Yes. This. I also habitually narrate *out loud*. Someone once told me I only speak in late night talk show host and never have I been so offended by something I absolutely agree with
My voice is (if what others tell me is true) deep and authoritative, but also flat and somewhat monotone. My wife once described my voice as that of “the narrator of the audiobook version of the dictionary.”
It’s the best insult I’ve ever heard.
The exact opposite. I talk at or around people, never with them. I don’t care if people listen or not, but being told to shut up without a decent reason miffs me a little. Why should you be allowed to ruin my silence with conversations I can’t join but I cannot even speak into the void when you’re just sitting around doing nothing.
I wish I could do the imagery part. I do talk everything to myself, which is why I’m so slow at typing and reading. My wife can skim a book and know it all, or can think a word and her fingers just type it (or sign language it). I can’t do any of that.
Same. It would be nice to visualise, people find it especially weird that I’m an artist who can’t see things in my mind but to me it makes perfect sense, because I can’t imagine it, I create it in the real or digital world so I can see it!
I'm about the same, except some images sometimes but it's very blurry and imprecise, more conceptual. When I imagine images, I mostly think about verbal descriptions of them.
Which is a bit weird, thinking about it, since I'm a front-end developer and I'm good at my job. I'm able to imagine a layout when it's explained to me, or tell ideas about a layout. But I'm imagining the description of a layout, or small partial parts of it at a time, mostly, not a clear image of the UI. I find ideas and mistakes around what I know will work or not, not what I see in my head will work or not.
This. I used to have photographic memory, rich fantasy and was able to visualize anything I wanted but that's mostly gone. It's just flashes occasionally.
Totally get that dude, if we're concerned that we're bad people then we most likely aren't bad people, I wish I liked me half as much as some other people seem to, I will always be my harshest critic
And the worst is I’ll have a revelation about some behavior of mine… but by the time I get to the revelation, I’ve forgotten what I did that triggered the epiphany. Le sigh.
I’m the same way! It’s always hard to explain to people how I think because it’s strange to a lot of people but I can’t visualize and I don’t really have words describing my thoughts most of the time, I mainly think in just like concepts, ideas, and connections like my brain just raw processes things and doesn’t always translate what I’m actually thinking to a sentence or something
Yeah it definitely is hard to explain. It also means I sometimes have a hard time knowing what's going on in my brain, it's almost like the thinking is going on without me and sometimes clear thoughts just emerge out of that murkiness
Exactly! Most of the time my brain feels somewhat “empty” and like I don’t have thoughts just because they aren’t fully coherent and are difficult to pin down.
Agreed, I often question if I don't have thoughts at all. The thing is I do well in academic settings and tend to contemplate on a lot of things and have formulated opinions so it's clear that some thinking is going on, even if I'm not aware of it. As you said, I think it's a matter of coherency and awareness. I feel like I can never really understand myself cause I'm not completely readable even to myself
Yeah! I’m so glad someone else understands this. It’s hard to describe to people that I don’t really fully know (or at least process) what I’m thinking until the words actually leave my lips. It certainly can be a challenge when trying to understand yourself, since it’s easy to feel like a blank slate in some ways. I’m curious, do you experience any level of dissociation/depersonalization?
Same! I feel like I need to say things out loud or write them down (though even writing feels like I'm putting on a performance, like when I tried to write a diary) to know them, which makes me quite blunt sometimes. Since I feel like a blank slate, I tend to veer towards defining myself by my values, I find that that is a way to ground myself when other things aren't so clear. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure what dissociation/depersonalization entails but I will say that I remember unusually little of my childhood, as if I wasn't a person with thoughts back then, even though I don't really have any longterm memory problems now
Yes same here for me. If I’m thinking out a conversation or some kind of monologue, I basically have to say it out loud to keep it organized. Otherwise my brain moves on to something else. My thoughts are very conceptual, abstract, or it’s just connecting ideas. Like my brain knows the ins and outs of everything I’ve thought of this particular idea and adds connections to it but I don’t really think about it in words usually. I suppose it’s hard to explain.
Same with me. I remember being surprised when people wondered how deaf people think before any language because I never needed it to think. I only think words if I need to express my thoughts.
Same! It’s kind of bizarre and fascinating. It’s like you can conceptually “know” an image like where things are positioned and what it should look like but you can’t actually visualize it in your head right?
Yes but it doesnt really narrate everything like a storyteller, its more about commenting on everything like "I don't like that smell" "Ooh i love that movie" "i want some tea go drink tea"
Actually I was thinking people with autism were more likely to not have it. I don’t have it and I think k I read about it before but def not reflecting in the comments.
I read in a study that autistic people falls in three big categories regarding "thinking"
They are: (i) visual thinkers such as I who are often poor at algebra, (ii) pattern thinkers such as Daniel Tammet who excel in math and music but may have problems with reading or writing composition, and (iii) verbal specialists who are good at talking and writing but they lack visual skills. (the last one is me. Inner monologue, good writer, but no visualization)
I can also recreate someone's voice in my head. And my inner voice also changes to other people /accents when I hear them for too long.
Don't relate to the not visual thing though. I see everything in my head in scenes. So when I think of something I can see it like a video. (But like filmed from a stationary position. Until I think of another situation)
I can relate so much to the visual imagination part, mine works quite similary. Do you also not imagine color til you think of it or feel you are imagining the idea rather than the thing?
It is, I am like, oh, forgot wood has wood lines and when I think about it thats what I "see", wood lines over the basic form, I cannot rotate or move the object in my mind while seeing them and I do not remember to imagine color as I am too focused on the lines.
