The numbers have become a little more accurate now with a load more research and wider groups being tested, where the people that have zero internal monologue at all (everything is conceptual, none of it is done via segments of their consciousness using words at all) is only about 5-8%
I did a stint in an inpatient mental facility, and one of the other people there was suffering from voices in her head and kept a notebook full of some of the things they said. I asked if I could take a look and it was just…thoughts. Like, normal thoughts that I had assumed everyone had.
It’s just really quiet I guess, but it’s normal to me. I only first thought about it as being different when someone told me their inner voice was being mean to them and wouldn’t shut up, which just completely baffled me. It led to my discovery that others actually really do have voices in their head, it’s not a metaphor or mental illness like I previously thought from TV.
I think it’s fundamentally similar to everyone else’s experience though. If I relax my brain, it will cycle through thoughts and memories as a train of thought, but there’s no sound or visuals. To me I just get the emotions and the concept. Using the famous apple example, I remember the experience of holding and eating an apple, the taste, smell, texture, shape, weight, physics, geometry, the emotions of eating it, it’s all there, but I feel it rather than see it.
Benefits
I’m really good at programming, maths, physics, science, that kind of thing, because I can “feel” the rules and intuitively solve things without even thinking about it logically. I tend to notice things other people miss just because they feel out of place, with almost nothing to go on. An example would be if I’m given an error message, I don’t even have to debug to find the problem, because it feels like the bug is over there in that function. I’m usually correct, but I can’t explain how I got there, which made school… difficult haha.
Sometimes I like to just sit down and close my eyes, and think about the concept of nothing, and just have a completely blank mind for a while. It’s really relaxing and restful, and it feels like time goes by 10x faster. It’s probably some kind of meditation but I don’t know the names of stuff like that. I’ve been told I’m very patient and calm.
Downsides
I’m extremely bad at learning second-hand. Either by reading or being shown or talked to. The only way I can ever learn anything is if I experience it first-hand, which made university… difficult haha. Jump in completely unprepared and fuck up kind of learner.
Visual descriptions in books are boring to me for obvious reasons. I skip those parts completely and only read the social and action parts. Poetry makes no sense at all to me, except haikus and rhymes. I get lost very frequently, and I struggle with visual logic puzzles. I struggle to remember the name of colours and distinguish them, but I have no colour blindness at all.
I’m extremely bad at explaining and describing things to other people, and also struggle to understand others’ explanations. When people are talking to me in a conversation, I don’t remember the exact words they said, only the emotional gist and meaning. When I’m talking to someone, I can’t really plan ahead what I’m going to say, and I can’t remember what I’ve already said, so if I’m interrupted at all I have to start again like a broken NPC in a video game. People get really frustrated with me, but I can’t really blame them lol
Drawing pictures is extremely challenging, I have to do it “mathematically” by ratio. Like ok the hair goes down 60% of their face, the curvature of their jaw it’s like almost straight, and angles more aggressively about half way to mildly curved then their chin comes out of nowhere at 80% to the bottom… I have no talent at all for drawing, it’s crazy hard for me, but I still do it anyway for fun. People are like just practice and you’ll improve! There’s no amount practice to replace something that’s completely missing haha
Anyway, proud of you if you actually read all that wild ride
Probably about the same. Only realized at some point cause I was complaining about how a teacher always had us close our eyes and imagine shit. I was like tf are we doing this for when it doesn’t do anything. And I got confused looks and somebody asked if I could see pictures in my head. I thought they were screwing with me and lo and behold most people can actually see things in their head similar to dreams.
Similar thing went down for the internal monolog. I believe I sort of complained offhand how movies/shows always depict people thinking as them just talking but how there wasn’t exactly a better way to do it. Friend laughed and said something like “Well and obviously that’s how people think too”. Wouldn’t have thought he was screwing with me if he wasn’t constantly making things up lmao
I’m not OP, but I also don’t have an internal monologue (and I don’t dream, but I can construct images in my head “on demand”). I was in my late 20s before I realized that an internal monologue was not a literary device used by authors when telling a story - and people have an internal voice.
Think of it this way: unless something is causing sound externally there is absolute silence. It’s peaceful sure, but your aware of all the little noises of things around you. One thing that can be hellish is getting a song stuck in your head ( I know several 3/4 and 5/4 melodies for just this reason).
Some people don’t have an internal monologue, I can’t find the original source but stuff on the internet say 30-50%.
The numbers have become a little more accurate now with a load more research and wider groups being tested, where the people that have zero internal monologue at all (everything is conceptual, none of it is done via segments of their consciousness using words at all) is only about 5-8%
I did a stint in an inpatient mental facility, and one of the other people there was suffering from voices in her head and kept a notebook full of some of the things they said. I asked if I could take a look and it was just…thoughts. Like, normal thoughts that I had assumed everyone had.
