Ask Lemmy

If I'm just casually thinking about something. In other words, it is a subject that does not require too much to come to a conclusion, then I actually think in words. That process can provide a solution almost immediately, to taking several minutes.

If I'm thinking about something that requires a lot of cognitive function, then my mind essentially goes blank. Either I no longer think in words, or the memory of what I was thinking about is not laid down in long term memory until I come to a conclusion. Or if my "sub-consciousness" took over the heavy lifting and my cognitive functions were left out of the loop. I honestly have no idea, but if it is something I am truly concentrating on, I will have no actual memory of the thought process that brought me to a conclusion.

Some of the most confounding things that I have had to think on, I literally slept on it and had a finished thought when I woke up. I have done that several times in my life. Again, not sure if it was just that I needed rest, or if my brain actually worked the problem while asleep and delivered it when I awoke.

For me it is an internal monologue with a silent audience that contributes without a voice.

My internal monologue might say "is this thing I am about to do a good idea?" And a wordless thought will provide a second opinion which my internal monologue would interpret and possibly reply to.

You ever been in a crowded space with hundreds of people talking all at once? You can hear everyone, but not enough to really make out anything except once in a while when someone gets louder than everyone else.

That's what my thoughts are like when I am not high on weed.

When I am high, the crowd shuts the fuck up and I can actually focus on a single, complete thought.

I'm in the "inner monologue" camp. Most of what I think materialises as thought words. I don't have to move anything in my throat to do that unlike OP though, I can think in words without mumbling to myself.

But I know the voice can't be all. It's difficult for me to think in words while actively saying something, but I can have new thoughts while speaking. Sometimes, I get interrupted in thinking mid-sentence, but then I return to that sentence to finish it because... it's just satisfying? It's not that I learn anything new.

I feel like I don't have very much imagination any more. Its hard to produce images in my mind, not impossible but I do have to concentrate - remembering images is easier.

Weirdly, way harder to me: imagining a voice. Inner voice is what I sound like to myself, I can remember and replay songs and quotes as I heard them, but having any voice say anything is hard, especially female voices. Went through some examples in my head couldn't make anyone say anything - until I thought to make different tf2 mercs sing "Oh Canada", that somehow worked despite me definitely not having heard that before. Brains are weird.

A fun conversation starter is always "So do you have an internal monologue?"

There's three hamsters running on a wheel in shifts up in my skull.

I switch between having language based thoughts and more abstract thoughts that aren’t language based. I find that my thoughts that aren’t language based are usually more complex. I also can imagine objects, rotate them or walk around familiar places in my mind. Oh and my language based thoughts tend to match the language I am speaking at the moment (I am trilingual).

My mind works by talking to itself, but it's more like I'm the wordless overseer of that voice. There is a lesser maybe faux alter ego's voice that's employed to bounce ideas off of or used for introspection, to humble myself, conceptualization, etcetera, but it can only talk to myself even out loud. If there's another person present they're only talking to primary.

Where I differ from many minds like other self talkers here it seems is that I have full control over the two voices employed by my ego, and if I stop talking it's silent in my skull. Since I also have Total Aphantasia it's a true void in here besides my emotions and hind brain/instincts unless I'm using the voice(s). No real distinction between thinking in my head and speaking out loud.

The unconscious mind passes stuff it processes to the voices to think about. More nuance is far more paragraphs than worth, so I'll leave it there.

I hold no capacity for mental imagery, so a 5 on the Aphantasia Scale. When I think of things I do not consciously ask a question or engage in an inner monologue, either internally or externally, but instead become aware of the information that I need. My information is all stored with like information, so if you asked me about a person, then I get all of the information I have on that person including our previous conversation as though no time had passed. This makes people uncomfortable though, so I try not to reference things to specifically.

Similar to another poster here, I also hear voices, which range from background murmuring like a crowded restaurant to focused 1:1 interactions, though these are usually very brief. Additionally, I will 'hear' various noises and have gotten pretty good at not reacting to stuff until I gauge other peoples' response.

I am not particularly creative. I cannot draw or create art, but I can recreate things that are in front of me.

I don't know if that makes sense, and I am happy to answer questions if I didn't describe it well.

I'm a 1 on the aphantasia scale with maladaptive daydreaming. I am suffering.

schizophrenia here, my inner monologue is often conversational, like a string of words I'd speak to a person. and if I listen closely, I hear faintly a man or woman repeating the thought out loud, with emotion like confusion or contempt

I had a serious TBI when I was a kid and more than 15 concussions so my eggs are a bit scrambled.

I can’t sustain a mental image, I can only visualize flashes of things. If I try to hold on to a mental image, it’s just a series of flashes that quickly become warped until the image just kinda dissolves and I have to imagine a new one. I also kinda of can’t remember faces. I can recognize people, but I can’t describe anyone’s face or remember/visualize details. I can only describe my own face as a list of features I’m aware of, but I can’t visualize it nor do I recognize myself in photos.

