No Internal Monologue/Commentary?

[OddLove]

So I got constant internal monologue, which just a year ago I thought was something everyone had. It's just my internal voice constantly thinking. Like if I'm in a grocery store and nobody is talking to me, I'll just be talking to myself in my head, like "Wow, egg prices actually went down... hmm, maybe I should get extra... but if I do that, it will probably just be even cheaper next time," then I might see a lady grab one of those giant 5 dozen boxes and start thinking, "She must have a big family... or maybe she is just stock piling..." and it goes on and on until something outside of me demands my attention and I start actively listening.

But I always wonder what it's like to not have that...

Do people without the constant internal monologue still read aloud in their head? Or are they somehow reading without speaking it in their mind?

When they're by themselves with no distractions, what does "Pondering" look like? Is it just feelings, or pictures, or something else?

Do they still get songs stuck in their head on repeat? And what does that sound like? Is it just you reciting the lyrics? Or maybe are you hearing or feeling it in some other way?

I'm just curious how all that works.

 

[AG31]

So I got constant internal monologue, which just a year ago I thought was something everyone had. It's just my internal voice constantly thinking. Like if I'm in a grocery store and nobody is talking to me, I'll just be talking to myself in my head, like "Wow, egg prices actually went down... hmm, maybe I should get extra... but if I do that, it will probably just be even cheaper next time," then I might see a lady grab one of those giant 5 dozen boxes and start thinking, "She must have a big family... or maybe she is just stock piling..." and it goes on and on until something outside of me demands my attention and I start actively listening.

But I always wonder what it's like to not have that...

Do people without the constant internal monologue still read aloud in their head? Or are they somehow reading without speaking it in their mind?

When they're by themselves with no distractions, what does "Pondering" look like? Is it just feelings, or pictures, or something else?

Do they still get songs stuck in their head on repeat? And what does that sound like? Is it just you reciting the lyrics? Or maybe are you hearing or feeling it in some other way?

I'm just curious how all that works.

Some people "think" mainly in images. I know this because I lack visual imagery (have "aphantasia") and read a lot of related stuff. But I don't recall info about what you're asking. Do some people sometimes have nothing going on in their heads? Hubby claims that's what happens when he's taking a bath before bed. Me, I'm like you. Inner dialogue is always going on. Often I'm refining a post to AH.

 

[OddLove]

Some people "think" mainly in images. I know this because I lack visual imagery (have "aphantasia") and read a lot of related stuff. But I don't recall info about what you're asking. Do some people sometimes have nothing going on in their heads? Hubby claims that's what happens when he's taking a bath before bed. Me, I'm like you. Inner dialogue is always going on. Often I'm refining a post to AH.

I also have aphantasia, except I can still see things decently when I'm dreaming for some reason.

What's unfathomable to me is, Yes, according to many people I've asked or listened discuss this topic, when they are not talking or listening, it's silent in their head. Which blows my mind. If I try to silence my head I'll literally be hearing myself like "Okay, don't think... don't think... just... think about nothing..." so the closest I can get to silence in my head is to 'think about not thinking'.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

The voices don't bother me until they start arguing.

 

[OddLove]

The voices don't bother me until they start arguing.

Same.

But once my internal monologue flips to internal commentary and all my I's and me's become you's then I know we're about to start fighting over this ship's wheel.

 

[BeechLeaf]

I explain things to my less gifted voices, then get angry when they argue back, then a higher-level inner voice tells me I'd get hauled off to the loony bin if any of this was out loud, so stop now.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Do they still get songs stuck in their head on repeat? And what does that sound like? Is it just you reciting the lyrics? Or maybe are you hearing or feeling it in some other way?

I once had three songs running through my head at the same time. It was disorienting as fuck.

That said, I don't often think in words, mostly just in feelings, pictures, flashes of sounds, but mostly feelings and pictures. However, I do still have those internal dialog moments, mostly because if I have them out loud, which is my preference, I have people constantly going, "What was that?" "What'd you say?" "Did you call me?" No! I'm just doing this whole speaking to myself thing. Jeese, can't you leave a girl alone with her thoughts.

And yeah, no, blank thoughts, not happening. I can be thinking of pretty much nothing at all, but it's not really blank. There's like weavy wavy colors going on in my head when that happens. Or stray bits of not quite heard melody.

 

[OddLove]

I once had three songs running through my head at the same time. It was disorienting as fuck.

That said, I don't often think in words, mostly just in feelings, pictures, flashes of sounds, but mostly feelings and pictures. However, I do still have those internal dialog moments, mostly because if I have them out loud, which is my preference, I have people constantly going, "What was that?" "What'd you say?" "Did you call me?" No! I'm just doing this whole speaking to myself thing. Jeese, can't you leave a girl alone with her thoughts.

And yeah, no, blank thoughts, not happening. I can be thinking of pretty much nothing at all, but it's not really blank. There's like weavy wavy colors going on in my head when that happens. Or stray bits of not quite heard melody.

