No internal monologue

[OakTree500]

I recently discovered that there are some people in this world  who have no internal verbal thoughts within their own mind.

I had always taken this as a given that everyone could talk to themselves within their own mind, but apparently it's not.

Some people don't have the ability to do it.

I'm still a bit shocked by this revelation.
I guess I just wanted to know if any of you have heard of this before.

It makes me wonder if there are other attributes that I have or don't have that aren't the same as my fellow human beings.

I wish I had no internal monologue, without the medication I take for Anxiety issues, my thoughts are going a mile a minute and often cause me to "think" of crazy shit or ask questions about things that are not that important [inside my mind at least].

[zwanzig]

Bumping this because it came up on one of my rp writing forums.

There are moments when I have fantasies where they're pictures, like a movie playing. But even then, the characters in these internal stories talk to each other in full words and sentences.

Other than that, I internally think in words all the time. Sometimes, I internally narrate what I'm doing but more often then not, I put the body on autopilot(such as while doing dishes, cooking, driving, etc.) and my mind wanders off on other topics. I talk to myself about philosophical topics, think through how things work by giving myself mechanical or scientific lessons, I tell myself jokes that make me laugh out loud. My internal voice even speaks words that are hurtful sometimes. 95% of the time though, that inner voice and I are best friends.

What annoyed me today is the nonsensical contribution by someone with aphantasia, i.e., the inability to form mental pictures. Some people cannot mentally hold an image in their mind unless a thing is right in front of them or they're looking at a picture of it.

https://neurosciencenews.com/aphantasia-...-pictures/

I thought this was a related phenomenon in the differences between how people think, being odd to think of how the other person processes things. And also, I thought that ridiculous that this guy who's on a forum for creative writing, apparently can't visualize anything in his head. I don't believe you, man. How do you describe anything? How do you write anything that isn't literally happening right this moment? Somethin's up.

[The Grand Nudger]

Do you think that blind people are capable of describing things as they perceive them? My opinion, we're a communicatively robust species.

[zwanzig]

Do you think that blind people are capable of describing things as they perceive them?

I'm not sure. I don't personally know any blind people and my knowledge is very limited about how they perceive things, or how they might talk about perception.

I do see what you're saying and they might get a lot of stuff right in writing a description of someone entering a room, leaning upon other senses to describe things. Would a totally blind writer, who's never had sight, write a novel/short story/scene that you wouldn't feel was missing a visual component to the description?

[The Grand Nudger]

As a sighted person, sure, I think so. I imagine that they might actually be more attentive to details I miss and so don't experience - or experience as luxuriously, too.

[Ahriman]

I'm pretty sure I don't have an internal monologue, I don't think in words/sentences, I think in scenes, like I'll imagine doing something, and it becomes a scene that plays in my head, I can even make up characters and think of where the scene takes place, like a movie director.

[Spongebob]

I'm pretty sure I don't have an internal monologue, I don't think in words/sentences, I think in scenes, like I'll imagine doing something, and it becomes a scene that plays in my head, I can even make up characters and think of where the scene takes place, like a movie director.

I'm not sure you are even sentient.

[Ahriman]

I'm pretty sure I don't have an internal monologue, I don't think in words/sentences, I think in scenes, like I'll imagine doing something, and it becomes a scene that plays in my head, I can even make up characters and think of where the scene takes place, like a movie director.

I'm not sure you are even sentient.

Are you sentient?

[zwanzig]

I'm not sure you are even sentient.

Are you sentient?

I know what you are but what am I!

Anyway, OT, I wish I could understand better what the experience is like, not thinking in words or not visualizing in pictures. There must be something else, a different way of doing things.

[Spongebob]

I think it's going to be really difficult getting inside someone else's head. Even if you think you have it, how do you really know?