As per title, I am curious. How does your mind / your thoughts work? I only ever experienced my own thoughts, so I’m curious how it works for other people.
I for one feel like my thoughts sometimes are like me talking to myself silently. Sometimes I can even let out a random short sound, which I’ve come to start disguising by laughing kinda quietly or coughing or whatever. Like it was part of something, and not like an inner monologue almost leaking out.
So, how do your thoughts work?
I had a serious TBI when I was a kid and more than 15 concussions so my eggs are a bit scrambled.
I can’t sustain a mental image, I can only visualize flashes of things. If I try to hold on to a mental image, it’s just a series of flashes that quickly become warped until the image just kinda dissolves and I have to imagine a new one. I also kinda of can’t remember faces. I can recognize people, but I can’t describe anyone’s face or remember/visualize details. I can only describe my own face as a list of features I’m aware of, but I can’t visualize it nor do I recognize myself in photos.
Verbal thought usually comes in the form of a dialogue between myself and an imagined other person. There’s no one there and I knowingly come up with the question the other will ask, but I can’t just think to myself without quickly losing track.
I also have ADHD, OCD, and major depressive disorder, so I also have the symptoms and episodes of those rattling around up there. I’m not sure if I’d call them thoughts though, because they feel different.
There’s three hamsters running on a wheel in shifts up in my skull.
I’ve definitely had the internal thoughts “leak” like you’re describing. I tend to think in almost another space outside of myself where sometimes I will forget my senses and have to actively return to them. Like I’m walking away briefly from the drivers seat to go take care of something in the back of the truck. I tend not to do this with others around as it can be rude. With others, I’m much more stream of consciousness.
My thoughts are the bald guy from the six flags dancing 24/7 to the song from the commercial.
MISTER SIX!
I switch between having language based thoughts and more abstract thoughts that aren’t language based. I find that my thoughts that aren’t language based are usually more complex. I also can imagine objects, rotate them or walk around familiar places in my mind. Oh and my language based thoughts tend to match the language I am speaking at the moment (I am trilingual).
I hear my thoughts in monotone in English and sometimes Russia (my native language)[I am Ukrainian]{I speak Russian because I was born during the Soviet era}
I can see clear detailed images in my head but only in still frame.
There was a bit of discussion about this on a podcast I listen to (Adrift) earlier in the year.
My mind is basically me taking to myself. As I write this I’m speaking all the words in my head. As I read it back I’m reading all the words in my head.
I believe there’s a school of thought that you shouldn’t read the words to yourself when you are reading, bit I have to do that otherwise it doesn’t go in. I can read a page without the words being spoken in my head but I will then have no idea what any of the page said, v and have to re-read it. Same if my mind wanders while reading - anything I read whilst my internal voice is talking about something else will not go in.
I can’t shut it up. If I think about nothing, my internal voice will literally be saying “I need to think about nothing. I should empty my mind. How do you think about nothing?”.
It’s extra fun when you know multiple languages since that voice also changes languages
I do have thoughts in words, language. I don’t exactly hear or see it but it’s definitely language based. Often two levels of thought, one superficial and another underneath, thinking about those superficial thoughts.
Same!! Gets bothersome sometimes honestly, especially when you just wanna focus on something
I have no sound, voice, or pictures in my head. I didn’t know that other people did see/hear things until a couple of years ago. Thoughts just come in chunks.
Me to. It’s called Aphantasia (no minds eye, so some or no pics) and Anendophasia (No inner voice). For me my thoughts are “just there” almost impossible to explain.
I couldn’t understand what it’s like for people who actually see and hear things in their heads. I recently realized that I sometimes experience a faint taste and I guess it’s sort of like that?
I can taste food ok. Too ok, I seem to be some sort of super taster. Everything is to overpowering.
It scares me to think you could have pictures or movies in your head that you may not wish to have.
The way I explain it is: when you read, you don’t read the words aloud in your head. You look at them and register their meaning. My thoughts are just those meanings. Usually in larger chunks than single words though. They don’t have a language. I can ‘picture’ sounds I’ve heard before though, like getting a song stuck in my head. That one’s more difficult with pictures.
When I get a song stuck (which happens constantly) I don’t hear it; I just have the unrelenting urge to sing it.
