I learned today that apparently not everyone has an inter dialogue. If you don’t not what are you thoughts like? How do you create anxiety inducing scenarios that will never come to fruition in your head?
Post by biscoffcookies on Jan 30, 2020 20:36:35 GMT -5
I saw this to, and it blew my mind. I "talk" to myself in my head all the time. The idea that there are some people out there who can't is not something I ever considered before.
I think constantly but it isn’t in a voice, it’s in concepts for a literal lack of a better word. I can’t turn my thoughts off but most of my anxiety comes in imagery(eta: but not pictures, exactly, because my brain doesn’t really do that either) which is weird because I’m a very verbal person.
I don’t have an internal monologue though, to the point that I remember very clearly hearing “think before you speak” and not really understanding as a kid that that was even possible to try what you say out in your head first.
Post by cattledogkisses on Jan 30, 2020 20:42:30 GMT -5
I read this today too, and my mind was blown. I can't imagine not having in inner dialogue. It's constant. Like, I have to remember not to move my lips so I don't look weird, and sometimes I get annoyed at people talking to me because they're interrupting my silent inner dialogue, lol.
Post by alleinesein on Jan 30, 2020 20:42:53 GMT -5
My inner voice works just fine and it has never had some crazy ass convo with itself to fuel anxiety. My inner honey badger doesn't give a fuck about the "what ifs" or the "what could go wrongs"; she just putters along doing her own thing giving no fucks while a musical soundtrack plays along in my head.
I think I'm confused. Isn't everyone's brain just processing what they are seeing/thinking in a continuum?
I hear my own voice in my head. Its constantly commenting on stuff. Like right now, HGTV is on and I told myself that Christina's outfit is horrible and Tarek is an awful actor. This morning, I was making a list in my head of all the things I have to do today, etc.
I just talked to H about his and apparently he doesn’t have an inner dialogue. It’s like I don’t even know who I’m married to.
When DH and I were dating I used to ask him what he was thinking about when we were just hanging out. He would always reply “nothing” and I just don’t understand. I’m never not thinking about random things.
I think I'm confused. Isn't everyone's brain just processing what they are seeing/thinking in a continuum?
I hear my own voice in my head. Its constantly commenting on stuff. Like right now, HGTV is on and I told myself that Christina's outfit is horrible and Tarek is an awful actor. This morning, I was making a list in my head of all the things I have to do today, etc.
Is it just dead air sound in some of your heads?
H tells me he has visual thoughts. He pictures scenarios but there are no words. I just don’t get it. I don’t know if I would be comfortable with silence in my head.
Duuude. Especially growing up, i had full on fights with people in my head so i could say all the things i wanted to say that i couldn't think of in the moment. Without fully processing what i was doing. Not healthy. Lol. Inner dialogue is still second nature to me. My mind is blown.
I read this today too, and my mind was blown. I can't imagine not having in inner dialogue. It's constant. Like, I have to remember not to move my lips so I don't look weird, and sometimes I get annoyed at people talking to me because they're interrupting my silent inner dialogue, lol.
This is me. Sometimes I’ll be driving or making dinner and my kids will ask what I’m doing/saying and I realize I started moving my lips to my inner dialogue.
I just talked to H about his and apparently he doesn’t have an inner dialogue. It’s like I don’t even know who I’m married to.
When DH and I were dating I used to ask him what he was thinking about when we were just hanging out. He would always reply “nothing” and I just don’t understand. I’m never not thinking about random things.
I can't speak for your husband but I am ALWAYS thinking - often about many things at once. There just isn't a soundtrack in my mind with talking about it. They are concepts and thoughts but not words.
I read this today too, and my mind was blown. I can't imagine not having in inner dialogue. It's constant. Like, I have to remember not to move my lips so I don't look weird, and sometimes I get annoyed at people talking to me because they're interrupting my silent inner dialogue, lol.
This is me. Sometimes I’ll be driving or making dinner and my kids will ask what I’m doing/saying and I realize I started moving my lips to my inner dialogue.