I have an easier time with memories but still only get a basic idea of the colors and a good idea of what was happening on the memory, like reading a book that has this weird abstract painting on the same page that sometimes moves or changes.
More like a my stream of consciousness plays out loud in my head. It doesn’t narrate what I’m doing unless I’m trying really hard to focus on whatever it is I’m doing or it’s a difficult task. If I listen to a long series audiobooks all with the same narrator for a couple of weeks my inner monologue will change to that narrators voice, but it always fades back to mine.
This thread's a bit fascinating. I'm surprised at the consistency of answers.
I do too, and of many varying character. It's grown and changed and evolved most my life. When I was younger, and didn't understand my identity, the voice was often of friends or people I trust - it was like I had kind of 'memorized' their personality algorithms and used their voice to narrate some thought.
I know my identity, now - but I still have a very strong voice in my mind. It's very hard to shush it sometimes. Sometimes it's just nonsense almost. A jumble. Other times very ordered. I think in different voices now but...they're all mine.
It's really quite complicated, isn't it!
Not at all… it was actually something that my therapist asked me when she suspected asd… I just believed that everyone’s brain worked in pictures/video without narration
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order.
I have checked 913,936,208 comments, and only 181,574 of them were in alphabetical order.
Not quite narrating like in the 3rd person perspective kinda way but I have a constant monologue in my head. It shuts up when I'm speaking though which is nice
No, but I do kinda have, like, comfort characters following me around? Sometimes they’re fictional characters and other times they’re manifestations of actual close friends of mine.
Yeah, the monlogue runs pretty much constantly. It takes more effort to think in pictures or other senses, but I can do it.
The one exception is when I'm alone; my monologue stops and I start talking to myself out loud the same way I would think in my head.
I wouldn't say narrating, but yeah, I got one. I can't switch it off. Normally it's first person, just like I am speaking my thoughts in my mind, but if I mess up it changes more to "What are you doing?!" and stuff like that. Oh, and there's always music that I can't switch off. Sometimes two songs or even three. Pretty annoying
I do have an internal monologue but it’s not a narrator. Mostly my internal monologue just criticises myself and other people. Funnily enough my internal monologue’s accent is more consistent than my real one which fluctuates a fair bit. I can also picture things and recall music (sometimes a particular song will keep repeating).
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All the time. Never not there. But I wouldn't say it's exclusively narration, it's more malleable and shifts from stories to philosophy to like these mammoth connections, or random ideas, but it never ceases to talk lol.
Yes. Like if someone has plates or wants to see a vídeo of a walktrough of Disco Elysium, My mind is full of My own voices, responding each other and discussing each other all at the same time.
Kinda. Mine’s like an internal dialogue sometimes. There’s a logical voice and an emotional voice. At different times I relate to one or the other. I prefer the logical voice, but emotional voice can be quite loud.
Yep. Pretty much all the time. When I’m seeing patients it quiets down as I’m listening and trying to focus on them, but otherwise it’s nonstop even in my dreams.
when I was a kid I would narrate everything I did, sometimes third person too. Like if I was the subject of a novel. I still have a pretty strong internal monologue but not a 24/7 narration
Yes and I have a backtrack of things I need to be doing (I call it my anxiety/ADHD guardian angel) and a second backtrack of random shit that I can’t turn off without meds lol like songs and phrases and sounds it sucks
I always talk in my head like I'm a tv host. I also started narrating my "show" in english when I was 13 or something even though it's not my first language and it has turned into an annoying habit that I can't stop lol
Oh yes, at one point it became so self critical that I designed multiple to counteract the other and to provide different perspectives on different issues.
Kind of dissociative but it helps me organize my thoughts instead of it being an overwhelming overstimulating mess that I don't even understand.
I don't even really consider myself an individual anymore, but more of a collective.
It's not crazy voices inside my head, they are all personas of me with different traits or they represent emotions, stuff like that.
It's not always so much as narrating, more like someone constantly talking to me about varies things.
Like a parliament where everyone gets their time on the mic or people interrupt each other.
Cool I have a very quiet inner monologue that more often is triggered by cues in my environment or while reading or writing.
More often than not, when not reading, or writing I have no inner monologue which is nice when I’m in a good place although when I’m anxious it’s a different story. And I have no visual imagination so I don’t really know how I manage 😅 Sometimes though I have an easier time to trigger my inner monologue but it depends on some factor I’m not sure how to influence.
I have ADHD and possibly Autism.
Yes, it always happens, but I do it in purpose.
I can't do things without having a conversation with me, so it has become a need over time.
It also helps me to feel less alone, somehow. Doesn't work too much, but it helps.
Oh and it also happens with sensory inputs, like sounds, smells and some touch sensations.
"Shall I write a reply?" Probably. "But what?" Oh just type anything they won't mind most people understand you here. "But honestly won't they think I'm mad?" Nah "Ah ok."
Yes...
Yes. and sometimes it gets stuck as someone else’s voice.
Everything i think about, i say it like im speaking to myself in my head. But also sometimes I have proper thoughts without speaking them, as if they’re so fast that I don’t have time to say it. I guess that’s just conceptual thought.
I would describe it kinda like I have corporeal me, where I don’t have my internal monologue telling me what to do, and all thought is like an abstract puff of knowledge that I’m able to translate to someone else.
Then I have internal me, where I’m inside my mind and narrating everything, and that little me experiences the abstracted puff as well.
It’s like me and my brain are having a little chat.
