Hi everyone
Through out my life because of my autism I have always had an internal voice like a narrator in my head of my own voice. I find it really difficult to switch off as it constantly scripting future conversations with people. I have try doing mindful activities to make it stop and it make hard to sleep at night. I was wondering if anyone had advice on it?
As far as we know, between 25% and 50% of all people have some kind of inner monologue.
It depends very much on how you define this inner monologue.
The original post talked about voices that could not be shut off so are not the same as when you read some text and "hear" it as you go.
Only around 10% of people have true auditory hallucinations at some point in their life (source https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28956518/ )
So generally are we saying that NT’s don’t self talk or have I misunderstood that?
No, I think you misunderstood. As far as we know, between 25% and 50% of all people have some kind of inner monologue. Also some autistic people (ie Temple Grandin) do not have one (apparently she thinks entirely visually).
If the voice is the same one that converts the written word, when you read, into an internal pseudo-voice then I think it is fine. It is just a facet of thinking, cognition. In many pre-modern societies people who read without saying the words out loud were considered to be amazing. It is the constant rehearsal of possible future conversations - scripting - that is the autistic thing, and yes it can be very tiresome.
My friend is bipolar and adhd also.
He has the voice and constantly talks to himself using different voices, he makes up his own songs and repeats phrases a lot.
I don’t see him much anymore but we both had a great way of communicating and entertaining each other. I miss our deep and crazy conversations.
So generally are we saying that NT’s don’t self talk or have I misunderstood that? I have had my own voice in my head for as long as I can remember. This is usually re runs of past events and going through a story of what may happen at a social event or get together. As Rainbow said it’s my voice but in my head. I am alone most days when at work and very often talk to myself a lot. I’m just wondering if I’m actually having a conversation with that internal voice now. Think I must look into this and pay a bit more attention. The voice is very repetitive as well which can be annoying and can get stuck on the same thing for quite some time. I do the same with music I like all the time, I will play over and over until I’ve exhausted myself and then I can move on.
Several times Co in my whole life I heard some sort of voice in my head, that was inside (I’m aware of that) but I felt it like coming from outside. Interrupting my thoughts and talking to me. These were short moments, during which I heard and saw and also felt events that did not happen yet. They happened later. In autumn 2018 I saw something that I described as dead cities. There was no sign of war, no damages to the buildings, no blood, no weapons. Everything was closed. Empty streets. I got scared, I already knew that if I see and feel such things, probably something gonna happen. I asked myself, is it gonna be apocalypses or what? Then I heard that voice telling me, that these events may affect my ability to graduate. I was lucky to graduate in February 2020 just two weeks before the lockdown. Am I Crazy? There were much more visions or strange things I perceived somehow and they happened. Mostly related to me personally or someone who I know. Sometimes it happens that I meet a person at work and I get a feeling about their future. And later it happened. For me it’s hard to believe in such things but unfortunately I have no explanation. I’m probably psychically sick.
I agree Neil, I wonder how people process their thoughts, without self talk? Do they not mentally repeat the steps needed to complete a new task that they've learnt or are learning how to do?
I don't think it's a sign of a schitzoid illness, not always, anyway, although they can be, I think it depends on whether the hearer precives them as coming from outside of the self, that tends to be more problematic than when you know they come from within the self. I've spoken to many people who've been worried sick by their self talk, afraid they've got a serious mental illness. But even if the voices are percieved as coming from outside the self it dosen't automatically mean that "it's bad", the person could be a medium or something similar? I know the purely scientific among you will start jumping up and down, but it does happen and some people genuinely do pick up on things outside of "normal" perception.
I usually do that with negative things, stuff I thought about that ended up a worry or if I've come to the conclusion something bad would happen.
Rumination/perservative thoughts they seem to be called. It's almost the same unstoppable worry pattern as OCD.
The most shocking thing to me - more shocking than the possibility that there may be alien life out there - is that there are people who do *not* have an internal monologue. I can't wrap my head around that. I spend every day (and most of the night) bickering with myself and over-analysising and ruminating and conjuring the worst and the best case scenarios. Being autistic is exhausting.
I have at some point irritating repetitive thoughts. They are often some scenarios, I imagine a conversation with someone about a topic I would like to discuss or about my interests with some famous person who I would like to meet and talk to. So first second and third time it goes in my head - it’s ok, I like it. But later the repeat repeat repeat repeat… it’s irritating. I tell my brain : stop! It’s enough! The answer: no! Not enough! Play again! A psychiatrist offered me some neuroleptics with serious side effects for that (lactation or weight gain). So I decided to fight the thoughts alone. And whenever I get distracted in the middle of the scenario (by barking dog for example) - it starts again. Otherwise I think such inner voice is just normal. My thoughts often repeat for days and weeks till my brain something else to chew
normal, if your self talk starts to become destructive, asks you to build it an ark or murder prostitutes or the like then worry.
My inner voice is more likely to tell me to eat crisps
Self talk, everyone has an inner narrator/critic/etc. You're not mad, you don't have some hard core mental illness, you're just normal, if your self talk starts to become destructive, asks you to build it an ark or murder prostitutes or the like then worry.
When very stoned at uni, I had an inner David Attenborough explaining the exploits of me and my group of friends, like one of his nature documentaries, but for an alien audience! It was quite fun.
I thought most people had an internal inner voice, not just autistic people.
I can “talk” inside my head but it’s a bit more complicated than that - my thoughts aren’t verbal, they’re silent and atomic, non-linear, and there are lots of them overlapping all the time.
Converting a given thought to linear language is what makes talking so tiring for me and why i prefer written communication - I get more time to do the conversion.
Do you not have an inner monologue then Iain?
My brain will interprit what I read with a similar experience to hearing someone say it if that is what you mean but when working on projects, assessing a problem etc my mind works much faster than the speed of speech so it stops and a very different, more visual representation of issues begins to form in my mind.
I find this great for working on very complex situations or where there is too much "wordiness" to deal with - I guess something a bit like in the film Minority Report where they are working with touch screens and moving info around.
Changing from the voice to more visual thinking also helps a lot in getting to sleep as I can visualise scenes that are much more relaxing.
I do also read a lot - I'm reading 200-300 pages a day at the moment, mostly fantasy (Brandon Sanderson at the moment) as this is one of my favourite genres.
