In fiction, novels offer readers the advantage of directly hearing a character’s thoughts and feelings. This is because novels allow readers to experience the character’s perspective and feelings, which can add layers of intrigue and emotion to a story. An interior monologue is an expression of a character’s thoughts, feelings, and impressions in a narrative. It is a tricky skill to master, but when done correctly, it more than pays off.
Interior monologue is a snapshot of in-depth narrative about the thoughts and feelings of the character where they are thinking about their life. There should be a balance between action (external stuff) and reaction (internal stuff) at all times. Too little introspection can risk the reader feeling overwhelmed.
Writing an interior monologue can be easier when writing in first person and third person limited. Breaking up the paragraph into multiple paragraphs and focusing on the POV character’s actions or memories can help convey simple, intimate information about a character’s deeply held secrets.
Incorporating internal monologues into fiction can be easiest when writing in first person and third person limited. To write a good paragraph, explore different techniques and consider the narrative structure. Writing an interior monologue in first person is simple as long as the narration is already something of an internal point of view.
To practice writing an interior monologue, spend 10 minutes writing a simple one and compare how easy it is to replicate your thoughts or the thoughts of others.
📹 Why Some People Don’t Have an Inner Monologue
Do you always have an inner monologue? Can you imagine not having one? Or maybe you’ve never had an inner monologue …
What are the rules for interior monologue?
The interior monologue should reflect the character’s distinctive voice, thoughts, and emotional landscape, taking into account their language, syntax, and vocabulary choices. It demonstrates to the reader how the character thinks and operates, and whether they justify their decisions through a process of reasoning and reflection.
Is it normal to have an internal monologue 24 7?
An internal monologue is typically not a cause for concern. However, if an individual experiences frequent critical self-thoughts, it may be advisable to consult a mental health professional. Such professionals may utilize techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy to facilitate the transformation of negative thoughts into positive ones. In the event of an internal monologue associated with self-harm, it is imperative to seek immediate assistance.
How many lines is a 1 minute monologue?
The number of sentences is contingent upon the length of each sentence, which can range from 10 to 15 lines for a one-minute speech.
Is it true that only 50% of people have an internal monologue?
Hurlburt’s research suggests that between 30 and 50 percent of people frequently experience an inner monologue, but most people don’t experience it all the time. However, studies using different methods suggest that the frequency of inner speech is much higher, with one study suggesting that people experience it 75 percent of the time. Research shows that people generally think in five different ways, with only one of which involves an inner monologue. Understanding how people think without an inner monologue can be challenging for those who have it.
Is it normal to have a voice in your head 24/7?
Voice hearing, also known as auditory verbal hallucinations, is a common occurrence, with between 0. 6 and 84 percent of the population hearing voices. The content and tone of these voices can vary, with some finding them comforting while others distressing. Cultural or spiritual context can also influence the understanding and distress experienced by individuals. Research suggests that hearing voices does not necessarily indicate psychosis or schizophrenia. However, negative experiences or beliefs from the voices, such as negative content, frequency, or emotional tone, may indicate that someone may benefit from help or treatment.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for voices, delusions, or other psychotic symptoms. CBT is based on the idea that some people are genetically predisposed to these experiences and that stressful experiences may express their vulnerability to psychosis. Treatment focuses on helping individuals learn techniques for coping with stress and decreasing distress and disturbance from these experiences.
Some people also find medications helpful, which can be discussed with a psychiatrist or GP. By discussing these options, individuals can better manage their voices and improve their overall well-being.
What three things must a monologue have?
Monologues are like running a relay, but with the baton, the actor is running alone. They are miniature plays that contain all the basic elements of effective storytelling. In a monologue, the writing, audience, and the actor are the only elements. Building confidence to stand onstage alone is essential for acting, and reading a monologue out loud can help improve writing and acting skills. It is recommended that actors read their and their peers’ monologues out loud to improve their performance.
Is 2 minutes too long for a monologue?
When auditioning for theatre, it is recommended to have a 2-minute cut, a 90-second cut, and a 1-minute cut of your monologue. In film and TV, a shorter 1-minute monologue is best, as sides are usually obtained in advance. In theatre, different length options are important, and lines can be cut out as long as they still flow and make sense.
Choose an active monologue, where your character is actively pursuing a specific objective and in direct conversation with another person or group. Avoid monologues where the character tells a story about past events or talks to themselves. This makes it harder to choose a focal point when the character is not engaged in an active and direct conversation.
The best acting monologue advice is to have fun and enjoy exploring your creativity, voice, and character. Building new skills and being proud of your accomplishments is essential for success in the theatre world.
Do high IQ people have inner monologues?
The capacity for an inner monologue is linked to intelligence, with adults who possess higher IQs exhibiting a more verbose inner voice than children who are in the process of developing language skills. Some individuals access their inner monologue in a visual manner, perceiving the inner voice as a visual representation of text. Inner speech, defined as the silent production of words or images in the mind, represents a critical aspect of mental processes.
Does interior monologue have to be first person?
Interior monologues are a form of storytelling that can include dramatized inner conflicts, self-analysis, imagined dialogue, and rationalization. They can be direct first-person expressions without author control, or third-person treatments with phrases like “he thought” or “his thoughts turned to”. They are often used interchangeably with stream of consciousness, but they can mirror all half thoughts, impressions, and associations that impinge upon a character’s consciousness.
Originating from Édouard Dujardin’s Les Lauriers sont coupés, interior monologues became a characteristic device in 20th-century psychological novels. The term is closely related to soliloquy and dramatic monologue.
How much internal monologue is normal?
