Inner dialogue

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I've never had to ward off imminent doom, I usually just get anxiety attacks. I was actually considering forcing ritualistic behaviour to get rid of some intrusive OCD PD thoughts. But then again that will just make my mental illness even worse. Distracting hobbies work fine.

I sometimes get these random words looping in my head, like one time it was 'compartmentalization' and I never had heard or used the word before. I didn't even know where I may have heard it before. Then I looked it up and saw it related to Borderline Personality disorder and now I use it a lot. I get other random words in my head just looping around my head and I seem to just pick them up from what I read.

I don't really have an inner dialogue. If inner dialogues are analogous to first-person novels/running commentaries, then the way I think is more like a messy collage, with pictures, feelings, songs and individual words/phrases/names strewn about in a haphazard way.

When I want to talk to other people, I usually have a general topic in mind that I want to discuss with them, but it's really difficult picking out actual words to use, which causes me to stumble over my words and repeat parts of a sentence until I can formulate the rest of it. That's why I seem so much more articulate online - I can take as much time as I need to find the right words.

Maybe my lack of inner dialogue could explain a few of my quirks, such as finding reading books/novels to be a chore and having difficulty in being able to pinpoint the sources of my emotional issues. Who knows?

When you were a selective mute, would you be mute all the time, or just in specific situations?

Is it normal not to hear your inner voice when you read, or is that the abnormal alternative? I find I kinda read "out loud" in my head, which makes it really annoying to read stuff I don't know how to pronounce, because it gets all wrong. As a Norwegian, Danish is the closest written language, but prefer reading Swedish over Danish, because I can't pronounce the Danish words.

I've also had pretend conversations with other people. Because I have a hard time opening up to people, or to be vulnerable, I sometimes just pretend such a situation in my head.

Inner dialog is always thinking, thinking is not always a dialog. My statement stands: inner dialog is common, and is called "thinking."


Also, OP, you posted this in the "General Autism Discussion" forum. I didn't make an incorrect assumption, you posted it in the wrong forum. I wasn't attacking you; please don't be snippy about your mistake.

Inner monologue is thinking. Most people dont have a back and forth dialogue in their heads. Im a little hypersensitive atm so I took that personally apologies. Id also like to ask any exclusively visual thinkers how they envisage concepts. Do you assign an image to the concept or is it more nebulous than that?

Does anyone have experiences with somewhat synesthetic thoughts also. I sometimes have very bizarre and inexplicable synesthetic thoughts. Sometimes for instance my mental "field of view" takes on form and tactile sense. The mental field of view is the space inside one's head. It doesnt have shape it just is. However ocasssionally mine expands and contracts in a rather unpleasant fashion. There are other things too but thats the most prominent.

When I was younger I had a near constant internal dialogue, and I found it nearly impossible to read things without hearing them in some sort of voice in my head. As well, for as long as I could remember, I've talked to myself, and people have pointed out that it's weird, and I've caught myself talking to myself in front of other people, but I don't really care. It's just part of my mental processes.

As I said, thinking doesn't necessarily include inner dialogue. That's not to say that inner dialogue isn't thinking, just that you don't have to have an inner dialogue in order to be thinking. So, even though everybody is thinking, because unless you're brain dead, you're simply not able not to think, it doesn't mean that everybody has an inner dialogue, which you're suggesting by saying that everybody does this.

I do, however, agree that posting this in the "General Autism Discussion", suggests that it's to do with autism, but, OP can also have been wondering if it was an aspie trait, and therefor asked if this was something other aspies did as well.

Exactly. This is what I said. When you're running your inner dialogue, you are thinking. I did not indicate that I believed it was the only form of thought.


I recall someone asking about thinking exclusively in images on these forums recently. I don't believe we could communicate with anyone who only thought in images.

I think in images, but not exclusively. I also think in the other usual thoughts: patterns, averages, words, input processing (light, sound, touch, etc.) When constructing a model in my mind of how something works [.speculation]I think it's a combination of all of them.[/speculation]

For instance, the phrase "Internal combustion engine" is a cut-away image of a V8. I can see the cam, rods, pistons, plugs, etc., and can imagine them motion of the engine as it runs. When someone says the word "engine" this is what comes to mind. It's the static image, not the one in motion.

Obviously I don't monologue in images, but I also don't have to chat with myself while running my imagination, during recall of memories (images), or during meditating (which for me is a physically-reinforced calming image).

Whereas a set of physics laws inter-working is more nebulous, and relies on artificial mental constructs.

Envisioning the Strong Force, for instance. There's not a thing there to see except a semi-related infographic that was on the same page of the text book in which I first understood it. Strong force is more of a filament-like thing connecting to the rest of my understanding of the physical sciences.

In a way, they're both comparable methods of thought, though. They're both symbolic representations. It's just that one is some shade on the hyper-realism scale and the other is nothing but an abstraction. The word "house" versus my understanding of a house, which is a mental image of one of a few houses stored in my mind.

I talk to myself in my head, and then I answer back, using my name. So it's basically like a conversation. I do this out loud when I'm alone.

I do sometimes answer questions in my own head too. I might be pondering some scholastic problem and have a little dialogue "So I can substitute Cm9 #13 with Eb #11"
"What an absurd proposition why not just invert the chord silly"

Sometimes this can be a little more involved. As in I might refer to myself as an observer which is always useful in gaining some objective insights.

Also inner monologues are normal dialogues certainly arent as it implies a certain level of dissasociation

I am always talking to myself both inside my head and out of it.

What is wrong with weird? I kind of like weird as long as its not dangerous weird. Interesting weird is well interesting.

I'm certainly not opposed weirdness.

I can really relate to this, for sure.






Nothing is wrong with weird, weird is original and creative, weird is thinking outside the bounds of the box.

I talk to myself tons both mentally and vocally.
When I talk to myself vocally its kinda in a whisper and really fast.
It creeps most people out when they hear it.