Ask Lemmy

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 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.

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 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 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 don't take form as a different persona or talk.

I guess they either arise automatically, or I consciously direct them? Both happen.

Even when I consciously direct them, I feel like most thoughts arise naturally from that, from the subconscious.

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.

Imagine big ball of hair wound up tight as it can be . You try extracting stand of hair from this wad only for it to break half way through . This's what brain shit's like for me

's not even COUNTING the fact I hafta somehow translate that into words human beings can understand , bcus existing in human body means am forced to ⦅socialise|communicate) with|relate to) humans, then try stringing the words together into some thing only somewhat coherent)

Often my thoughts are so fucking fast, my inner voice really can't keep up. I try to sound them out in my head, but am aware of this, and my thoughts have already wandered on. So I really only monologue when I am thinking about a script/text or am analyzing/ problem-solving. Everything else feels like a mix of some short strings and feelings

The same as everyone else's. The "differences" in the way people think can be ascribed to many things:

• some people are describing active concentration
• others are describing subconscious thinking
• describing the way only some of their thoughts happen
• not inferring what was said the way the speaker intended
• etc et

I have an internal narrator that doesn't sound like a specific voice that is like a pseudo auditory representation of my thoughts. This mostly applies to reading or troubleshooting where I'm consciously working through stuff. It also means that something which stands out as incorrect is massively annoying, like people confusing lose and loose because I 'hear' it. Homophones are fine!

I can't really picture things unless it is something I have seen many, many times. So no picturing something in my mind that I haven't seen before. Most things I have seen before are mostly vague ideas and with minimal detail. Like I know a baseball has the stitching and it curves in a certain way, but probably couldn't draw it. I know what my wife's face looks like, but can't quite picture it in my head because I don't look at a singular photo of her over and over.

But I can hold relational information like many to one combinations and 3d space relative positioning but without the ability to see it. So I can generally figure out if things will fit together even though I can't really 'see' them, I know they fill a certain volume relative to other things of a similar volume and that is generally good enough. Most things are measured relative to each other now that I'm thinking about it.

My thoughts are an absolute mess, and a combination of auditory and "visual" representations. My partner says when I am thinking really hard it looks like I am reading a book and talking to myself.

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

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.

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

There's an internal dialogue, usually. Might even basically be a copy of someone else. That's most of my conversations anyway. I am pretty social, it just doesn't extend far outside my mind. I often re-use bits from these imagined conversations when actually talking with those people, but that usually doesn't work out.
One on one conversations are ok-ish, but 3 or more people, are just a mess. Often I get no response. Either I wasn't heard, or I talked at the wrong time, or whatever else. I'll wait for minutes for the right moment to say something, and it's still badly timed, or the conversation has moved on.

But anyway, I can have fairly rich conversations, even with multiple people inside my mind.
Also, my thinking works better when walking.

Imagined sounds, especially music can be enriched with light tapping of teeth, sucking around saliva and rumbling from tensor tympani.

My brain is like having 100 apps and tabs open and my brain constantly hitting alt-tab some random number of times.