About 30 to 50 percent of people regularly think to themselves in internal monologues, which play a crucial role in language development and information and memory processing. This phenomenon demonstrates a diverse range of experiences in what we consider “normal” thought lives. According to psychologist Russell Hurlburt’s research, about 30 to 50 percent of people regularly think to themselves in inner monologues. These private conversations are likely developed as young people to develop language skills and later as a way to rehearse information to successfully encode and retain working memory.
To determine if you have inner monologues, try listening in and noting an internal voice or intrusive thoughts during meditation. Mindful practice provides valuable insights into whether you have inner monologues and how often. However, the 50 to 70 percent of people who don’t have or infrequently have words in their heads may not have inner monologues.
📹 What it’s like living without an inner monologue
A look at the inner experience and the science behind it Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/1.5486969.
Dude, I can literally hear music in complete silence. I could be sitting in a dark room, with only the sound of my own breathing, and I can clearly hear movie quotes, or lines from a article game with the correct voice actor. I can see things in my head too. I’ll zone out in class sometimes and just stare at the wall. But I don’t see the wall. Im seeing whatever it is im thinking about
Does anyone else listen to music in their head? I’m not talking about singing internally, I’m talking about listening to songs, with or without vocals, and hearing the various instruments or sections. Also not talking about ear worms, where you get a song stuck in your head, but having conscious control over what sort of music you want to hear and which piece.
As an introvert, I use this in various forms everyday. Sometime it’s visualizing a drawing; processing a route to a place; picturing how I’d look in outfits to see if they match; role-playing a conversation b4 an argument or fantazing bout speeches. Tbh I thought everyone processed things this way and could picture a simulated scenario in their minds depending on the context
Until this year I didn’t know most people weren’t talking to themselves inside ALL the time. I never shut up, I can change accents, have full interviews all that fun stuff lol. I felt called out when he brought up anxiety and depression haha. Getting diagnosed ADHD has helped me understand my differences from my siblings and peers, thankful for that!
Fun fact: I can determine exactly when my inner speech started. I was 3 and we had a black cat which simply hated human interaction. Of course me as a 3 year old didn’t care about it, wanted to play with her and was a bit too hard on her and in the end she scratched me. I was crying and running to my granny and she told me : “You know she doesn’t want to be touched and if you wouldn’t have been too hard on her she wouldn’t have scratched you! You need to think about what she is thinking in these moments and why she did what she did!” That was not only the start of my inner monologue but also the start of me being empathetic. From then on I always tried to think before I open my mouth or do stuff and what I would do if I was the other person in that moment. Arguing with myself if it is a good idea to do this or that.
When I was 14 and depressed, my inner speech delved into psychosis. Having a “not in my ears” voice follow you around abusing you 24 hours a day is basically inescapable. I knew I wasn’t having auditory hallucinations, but she was in my head and I couldn’t stop her. She laughed at me when she hurt me. After a literal decade of therapy I can now talk to a kind, validating inner voice when I’m upset. It’s crazy how something so traumatizing could become something so precious.
As a kid i didnt have an inner monolgue and as i got older into my teens i started to have one and it really weirded me out for a bit because i wasnt used to it. I now have a mix of speech, pictures, and feelings. Although i have to picture myself talking to someone in order to have a dialogue and not just random commentary.
I didn’t realize that people thought with words until I watched that Dexter TV series. At first I thought that it was just a translation of his thoughts into words and not literally that he was talking in his head all the time. I was shocked when I asked my friend if she thought in words and she said yes and looked at me like I was crazy. This was back in 2010 when I was 15 years old. I do OCASSIONALLY think with words when I’m reading or typing something, but otherwise I think in…well, what thoughts are before they are translated into words. Raw thoughts, abstract concepts, “knowing”, memories, pictures, feeling, sensations, etc. To me, it’s easier and more natural to think in my way, than to have to translate all of my thoughts into language/words. People had thoughts before language was ever created. It was only made so we could communicate our thoughts with eachother. Those of us who don’t think in internal monologue aren’t limited by thoughts that only exist in language.
I still remember the one history class where one of my (Egyptian-Australian) classmates came in talking about having being approached by another (Turkish-Australian) student asking him if he thought in English or Arabic, being like “who thinks in actual words?” This was the day we discovered some people don’t have an inner monologue, and he discovered other people do.
when I stop to think about it, one of the ways that I became fluent in English (my native language is Portuguese) is that I kinda forced myself to do my inner conversation in English, that was when I was 15-ish, now that I’m 30, I can honestly say that I can have an inner talk mixing English and Portuguese without even noticing! it’s really interesting to be able to notice how we are always practicing conversations with others in our minds!
I have inner thoughts 24/7. I hold conversations with myself and practice whole conversations before having them with someone and plan out what I want to say for every outcome I can think of. When planning them I also hear their responses like they’ve actually spoken. I thought everyone was like this… really strange to think about. I also can visualize my thoughts really well and can see the person I’m “speaking to” as if they’re there in my head. But most times it’s like a presence that they’re there. Idk. You’ve given me plenty to think about
I was born and live in germany, but I consume a lot of content in english (books, series, movies, YT, etc.), and in the last few years (I’m currently 33) I started to have my inner speech in english after e.g. perusal a movie. Furthermore, I was unable to switch back easily. I had to concentrate really hard to think in german again.
I can vouch that being kinder to myself in my inner voice has helped. For instance, even in the practice convos I’d run through I often apologized for things I shouldn’t, so I started paying attention and began refraining in those practice convos from apologizing and that helped me stop apologizing in IRL conversations with other people. This is anecdotal and too small of a sample, but my experience has been that improving my inner voice self-talk helps, but it is work.
