My day was completely ruined yesterday when I stumbled upon a fun fact that absolutely obliterated my mind. I saw this tweet yesterday that said that not everyone has an internal monologue in their head. All my life, I could hear my voice in my head and speak in full sentences as if I was talking out loud. I thought everyone experienced this, so I did not believe that it could be true at that time.
Literally the first person I asked was a classmate of mine who said that she can not “hear” her voice in her mind. I asked her if she could have a conversation with herself in her head and she looked at me funny like I was the weird one in this situation. So I began to become more intrigued. Most people I asked said that they have this internal monologue that is running rampant throughout the day. However, every once in a while, someone would say that they don’t experience this.
My life began to slowly spiral out of control with millions of questions. How do they get through the day? How do they read? How do they make decisions between choice A and choice B? My friend described it as “concept maps” that she sees in her brain. Another friend says that she literally sees the words in her head if she is trying to think about something. I was taking ibuprofen at this point in the day because my brain was literally unable to comprehend this revelation. How have I made it 25 years in life without realizing that people don’t think like me?
I posted a poll on instagram to get a more accurate assessment of the situation. Currently 91 people have responded that they have an internal monologue and 18 people reported that they do not have this. I began asking those people questions about the things that they experience and it is quite different from the majority.
I would tell them that I could look at myself in the mirror and have a full blown telepathic conversation with myself without opening my mouth and they responded as if I had schizophrenia. One person even mentioned that when they do voice overs in movies of people’s thoughts, they “wished that it was real.”
And to their surprise, they did not know that the majority of people do in fact experience that echoey voice in their head that is portrayed in TV and film. Another person said that if they tried to have a conversation with themselves in the mirror, they would have to speak out loud because they can’t physically do it inside of their mind.
I started posting screenshots of these conversations on my instagram and my inbox started 
to flood with people responding to my “investigation.” Many people were reassuring me that I was not crazy for having an internal monologue, while others were as absolutely mind blown as I was. People were telling me that I ruined their day and that they now do not understand anything about life. Maybe you are all just a figment of my imagination, but regardless, yesterday made reality seem even more skewed.
How do they think? How does this affect their relationships, jobs, experiences, education? How has this not been mentioned to me before? All of these questions started flooding my mind. Can those people without the internal monologue even formulate these questions in their mind? If they can, how does it happen if they don’t “hear” their voice? I mentioned earlier that I was spiraling out of control. Well, as I write this and as I hear my own voice in my head, I am continuing to fall down the rabbit hole.
Whether people just have different definitions of their thoughts, or if people literally don’t have an internal monologue, there is one thing that we do know… you will definitely get a headache if you keep thinking about this. Just trying to wrap my head around it is causing irreversible brain damage. I suggest asking people around you what they experience. If you are one of the few that do not have this internal monologue, please enlighten me, because I still do not understand life anymore. Send help.
@RyanLangdon_
I have the internal monologue option and for the most part it’s my preferred way to think. I can also relate to the “concept map” example…I experience this when I’m in the process of doing something (e.g. dishes, cleaning, cooking etc.) But it’s less visual than what you’d think, it’s more of a feeling accompanied by a quick snapshot of the bigger picture. Without it, I’d never know when I was finished doing anything. I also regularly use the abstract way of thinking too though. This is my thought process on auto-pilot. When I’m zoning out, or any time that I’m not thinking on purpose or without intent. This “abstract” thinking is pretty visual, lots of mental images that use reality as a reference point when I’m “daydreaming” but that has less structure and usage of such reference point when when it’s just naturally occurring without effort. From my experience, this is also when my mind is most open…because I’m not choosingly manipulating/limiting my thoughts with a conscious destination/ending view-point, they (my thoughts) are able to come and go as they please. Actually, thinking about it, this for of thinking is actually constantly taking place at the back of my mind and my narrative seems to actually process these abstract thoughts (images or subconscious input) and turns them into words.. I can recall times when I had a very clear thought or idea in my head but I had a hard time putting it into words or describing it, with either my internal narrative or speaking outloud.. I even recall times when I’ve brought a thought as far as my internal narrative but when I tried speaking it out loud, i couldn’t find the words. This is a very interesting concept that, to me, has a lot to do with consciousness as the main topic. I can dig it.
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Damn! That was extremely well stated. I like the way you think.
“Without it, I’d never know when I was finished doing anything.”
