Do You Have an Internal Monologue?

[Faster Than Chris Robin]

If I had an inner monologue I wouldn't type to think and my life would be boring.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

Constantly, the weird part is I can deliberatly/accidently contruct a simple opposing personality for counter perspectives or when I need a conversation to articulate my thoughts more effectively. Very useful for online debate because you can usually anticipate the simpler objections to a degree.

Very awkward because I had to learn not to articulate the conversations quite early on.

This but for some reasons when it happens the voice is always whoever my most recent SO was.

 

[Mr. Skeltal]

I bet the author would trip out if somebody asked him how we know we experience sounds, colours and other sensory inputs the same way. If somebody asked me to describe what red looked like I'd only be able to point to things that are red, or make a list of things that aren't red.

Of course, I assume these are things most fourteen year olds have already thought about.

I remember asking myself the question "what would it be like to see through my brother's eyes?" when I was a little tyke and it kind of broke my mind trying to conceptualize it. It didn't help that I was coming off a particularly nasty flu that gave me (then) terrifying hallucinations akin to Alice in Wonderland Syndrome.

As for me, I do have an internal monologue that occasionally becomes external. The monologue only ever occurs in my voice. Visualizing things isn't really hard, it just takes focus. The result does tend to have a blurry, vague sense to it unless the visualization is based on a memory of something I've actually seen.

 

[mindlessobserver]

Fuck yeah I do. Their names are Gary and Mister Sprinkles and they won't shut the fuck up. Mister Sprinkles in particular is annoying. He keeps telling me to do horrible things.

 

[Cool kitties club]

I talk to myself but like I'm narrating a story probably from too much Dostoevsky and Frank Miller. I also sometimes pretend I'm talking to people I know sometimes (in my head)

 

[Demon King]

I have a bit of a blend. I visualize things in detail, or all 5 senses if I wanted to. Words seem to be a bit more of a drag, as I can portray what I think in a nebulous unfocused but detailed cloud in my head, than I could sounding it out in my head with words. I can hear my own voice, if I wanted to. I sometimes ask myself questions, and answer them. Switching between argument, and counter argument. Imagining scenarios or conversations in which I am about to have, or already have had. Improving.

 

[Fartwhistle]

Oh, Boy

If I could travel back in time, to 1980 or so... I would chew my parents' heads off and spit them out

Lots of resent... lots of regret. Lots of failure on the part of people I had no choice but to count on.

But, I'd still be me. Damage done.

 

[Shadfan666xxx000]

When I'm just chilling, I'll play whole movies out as I daydream like Walter Mitty and it'll work a lot like a sliding scale depending on how focused I am on my current task with everything getting boiled down to speaking in my head and fairly simple visualization depending on the task itself.
Edit: something that I've also had happen is sometimes if I watch something, I'll find myself thinking it through similarly to the characters there. For example, if I feel particularly dramatic and overinvested, I'll sometimes overthink and do a play by play like a shonen manga or I'll visualize something I'm scared of seeing.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

By the way, I do have some inner monologue, but using an inner monologue to feel superior over people has to be one of the most pathetic ones I've seen yet. People think different ways.

 

[Unyielding Stupidity]

I honestly don't understand how people can create visual scenarios in their mind. Do they actually see the thing they're visualizing in their heads, and if so, is it incredibly detailed or extremely vague? Am I just retarded?

 

[Shadfan666xxx000]

I honestly don't understand how people can create visual scenarios in their mind. Do they actually see the thing they're visualizing in their heads, and if so, is it incredibly detailed or extremely vague? Am I just exceptional?

In terms of a medium, I've seen it described like a picture book and I'd describe it like a movie or a comic book.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I have one and I think it overthinks or talks too much...

 

[???]

In terms of a medium, I've seen it described like a picture book and I'd describe it like a movie or a comic book.

It's literally like watching a movie or playing a video game. Reading a good book is for me hallucinating for 11 - 16 hours.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

I honestly don't understand how people can create visual scenarios in their mind. Do they actually see the thing they're visualizing in their heads, and if so, is it incredibly detailed or extremely vague? Am I just exceptional?

Vague, not detailed. Only important things, and even then faces are like half in shadow.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I honestly don't understand how people can create visual scenarios in their mind. Do they actually see the thing they're visualizing in their heads, and if so, is it incredibly detailed or extremely vague? Am I just exceptional?

Yes, you ARE r'etarded if you can't imagine seeing something.

 

[byuu]

Since there's lots of talk of verbalizing/visualizing:
When you write, do you hear or see the words in your mind?

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

all the time. hell, one of my favorite past times was playing with sticks while talking too myself when i was a kid.

 

[Ted_Breakfast]

I only have an internal monologue when I'm drunk. It's very simple, like 'wee, don't spin in your office chair too much, you'll mess it up.'

When I'm sober and not Clonazepam'd up, I'm a matrix of a dozen different different voices contradicting each other.

 

[The Littlest Shitlord]

I have an internal monologue but usually it's a soundless voice, if that makes sense. The voice has no particular volume, tone, accent, or quality to it and isn't recognizable as my own voice or even as anyone else's. I can't imagine hearing an actual voice sounding anything like it. I conjecture that if I developed schizophrenia and started consequently occasionally hearing my internal voice as an external one, this distinct lack of sound qualities would make it come across more like telepathic reception. The exception is self-criticism and occasional self-motivation, which sound exactly like my former drill sergeant.

Also I don't always use my own name in my own head. I refer to myself as either my last name, a name I used to use on forums and MMOS a lot, or as "we" (because I'm actually two people).

I honestly don't understand how people can create visual scenarios in their mind. Do they actually see the thing they're visualizing in their heads, and if so, is it incredibly detailed or extremely vague? Am I just exceptional?

The inability to do this is called aphantasia. In my case the level of detail varies, but usually is pretty vague. This can be improved with practice and is probably important to be a good artist. When I was doing art I was better at it than I am now. Hypnagogic visions, however, can be quite vivid and very imaginative but are impossible to hold in one shape for long. I can also usually see random landscapes when I close my eyes which are occasionally quite vivid, and sometimes the imaginary sunlight is bright enough to make me sneeze. These never hold their shapes either, but rather than transmuting into new forms, I simply move through them as if I am riding in a car I cannot see moving at 40-70 miles per hour. The imaginary landscapes are almost always rural and practically never have people or cars. I prefer it that way; humanity and its creations are so ugly.

Since there's lots of talk of verbalizing/visualizing:
When you write, do you hear or see the words in your mind?

Hear soundlessly (as above), except for mathematical symbols, which I mostly see instead (there are also incoherent but distinct sounds for each symbol).

 

[albert the programmer]

My internal monologue would have me sounding like the most selfish person to exist, and these days I see a lot of people trying hard to have internal monologues just to feel special about their inadequacy. Those people use that on social media as an echo chamber.