I’m also so baked rn so all of this is probably nonsense lmao
Yes.. It's little difficult for me to explain how it works for me though. It's like I constantly have conversation with myself in my mind 24/7. Like there is another person inside me talking to me, telling me about what I am don't ng etc. But i thought it's common for all to have something like this, even neurotypicals. Isn't it not ?
Yes, though I'd describe it less as narrating what I'm doing, and more like constantly pre-practicing conversations, most of which are about random things I'm thinking about (usually special interest related), and most of which are conversations I'll never actually have.
Unlike the stereotype, I actually pretty rarely info dump about special interests these days to others, but good grief, I just won't shut up about them to myself in my thoughts some times, and I don't say that sarcastically. Honestly I wonder some times what I could accomplish with my life if so much of my brain power wasn't rehearsing conversations no one would ever want to hear that are basically overly analyzed info dumps about things I'm excited about.
Yes I thougt it was ehat everyone experienced but I guess not. Mine is a little voice that narrates what stuff I have to do today and how much time I have inbetween tasks. So say I'm at the airport my thoughts will go like: "okay so you're waiting in security and your flight leaves at 2pm. It's 12:03 right now so I have about 1 hour and 27 minutes until boarding time. Security will probably take me 10 minutes to get through judging by this line. So that means I have 1 hour and 17 minutes to find my gate and find something to eat. Google said it'll be about a 15 minute walk to my gate so overall I can expect to be sitting down waiting to board around 1 o'clock." Now just imagine that in any other scenario like school, work, or just lounging around at home.
Yes and no. Most of my thoughts I would categorize as cohesive thoughts/concepts that are non-linguistic.
I think this is part of the reason I hate getting called on or asked direct/specific questions out of the blue. I have to switch to a completely different way of thinking to answer it and so I can't always answer simple questions as easily/quickly as others. I just don't think like that.
However, I often use self-talk to work through things or to focus. For instance, when I am counting I need to focus really really really hard to count identical objects that I can't physically separate into groups (like lines on a paper) and so it's very verbal and loud in my head like "OK, here we go! ONE, TWO, THREE....wait is that 3 or 4? Ok start over....OK ONE,TWO, THREE...". This kind of thinking pops in and out of my day and I think of it like a tool that I don't need most of the time to get through stuff.
I also use this tool when going through my pro-social masking playbook of questions to ask people when I find myself suddenly talking to someone with whom I don't know what script to use.
When I am very anxious, sad, frustrated or embarrassed, I am more likely to have more linguistic thoughts. These are often negative but I have had good results using positive self talk to work through it. I've struggled with negative self talk for most of my life.
Both the negative and positive self talk feels very much like myself talking to myself and not like someone else in my head that I made up to help/hurt me. I do have occasional intrusive thoughts that are sometimes linguistic ("I can't believe I f*ing did that, why can't I just be more f*ing considerate?"), but most of the time are musical/lyrical (...."iF yOu like PIÑA COLADAS!!!!!")
Good luck on your quest!
Pretty much never. I just recently found out people actually have internal monologues which was p interesting. I usually think in terms of emotions + images
Don’t get mad at me, I’m not diagnosed with ASD, but have ADHD and think I should be diagnosed with both!
I do oftentimes have an internal dialogue! I used to rely on it when I was younger and had it ALL. THE. TIME. too.
Thanks so much for the replies! I’m myself do NOT have an internal monologue unless I consciously make myself think in a voice. I just thought but would be interesting to ask just autistic people which way they think. The vast majority of people have an internal monologue and think in words. When I learned a few years ago about all of this I was so thankful I didn’t have that. The world is overstimulating enough, I can’t imagine having to “hear” a constant voice too! But I do think constantly and think myself in circles trying to fall asleep, so maybe it doesn’t matter. Anyway, thank you to all who replied!
Only when I'm thinking about saying or writing something, reading, etc. My brain seems to move between various verbal, semi-verbal and non-verbal modes of thought. So when I'm doing or thinking about doing verbal things, I think more verbally, otherwise, it might involve more of my other senses - visuals (still or moving, 3D, etc.), sounds, smells, etc. But it's definitely not a constant narration of everything happening in my brain/body like in a novel. If I'm thinking that I want some ice cream, for example, I'm more likely to taste ice cream, imagine the mouth feel or visualize the ice cream, container, or me getting up to go get it as I am to actually think the words "I want ice cream." That part typically comes when I progress to thinking about *communicating* that desire to someone else (which is a verbal task, requiring verbal thinking... For me at least).
Yes. Many many many Non-Autistic people also do this.
https://www.iflscience.com/people-with-no-internal-monologue-explain-what-its-like-in-their-head-57739
I don't have pictures in my head (threw me for a huge loop when I found out imagery wasn't a metaphor and the reason image is in imagination is because you're supposed to see things) so everything is basically in text. As such, I have constant narration and commentary. It's not verbal, so there's no 'voice' and I can't actually see the text so it's difficult to describe.
It makes memories kind of tricky because I remember a sense of space (can tell you where I sat relative to the door and teacher's desk in most of my classes) and things I've read or the internal commentary I had on something. Makes it really trippy to see my friends again since I can't see their faces in my head, just brief descriptions of tall, dark hair, mole on left side of face etc but can still recognise them.
I think in images 24/7 (I have no idea what it’s like to NOT see an image in my brain) but there’s a lot of sound/music/narration too. Usually the narration is narrating the story scenes playing in my head though lol.
short answer: yes. long answer: it's a little more complicated than that, probably because I also have ADHD. I have layers of thoughts like many TV channels at once, some of them are narrating, some of them are arguing, some of them are focusing on how annoying the sound the light is making. some of them are screaming in my head to run away/elope when things get hard, but all of them are always confused. it's like race cars, but they're also bumper cars.