I think the weirdest thing about my inner monologue is that I sometimes launch into entirely fictional conversations, usually involving a complete stranger making a negative comment about me, a friend or sometimes other strangers. I start thinking about how I would respond to them, and quite often it turns into a full blown argument and I end up getting really angry at this hypothetical person that my brain made up
You can definitely train your inner speech. My depression got much better after years of catching myself talking negatively about and to myself in my head. Every time it would happen, I would stop and think, “Would you say that to a good friend you love?” and then I would think about how I would say it to such a friend instead. It takes a while, but the results are worth it ❤️
I would be interested to see the correlation between people with executive function disorders(ASD/ADHD/OCD) and the frequency/intensity of inner speech. Everyone I know that’s neurodivergent has expansive inner speech. I’m inside my head all day and i’m ADHD/ASD my sister also who is ADHD. It blew my mind when I found out there were people who don’t do it at all…like…I can’t imagine what my life would be like if i didn’t hear me in my head 24/7
When im by my self or in a quite place i constantly have my inner speach, sometimes it really annoys me when im doing homework or reading, something always pop ups my head, then i think about it for like 5 min. Sometimes i think of talking to an imaginary person, predicting what will happen in the future, solving a problem, remembering something that happened in the past, and more But having an inner voice and thoughts is just beautiful, in my opinion. I have so many reasons why
I can’t imagine someone not having an internal monologue all the time. I replay conversations, current and 30 years ago. I also play out scenario’s that will most likely never happen, but I have a plan if it does. I also view books in my head as movies. I’m an introvert. This was very interesting, I’m sure I will discuss it with myself later.
I talk to myself in my head often, whether it’s self deprecating or talking myself through those negative thoughts, but I also play scenes (from published stories or characters I randomly make up in the moment) A LOT. It’s a way to distract myself from my negative thoughts but also just to entertain. I’ve only physically written one fanfiction in my life years ago, but my thoughts have thousands.
I don’t know if I’m like crazy or something but I like to imagine a specific person or a scenario in which I’d be talking to them and just explain whatever it is I’m thinking. I believe that it helps me learn through “teaching” even though I’m not actually teaching anyone. It also solidifies knowledge in my mind by helping me put it into exact words whatever the idea is that I came up with.
I have a strong inner voice. Its not negative. I basically just silently talk to myself like a friend. I discuss problems, funny stuff, what an emotion is about, entertaining stuff you would discuss with a friend, etc. its rare i get lonely because my internal monologue is so strong. I was mind blown when i found out others don’t do this
As an older person with a nearly constant inner monologue, I’ve spent a good part of the last three years working on being more conscious of it, and working it into complete sentences with beginnings, middles and ends. I’ve been finding that this clarifies and isolates ideas, particularly problems, allowing me to see them as more discrete entities which are more easily dealt with. It’s been a really productive exercise for me.
It absolutely blows my mind that not everyone has an inner monologue. I feel like there’s a completely separate world in my head…where I see images, I re-experience different situations, I talk to myself, I reflect on things I’ve done and said, I contemplate different ideas, have conversations with other people, analyze and discuss situations with myself while I’m in them…I mean I couldn’t live without an inner world. I feel like it keeps me sane. It’s how I make sense of everything. It’s constant, I’m always aware of it….it’s the real me, my true reality.
my inner speech is less so like reacting to things, it’s just how i process the world period. it holds most of the thoughts i have, and without it i simply have an impression of what im thinking. it’s there 100% of the time, and for all intents and purposes i consider it to essentially be me. like i dont always want to think what i think, but to me “thinking” is synonymous with my internal monologue.
When Hank mentioned the mental health component, I thought of John’s novel Turtles All the Way Down: Where the protagonist has an inner dialogue with herself about whether she has washed her hands already, etc., and then can only shut that dialogue off if she performs the OCD task. On the other hand, I was also thinking about people who think more in pictures – I’d judge that I think more in pictures than in sentences, and sometimes I lie in bed and think about turning over, and then keep having that image in my head until I finally turn over. I feel that actually SEEING myself doing that rather than thinking about the task as a sentence is more compulsive.
My inner monologue is full on narration as if I were giving a DVD Commentary on whatever I’m interacting with. It’s not always on, but it’s on anytime I engage with media or do any sort of problem solving. I don’t often experience negative monologuing, though I am often self critical. I do it in a nice way where I have a convo with myself about ways to improve. I also have ADD though and it definitely affects my thoughts because I will randomly shift gears and hop tracks to different topics, or I will repeat the same dialogue in my head over and over with different word substitutions, cadence, and inflections when I’m bored. At this precise moment I am reading this message in Tim Curry’s voice.
So, could this underpin why some people hate reading while others love it? I mean, reading is just engaging with nothing but inner speech for protracted periods of time. When I read, every character (and often the “narrator”) has a distinct voice, to the point that I can TELL if I’m altering it slightly over time for any given character and can have two characters with voices that are very similar but still distinct in my head by nothing but intonation or if they speak more in the nose or the throat. Plus, the acting is generally SUPERB. Couple this with decent ability for mental imagery, and reading for me is very engaging. If, however, these weren’t the case, then I can only conclude that reading would be really boring.
I don’t think there has been a single time that I can recall in which I haven’t been internally speaking, usually an internal monologue or dialogue but sometimes as many as 4 voices, but 100% of the time I experience inner speech. I also, especially when I’m unsure of the future, experience imagined interactions.