If, in fact, anything ever truly can be finished? :p
That was the most clearly stated accounting of the tangled web-like thinking processes and mental states which I find to be entirely relatable to my own experience. The abstract state of undirected (aka. not choosingly manipulated/limited – LoL!) thought has always kinda felt like what most people describe as a meditative state. A state of not-thinking while still being aware of thoughts as they come and go without becoming focused or distracted by them.
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Your life might spin out of control if I tell you there’s also people who can’t see images in their mind…known as aphantasia!
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The way I’d put that is tossing concepts around then coming to a knowingness that you understand and can either spontaneously try to find the words to make it understandable to another, or if writing, you can take more time to carefully choose the words – running them through your mind first to assess how they might come across to someone you’re trying to explain to.
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Same here! Pretty much described me to a T
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Beautifully put 🥰🤗👍
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I have always had an internal monologue since I was a wee child. I am an author, possibly in part because of this internal feature. I too was surprised when I learned not everyone experienced it. I’ve had people look at me like I was nuts when I talked about it.
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Ryan, i’m 87 and without thinking and having mental discussions with myself I couldn’t write or paint! It’s normal! My husband ,Des,O’Briencould draw anything from memory and was always able to visualise what he would draw or paint. I did too and always worked it out in my mind before starting a painting. As illustrators you have to. I sometimes marvelled at how he was able to record so much detail later : uniforms and architecture, people . It was all part of an artists visual memory .I was always talking to myself in my mind as I thought an idea through. It’s normal! As far as I’m concerned you are perfectly normal talking to yourself! You probably see your dreams vividly in memory too. Stop worrying . What you have is wonderful…and natural!
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Do they not get songs stuck I’m their heads? 🤔
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Yes, I’ve an internal voice and sometimes it can shift to Morgan Freeman or Patrick Stewart or Helen Mirren if I need the additional motivation. 🙂 Although I do also get the mind map and conceptual stuff without the “voice over” and thanks, because now my mind is blown. WOW.
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I have conversations in my head all the time
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I can’t wrap my head around the fact that there could possibly be anyone out there who isn’t locked in a constant state of seemingly one sided convo with themselves. How then do these people mull over new ideas or facts when presented with them..so weird!
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I have no idea what this whole concept is about. I suppose if that’s my view, I do not have an internal monologue.
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Imagine you’re outside with a friend and you say, “It’s a beautiful day.” But if no friend is there, you still say it, but in your mind instead of out loud. It’s not necessary to say it because you already know it or feel it, but some people have a fairly non-stop “voice” speaking their thoughts. And to be clear, it’s not an actual audible voice, but it’s there just the same.
To those of us who have this, it was an automatic life-long assumption that everyone does it. That’s why it’s so weird to learn that other people don’t talk inside their heads. lol
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Very interesting conversation! I guess I never realized that there are people in the World who don’t have an internal monologue going on inside their heads. I thought it was pretty much the norm but if we could extrapolate your poll then roughly 15-20% of people don’t have the monologue. I also have the additional ability to visualize a plan or construct in my head long before I do it. I can see it at every stage of development. I can even zero in on a particular part and visualize an “exploded” View of the relevant section. This is really handy when you are designing a piece of furniture or working on a piece of art or a craft project like making a greeting card, all of which I do. I also love maps and when someone asks me how to get to some place I visualize a map as well as certain markers along the way.
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I feel like I want to meet each and every one of your inner monologues. I’ve always felt like I have had a unique way of experiencing things, interpreting what I experience, and contemplating what things mean. Somehow, I feel like the ratio of people who think this way should actually be flipped and in the minority.
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Just to add a little something to this that I learnt a while back is that you can’t change the volume of your inner monologue. You can perceive it as shouting or whispering but the volume doesn’t change.
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I have multiple thought triggered type monologue voices in my head. Your article nailed it on the head. Unfortunately I admitted this to s psychiatrist. I now get heavy doses of invega injected into me every 4 weeks as a result. It works I terms of shutting the monologue off or at least turning down the volume…
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What about music?? Do they get songs stuck in their heads… if so, do they see it or hear it??
The whole concept has me confused. I would feel so lost without my inner thoughts.