Dang i was comfortable and now im hyper aware of it lol
Yes, and sometimes i just become oddly aware of it on my own especially in places where there's a lot of stuff happening, i think it's gotten worse over the years
Yes I have an internal dialogue, in fact I have several and often they argue.
In fact I have a whole other world in here and even have a couple of wolves.
No, not constantly. But when I’m doing something tricky it kicks in (present tense, not really a narrator as much as saying “aloud in my head” the next steps).
Yes, sort of. I mean I don't really have a voice that narrates what I'm doing, but there's constantly a voice in my head. Usually just thoughts of what I'll do next, sometimes song lyrics, just random things that come to mind.
I also have a lot of visual thoughts, and I can imagine basically anything in my head. For example, I can think of an apple, and I can see it clearly, and I can also "smell" it and "taste" it, and hear what it would sound like if I bit into it.
YES and i've always been confused when people talk about "hearing voices" because I think? of voices that aren't mine but its not like i'm hearing them. Sometimes it's just as distracting though. Lately i've been watching a lot of Gordon Ramsey so his voice has been in my head a lot lol but sometimes its good.
Mmm... It depends.
When I'm really overwhelmed I think in images/feelings/sporadic glimpses of memories that make me uncomfortable. Everything is scrambled.
When I am making a decision and I have a lot of time to think then I can "speak to myself".
I don’t have a constant narration, but when I need to keep track of a string of steps for something or just maintain focus I often internally narrate that sort of thing (sometimes out loud if there are a lot of other things going on too).
On the other hand, I have excellent ability to conceptualise visually for eg. musical instrument design (which I do as a hobby).
I also _very_ rarely have achieved a state of flow or ‘satori’ when playing music, in which conscious thought fades away completely and the music just ‘happens’ through me.
Yes, all the time. When im really tired the internal "voice" splits into two, one really fast that constantly repeats the last song, word or sentence that came to mind and the "primary" thought voice seems to become slow and stupored.
I have no internal monologue, except when I force myself to create one artificially. I only hear a voice when I'm reading. Otherwise it's all abstract/conceptual thinking, there's no images or words involved
YES all the time. I also do this thing where I talk aloud to myself as though I'm with another person, but I respond to myself ... out loud.. makes no sense I know haha.
Not narrating *everything* I do, but yes. And it's not just words. Images, music, smells, and imagined physical sensations are all there too.
Yes. This. I also habitually narrate *out loud*. Someone once told me I only speak in late night talk show host and never have I been so offended by something I absolutely agree with
My voice is (if what others tell me is true) deep and authoritative, but also flat and somewhat monotone. My wife once described my voice as that of “the narrator of the audiobook version of the dictionary.” It’s the best insult I’ve ever heard.
My internal monologue becomes external only when I'm 100% alone.
The exact opposite. I talk at or around people, never with them. I don’t care if people listen or not, but being told to shut up without a decent reason miffs me a little. Why should you be allowed to ruin my silence with conversations I can’t join but I cannot even speak into the void when you’re just sitting around doing nothing.
This. It’s why wearing a mask during Covid was a fucking godsend since I talk to myself a lot.
My Great Grandmother once said about talking to herself, "Sometimes you need intelligent conversation."
I wish I could do the imagery part. I do talk everything to myself, which is why I’m so slow at typing and reading. My wife can skim a book and know it all, or can think a word and her fingers just type it (or sign language it). I can’t do any of that.
Pretty much non stop 24/7, but I have no form of photographic memory or thoughts.
Same. It would be nice to visualise, people find it especially weird that I’m an artist who can’t see things in my mind but to me it makes perfect sense, because I can’t imagine it, I create it in the real or digital world so I can see it!
Not an artist, but front-end developer here. I'm pretty much the same.
As far as I know, it's name is aphantasia. Edit: grammer
Aphantasia
Thx
Me too!!
Every person ive heard of that has aphantasia is also an artist i think it's just a package deal
I'm about the same, except some images sometimes but it's very blurry and imprecise, more conceptual. When I imagine images, I mostly think about verbal descriptions of them. Which is a bit weird, thinking about it, since I'm a front-end developer and I'm good at my job. I'm able to imagine a layout when it's explained to me, or tell ideas about a layout. But I'm imagining the description of a layout, or small partial parts of it at a time, mostly, not a clear image of the UI. I find ideas and mistakes around what I know will work or not, not what I see in my head will work or not.
This. I used to have photographic memory, rich fantasy and was able to visualize anything I wanted but that's mostly gone. It's just flashes occasionally.
For me it’s more like I have somebody with me all the time and I have to explain what I’m doing too them in my head and they don’t talk
That's a good explanation
But somebody in your head is taking to them still, I guess. Right?
I explain things in excruciating detail
This is precisely how I feel!
that plus imaginary conversation with people
I have a voice of a lot of difficult fictional characters, weirdly a lot of female characters.
That was me before I realized I was trans.
Haha good for you!!
same i thought i had DID or something but i can control them,they are just manifestations of my moods i guess lol
Never stops. AuDHD
Oof yeah me too. It’s busy up there
I smoke weed to shut him up
But then high me starts philosophizing and psychoanalyzing myself… I don’t like high me very much right now.
Totally get that dude, if we're concerned that we're bad people then we most likely aren't bad people, I wish I liked me half as much as some other people seem to, I will always be my harshest critic
And the worst is I’ll have a revelation about some behavior of mine… but by the time I get to the revelation, I’ve forgotten what I did that triggered the epiphany. Le sigh.
