As per title, I am curious. How does your mind / your thoughts work? I only ever experienced my own thoughts, so I’m curious how it works for other people.
I for one feel like my thoughts sometimes are like me talking to myself silently. Sometimes I can even let out a random short sound, which I’ve come to start disguising by laughing kinda quietly or coughing or whatever. Like it was part of something, and not like an inner monologue almost leaking out.
So, how do your thoughts work?
Inner monologue with commercial interruptions… No seriously, random commercial jingles pop into my thoughts randomly while I am going through my thoughts.
I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU
I HAD NEVER THOUGHT OF IT THAT WAY AND NOW I CAN’T NOT THINK OF IT THAT WAY
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.
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
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
What do you think of this? Do you think it applies to your situation?
https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2014/07/voices-culture-luhrmann-071614
Yes, as a Westerner I’d agree with the study’s findings. The people I hear are harsh, not mirthful.
And I am struck by this:
the voices were an intrusion and a threat to one’s private world – the voices could not be controlled.
It’s an invasive feeling, like an outsider in your head, digging around for things that hurt and embarrass you, then saying those things aloud. It makes you powerless, all you can do is sit there while someone yells out your most shameful thoughts, and there’s no stopping them.
Fascinating. I hope science can bring relief to this.
I’ve seen this before, but after a re-read, I found this:
In an interview, Luhrmann said that American clinicians “sometimes treat the voices as if they … should be ignored. Our work found that … the way people pay attention to their voices alters what they hear their voices say. That may have clinical implications.”
Yes, definitely. The people I hear are only ever critical or offensive, and “they” have learned what’s most hurtful to me. If I start paying attention to their echoes of financial worry, they get louder and more forceful. There’s something going on in my brain that learns what’s most painful to me, and amplifies it to cause pain.
I wish you the best dealing with this. You seem very introspective and I’m sure that helps.
I’m in the “inner monologue” camp. Most of what I think materialises as thought words.
But I know that can’t be all. It’s difficult for me to think in words while saying something, but can have new thoughts while speaking.
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 songs of course, 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 though to make different tf2 mercs sing “Oh Canada”, that somehow worked despite me definitely not having heard that before.
If I’ve been listening to an audio book, or a tv series my inner monologue can take on the voice of the narrator or main character. I’m always afraid I’m going actually speak out loud like them, but it’s never happened.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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 believe you are acting way too definitive about something rather unknowable.
For example, what is Aphantasia then?
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