I would literally lose my mind if I had the actually songs running in my head. That's sounds like a maddening experience, even just one sounds incredibly frustrating to be honest. At least if the lyrics are stuck in my head I can conversate to myself and think about something else to get a break from it.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I would literally lose my mind if I had the actually songs running in my head. That's sounds like a maddening experience, even just one sounds incredibly frustrating to be honest. At least if the lyrics are stuck in my head I can conversate to myself and think about something else to get a break from it.

I usually can't actually hear the lyrics, just a word here and there if I'm lucky. Mostly what I hear is the melody and the voice singing it. And then I go bug my SO until he helps me figure out what's running through my head and sings the song for me to get it out.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I once had three songs running through my head at the same time. It was disorienting as fuck.

Brubeck's 'Take Five' solves that.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Brubeck's 'Take Five' solves that.

Is that a song or an alcohol? Cause I've found that listening to more song just makes it worse. And my alcohol tolerance is just the worst. Not the way you'd think either, I've got a pretty high tolerance to the poison, and an extremely low tolerance to the flavor. I've apparently got a hilarious, "WTF did I just put in my mouth," face though.

 

[AG31]

If I try to silence my head I'll literally be hearing myself like "Okay, don't think... don't think... just... think about nothing..." so the closest I can get to silence in my head is to 'think about not thinking'.

Yes, advice to "clear your mind" is annoying, bordering on infuriating.
My strategy for falling asleep is to think about incredibly boring things. Dishwashers, front loaders. Now that I'm typing this, I realize that I don't put words to those thoughts. They're just concepts. But I usually give up and start talking in my head before I fall asleep.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Originally recorded in 1959 almost as a filler, Take Five quickly became one of the best known Jazz Standards in music history. Ten minutes of pure cool jazz bliss, it will drive any bad song out of your head. I can pull it up in my head almost at any moment and just get a mellow smile going.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Do they still get songs stuck in their head on repeat? And what does that sound like? Is it just you reciting the lyrics? Or maybe are you hearing or feeling it in some other way?

My brain sometimes is like a record skipping on a track and I'll spend several minutes repeating the same phrase over and over and over and over and-
*twenty minutes later*
-over.

Not a fan.

Also have borderline aphantasia, with the caveat that I do dream in images (albeit fairly blurry images and I never have a physical body). I always thought it was weird to be a writer with no real idea what anything you're writing about actually looks like. I get that it's all based on abstractions of form, but still, the fact that I know how to describe a thing without being able to see it is kind of wild.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

"Despite initial skepticism from Columbia Records, “Take Five” became a commercial juggernaut. It was released as a single in 1961—two years after the album’s debut—and slowly climbed the charts, eventually becoming the first jazz instrumental to sell over a million copies. This was practically unheard of at the time. Jazz, though respected, was not exactly dominating the singles charts in the early 1960s, and radio programmers were notoriously hesitant to play instrumentals, especially ones in odd time signatures. But “Take Five” broke through the resistance. "

https://historyofmusic.net/1950s/ti...-eternal-rhythm-of-take-five-by-dave-brubeck/

 

[anthrodisiac]

I usually can't actually hear the lyrics, just a word here and there if I'm lucky. Mostly what I hear is the melody and the voice singing it. And then I go bug my SO until he helps me figure out what's running through my head and sings the song for me to get it out.

This is one of the sweetest things I've heard today.

 

[TheLobster]

I usually can't actually hear the lyrics, just a word here and there if I'm lucky. Mostly what I hear is the melody and the voice singing it. And then I go bug my SO until he helps me figure out what's running through my head and sings the song for me to get it out.

The most delightful kind of deworming

 

[TarnishedPenny]

It’s not the little voice constantly whispering in my brain that I fear, it’s having it stop.

 

[HectorBidon]

My internal monologist chatters away most of the time. He's sort of a "mansplainer," constantly narrating my thoughts. He's not really any more articulate than I am though. He sometimes pauses, backtracks, corrects himself, knows that he's not using the right word but has the right word right on the tip of his tongue. Come to think of it, he's probably the one who says the words that come out when I open my mouth to speak non-internally as well.

The difference between my internal monologue and my actual thoughts was pretty apparent recently when I was doing a jigsaw puzzle. I'd be looking for a particular piece—one that had a certain detail of the picture, say, or a certain shade of color, or a tab of one color with a streak of another at just such-and-such an angle, or an unusual clubfooted silhouette that dipped in a little bit here and had a sharp shoulder there.

I wasn't putting any of those thoughts into words. I could have if I'd tried to explain to someone what piece I was looking for. But not with the same level of precision with which I held all those details in my mind.

My inner monologist would chime in from time to time, but more like a bystander. He certainly wasn't directing things. "Like this," he would encourage, referring to the mental construct I already had in mind. Or he would make an internal finger gesture as a kinesthetic mnemonic for a particular clubfooted contour. "Bumpety bump."