Only time it’s annoying is when my thoughts are angry and in aramaic, but at least I know it’s just normal thoughts. Lmao
Yeah. I’ve got Aphantasia and no internal monolog
I cant work out if thats brilliant or terrifying.
I wish I could have a ride in your brain and see what its actually like.
I have the same thing (Long Description)
It’s just really quiet I guess, but it’s normal to me. I only first thought about it as being different when someone told me their inner voice was being mean to them and wouldn’t shut up, which just completely baffled me. It led to my discovery that others actually really do have voices in their head, it’s not a metaphor or mental illness like I previously thought from TV.
I think it’s fundamentally similar to everyone else’s experience though. If I relax my brain, it will cycle through thoughts and memories as a train of thought, but there’s no sound or visuals. To me I just get the emotions and the concept. Using the famous apple example, I remember the experience of holding and eating an apple, the taste, smell, texture, shape, weight, physics, geometry, the emotions of eating it, it’s all there, but I feel it rather than see it.
Benefits
I’m really good at programming, maths, physics, science, that kind of thing, because I can “feel” the rules and intuitively solve things without even thinking about it logically. I tend to notice things other people miss just because they feel out of place, with almost nothing to go on. An example would be if I’m given an error message, I don’t even have to debug to find the problem, because it feels like the bug is over there in that function. I’m usually correct, but I can’t explain how I got there, which made school… difficult haha.
Sometimes I like to just sit down and close my eyes, and think about the concept of nothing, and just have a completely blank mind for a while. It’s really relaxing and restful, and it feels like time goes by 10x faster. It’s probably some kind of meditation but I don’t know the names of stuff like that. I’ve been told I’m very patient and calm.
Downsides
I’m extremely bad at learning second-hand. Either by reading or being shown or talked to. The only way I can ever learn anything is if I experience it first-hand, which made university… difficult haha. Jump in completely unprepared and fuck up kind of learner.
Visual descriptions in books are boring to me for obvious reasons. I skip those parts completely and only read the social and action parts. Poetry makes no sense at all to me, except haikus and rhymes. I get lost very frequently, and I struggle with visual logic puzzles. I struggle to remember the name of colours and distinguish them, but I have no colour blindness at all.
I’m extremely bad at explaining and describing things to other people, and also struggle to understand others’ explanations. When people are talking to me in a conversation, I don’t remember the exact words they said, only the emotional gist and meaning. When I’m talking to someone, I can’t really plan ahead what I’m going to say, and I can’t remember what I’ve already said, so if I’m interrupted at all I have to start again like a broken NPC in a video game. People get really frustrated with me, but I can’t really blame them lol
Drawing pictures is extremely challenging, I have to do it “mathematically” by ratio. Like ok the hair goes down 60% of their face, the curvature of their jaw it’s like almost straight, and angles more aggressively about half way to mildly curved then their chin comes out of nowhere at 80% to the bottom… I have no talent at all for drawing, it’s crazy hard for me, but I still do it anyway for fun. People are like just practice and you’ll improve! There’s no amount practice to replace something that’s completely missing haha
Anyway, proud of you if you actually read all that wild ride
Thank you, that really helps us on the other side of the fence understand
Probably about the same. Only realized at some point cause I was complaining about how a teacher always had us close our eyes and imagine shit. I was like tf are we doing this for when it doesn’t do anything. And I got confused looks and somebody asked if I could see pictures in my head. I thought they were screwing with me and lo and behold most people can actually see things in their head similar to dreams.
Similar thing went down for the internal monolog. I believe I sort of complained offhand how movies/shows always depict people thinking as them just talking but how there wasn’t exactly a better way to do it. Friend laughed and said something like “Well and obviously that’s how people think too”. Wouldn’t have thought he was screwing with me if he wasn’t constantly making things up lmao
That must be so peaceful, I’m insanely jealous.
I’m not OP, but I also don’t have an internal monologue (and I don’t dream, but I can construct images in my head “on demand”). I was in my late 20s before I realized that an internal monologue was not a literary device used by authors when telling a story - and people have an internal voice.
Think of it this way: unless something is causing sound externally there is absolute silence. It’s peaceful sure, but your aware of all the little noises of things around you. One thing that can be hellish is getting a song stuck in your head ( I know several 3/4 and 5/4 melodies for just this reason).
I never thought about it, but I’d assume that if you had no internal monologue that you also wouldn’t be able to hear music in your head, either.
Brains are so weird.
I have aphantasia, but I assume that’s more common than no internal monologue. I wish there were stats on this.