schizophrenia here, my inner monologue is often conversational, like a string of words I’d speak to a person. and if I listen closely, I hear faintly a man or woman repeating the thought out loud, with emotion like confusion or contempt

I’m in the “inner monologue” camp. Most of what I think materialises as thought words.

But I know that can’t be all. It’s difficult for me to think in words while saying something, but can have new thoughts while speaking.

I feel like I don’t have very much imagination any more. Its hard to produce images in my mind, not impossible but I do have to concentrate - remembering images is easier.

Weirdly, way harder to me: imagining a voice. Inner voice is what I sound like to myself, I can remember songs of course, but having any voice say anything is hard, especially female voices. Went through some examples in my head couldn’t make anyone say anything - until I though to make different tf2 mercs sing “Oh Canada”, that somehow worked despite me definitely not having heard that before.

I keep trying to make this comment, then deleting it and trying again because I’m not 100% sure I have a certain behavior, and thinking about thinking is very distracting

So, I have an inner monologue, mind’s eye and I can change my inner monologue’s voice if I want. I find it easier to organize my thoughts by speaking out loud, although I do not do that unless alone. Looking at a fixed point also helps me filter out whatever’s going on outside to focus on my thoughts inside.

Imagine big ball of hair wound up tight as it can be . You try extracting stand of hair from this wad only for it to break half way through . This’s what brain shit’s like for me

's not even COUNTING the fact I hafta somehow translate that into words human beings can understand , bcus existing in human body means am forced to ⦅socialise|communicate) with|relate to) humans, then try stringing the words together into some thing only somewhat coherent)

My thoughts don’t take form as a different persona or talk.

I guess they either arise automatically, or I consciously direct them? Both happen.

Even when I consciously direct them, I feel like most thoughts arise naturally from that, from the subconscious.

Either it’s random flashes of images/videos or certain random memory from a long time ago, a certain tune/music being played on repeat, or inner mind just constantly asking questions. Though I do noticed I can zone out when I’m really focus on something perhaps that’s what it feels like when your not thinking at all.

For me it is an internal monologue with a silent audience that contributes without a voice.

My internal monologue might say “is this thing I am about to do a good idea?” And a wordless thought will provide a second opinion which my internal monologue would interpret and possibly reply to.

The same as everyone else’s. The “differences” in the way people think can be ascribed to many things:

• some people are describing active concentration
• others are describing subconscious thinking
• describing the way only some of their thoughts happen
• not inferring what was said the way the speaker intended
• etc et

A fun conversation starter is always “So do you have an internal monologue?”

Often my thoughts are so fucking fast, my inner voice really can’t keep up. I try to sound them out in my head, but am aware of this, and my thoughts have already wandered on. So I really only monologue when I am thinking about a script/text or am analyzing/ problem-solving. Everything else feels like a mix of some short strings and feelings

You ever been in a crowded space with hundreds of people talking all at once? You can hear everyone, but not enough to really make out anything except once in a while when someone gets louder than everyone else.

That’s what my thoughts are like when I am not high on weed.

When I am high, the crowd shuts the fuck up and I can actually focus on a single, complete thought.

My mind works by talking to itself, but it’s more like I’m the wordless overseer of that voice. There is a lesser maybe faux alter ego’s voice that’s employed to bounce ideas off of or used for introspection, to humble myself, conceptualization, etcetera, but it can only talk to myself even out loud. If there’s another person present they’re only talking to primary.

Where I differ from many minds like other self talkers here it seems is that I have full control over the two voices employed by my ego, and if I stop talking it’s silent in my skull. Since I also have Total Aphantasia it’s a true void in here besides my emotions and hind brain/instincts unless I’m using the voice(s). No real distinction between thinking in my head and speaking out loud.

The unconscious mind passes stuff it processes to the voices to think about. More nuance is far more paragraphs than worth, so I’ll leave it there.

There’s three hamsters running on a wheel in shifts up in my skull.