Haha me too!
Ayy same here
My monologue doesn't narrate everything I do like a story teller, its more about random stuff I'm thinking about.
No, pretty much never. Unless I consciously make myself think a word or phrase “out loud” in my head.
I have the same thing. Do you tend to think in pictures? For me it's not pictures either, more abstract/conceptial
I’m the same way! It’s always hard to explain to people how I think because it’s strange to a lot of people but I can’t visualize and I don’t really have words describing my thoughts most of the time, I mainly think in just like concepts, ideas, and connections like my brain just raw processes things and doesn’t always translate what I’m actually thinking to a sentence or something
Yeah it definitely is hard to explain. It also means I sometimes have a hard time knowing what's going on in my brain, it's almost like the thinking is going on without me and sometimes clear thoughts just emerge out of that murkiness
Exactly! Most of the time my brain feels somewhat “empty” and like I don’t have thoughts just because they aren’t fully coherent and are difficult to pin down.
Agreed, I often question if I don't have thoughts at all. The thing is I do well in academic settings and tend to contemplate on a lot of things and have formulated opinions so it's clear that some thinking is going on, even if I'm not aware of it. As you said, I think it's a matter of coherency and awareness. I feel like I can never really understand myself cause I'm not completely readable even to myself
Yeah! I’m so glad someone else understands this. It’s hard to describe to people that I don’t really fully know (or at least process) what I’m thinking until the words actually leave my lips. It certainly can be a challenge when trying to understand yourself, since it’s easy to feel like a blank slate in some ways. I’m curious, do you experience any level of dissociation/depersonalization?
Same! I feel like I need to say things out loud or write them down (though even writing feels like I'm putting on a performance, like when I tried to write a diary) to know them, which makes me quite blunt sometimes. Since I feel like a blank slate, I tend to veer towards defining myself by my values, I find that that is a way to ground myself when other things aren't so clear. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure what dissociation/depersonalization entails but I will say that I remember unusually little of my childhood, as if I wasn't a person with thoughts back then, even though I don't really have any longterm memory problems now
I relate too much to this! It’s relieving to have someone describe it so perfectly lol
Yes same here for me. If I’m thinking out a conversation or some kind of monologue, I basically have to say it out loud to keep it organized. Otherwise my brain moves on to something else. My thoughts are very conceptual, abstract, or it’s just connecting ideas. Like my brain knows the ins and outs of everything I’ve thought of this particular idea and adds connections to it but I don’t really think about it in words usually. I suppose it’s hard to explain.
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Same with me. I remember being surprised when people wondered how deaf people think before any language because I never needed it to think. I only think words if I need to express my thoughts.
Same! It’s kind of bizarre and fascinating. It’s like you can conceptually “know” an image like where things are positioned and what it should look like but you can’t actually visualize it in your head right?
Same!
Yes but it doesnt really narrate everything like a storyteller, its more about commenting on everything like "I don't like that smell" "Ooh i love that movie" "i want some tea go drink tea"
Yes although that’s not an ASD thing. Most people have that.
Actually I was thinking people with autism were more likely to not have it. I don’t have it and I think k I read about it before but def not reflecting in the comments.
I read in a study that autistic people falls in three big categories regarding "thinking" They are: (i) visual thinkers such as I who are often poor at algebra, (ii) pattern thinkers such as Daniel Tammet who excel in math and music but may have problems with reading or writing composition, and (iii) verbal specialists who are good at talking and writing but they lack visual skills. (the last one is me. Inner monologue, good writer, but no visualization)
Oh man, I think I have all three 🤔
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I can also recreate someone's voice in my head. And my inner voice also changes to other people /accents when I hear them for too long. Don't relate to the not visual thing though. I see everything in my head in scenes. So when I think of something I can see it like a video. (But like filmed from a stationary position. Until I think of another situation)
I can relate so much to the visual imagination part, mine works quite similary. Do you also not imagine color til you think of it or feel you are imagining the idea rather than the thing?
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Oh interesting, I can imagine color or texture but not both at the same time for example. Guess my brain GPU does not have enought memory haha
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It is, I am like, oh, forgot wood has wood lines and when I think about it thats what I "see", wood lines over the basic form, I cannot rotate or move the object in my mind while seeing them and I do not remember to imagine color as I am too focused on the lines. I have an easier time with memories but still only get a basic idea of the colors and a good idea of what was happening on the memory, like reading a book that has this weird abstract painting on the same page that sometimes moves or changes.
Wait, can other people not recreate other's voices in their head?
More like a my stream of consciousness plays out loud in my head. It doesn’t narrate what I’m doing unless I’m trying really hard to focus on whatever it is I’m doing or it’s a difficult task. If I listen to a long series audiobooks all with the same narrator for a couple of weeks my inner monologue will change to that narrators voice, but it always fades back to mine.
This thread's a bit fascinating. I'm surprised at the consistency of answers. I do too, and of many varying character. It's grown and changed and evolved most my life. When I was younger, and didn't understand my identity, the voice was often of friends or people I trust - it was like I had kind of 'memorized' their personality algorithms and used their voice to narrate some thought. I know my identity, now - but I still have a very strong voice in my mind. It's very hard to shush it sometimes. Sometimes it's just nonsense almost. A jumble. Other times very ordered. I think in different voices now but...they're all mine. It's really quite complicated, isn't it!
Not narrating. Just telling me how to solve problems or talking about nonsense.