Verbal thought usually comes in the form of a dialogue between myself and an imagined other person. There’s no one there and I knowingly come up with the question the other will ask, but I can’t just think to myself without quickly losing track.

I also have ADHD, OCD, and major depressive disorder, so I also have the symptoms and episodes of those rattling around up there. I’m not sure if I’d call them thoughts though, because they feel different.

I keep trying to make this comment, then deleting it and trying again because I'm not 100% sure I have a certain behavior, and thinking about thinking is very distracting

So, I have an inner monologue, mind's eye and I can change my inner monologue's voice if I want. I find it easier to organize my thoughts by speaking out loud, although I do not do that unless alone. Looking at a fixed point also helps me filter out whatever's going on outside to focus on my thoughts inside.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4538954/

Long read, talks about internal monologue. I have some undiagnosed issue, possibly ADD.

My monologue (sometimes dialog) keeps changing every other week and difficult to keep track of.

I think as if in duality at times. I've come to think of it like the subconscious or one brain half that doesn't know words injecting impressions, solutions, wants, into my conscious other brain half.

I think I can vaguely grasp how it can be that people have voices or other personalities in their head. I do not, though if my other brain half had developed a voice I'd be fucked. But that's just how I perceive it.

Well, I do very occasionally tell myself I'm an idiot verbally when a cringy social interaction flashback hits me again. I hate that.

In any case I can visualize memories easily, even if details are unreliable and gaps are often filled with most probable placeholders created by imagination. Similar to dreams perhaps.

I've wattched my mind go to different states of self perception which I find interesting and jarring. Sometimes it shows me self perception that I like, which motivates me and makes me happy about myself and confident. Sadly those shifts in perception are hard to keep alive for long, hard as I might try.

My thinking happens in words and images equally, depending on the task. While writing this the right words just come from an unknown source and what I want to say is a concept finding it's way with these words. As if one part is showing what message I want to deliver in words while a seperate process hands out the right words checking each word if it still conveys the intended meaning.

I analysed this while writing this and now feel like there is an type if LLM setup in my head as a component.

Either it's random flashes of images/videos or certain random memory from a long time ago, a certain tune/music being played on repeat, or inner mind just constantly asking questions. Though I do noticed I can zone out when I'm really focus on something perhaps that's what it feels like when your not thinking at all.

I have both voiced and unvoiced thoughts in my head, depending on what "level" the "thinking" is at. Like others in this thread, I heard every word of this comment as I typed it, as well as a few other times as I ideated and rephrased it before typing. However, some things, particularly practiced things, just happen without any "speaking", and I just get a notion of the end result. This sometimes leads to a weird thing where, when I'm concentrating on something, both the voiced and unvoiced "threads" will do the same thing, but the voiced thoughts move at the speed of speech, and so the unvoiced thoughts get there first, and then have to wait for the voiced thoughts to catch up. I then get to wonder why I just thought the same thing twice, and why I waited for the voiced thread to finish at all when I already knew the outcome. It's also not always just my own voice (though usually), I'll set up "straw-men" to represent a certain viewpoint or person if something needs that level of consideration, or I want to prepare for a difficult conversation (or reflect on one that went poorly) - I've seen memes about similar things, so I think that's pretty usual.

Similarly, when reading, I hear every word (not always in my own voice, characters and narrators sometimes get their own), but if I really get into the flow then parts will move into the unvoiced stream and I get much clearer images of what's going on (I'm a 1-2 on the aphantasia scale depending on concentration and familiarity) - that state is hard to get to, though.

No idea if any of that's normal or not, I've never really thought to talk to anyone about it.

Also, I occasionally have a small part of the inner monologue slip out as whispered speech too, like you said, though I don't tend to cover it up, if people ask I just say "oh, sorry, just thinking out loud a bit".

Edit: added more detail

My thoughts are like background noise that when I tune in my internal LLM it gets turned into coherent language(English and Polish). I have recently learned to switch off that LLM for a moment, and as a side effect I begun to have problems with verbal communication.

Edit: I also have a model that turns noise into 3d models and scenes

Inner monologue with commercial interruptions... No seriously, random commercial jingles pop into my thoughts randomly while I am going through my thoughts.

I’ve definitely had the internal thoughts “leak” like you’re describing. I tend to think in almost another space outside of myself where sometimes I will forget my senses and have to actively return to them. Like I’m walking away briefly from the drivers seat to go take care of something in the back of the truck. I tend not to do this with others around as it can be rude. With others, I’m much more stream of consciousness.

I treat my mind as a big great block. If something is disturbing me, I stop to put everything into place and move "all together" again. It works and I'm more productive this way.