath). As for just the amorphous voice in my head, I don't know that it was always as active, but I think as I started to text more and converse with people online as a school aged person, it probably became more well formed. And also after lots of therapy, I definitely talk to myself even more. The tricky part is when I have a full on conversation with myself and then I can't remember if that was only with myself or if I had told those things to the person I meant to have the conversation with in the end!

These are the two podcasts I always send when I'm thinking about this:
This is from This American Life, and one of the producers? Or staff doesn't have that inner monologue
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/731/what-lies-beneath-2021/act-two

Then this Hidden Brain podcast looks at how to harness? (Or maybe just live peacefully with) your inner voice
https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/you-2-0-befriending-your-inner-voice/

For me, it's like sometimes I'm just hearing myself talk to myself but in my head instead of being muttered aloud, but sometimes it's just this sensation of hearing myself, but I'm just thinking thoughts. I don't hear anything exactly, but it definitely has the cadence of my voice for the most part. I wonder if it would be better or worse if my inner voice could talk faster. I already have some anxiety, so that would be a whole new dimension when it comes to racing thoughts!

 

[amemome]

i have an internal voice! i only recently learned that not everyone has that inner voice so that was pretty interesting for me to think about. the voice in my head sounds like a higher-pitched version of how I actually sound. i need to "think aloud" to work through certain problems so my inner voice is a way for me to do that without actually making noise.

 

[VernalLapin]

I just hear the sound of my own voice pretty much. But my thoughts tend to move so fast sometimes they sorta break the speed of sound if that makes sense XD

 

[Midoriya]

I have thoughts about different things all the time.