Inner speech potentially being based off of childhood dialogue and being affected by anxiety makes so much sense with my own experiences. The more negative thoughts are usually “I / me / my” like my brain is creating it’s own criticism but the positive thoughts are usually “you / we / us” as if someone else is being patient with me Oh to be self aware 🙄🤦♂️
Growing up, I had no idea inner speech was something real. I thought it was just a saying to refer to thoughts, but thoughts weren’t actually words, or it was something done by Hollywood to portray a character’s thoughts. Honestly, I’ve always thought in pictures, colors, sensations, but I’ve never had any problems speaking
Wow! What an awesome comments section! Thank you all for sharing how you think. It’s inspiring. We were excited to make this article because once we started talking (out loud) about inner speech as a team, we realized that we all think REALLY differently. It’s helped us communicate better and feel closer. It’s awesome to read how each of you thinks and means a lot that you’re sharing about it here. Thank you! ~Caitlin, SciShow Producer
I recently had a conversation with someone about inner voices. Mine has always been my own voice naturally, when I read it’s in my voice normally. I can change the voice at will easily but it’s not what naturally happens. My friend said when she’s reading the reads in different voices of what she imagines that person to sound like, kinda interesting. Also she said there’s like 2 inner voices in her head that both sound like her, but they are distinctly different. Kinda interesting I’ve never experienced that.
I have “imagined interactions” ALL THE TIME when I’m alone, sometimes out loud without even registering (mildly embarrassing when someone walks in on you talking to yourself). Sometimes I also think things through as if I’m explaining it to someone else, other times its more of a conversation with myself. I can’t even imagine thinking without words!
I didn’t have too many friends when I was younger so I ended up having full-blown conversations with myself in my head even now I have a habit of whenever I finish talking to someone I’ll run through the conversation in my head and think about what other things I could’ve possibly said or done during that conversation and I think because of those habits I end up having it lot of inner speech
My inner monologue never really shuts off. 99% of the day, my mind it talking to itself, processing every detail and working out logical connections between things that I know and what I’ve learned. It was very helpful for getting good grades in school as my reading and listening comprehension is very good, but not really good for going to bed on time as my thoughts keep me up half the night.
I can still hear my family shouting and cursing whenever i do something wrong. Have alot of conversations in my head sometimes ending up with philosophical questions or so silly it makes me laugh out of nowhere like I’m crazy but i think it’s all depression and loneliness that is to blame. When I’m with people I don’t talk at all. Just listening to what they’re saying while talking with myself. I realised i’m different than them i must be crazy
I remember reading a few years back about a controversial hypothesis in psychology that theorized about human evolution that said a huge factor in why, back before Classical Antiquity, humans back were constantly hearing “the voice of God” and why there was an abundance of “prophets” back then claiming God was speaking to then whereas today no one hears “the voice of God” is that back then the brain had still not developed full integration between the different centers involved in thought and experience, or the so called bicameral mind, and the instructions they were actually experiencing were just their self talk guiding them through various tasks or berating them for doing something immoral. Although it is controversial and not widely accepted I do find it to vibe a quite interesting hypothesis nonetheless.
This has always fascinated me because I’m someone who has a very strong inner monologue. There’s almost always a dialog going on between ‘myself’ and usually another ‘myself’ playing devil’s advocate or something along those lines. It’s almost impossible for me to ‘think silently’ which makes it very interesting that other people function almost exactly opposite.
When I was diagnosed with ADHD at age 33, I was given ADHD medication that quieted my involuntary inner speech for the first time in my life. It was as if all the “background chatter” constantly running in my head had quieted down. Kinda like turning down the volume on the radio. Without that noisy inner speech, I could finally focus clearly on what was happening around me and complete tasks more easily. I could still produce inner speech for a directed purpose, like weighing pros and cons of a decision, but when I didn’t need it, the inner speech would stop incessantly chattering about tons of different topics and simply SHUT UP. My head felt so quiet! The psychologist who diagnosed my ADHD through formal testing explained that the term “Attention DEFICIT Disorder” is a misnomer; ADHD is not about LACKING an attention span, but having TOO MUCH attention. What he means is: a brain with ADHD is chronically under-stimulated. It seeks stimulation constantly, from any source it can get, be it sensory or mental. Based on his explanation, I think my noisy inner speech was my ADHD brain seeking stimulation; if I’m not gettting extra sensory input (like petting soft kittens or tapping out morse code with my foot), my brain generates incessant inner speech.
I remember as a small child learning to use inner speech to play with my stuffed animals silently. All our conversations happened in my head instead of out loud. Not that anyone told me I had to be quiet – just seemed easier that way. Now I would say i think using inner speech about 90% of the time. I think it would be fascinating to know if there is a difference between how different personality types use it: introvert vs. extrovert or analytical thoughts vs. creative thoughts, etc.
I have no inner speech, and it is wild to me to so many people have it. To go even further, some people cannot picture things in their heads, or recall faces in from memory. My brain is silent, but I can vividly picture images in my brain. My husband is the opposite, he has a very active inner monologue, but cannot picture anything, or even picture his childhood home in his head. The human brain is fascinating!
I remember being a toddler about 4 years old, staring into the bathroom mirror, completely trying to form words as an internal voice for the first time. I told my mom I was “Trying to think” and she thought I was being crazy. that was the first time I was able to hear any inner speech and it’s one of my earliest clear memories
My inner speech is just as malleable as the rest of my imagination. I can recall specific noises, voices and music. I can rehearse made up conversations in my head and clearly magine the other persons voice. I can easily reproduce sound effects and retell myself information over and over again. It’s crazy because I always just assumed everyone else could do it too.
This article is so interesting! I feel like my inner voice never shuts up! I do the back and forth conversations constantly, imagining conversations, reflecting on past conversations, preparing for future conversations, arguing with myself, trying to see both sides of a situation, wondering about random topics and what ifs. It’s amazing to learn that people just don’t have one. Maybe that’s why I don’t tend to feel very lonely, inner me in my head is good company most of the time haha.