H has informed me that I do actually forget not to move my lips sometimes. Oops.
So if anyone ever sees me sitting somewhere silently mouthing words, fear not, I'm just having a really engaging conversation with myself. Lol.
When DH and I were dating I used to ask him what he was thinking about when we were just hanging out. He would always reply “nothing” and I just don’t understand. I’m never not thinking about random things.
I can't speak for your husband but I am ALWAYS thinking - often about many things at once. There just isn't a soundtrack in my mind with talking about it. They are concepts and thoughts but not words.
So, for example, you see yourself in picture form going for a run as opposed to saying to yourself you are going to go for a run? Or you see yourself moving through the motions of putting laundry in the washer instead of saying to yourself that you should do a load of whites?
That's funny, there was a thread about this on my other board. Are you a Woolfer?
I am a thinker in paragraphs. Sometimes it's very annoying for DH, when he comes home, to hear everything I've been thinking about all day come out in a rush. He doesn't think in words; it's more like images or concepts I guess? It is so hard for me to imagine how that works!
Post by fivechickens on Jan 30, 2020 23:09:00 GMT -5
My H doesn’t have an inner dialogue either.
I, like many of you, play out scenarios in my head. Give myself a pep talk about how ‘you got this’ on the day said scenario happens and then nothing comes to fruition which annoys me.
I had some good one liners in my scenario goddamnit.
I'm in the group of you that doesn't have talking in your head, but constant thinking with pictures/imagery. I generally like a very quiet environment. If I had to listen to myself inside my head, that would suck.
I’m still so confused by what is going on in the heads of people who don’t have an inner monologue.
In the article, one person said that when they looked in the mirror and had a thought about what they were seeing, they would say it out loud. And that when they read in their head, they just see key phrases.
Wouldn’t we have a lot more people walking around talking to themselves?
This is fascinating to me. The brain has always fascinated me. We have been able to “see” how pretty much every other part of the body operates, but our thoughts in our head are still a mystery.
Before this article came out, I did not know that people chose one or the other. I do have an inner monologue and that usually allows me to process emotional decisions and experiences. I also just see words in a weird sort of filing system and that is generally more analytical decisions that I need to process. I thought everyone had multiple ways to think about things.
If you ask me "what are you thinking?" I can not tell you because my mind jumps from topic to topic so quickly in general. I think that is what people mean when they say "nothing."Just that the thoughts were fleeting and not focused and forgotten in seconds.
I don’t think I have an internal dialogue. Idk... typing this out I’m “hearing” the words in my head so is that it? But at any given moment if I’m going about my day I don’t have a constant stream of words going through my head. I may be thinking about literally nothing.
Also, idk if related but I have virtually no anxiety about things. When people talk about having anxiety over what other people think of them and start getting into scenerious I can’t relate because have never in my life thought through scenarios in such detail like how other people seem to. Like are those scenarios all inner dialog, and that’s why I’ve never thought of it?
Hearing the words in your head as you type would be you inner dialogue. I don’t have a constant string of words but when I really thinking about this I hear it in my head. I have a very hard time visualizing things.
I can't quite figure out which is an accurate descriptor of me. Sometimes I have an inner monologue, but not always. I do always hear my voice in my head when I'm reading. I often mentally remind myself to do something. But I don't have a running commentary. For example, when I'm working, I've been doing my job so long that I don't have to concentrate particularly hard on it. So most of my day at work I'm either playing music in my head (which sounds exactly like it would if I was playing it for real), or I'm watching a movie in my head that will be based on something I've read or that I want to write, or I'm visually imagining something like travelling somewhere or what my fancy house would look like if I won the lottery, lol.
ETA: Here's how I think. I'll be listening to music in my head or something, and I'll walk into the kitchen and the first thing I see is the dishwasher. The dishwasher will then conjure up a mental picture of the washing machine, and then I will hear my voice in my head saying "I need to remember to do laundry today." But the commentary ends there. How do you describe that?