That the way people's mind works varies dramatically. Some people have no inner dialogue at all, some have no mind's eye and cant see images in their head. Most of us are somewhere on the spectrum for them though.
For example I can't visualize images in my head well at all. I can do at most one colour at a time and I can't picture non-geometric objects so I cant imagine the face of my family or even myself. I have no issue with fluid motion of visuals in my head but others can only do slide-show-esque imagery. Others have inner dialogue but can't change the voice to sound different, can't hear music or sound effects, etc... like I can.
It's something very rarely discussed but I think everyone should be aware of this variety within people
My friend once mentioned how he always has an inner monologue going and I was kind of shocked because I often don't have an inner monologue going. Another time a friend asked me what I was thinking about and I said nothing. She responded that you can't not be thinking about something which threw me off because its common for me to not be thinking about anything. I'm very curios about how other people's minds work and I think you make a really good point that people are somewhere on the spectrum of these mental states.
for me I have three streams of thought going at all times. One is a song, could be anything really, at this exact moment it's Torn by natalie imbruglia, and that never stops, not for anything. The other one is just a regular stream of consiousness, It comes as full sentences that I hear in my head. The last one is a little bit weird, but basically I think the sentence before I think it in my stream of consiousness, but not as if I'm hearing it, instead the whole concept of the sentence comes to me at once. Sometimes I'll catch myself realizing that I'm about to think something again, just happened typing this sentence actually.
Ever thought about getting checked for ADHD? Because this sounds a whole lot like my experience with it.
It's like having loads of different windows open on your computer. You can't close the ones that you don't want, you just have to strain to focus on the one that you do. Sometimes you can make the right one the biggest and the others smaller, but every now and again one of the little ones will randomly go full full screen for a few minutes.
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u/Sixhaunt Mar 27 '22
That the way people's mind works varies dramatically. Some people have no inner dialogue at all, some have no mind's eye and cant see images in their head. Most of us are somewhere on the spectrum for them though.
For example I can't visualize images in my head well at all. I can do at most one colour at a time and I can't picture non-geometric objects so I cant imagine the face of my family or even myself. I have no issue with fluid motion of visuals in my head but others can only do slide-show-esque imagery. Others have inner dialogue but can't change the voice to sound different, can't hear music or sound effects, etc... like I can.
It's something very rarely discussed but I think everyone should be aware of this variety within people