I find this so fascinating.. I don’t have an inner monologue and once realizing people do indeed have one like in the movies or first person books, the first thought I had was that people must’ve feel less lonely maybe, and in a way made me be more uncomfortable thinking others were then constantly having secret ‘gossiping’ with themselves while talking to me – while I’m not really thinking much in return period (just coldly collecting information about them and processing without any personal comment about them)
‘abbreviated thought’ is such a good description. For me thoughts are their own medium: not words, not pictures, more like a flash, where you are only aware of it after it happened. So anytime I want to work with a thought I just had, I have to reconstruct it into words. It’s more like hearing a segment of conversation from across the room and working backwards to piece the whole sentance together.
My native language is french, but i’m now perfectly fluent in english. I only started to learn it at around 10 years old, which was when english classes became mandatory in schools here (in Québec, Canada). The way i was practicing was by changing my ”thinking” in english. I would talk to people and translate everything i heard in english after i had heard it. At some point, my inner monologue became english speaking. Until this day, it’s still in english even though i speak french on a day to day basis. Sometimes, it even gets to the point where i don’t remember a word in french or i hesitate and say half a sentence in english. Sometimes it’s kinda sad, because certain people think i do this because i just ”wanna be cool” and speak a bit english, but no people don’t understand that i truly hesitate. It freaks me out too, forgetting parts of my native language even if i still speak it everyday. At some point, i started to learn spanish, and that started to happen too. However, when i was speaking spanish in my head, i couldn’t speak english anymore, but i could still speak french. Yeah by brain is weird haha (also i have ADHD so maybe that’s why my inner monologue NEVER FREAKING STOPS lol)
I don’t know what I would do without my inner monologue. Pretty much every moment that I’m not engaging in an actual conversation is spent in a silent conversation with myself. I’ve found it’s super helpful for when I need to work my way through more complex problems and I don’t have another person to bounce ideas off of. My inner monologue is probably the only reason I haven’t thrown my computer while programming yet. It also occasionally becomes an external monologue when I get really absorbed in engineering work.
I moved to a foreign country in my early 20s. I had to adopt English to the degree that I now mostly only speak that instead of my own language. I just realised that my inner monologue that was a constant experience for me as a child has been since been reduced to almost nothing! I would love if there was a study about this and how other first generation immigrants experience this! I do talk to myself and it’s mostly in English but it’s not even close to the complexity and frequency of how it used to be… It’s pretty heavy to think about it now
I often have complete conversations in my head. This actually helps me predict how others might attack my arguments, so I can make them stronger. On the other hand, this made me constantly disagree with people, even if I didn’t have an opinion about the topic or even had the same one because a counter-argument would come to my mind… Luckily, I mostly stopped doing it. It lead me into lots of pointless conversations or even arguments/fights.
My mom has schizophrenia, and I can attest that she is unable to associate her inner dialogue as belonging to herself and because of that, they don’t have a way to edit, silence or correct the dialogue to something positive. Also dreams and daydreams are the same, she has a hard time differentiating from something that happened in real life, from something that happened in a dream or a nightmare. I had an argument with her one time about a nightmare she must have had where she was completely convinced the pastor of her church aborted one of her unborn children at some sweet elderly ladies house who held small group bible study class every Sunday. I told her she was delusional, and nothing could be any further from the truth, because I was tired of her going through these psychotic breaks at the end of every month, when I guess the depo shot, she got was wearing off. Let me tell you never argue with a crazy person when they are being crazy. Because she went into the kitchen and pulled out a kitchen knife and stood in front of me with pure murder in her eyes. flashback to when I was 4yrs old my mom had kidnapped me for my dad and was hiding out at my also mentally ill grandma’s house, who had been committed to a physic wared a month earlier. So, my mom was hiding their, but due to my grandma being gone for so long the power was cutoff. My Dad seen her car their and called the cops and when they showed up, she took me to the back of the woods with a butcher knife and kneeled down and put the knife up to my throat at the moment when the police were yelling my name looking for me and said if I said a word she would slit my throat.
I was rather confused when he mentioned inner speech tending to be about ourselves, then more surprised when he mentioned that it tends to be negative. Rarely is my inner speech about myself and, more often than not, it is jokes that make me smile or laugh. Or just trying to figure out what to write or how to word something before I say it.
Since I’m quite the socially awkward person, I use my inner speech a lot to prepare myself for interactions. Basically the brain kicks in and maps out a bunch of different routes the conversation could take, as well as what would be the best answers, like the dialogue trees of a Visual Novel game. Problems arise when someone says or does something I “didn’t program a path to yet”, and it’s usually when I reveal myself to be an absolute dork. It’s pretty “resource intensive”, and new places and new people always drain me because the brain keeps trying to predict every scenario, but hey, at the very least I can pass as a functional human being most of the time. Wonder if more people have similar experiences
My inner speech goes hand-in-hand with my imagination. In my mind, I’m always imagining some kind of “movie” or “story” between “myself” and these characters of mine (who are usually adaptions from those I’ve seen or read through different sources and media.) Believe it or not, that’s actually what is going on in my head about 90% of the time, every day, from the moment I wake up to when I go to sleep. It has been a part of me since… as far as I can remember. I honestly enjoy it. It’s just about one of the few “happy corners” I can retreat to when life gets rough. Maybe I’m just weird.
It’s so mindblowing learning that not only does not everyone have a voice in their head, but even those that do don’t all possess it in the same form. For me, I am always mentally commenting on my actions, state of mind, and how I feel. I am always analyzing my current situation and “talking to myself” in my head. But even people who also have an inner voice do not universally fit into this, and use their inner voices in different ways. I never thought about this.
I definitely have a lot of “inner speech” but it’s rarely about how I’m not good enough. It’s usually when I’m thinking deeply about things, including social interactions or solving problems. This includes rehearsing what I would say in certain circumstances, or how I am going to compose an email or text message. Interestingly, this often happens in the context of thinking of a hypothetical situation, or preparing for a situation that is likely to happen soon but it not currently happening. Also, the model of just rehearsing what someone has said to you before is completely wrong for my inner speech. It’s certainly just my own thought process, similar to when I might be “thinking out loud,” but silently instead of out loud. I’m an engineer, for what that’s worth.
