is this 'normal'?

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When I am alone I often have conversations in my head, they seem entirely real until they end and then I usually 'fall into' another one where I will be having a conversation telling someone about the previous one. e.g.:

I will be walking alone and be imaging talking with someone, I hear my own voice in my head but I never hear theirs but I always 'feel' what they said and respond accordingly, the conversation could be about anything but often it is stuff that I'd never talk to people about such as confessing personal things. Once I realise I was just talking to myself, I then start another conversation where I'd be telling someone that I sometimes have conversations in my head, then once I realise that was imaginery also I'd start another conversation where I'd be telling someone about that also. I get into some kind of loop where everytime I try 'snap out of it' I end up imagining something else and thinking it's reality for awhile before realising.

I guess I'm mostly just wondering if anyone experiences the same, I know it's not really the best place to ask about such a thing, but honestly I have nowhere else to ask. I've had this 'problem' since as long as I remember, but never told anyone, I tried once but couldn't expess myself and gave up.

Any insight would be great, I really don't know what is 'normal' anymore, and though I don't particularly care about being normal I'd like to understand my differences if I have them. Thanks.

All of that is quite normal for me, and welcome to WP!

carreg posted: When I am alone I often have conversations in my head, they seem entirely real until they end and then I usually 'fall into' another one where I will be having a conversation telling someone about the previous one. e.g.: I will be walking alone and be imaging talking with someone, I hear my own voice in my head but I never hear theirs but I always 'feel' what they said and respond accordingly, the conversation could be about anything but often it is stuff that I'd never talk to people about such as confessing personal things. Once I realise I was just talking to myself, I then start another conversation where I'd be telling someone that I sometimes have conversations in my head, then once I realise that was imaginery also I'd start another conversation where I'd be telling someone about that also. I get into some kind of loop where everytime I try 'snap out of it' I end up imagining something else and thinking it's reality for awhile before realising. I guess I'm mostly just wondering if anyone experiences the same, I know it's not really the best place to ask about such a thing, but honestly I have nowhere else to ask. I've had this 'problem' since as long as I remember, but never told anyone, I tried once but couldn't expess myself and gave up. Any insight would be great, I really don't know what is 'normal' anymore, and though I don't particularly care about being normal I'd like to understand my differences if I have them. Thanks.
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Words

Inner voice
Automatic pilot

Internal monologue
Internal dialogue

Normal internal monologue

Bicameral mind

ADHD Inattentive
TLE/Complex Partial

Conscious mind (concept)
Subconscious mind (concept)

Variations on the above

and so on.

There are two books which are about different FDA approved medicines which can impact the inner voice. Remarkable Medicine (for epilepsy - Dilantin) by Jack Dreyfus and a How To (understand) Hyperactivity book (1981) about ADHD Inattentive (FDA approved medicines discussed include Tirend, NoDoz, Bonine, Ritalin, Dilantin) by C. Thomas Wild.

Courses like the Silva Method touch upon motivational aspects of internal monologue but aspects of the actual underlying neurology are addressed/partially addressed here and there by Dreyfus and Wild.

I think some of us can really relate to that. It's something that has occasionally happened to me... more when I was younger. Sometimes I'd see the lines of the dialogue scrolling "up the screen"... the screen being my internal viewing plane if that makes sense. On one occasion my father badly frightened me, by interrupting my mental script. I couldn't explain to him why I was so freaked out. I'd forgotten that my internal dialogue was something nobody else could hear or pay attention to.

Thank you for the responses but I don't really find that anyone has truely answered my query, your personal experiences without further information on you aren't very useful, how do I know that people saying "yeah I do the same" aren't bat s**t crazy?

Ultimately my reason for asking is: I was diagnosed with AS and yet I don't feel any sort of kinship with the people on this forum, I find you just as alien to me as 'NTs' and I'm hoping that by looking at other possible peculiarities I have then maybe I'll find something that better explains what's "wrong" with me, if anything.

As well as being on the spectrum, I'm diagnosed with schizo affective bipolar disorder. Does that make me batshit crazy?