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I have ordinary internal monologue almost constantly. I’d be lost without it. I think I’d feel alone if I couldn’t hear my own thoughts. I also get plenty of images that manifest my thinking. They are like quick, symbolic pictures that show truth about whatever’s going on around me. I visualize everything I read fiction or nonfiction. I also have a great deal of thought that isnt necessarily manifested into words or language. It’s just raw material… unprocessed thought. If I use language to process it (written or verbal) I learn and grow. I write or talk out loud to flesh out feelings and opinions, or to make decisions. I love being alone, but never feel like I’m actually wholly alone. I daydream, and my dreams at night are vivid. Some are only images, some stuffed with dialog. I’ve had dreams where I can only hear, no vision or anything but sound. Some dreams I have every sense except hearing. I write poetry, songs, fiction and reflection. Journaled since I was five years old. I’m 42 now. I have boxes of journals that I should probably throw away… years worth of internal monologue written down.
This has been fun! Love everyone’s thoughts.
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I think in monologue thought myself but I have no recognizable voice that speaks. The voice in my head doesn’t sound like me or anyone else. It is neither male nor female, with no accent either.
However, I can hear mine and other people’s tone of voice when I think of them. I can project my thoughts to myself in others voices or my own if I wish. But that is uncommon for me to do and only do when it comes to my head. A majority of the time my voice in my head in indescribable in the the way it sounds. It really has no tone. I’m not sure how to describe the silent voice inside my head but that’s how it is for me!
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Yes! This is exactly what it’s like in my brain, too! A”silent voice”.
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Ryan, I can relate to you. I have the same audio in my head where I hear words. I too can have a conversation with myself or an argument with someone else, without saying them out loud. I thought it was just me!
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This has been blowing my mind since I read this morning. Now, this evening, I’m wondering how people make a decision on whether or not to buy something like at a time when money is tight. I might see something I want and feel the temptation/desire, but then I think of how much money is in my bank account and what bills I have coming up. Part of this thinking occurs as just knowledge. I know I have such and such bill due. No words required there. Another part is visual – imagining myself playing the new Call of Duty and the associated good memories of past versions of the game. Then there’s the internal debate where I might try to justify the expense and the joy it’s going to give me, but the other side of my mind says, No. Just wait till buying it won’t create stress. Then I might have verbal thoughts about ways I can make extra money, attendant with visuals of the possibilities.
And you’re saying that some people don’t do this?? How do they make decisions or explore ideas or mentally prepare themselves for things or people they have to confront, etc., etc.?
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Haha! Right?!
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It’s not that complicated. You’re already aware of all the non-verbal thoughts you have, you can definitely have a non-verbal “discussion”. It’s about opposed feelings, you can feel the desire to play the latest CoD and the anguish of not being able to pay your bills, maybe images and feelings of the fights with your partner over money will come to mind… that sort of thing. I only do verbal thinking when I plan a conversation, and I have plenty of discussions with myself, although it’s probably more like internal struggle.
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What will really twist your noodle is: Can people without an internal monologue play music inside their heads? I have an internal monologue. When I think of a song, that song plays in my head like I’m listening to a recording. In fact, I can hear the vocals and all the individual instruments playing in the band. What’s even more mind bending is, I can have a song playing in my head like back ground music while my internal monologue is having a conversation with me about something, while I’m also thinking about and focused on doing a project, all while sitting in total silence. Can people without an internal monologue do any of that? Hmmm! 🤔 I can’t imagine life without all that.
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I do not have an internal monologue and I just think in images and I can say that I cannot hear music in my head. I played piano since I was a kid and I just could not HEAR the music. I’ll get songs stuck in my head, but it’ll just be short little snippets. I have a hard time remembering words to songs because I can’t visualize the words or the music.
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The idea that there is “somebody else” in my head that I have a conversation with seems strange to me. There’s only one “me” in my head, and when I think, I guess it happens in English, but it’s not like I consciously “hear” the words. The ideas just sort of “roll through” my head and are “realized” as language, but I don’t perceive it as such. Same with reading. My eyes move across the page and the language “registers” in my head as an English sentence, but I don’t think I actually “hear” the words as such. And when I think (and read), the thoughts go tumbling along much faster than spoken language.
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I have a close friend who is Deaf. Many years ago I asked her a very similar question: when you think do you see ASL, or written words in your head?
She’s been totally deaf her whole life, so she doesn’t hear her voice for sure. She couldn’t even understand the question.
I can think in ASL as well, but I have to think of the verbalized word first before I can think of the sign.
Super interesting topic!
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DId she have an answer to the question of how she thinks? I’d be interested in that reponse.