I have a relative who claims that he is usually able to write down exactly what he means to say. I can do that to some extent in mathematics. In real life, though, I don't find it so easy. My first problem is trying to figure out what it is I really mean to say. My second problem is trying to put it into words.

 

[Britva415]

I definitely have a constant internal stream of consciousness, but it isn't usually words.

 

[AG31]

I definitely have a constant internal stream of consciousness, but it isn't usually words.

What is it? Some people have images. I have what I call constructs. Some thinkers on the subject claim that you have to think in words or images. To them I say, what is in your brain when you're trying to think of the right word for something? If you don't have images? It's a construct for that something.

 

[ElectricBlue]

What is it? Some people have images. I have what I call constructs. Some thinkers on the subject claim that you have to think in words or images. To them I say, what is in your brain when you're trying to think of the right word for something? If you don't have images? It's a construct for that something.

When you first posted your question, I thought (there's the clue - an unformed idea instantly came into my head), that's intriguing. What does my mind do when I'm thinking, going about my day?

What I concluded is that my thoughts are a combination of words, images, connections. As I type this I'm saying the words in my head at almost exactly the same speed I'm typing them - but my typing speed is a limitation, it's slow, so my thoughts can go slow. But when I look out the window and see the dappled sunlight on the trees in the golden morning light, my language immediately becomes more lyrical, there's so much more to say about the visual outside.

So there must be a huge visual element going on in my mind - which I think is self evident from my story writing. There's also sound - the rush of water while my wife is in the shower, the musical chorus of the eight magpies outside. This year I think we've got three generations coming down to the backyard when I put out scraps of bread. That's typical too, a quick interconnectivity of thoughts.

One thing I do know for sure, my mind never goes blank, there's never nothing. Most often, there'll be a colour, followed by words, emotions, ideas.

I dream a lot - my latest story takes off from a very vivid dream.

 

[Britva415]

What is it? Some people have images. I have what I call constructs. Some thinkers on the subject claim that you have to think in words or images. To them I say, what is in your brain when you're trying to think of the right word for something? If you don't have images? It's a construct for that something.

Yeah!



I mean, I guess it's "constructs," if we have to give it a name. To me it's just... experiences?

 

[dirk2024]

Yes, advice to "clear your mind" is annoying, bordering on infuriating.
My strategy for falling asleep is to think about incredibly boring things. Dishwashers, front loaders. Now that I'm typing this, I realize that I don't put words to those thoughts. They're just concepts. But I usually give up and start talking in my head before I fall asleep.

I struggle with this at night as well. What I do is use my Kindle to access YouTube, where I can find A LOT of background noise video's, some that play for ten or more hours. (not that I ever sleep that long). There are also story telling video's that are supposed to help a person fall asleep. My favorite video is the sound of a train traveling over its tracks while its raining. (be careful not to get the ones with blowing horns...WTH?)

I have a pair of panasonic clip on earphones that are unobtrusive. I sleep on my back though. Sleeping on the side of your head would get painful. But then, if there is anyone esle in the room with you, they might enjoy the background sound as well, so no need for the earphones. You might need speakers though, which probably are an easy purchase on Amazon.

The only problem is that unless you're a member, YouTube can interrupt with commercials. I find that the membership cost is worth it though.

 

[Britva415]

"Clear your mind" doesn't mean what it sounds like.

It doesn't mean "don't have thoughts." Though, it does kind of mean "don't think," at least to the extent that "thinking" is understood to be an active process rather than just a thing that happens spontaneously, like dreaming.

From the point of view of (at least some of) the spiritual traditions which it comes from, and the mindfulness tools and meditation techniques available to the average non-monastic person in 2026, a clear mind is a state of detachment, it isn't a state of having no thoughts.

Thoughts happen. They just do. Meditation or whatever does not stop that. A mind that isn't clear will chase those thoughts. As they come, an unclear mind will attach to them and indulge them and get entangled in them. Part of that process is involuntary, and part of it only seems like it is, because ceasing it is hard.

A "clear mind" isn't about making thoughts stop happening, it's about allowing them to happen without giving them any more energy than you could give to a cloud passing overhead in the sky. Condensing, appearing, drifting, morphing shapes, and drifting away and evaporating again. The difference is that, while you can't give clouds your energy, you can give your thoughts your energy, and they will draw as much of it as you have to give, if you let them.

You don't have to. You can just witness them without struggling to control them, without becoming seduced into chasing them, without letting them distract you from simply being present with them while you objectively watch them just do what they do. As soon as you let one capture your attention and spin you out, you're no longer "present" in the mindfulness sense.

Doesn't that sound a lot less woo-woo and a lot more achievable than thinking you're actually expected to somehow have "no thoughts?"

I mean, I'm not talking about spending a lifetime achieving some kind of transcendent sagehood. Nobody expects that of you. I'm talking about just being an average person. The "clear(er) mind" still isn't easy, but it isn't mystical.