I’ve always had an inner monologue when thinking about something, and when I read the speech or thoughts of a character I think of how the character sounds to themselves or others based on their personality, build, accent, gender, current mood, the topic at hand, the location, and the time. I also picture the environment and ambient sounds based on the pieces the book gives. I always thought that was normal until this article appeared in my recommendations. Who would consider asking if someone else’s brain functioned so differently to something you grew up with and considered a natural process like breathing?
As a person who speaks 7+ languages, I often hear the question: “In what language do you think?” The first time I thought about it, I was surprised to see that the answer is: none! I don’t usually have an inner monologue. (Unless I’m about to speak or write something, then I need to convert my thoughts into words.) As far as I can tell, I usually think in kinds of “global concepts” that encompass intentions, feelings and global meaning. If I were to do the experiment they mention, where an alarm goes off and you note down what you were thinking now, I could write a whole paragraph of the thought-concept I was experiencing at the moment. Trying to convert these thought-concepts into words slows the thinking speed down significantly and “flattens” complex ideas-sensations-emotions into sentences, and confines them into parameters/ideologies/culture of the specific language in which it is formulated. I don’t know if this type of thinking is related to my speaking various languages, I think it might be. I am also capable of having an inner monologue, but it’s more limited as a thinking style for me, I find. I usually resort to inner monologue if I am under a strong emotion and want to calm myself down, if I am rehashing a conversation with someone (which rarely happens), or if I need to structure my thoughts about something (though I usually find writing about it a more effective method for that). I was very surprised to hear about the negative self-talk that the article says many people experience!
I always thought this was a metaphor! In therapy I thought my therapist was being facetious or metaphorical 😅. I’ve learned to translate my inner “thoughts” and “feelings” into speech pretty well. Maybe this is the reason why I don’t have problems listening instead of talking as much as most of my friends and family. Also, I never understood Freudian slips, as in how could you just let something slip out like that, given that I have have to proactively work to make words 😅. I Guess for some people words just come to minds.
I actually heard about inner monologues when I was very depressed and heard that they’re mainly negative thoughts I now when I’m alone make a conscious effort to say the negative things from my inner monologue out loud because when you say them out loud it registers in your brain how stupid and unrealistic the thought really is and eventually you will start to talk in a very unbiased way about situations through your inner monologue as opposed to mainly negative or at least that’s what I feel
Ok, so my inner monologue is just me meditating. 24/7 doing it right now. I picture a constantly changing scene and voice the changes with my inner monologue. My brain is a picture. This is an intentionally done act. I try use this weirdness to design exercises to multitask better. Between reading studying, working, eating I regularly change up the word and part of the thought without changing the scene too much everything connects back to the scene. My general research on this form of meditation when I had a recent break through in my meditation might have led Google to show me this. “I managed to make the back and forth so habitual I focused on two lines of thought at once without breaking focus on the meditation.” So now I’m looking at this… Cool idea. Also… My inner monologue on the field of like repeating old conversations to try to better learn to socialize is done very out loud. I get very embarrassed when caught.
This is interesting. I’ve occasionally found myself wondering about this.. I think it’s safe to say I noticed. I sometimes have negative things to tell myself but usually my inner voice is used for thinking. New ideas for article game things, what I should do next today or in a article game, what a character dialogue would be like, or most commonly planning out what I’m about to say. Perhaps this is why I prefer typing over speaking – no sound to disrupt my internal voice. I seem to use it for almost every form of thought – or maybe I just don’t notice the thoughts that don’t use it the way I remember the thoughts that do. I can also change my inner voice to whatever voice I want. But usually it sounds like… Well, not really me. It sounds… Hm, kind of ageless and genderless. Nondescript. It is not sound. It is simply words. Anyway I am fascinated by the subject, but never thought to search it. Good thing this article was recommended.
Interesting thing, I have partially externalized my inner speech due to being alone most of the time. Though, it usually manifests itself by first thinking the entire concept, usually doesn’t take much more than a few seconds, then saying it out loud over a longer period of time as if to solidify what I thought about.
I always thought that hearing your voice in your head was normal, as long as you didn’t show any signs of being crazy. I can hear my voice in my head when I think all the time, although I’ve gotten so used to it that I sometimes tune it out and don’t even realize that it’s there like a reflex. I use it to think out problems or even pre plan things. I often find myself wondering long trains of thoughts and hearing it as I’m thinking. At night, it keeps me awake sometimes when it doesn’t want to shut off the racing thoughts. I can turn off my mind and just be mindful and in the moment real easy, but once I’m in my thoughts and everything outside is tuned out, that is where my attention problems are at, when I’m internally engaged, I’m GONE. I won’t hear you until you yell my name or if you physically touch me to snap me out. When I read, words describing scenes disappear and vanish to be replaced by mental articles of the described scenes-although the detail in specific spots is nonexistent and vague the overall detail is lifelike and overtime if there’s lots of books with the same scenes and characters the little details get fleshed out to where I could picture them being right in front of me if it came down to it. When I read what the characters are saying or there are sounds, I can hear them in my head, and all the characters have their own voices. I can see the scenes playing out in my head like high def movies but realer, with crystal clear sounds, excellent voice acting, I can feel the perceptions of scents, tastes, touch, emotions, the depth of character thought and development and personality, and it gives such a powerful and personal connection to the characters, seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling, feeling emotionally, getting in-depth looks at their thoughts and views like you rarely ever get in real life.