Uuh, yes, yes I do read them aloud in my head.
Same. And depending on what I’m reading I’ll sometimes use a specific voice…
Like if I’m reading a text from a friend I’ll “hear” it in their voice. Or I’ll make up voices for characters in a novel.
Interesting, hadn’t heard the term “anendophasia” before. I don’t have an inner voice either except when reading or writing. No aphantasia though.
Nice try, Christopher Nolan
I’m at about level 2 on this scale:
My thoughts are a lot of imagery imagination. There are “words” to go along with it, but there certainly isn’t an extensive monologue/narrative/conversation going on.
I’m a 4-5. Sometimes I can get like a wire frame sketch of the general shape of something.
I can sort of see images, but they are usually vague, I can’t really see them as such. If I’m reading and picturing something in my mind they can be a bit clearer though. I’m probably a 3.5-4 on that scale.
If I have seen it less than about a hundred times, it is a 5. I will have some key words that let me describe it successfully to other people, but I can’t actually picture it.
If I have seen it fairly regularly for a few years, or haven’t seen it for several years, probably a 4.
If I have seen it for decades, it might be a 3. Apples, which I see at least every few days is a 3.
Hmm I’ve read about aphantasia before and heard shows about it but this diagram actually made me think I may be a 4 or 5. When I try to imagine an apple all I have is flutters of memories of what apples look like, , but I can’t create a picture in my mind of one
My eyes are open and I can still see your comment on screen, but I can also “see” a clear picture of a red apple on a bright sunny day elsewhere in my mind. I can’t explain how I can “see” 2 images simultaneously, but it often means I miss what someone is saying when talking to me, because I’ve started concentrating on my mental image instead.
At any given time there’s three functions going on in my head. There’s a stream of calculations that constantly flow. There’s my inner entertainment system that that translates those calculations to thoughts if they need to be translated. Then there’s sorting room with the file cabinet and shredder to organize that flow of thoughts.
When I say entertainment system I mean my inner voice and the ability to visualize just by thinking. Is the voice what’s traditionally considered a monologue? I don’t know. It’s nothing like Al Pacino giving a speech. It’s some of the worst narration imaginable. What I think is happening is my mind is doing calculations then using my voice to put those calculations into my consciousness for me to understand. The amount of time my mind shuts the fuck up is almost nonexistent. It does happen but, for it to switch from monologue to nothing requires intervention. I’m either filling my head with something to occupy it like music, or reading, or video games which in that case my head voice focuses on whatever I’m throwing at my brain with a little spillage. Or I’m seeking out a purposefully quiet environment where I can just go and ignore my thoughts. Almost like meditation but I’m no monk. I’m not sitting in some room with my legs crossed and my arms out falling asleep. I usually just find some place quiet outside and take in the world around me.
What really grinds my gears is the sorting room. I imagine it as each thought going to a room with a few filing cabinets and a shredder in it. That room can probably be broken up into bodily function operations, everyday needs operations, and emotional operations. The first two are functioning, it’s the emotional one that’s backed the fuck up and overflowing. There’s some shit that should have been shredded a long time ago. Some thoughts keep popping up because that particular filing cabinet is overflowing. It manifests itself as depression and anxiety. When my inner voice is concentrating on that, then I know I’m in for a tizzy. The narration goes from quiet nothings to fucking full blown yelling and screaming matches in my head. The dangerous part is resisting the urge…
For me it’s often like watching a movie and lots of 3rd person monolologue as well as one wierd idea after the other popping up and going.
I often alao have interviews with myself how I just killed it in certaim situations and do play by play analysis from these events.
When in public settings I often play in my mind some wierd social games: where I try to find the mood of others and react to what they do (kinda like a dating sim).
I also like to go back to past events and analyse what I could have done better and memorize what to do in a future convo.
Since I speak more than one language my thoughts change languages. When I consume or produce in a certain language my brain is basically in that language and all my thoughts are in that language.
I have an internal voice/monologue day-to-day but visual when engaging in recall.
Easiest way to describe it is when I read a novel it’s all going in as words but if I think about a specific part later it’s recalled as a picture my mind created out of the words. I read the book but recall the movie.