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I’m wondering if it may be a matter of left side minded people, and right side minded. Like the left and right side of your brain. I have an inner monologue while my boyfriend does not. I’m right handed and he is left handed. It probably just boils down to how we process things.
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I’m left-handed, a bit ambidextrous, but I have a very active internal monologue. All the time. I am also very visual, and “see” some conversations or thoughts, and there’s always music playing in the background.
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I didn’t read many of the comments because they wouldn’t load but what if I think I may have both ???
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Hi 😊
I don’t have the internal monologue.
But I can choose to have it if I want to.
When I grew up I remember that I thought I was insane when it happened.
When I was on drugs and had hit rock bottom, I had a psychosis and then I also heard my voice in my head.
As I got medication and got well and sain again it disappeared.
I feels much better to not have it. I can rest in myself now.
I don’t know what more to say about it.
I’ve got ADHD/ADD
When I was a Child I was more lefthanded or rather I was just as good with both hands.
My IQ is 100 wich was a great disappointment för me as I belived that I was much smarter then that.
Love, Mirelle from Sweden
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Once get on the flow, you forget your internal voice and live the moment by merging with your inner self.
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Once you get on the flow, you forget your internal voice and live the moment by merging with your inner self.
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I think that it is crazy how so many people have a voice inside their heads. I actually do not have a voice inside my head, but the way that I think does not seem to be the same as the girl that was interviewed. I actually think visually and the best way that I can describe my thoughts would be the way that Sims think (from the game). When I want to do something, an image pops into my head and I go do it. When I think about things, I have to visualize them to be able to understand them. If I wanted to build something, I can visualize in my head each of the pieces coming together, where the screws would go, how the mechanisms work and everything! Based on a subsequent article that you wrote, I do not seem to experience anxiety the way that I see other people do. I cannot visualize the anxiety. I do get anxious about things, but as soon as I do, I just start visualizing what it is that I need to do or just start playing the scenario out in my head and after that, it is almost like I already lived and experienced it and I do not feel as worried anymore. Does anyone else experience this?
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This is me, exactly. My brain seems to work mostly by visualization, and also by emotional feeling. When I see someone wearing a cool outfit, I feel a sense of appeal toward it rather than saying to myself “I sure like that outfit.”
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I think I have both. Most of the times I hear my voice in my head (I even have a name for it – my surname actually), but sometimes it’s not there. Like when I’m reading smoothly there’s no voice, but as soon as I get distracted it comes up and that’s annoying because I’m not able to read with as much speed as before, so I have to quiet it down with “ah fuck this, go away, let me read”. The times when I’m seriously thinking about something (it could even be a joke), the voice is there. But when my mind is casually wandering in the cosmos, like while riding the bus or sitting on a beach, the voice quotes and I only see images. I had never thought about it so explicitly until now, so, thank you Ryan.
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I understand both ways and have understood it for years, this is not new information.
I can function many different ways. I don’t have an inner voice that talks to me or for me but I can say words inside my head without any problems. I can visualize things too, but I don’t have to visualize.
I can also shut off my brain so it’s like a “black sphere” there instead, it’s nice if I want to rest.
I “read” usually when I read, but I can also “see” the words.
Your brain is a powerful muscle. If you want to understand this just practice to not “use” your voice and “see” instead.
She reads fast because she “sees” the words instead of “reading” them, because the brain is faster than your mouth.
A conversation you say to yourself in your mind is as fast as you speak.
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I have a very active internal voice and see images as well. I have full conversations with myself constantly, a lot of what i talk to myself about is things im worried about. I have a ton of anxiety and i legit talk myself down all the time, especially from panic attacks, sometimes its all that helps which is amazing. I am an artist, studied in school for it, so I am always seeing imagery in my head, especially designs i make up that don’t exist yet which is something i love, its like i can build in my mind. Something weird that my brain does when i read words, its like my mind goes black and a light appears and writes out each letter of certain words, and it has to go through each letter…. honestly its off-putting, slows me down and freaks me out sometimes. Im sure a form of OCD but it happens for words i am trying to understand or words i like. Not sure if anyone else has this in their head. As for music, i love music and it helps my mind Zen out sometimes, i can legit hear Adele setting fire to the rain as i write this lol and i can hear it in her voice or in my voice if i want, its odd to me that other people dont have this. I play out scenarios in my head as well like a movie, but they haven’t happened yet but i can envision them, it helps me make decisions and foresee what the outcome may be. This is wild, thanks for opening this black hole for everyone lol.
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