The diversity of experience in humans is crazy. I think that for me I almost never have spontaneous inner speech, but I sometimes have prompted inner speech. The default is to not, but if I realize that I’m NOT experiencing it, it can trigger my brain to start having prompted inner speech and it’s really annoying 😅
When problem solving, my inner speech tends to disappear. When I’m really focusing on trying find a solution, my brain thinks without words. I didnt used to have much inner speech, until a friend told me that she thinks way more in with inner speech. I kind of internalized that and now I have a lot more than I used too. I’m still not sure if it’s a good thing or not though
I can have a conversation in my head, but it’s really no different for me than acting out two parts in a play. It’s still 100% the same consciousness. One thing I find really easy to do and kind of fun is to think in other people’s voices. As long as I’ve heard them enough, I can replicate their style of speech accurately. If I want to have Morgan Freeman narrate my life for me, it’s no problem. Of course, I can’t actually mimic someone’s speech in the real world anywhere near so accurately, since then you have all the physical differences of how sounds are formed to consider.
I have an inner monologue to a degree when I am doing something new. When it becomes routine it moves to abstract thoughts, and then just ends up in my subconscious when the task is second nature. I feel bad for my husband because he has an internal monologue for everything and he can’t shut it off. He said it’s even things he has known how to do most his life. I would be so annoyed by that. It sounds repetitive, and boring, and I’d probably think my brain was patronizing me. Mine is honestly more of a thought train where it’s not really a voice you can almost here… more if just the expectation of sound. It’s still rather abstract. But I’m highly visual and I work as an artist so I visualize a lot. Then I can sort of almost hear sound. Mainly I have a voice in my head when a memory plays.
I’m very aware of my inner speech and I’m sure there are quiet spots, but for the most part it is constant. I am always discussing something with myself internally, or doing other weird things. I can mimic voices in my head so I do that sometimes. Of course it’s all fun and great until I start ruminating over a frustrating person or experience and seriously stress myself out either creating arguments with them or just running over things over and over again. It’s in my head so I can’t really get away from it, and it’s a pain to get it to stop.
I thought I had an inner monologue, but perusal this I understand how strange that actually could be. I only have “imagined interactions” that do sometimes turn into speeches I’m giving in the parliament and interviews I’m giving at the Oscars, but it only happens when im showering or doing something else alone later throughout the day. The rest of the time it’s just blank, I do have visual thoughts or the “feelings of concepts”, but it’s silent (unless there’s a song stuck in my head). Hearing that some people talk through their thoughts looks really interesting, it seems like it could help with bringing your thoughts into order and I tried it, but I can’t do it without moving my tounge or lips to mouth the words. Is there anyone else with a similar experience?
Im very late to this article but im shocked by how different mine seems to be from others like for me my inner voice is always what i consider “me”- i can imagine myself having a dialogue with others but its sorta like me talking back and forth with myself to prep myself for dialogues. i use my inner voice to think about what im going to say before i say it and its narrating when i read things and planning sentences for me as i write. my inner voice is the way i motivate myself- it seems like many people have an inner voice that is separate from their own self but for me my inner voice is literally me. like i can make my voice mimic that of other people when im thinking about a person but its still feels like me putting myself in their shoes i guess. i sorta have a conscious and unconscious inner voice- when i read/write/let my mind wonder my inner voice is talking im just not super aware of it unless i focus on it. but i can purposely think about things too and talk to myself. thinking about it more i often have inner voices that are separate from what i know is true (mostly related to self criticism- im a very big perfectionist lol) but that inner voice is still me it just feels like the self critical side of me. i cant wrap my head around the fact that some people have different voices separate from their own idea of self or no voice at all- thats wild
I often use differnt languages when I speak in my head which is kinda odd. My mother tongue is German, but most of the time my head speaks English or Swedish. When I actually speak these languages though I struggle to pronounce the words as easily as I do in my head. In my head I also don’t have a German accent.
Ok… I have textbook ADD (no H for me) and I feel like my inner speech was 90% of the time what was distracting me in school as a child. Learning that not all people experience inner speech the same, is mind blowing. I literally have full on conversations over a topic with myself in my head. I also have aphantasia (can’t see images in my mind). So my imagination is almost purely restricted to wandering inner speech dialogues. I just always thought that’s what “daydreaming” was, but I now believe that it’s a much different thing for different people.
This was fascinating. My inner dialogue goes on almost constantly and it is at least 95% positive, planning, daydreaming, storytelling, amusing, problem-solving, creative, etc. thoughts. Full sentences accompanied by all sorts of concrete visuals, almost like perusal a movie. I am a full-time creative professional so I guess this helps me in my work. (I also have mild synesthesia, which also helps, LOL.) I have total control over what I think and actively move from one subject to another with purpose. I can also recall lectures or sermons or movie sequences that I’ve heard/seen and replay the key parts, hearing the voice of the speakers and seeing the visuals (not perfectly, but pretty close). I thought everyone had the same great inner-monologue experience that I had. I am blown away by the idea that most of us think negative thoughts about ourselves most of the time. Yikes!
A bit of a contribution to the idea that inner monologue helps cognition: sometimes, when I’m doing a particularly puzzling task, it helps me to actually speak my inner monologue out loud to myself. It really is like i’m coaching myself through the problem- sometimes i’ll even speak to myself in the third person! It used to be a mild issue on math tests especially cause I’d accidentally coach other people through the problems, too.
I have a speech impediment and I hate my voice because it sounds nothing like the voice in my head. It does not feel like “me.” My voice is extremely soft and breathy so people always assume I’m innocent and fragile when in reality I’ve led a very brutal life so I’m quite hardened – almost nothing can shock me, I’ve seen it all – and I feel like my physical voice/body does not match my internal self and gives people the wrong impression. My inner speech used to be very negative about myself because I absorbed the hatred of my family but now it’s like my friend that helps me understand things. What I’ve noticed is that narcissists lack inner speech which is why they are incapable of introspection and believe they are always right no matter what.