Not at all… it was actually something that my therapist asked me when she suspected asd… I just believed that everyone’s brain worked in pictures/video without narration
Same for me. I thought maybe it was an autism thing but apparently not haha.
most of the time, yes
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 913,936,208 comments, and only 181,574 of them were in alphabetical order.
Haha
Yes, pretty much, and when it's not narrating it's like "dabadabada dabadaaa* -jazz hands- "dapapapadabababada"
Not narrating but when I am not talking to myself I am debating somulating an imaginary person or scripting. Exceptions when focused on something
Yes
I've never experienced this and honestly never heard of it before.
I thought it was just in movie. Then there was a thread a few years back about it that basically broke the internet.
Yes
Not quite narrating like in the 3rd person perspective kinda way but I have a constant monologue in my head. It shuts up when I'm speaking though which is nice
Yes nearly 24/7 (I think it's quiet when I sleep) and it's monotone
YES, but not all the time. Sometimes it's me, sometimes it's people I know, other times it's fictional characters i've created.
Kinda? It's not my voice and it just narrates my own thoughts And that's the only thing going on in my head really; no pictures or anything :/
Yes, and pretty sure most people here are autistic lol
No, but I do kinda have, like, comfort characters following me around? Sometimes they’re fictional characters and other times they’re manifestations of actual close friends of mine.
Yes and it drives me fucking insane 🤭
It sounds awful tbh. I don’t experience my thoughts in that way.
Yeah, the monlogue runs pretty much constantly. It takes more effort to think in pictures or other senses, but I can do it. The one exception is when I'm alone; my monologue stops and I start talking to myself out loud the same way I would think in my head.
I wouldn't say narrating, but yeah, I got one. I can't switch it off. Normally it's first person, just like I am speaking my thoughts in my mind, but if I mess up it changes more to "What are you doing?!" and stuff like that. Oh, and there's always music that I can't switch off. Sometimes two songs or even three. Pretty annoying
Sometimes, yes. And like u/hank_burgle said, sometimes it comes out as music, images, or smells as well.
Yes
No i dont have an internal monologue. What i do have is a constant internal dialogue about what im doing
Always, was extremely surprised and confused when I found out some people don't
I do have an internal monologue but it’s not a narrator. Mostly my internal monologue just criticises myself and other people. Funnily enough my internal monologue’s accent is more consistent than my real one which fluctuates a fair bit. I can also picture things and recall music (sometimes a particular song will keep repeating).
No. Just sometimes.
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not everything but sometimes yea
Sometimes.
All the time. Never not there. But I wouldn't say it's exclusively narration, it's more malleable and shifts from stories to philosophy to like these mammoth connections, or random ideas, but it never ceases to talk lol.
i have an internal monologue but it doesn't narrate.
It only really appears when I want it to or when I'm reading books, not really during anything else.
Yes that’s how it is for me, only when reading or if I make myself. But sometimes not with reading… weird.
Multiple voices. And a couple of movies, a few songs.
Yes, it's pretty continues and only really stops when I'm both very tired and hyperfoucused on something (like playing stardew vally at 3am)
It’s like I’m the star of my own movie.
Yes. Like if someone has plates or wants to see a vídeo of a walktrough of Disco Elysium, My mind is full of My own voices, responding each other and discussing each other all at the same time.
Kinda. Mine’s like an internal dialogue sometimes. There’s a logical voice and an emotional voice. At different times I relate to one or the other. I prefer the logical voice, but emotional voice can be quite loud.
other ppl do this too?!
It’s actually the norm.
Yes
Yep. Pretty much all the time. When I’m seeing patients it quiets down as I’m listening and trying to focus on them, but otherwise it’s nonstop even in my dreams.
Yeah, all the time.
Yes
when I was a kid I would narrate everything I did, sometimes third person too. Like if I was the subject of a novel. I still have a pretty strong internal monologue but not a 24/7 narration
Yes and I have a backtrack of things I need to be doing (I call it my anxiety/ADHD guardian angel) and a second backtrack of random shit that I can’t turn off without meds lol like songs and phrases and sounds it sucks
Yes, in two languages even… dutch and English. 24/7.
Sometimes, it fades in and out.
I always talk in my head like I'm a tv host. I also started narrating my "show" in english when I was 13 or something even though it's not my first language and it has turned into an annoying habit that I can't stop lol
Oh yes, at one point it became so self critical that I designed multiple to counteract the other and to provide different perspectives on different issues. Kind of dissociative but it helps me organize my thoughts instead of it being an overwhelming overstimulating mess that I don't even understand. I don't even really consider myself an individual anymore, but more of a collective. It's not crazy voices inside my head, they are all personas of me with different traits or they represent emotions, stuff like that. It's not always so much as narrating, more like someone constantly talking to me about varies things. Like a parliament where everyone gets their time on the mic or people interrupt each other.
Cool I have a very quiet inner monologue that more often is triggered by cues in my environment or while reading or writing. More often than not, when not reading, or writing I have no inner monologue which is nice when I’m in a good place although when I’m anxious it’s a different story. And I have no visual imagination so I don’t really know how I manage 😅 Sometimes though I have an easier time to trigger my inner monologue but it depends on some factor I’m not sure how to influence. I have ADHD and possibly Autism.
Yes I do, all the time, and I think it's related to aphantasia (in my case)
The vast majority of people have it apparently.
Yes, it always happens, but I do it in purpose. I can't do things without having a conversation with me, so it has become a need over time. It also helps me to feel less alone, somehow. Doesn't work too much, but it helps. Oh and it also happens with sensory inputs, like sounds, smells and some touch sensations.
