Talking to oneself.

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OMG I talk to myself all the time. Not always out loud but often I find myself talking in a mumble to myself. I try not to do it around other people but it just slips out sometimes. I don't really let it bother me I've seen both my NT parents do it on occasion.

I'm not on the Spectrum, although lots of traits.

I talk to myself all the time, although I do try not to do it in front of other people. I'm aware that I'm doing it more now in public places. like parks, and sometimes people have walked round a corner and caught me talking to myself. I just stop and walk quickly on. If my hair was longer then I suppose they might think I had one of those mobile phones that sit on your ear.

When I talk to myself, it's as if I'm talking to someone else, and I talk through problems I'm having, or particular situations. It helps me to work things out if I can hear it being said, rather than just thought.

I don't think it's a particularly AS thing either. Lots of people do it, and for different reasons. Many people who have bereaved, for example, will talk aloud to the person who is dead. Again, it seems to be that it helps them work through problems, or to talk about something that has happened. They know that the other person isn't there, but it helps them.

I used to share the drive to work with a colleague who is very NT, and one day he referred very specifically to a conversation we'd apparently had the day before. He was surprised when I reminded him I hadn't been at work the day before, and told me that he'd had a conversation with me even though I wasn't there!

Side Note: I think I am going to need to find a thread that describes what a very NT person would look or be like. I expect NTs are as diverse as ASDs. That description doesn't communicate anything to me yet.

When I am reading something that I am having problems focusing on, or getting a mental image of, I will read it out loud softly to myself. There is something about experiencing it in three separate senses that makes it easier for me to retain. I am recording the same thing in my mind in three different memories. I wonder if this is related to why we tend to think out loud.

I don't talk to myself.
When I used to watch TV, occasionally I'd talk to the characters in the show, but just one or two lines... as in "Don't do that..." "How stupid can you get" "What were the script writers ON?"

When I was younger (20-somethings), I used verbally to re-hash arguments I'd had, saying all the things I wished I'd said. But somewhere along the line, I decided it looked psycho and it just sort of self-extinguished...

I don't talk to my animals, I don't talk to myself... it's too much racket.

I like the quiet.

My mother (unDx AS) talked endlessly and often loud. And rudely. You couldn't shut her up... trust me, we all tried.
Maybe that's why I'm so quiet.

I talk outloud to myself. I have never really learned not to do this, but I do know it isn't appropriate. I do it mostly to talk out how I am going to do something but it might be something quite small.
I have heard it is typical on the spectrum, but I guess it isn't only people on the spectrum. I think it is actually a bit eccentric. (he he people my age are eccentric! LOL!)

--des

[quote="DonkeyBuster"]
When I was younger (20-somethings), I used verbally to re-hash arguments I'd had, saying all the things I wished I'd said. But somewhere along the line, I decided it looked psycho and it just sort of self-extinguished...

I have the same issue that are part of getting rid of my "memories", where I was in bad situations and these situations keep playing in my head. the only way i get rid of them is to say all of the things that I wanted to say and to make them go the way i wanted and needed them to go, instead of the actually way they went, which went for the other person. I would like to stop, and i have talk to my therapist and other about it and they tell em that it is in the past. I am not able to digest medications because of a permanent complication from a surgery last year, plus I am intolerant of them because they did not work and got me sicker. We all know that my problem is situational and when i was on medications, they memories got worse, where not only did I talk out loud to get rid of them, but I was resentful to the people who caused the stressful situation that led me into them, where I would make life hell for them. i was not aggressive, but I said and did things to make them feel bad. I would yell at them to tell them to get lost, i would write mean things to them and about them. Now I just have the memories and I avoid these people at all cost.

I don't talk to myself all the time, but have developed a habit of shouting when an embarrassing memory passes through my mind. To stop the feeling of embarrassment, I'll start shouting something very loudly - it might be I LOVE LIFE! it might be I WANT TO DIE! it might be MACARONI AND CHEESE! Its always involuntary and very troubling to me - it rarely happens in public and never when I'm in an obvious social situation like work. At home though, it can be frequent, especially if the embarrassing memory is recent. A good example: I was reading a book that suddenly described people saying nice things at a funeral - I started shouting the words I was reading because it reminded me of my brother's funeral where I said, not unkind things, but neither were they fond memories. I still feel embarrassment after 2 years, so anything reminding me of funerals when i'm alone are a problem. I also worry about someone knocking on my door after a shouting episode to ask if there's a problem (its VERY loud). My plan if that ever does happen is to say i stubbed my toe and don't like to curse LOL

I've done that since I was old enough to speak. I put a lid on it in public, so that people wouldn't think I was a nut case. In thinking things over in preparation to make a decision, I would speak (and think) omnisciently between my pro and con thoughts, on whatever the subject.

Charles

I was curious about this so I asked my mom and she said she also talks to herself. She is NT but maybe not totally typical. She thinks it is a normal thing for people to do.

So I told her I also talk to inanimate objects, like my clothes or my iPod. She said that was normal too! Hahaha. I dunno...

Yes, I've done that as a kid.In fact, I still do it to this very day but, in more subtel manner though for, I wish not to be seen as without my marbles you could say...

Talking to myself out loud is normal for me. Also I talk to the dog. I try not to talk to myself in public but don't always succeed.

I have noticed that I talk to myself alot. I am the NT parent of an AS little boy. I do it at home or in the car, or sometimes when I am shopping. I don't really do it in front of other people though. My son talks to himself or to us almost constantly. He is very rarely quiet. He also sings out loud to himself, says lots of non-sensical stuff. The funny thing lately is when he sees me talking to myself at home or in the car, he says "What are you saying, Mom?" I just think it is so funny because I don't even always realize that I am doing it, and I think it is funny that he is paying such close attention!

I talk to myself a lot. I have never been diagnosed with Asperger's or autism but I developed serious OCD at age 6 and Tourette's syndrome a year later. I suffered starting at a young age from extreme anxiety and frequent melancholy, as well as intermittent insomnia. I have since developed severe depression due to marijuana and psychedelics and am on medications for that, for anxiety and for insomnia.

It has occurred to me that I talk out loud to myself or to others who I KNOW aren't present as a way of dealing with loneliness. I am very much a recluse. I often like to be by myself with my cats, to whom I also talk, yet at the same time it makes me very lonely. That's my take on why I talk to myself aloud, pretending, and being aware that I am pretending, that I have human company.

I also do it as a way of dealing with fear of evil people: I pretend we are together and as they get to know me and realize I'm an ok guy who is accepting them they become less scary to me. It's all a fantasy, in some ways an extension of daydreaming, I guess.