I would be very interested in knowing how much it affects language learning and do people with inner monologue become fluent faster I have super “vivid”(if that’s the right word) inner monologue, sometimes so loud it makes me completely zone out whatever else is happening even while driving, but the interesting part is that most of the time I speak in english.. which is my 3rd language, and rarely speak in either my native languages (finnish and swedish). I never practiced or studied english I just kind of picked it up growing up. Also since you brought up accents, my inner monologue has way better pronunciation of words and has pretty much no accent meanwhile when I actually speak I easily stumble over R’s and sh/ch sounds, my accent is also a lot thicker
I really don’t use my inner speech that much, ofc I can think and form words in my head if I really want to, and I do from time to time (usually when I’m going to sleep) but typically my head is silent (tho sometimes songs will play in my head on a loop or ofc like rn I’m hearing my voice in my head as time typing this out)
I’m on the “no inner speech” side of the spectrum. I do have it and use it when I want to, but I definitely don’t experience a running monologue in my head on the daily about what I’m doing, how I’m feeling, or what’s going on around me. It kicks up when something catches my attention or I’m solving a problem, for example, but there’s generally not consistent speech running in my head. Having that sounds exhausting to me, since I obviously am not familiar with what that’s like.
When he spoke of inner speech often being a replay of something you were told when you were young was very powerful for me. I realized that when I’m stressed I tend to say to myself internally, “I feel good, I feel fine, I feel great!” I realize this is something that was taught to me as a very young boy when I was feeling anxiety or nausea. It truly does help me.
I was 30 years old before I found out inner monologues were even a thing. I thought that was just something writers did help contextualize what is for me a purely cognitive experience. There are no words, just pure thought. I CAN create a monologue, if I want to, but it’s not what I do naturally and it’s certainly not how I ‘Think,’ as it is for so many. It’s crazy to me that people walk around with voices in their heads they can’t control.
I’m autistic and I have noticed a steady, slow increase in inner mono/dialogue as I’ve been going through therapy. A lot of self help stuff comes through in hybrid voice, it often comes with thinking of the face and speech mannerisms of the source/s of that advice or abuse, but a lot of the time even people’s remembered voices blur together and “sound” similar in my head without active effort. Honestly, it’s difficult to tell if I experience it as “speech” because it seems to smoothly vary between written and spoken English and as I’ve been picking up a bit of Auslan, some sign language in the form of like… Experiencing the feeling of moving and seeing my hands move alongside the weight of meaning carrying through. Most of my thought defaults to very tactile and pressure based senses, a little like… I guess like being tossed around in a wave, except more complicated. It’s vague enough that while I definitely do sometimes experience thought in internal voice, it’s often more like leaves in a tornado. If I’m feeling extremely down and weak sometimes mustering thought into words feels like pulling a ball of string into a closed fist and squeezing it together gently, leaving the rest of the mind feeling strangely empty and quiet. I honestly do not tend to imagine interactions with most people unless I am specifically planning out an interaction I intend to have or am prompted to try to imagine someone’s behaviour. It’s really hard to imagine conversations in general and my inner monologues with myself are very broken up with bridges of non speech.
Oh oh, the “imagined interactions” I do ALL THE TIME. As well as inner conversation and generally inner monologue. I have an anxiety disorder so I think that contributes a lot imo! I basically live in my own 🧠 head (probably somewhat unhealthily). In terms of words reflecting an entire sentence, I’ve noticed sometimes I can FEEL an entire concept/thought. It’s not just a “happy” or “sad” feeling, it’s a “concept feeling” 🫤
My inner voice is very active. As I’m almost always working on some project or another, I spend a lot of time working through the ideas involved in my head, having a conversation with myself. I only recently learned that some people don’t have an inner monologe, conversation, whatever, then discovered that silencing your inner monologe is a potential side effect of SSRI’s and I’m like HOLY CRAP! I’m never going to take those. Sometimes I just talk in my head and visualize the thing I’m working out. Sometimes I have a conversation with myself. Sometimes, I have conversations with other people, real or hypothetical people. Yes, I’m ASD and ADD. And I don’t generally talk to others a lot, unless someone will listen to me talk at length about something I’m working on.
I have ADHD and I’ve always thought that my inner monologues were loud as fudge, yet i thought it was normal since i didn’t have the chance to compare it to anyone else’s thoughts. i recently started taking meds for it and now my head is basically complely blanc. I was first scared of the thought of having an empty head but as someone who has now experienced both states of mind i gotta say, i think normally, but it just comes more as a feeling rather than as a voice or images. You just know what you want and need. When solving problems and soon, you just feel the engines starting to work as if it was going from auto pilot to manual but it fades away if you stop concentrating. Probably noone will read this anyway lol but heres my perspective
My brain during a migraine: “What is this speech thing, something about words? Definitely not necessary, shut it down!” Me trying to ask my husband for a drink during a migraine: ” I needa thing, like with mouth athing, inside of one of those other things…. CABINET!” Also today I learned I use inner speech to fall asleep.
It actually shocks me. I thought everyone has inner speech, as I call my inner dialog. I have a constant discussion with my self but it is definitely not negative all the time. I analyse what I see and and have a meaningful monolog with myself. I thought everyone does that. 😂 Well, I also have very active dreams, in color/ with music/ smell and taste. Not everything at once all the time thoe. But it is my second life for sure.
A few years ago I realized that my inner speech stops when I’m breathing in. As though my inner voice needs to take a breath. I have since been able to notice times when that’s not the case, and I can manually force myself to keep my inner voice going when I’m taking an in-breath, but in general my inner voice “breathes” at the same time my body does, especially when I’m paying attention to it.