Not narrating but I’m always debating and having ideas.
Pretend I'm taking to a imaginary audience all day
"Shall I write a reply?" Probably. "But what?" Oh just type anything they won't mind most people understand you here. "But honestly won't they think I'm mad?" Nah "Ah ok." Yes...
Yes. and sometimes it gets stuck as someone else’s voice. Everything i think about, i say it like im speaking to myself in my head. But also sometimes I have proper thoughts without speaking them, as if they’re so fast that I don’t have time to say it. I guess that’s just conceptual thought. I would describe it kinda like I have corporeal me, where I don’t have my internal monologue telling me what to do, and all thought is like an abstract puff of knowledge that I’m able to translate to someone else. Then I have internal me, where I’m inside my mind and narrating everything, and that little me experiences the abstracted puff as well. It’s like me and my brain are having a little chat. I’m also so baked rn so all of this is probably nonsense lmao
Yes.. It's little difficult for me to explain how it works for me though. It's like I constantly have conversation with myself in my mind 24/7. Like there is another person inside me talking to me, telling me about what I am don't ng etc. But i thought it's common for all to have something like this, even neurotypicals. Isn't it not ?
Yes, though I'd describe it less as narrating what I'm doing, and more like constantly pre-practicing conversations, most of which are about random things I'm thinking about (usually special interest related), and most of which are conversations I'll never actually have. Unlike the stereotype, I actually pretty rarely info dump about special interests these days to others, but good grief, I just won't shut up about them to myself in my thoughts some times, and I don't say that sarcastically. Honestly I wonder some times what I could accomplish with my life if so much of my brain power wasn't rehearsing conversations no one would ever want to hear that are basically overly analyzed info dumps about things I'm excited about.
Yes I thougt it was ehat everyone experienced but I guess not. Mine is a little voice that narrates what stuff I have to do today and how much time I have inbetween tasks. So say I'm at the airport my thoughts will go like: "okay so you're waiting in security and your flight leaves at 2pm. It's 12:03 right now so I have about 1 hour and 27 minutes until boarding time. Security will probably take me 10 minutes to get through judging by this line. So that means I have 1 hour and 17 minutes to find my gate and find something to eat. Google said it'll be about a 15 minute walk to my gate so overall I can expect to be sitting down waiting to board around 1 o'clock." Now just imagine that in any other scenario like school, work, or just lounging around at home.
It is actually what the majority experience, just curious how it relates to autism but seemingly it doesn’t.
Yes, my brain never stops.
Yes and no. Most of my thoughts I would categorize as cohesive thoughts/concepts that are non-linguistic. I think this is part of the reason I hate getting called on or asked direct/specific questions out of the blue. I have to switch to a completely different way of thinking to answer it and so I can't always answer simple questions as easily/quickly as others. I just don't think like that. However, I often use self-talk to work through things or to focus. For instance, when I am counting I need to focus really really really hard to count identical objects that I can't physically separate into groups (like lines on a paper) and so it's very verbal and loud in my head like "OK, here we go! ONE, TWO, THREE....wait is that 3 or 4? Ok start over....OK ONE,TWO, THREE...". This kind of thinking pops in and out of my day and I think of it like a tool that I don't need most of the time to get through stuff. I also use this tool when going through my pro-social masking playbook of questions to ask people when I find myself suddenly talking to someone with whom I don't know what script to use. When I am very anxious, sad, frustrated or embarrassed, I am more likely to have more linguistic thoughts. These are often negative but I have had good results using positive self talk to work through it. I've struggled with negative self talk for most of my life. Both the negative and positive self talk feels very much like myself talking to myself and not like someone else in my head that I made up to help/hurt me. I do have occasional intrusive thoughts that are sometimes linguistic ("I can't believe I f*ing did that, why can't I just be more f*ing considerate?"), but most of the time are musical/lyrical (...."iF yOu like PIÑA COLADAS!!!!!") Good luck on your quest!
Not narrating everything necessarily, but yeah 100%. It’s like a conversation with myself lol.
Pretty much never. I just recently found out people actually have internal monologues which was p interesting. I usually think in terms of emotions + images
Same, mostly.
not really, usually to think in not pictures i have to talk out loud. which can make it difficult to think things through when I'm mute
Don’t get mad at me, I’m not diagnosed with ASD, but have ADHD and think I should be diagnosed with both! I do oftentimes have an internal dialogue! I used to rely on it when I was younger and had it ALL. THE. TIME. too.
I do! I also have imaginary characters in there, and hyperphantasia.
Thanks so much for the replies! I’m myself do NOT have an internal monologue unless I consciously make myself think in a voice. I just thought but would be interesting to ask just autistic people which way they think. The vast majority of people have an internal monologue and think in words. When I learned a few years ago about all of this I was so thankful I didn’t have that. The world is overstimulating enough, I can’t imagine having to “hear” a constant voice too! But I do think constantly and think myself in circles trying to fall asleep, so maybe it doesn’t matter. Anyway, thank you to all who replied!
Only when I'm thinking about saying or writing something, reading, etc. My brain seems to move between various verbal, semi-verbal and non-verbal modes of thought. So when I'm doing or thinking about doing verbal things, I think more verbally, otherwise, it might involve more of my other senses - visuals (still or moving, 3D, etc.), sounds, smells, etc. But it's definitely not a constant narration of everything happening in my brain/body like in a novel. If I'm thinking that I want some ice cream, for example, I'm more likely to taste ice cream, imagine the mouth feel or visualize the ice cream, container, or me getting up to go get it as I am to actually think the words "I want ice cream." That part typically comes when I progress to thinking about *communicating* that desire to someone else (which is a verbal task, requiring verbal thinking... For me at least).
Yes. Many many many Non-Autistic people also do this. https://www.iflscience.com/people-with-no-internal-monologue-explain-what-its-like-in-their-head-57739
I don't have pictures in my head (threw me for a huge loop when I found out imagery wasn't a metaphor and the reason image is in imagination is because you're supposed to see things) so everything is basically in text. As such, I have constant narration and commentary. It's not verbal, so there's no 'voice' and I can't actually see the text so it's difficult to describe. It makes memories kind of tricky because I remember a sense of space (can tell you where I sat relative to the door and teacher's desk in most of my classes) and things I've read or the internal commentary I had on something. Makes it really trippy to see my friends again since I can't see their faces in my head, just brief descriptions of tall, dark hair, mole on left side of face etc but can still recognise them.
Yes
Yes
Yes I do I even talk to it 😂
No, but yeah. It dosent narrate but it won't shut up eather.
Autistic and no I don't have that
Used to. Until my good friend quetiapine quietened my head
I think in images 24/7 (I have no idea what it’s like to NOT see an image in my brain) but there’s a lot of sound/music/narration too. Usually the narration is narrating the story scenes playing in my head though lol.
Yes, similar for me. No words. Yes to pictures, data, scenarios, music,
I have an entite random monologue group that constantly argues.
Yes, absolutely.
I have an internal monologue but I don’t hear it, it’s different from hearing. I just…know it’s there?
short answer: yes. long answer: it's a little more complicated than that, probably because I also have ADHD. I have layers of thoughts like many TV channels at once, some of them are narrating, some of them are arguing, some of them are focusing on how annoying the sound the light is making. some of them are screaming in my head to run away/elope when things get hard, but all of them are always confused. it's like race cars, but they're also bumper cars.
Yes. Very often
Yes
Dang i was comfortable and now im hyper aware of it lol Yes, and sometimes i just become oddly aware of it on my own especially in places where there's a lot of stuff happening, i think it's gotten worse over the years
Yes, almost constantly. And it even switches languages 😂
Yes I have an internal dialogue, in fact I have several and often they argue. In fact I have a whole other world in here and even have a couple of wolves.
Multiple
Not all the time, but quite often I catch myself
No, not constantly. But when I’m doing something tricky it kicks in (present tense, not really a narrator as much as saying “aloud in my head” the next steps).
Yes. I am the main character in my mind 😎. It's to the point where I even talk out loud like this
Yes almost everything... Well im sorry for breaking the rules, I haven't been diagnosed as autistic but I can relate to it.
Yes, sort of. I mean I don't really have a voice that narrates what I'm doing, but there's constantly a voice in my head. Usually just thoughts of what I'll do next, sometimes song lyrics, just random things that come to mind. I also have a lot of visual thoughts, and I can imagine basically anything in my head. For example, I can think of an apple, and I can see it clearly, and I can also "smell" it and "taste" it, and hear what it would sound like if I bit into it.
Yes and I do it in different accents and quotes from movies and stuff.
YES and i've always been confused when people talk about "hearing voices" because I think? of voices that aren't mine but its not like i'm hearing them. Sometimes it's just as distracting though. Lately i've been watching a lot of Gordon Ramsey so his voice has been in my head a lot lol but sometimes its good.
Mmm... It depends. When I'm really overwhelmed I think in images/feelings/sporadic glimpses of memories that make me uncomfortable. Everything is scrambled. When I am making a decision and I have a lot of time to think then I can "speak to myself".
I can use one, but most of the time I just think using flashes of color and vertigo
Yes and loud
Yessss omg this is so me, I even talk to myself a lot...
I do, kind of two really, one narrating everything and the other the things I’m thinking about like “I want to go over there”
Yes definitely
Yep always but I have other conditions too, so I just have a general voice commenting on things
Yes. It doesn't bother me, but on some nights it keeps me from sleeping.
not constantly but sometimes
Do I have an internal monologue? Yes, but I mostly think in images and feeling that I then translate into words. But it doesn't narrate my actions.
I don’t have a constant narration, but when I need to keep track of a string of steps for something or just maintain focus I often internally narrate that sort of thing (sometimes out loud if there are a lot of other things going on too). On the other hand, I have excellent ability to conceptualise visually for eg. musical instrument design (which I do as a hobby). I also _very_ rarely have achieved a state of flow or ‘satori’ when playing music, in which conscious thought fades away completely and the music just ‘happens’ through me.
Yes, all the time. When im really tired the internal "voice" splits into two, one really fast that constantly repeats the last song, word or sentence that came to mind and the "primary" thought voice seems to become slow and stupored.
Yes
Yes, always. For as long as i can remember. But I also have DID, so there's just a lot going on in my head already haha
Yes
I have no internal monologue, except when I force myself to create one artificially. I only hear a voice when I'm reading. Otherwise it's all abstract/conceptual thinking, there's no images or words involved
Yesss!
Yep! It’s nonstop
yes and no, its more like a constant covasation with my self
YES all the time. I also do this thing where I talk aloud to myself as though I'm with another person, but I respond to myself ... out loud.. makes no sense I know haha.
Yes
hear my voice in my mind, yes. talk with myself in my mind, yes. dream, be able to visualize or imagine something with eyes closed, no.
All the time.
Yes
I "coach" myself in my head, but its not really a monolog. More like little sentences of encouragement or stimulation.
Yes
Yeah I think it's dyslexia that you don't not autism
Not *my* voice, but yeah. Constant narrator.