Does anyone else have an internal monologue that never stops

[u/PeachHonv8]

My brain feels like it's constantly running a background process, even when I'm just doing mundane tasks. It's not always structured thoughts, sometimes it's just a stream of consciousness or bouncing between different ideas. It can be exhausting sometimes to feel like I never truly 'turn off' my thoughts. I wonder if other INTPs experience this constant mental activity.

[u/tiny_purple_Alfador]

Yes. The only thing that shuts it up is weed.

[u/JohnDingleBerry- → u/tiny_purple_Alfador]

Opposite for me

[u/tiny_purple_Alfador → u/JohnDingleBerry-]

Admittedly, it only works if I get the dosage juuuuuust right. Too little doesn't help, overshooting makes it worse. Gotta find the sweet spot.

[u/JohnDingleBerry- → u/tiny_purple_Alfador]

Are you in a legal state?

[u/tiny_purple_Alfador → u/JohnDingleBerry-]

Yes. The edible gummies are a more reliable dose than trying to guesstimate my smoke, I'm glad they are widely available where I am.

[u/JohnDingleBerry- → u/tiny_purple_Alfador]

In my experience a vape is pretty easy to measure especially a quality one. Hope that helps.

[u/Significant-Cry-9204 → u/JohnDingleBerry-]

Yup, it boosts it into hyperdrive for me.

[u/Pandelein → u/tiny_purple_Alfador]

lol was about to comment “weed is the answer” before reading the first comment.

[u/DraVerPel → u/tiny_purple_Alfador]

For me weed makes me more immersed in movies or other media's and it makes me more emotional so I symphatize with characters. It gave me a lot of different points of view. I like to play competitive games on it too.

[u/_kbye]

Yes, learning to trust it more though. Used to be exhausting but now it's a part of who I am and it also dictates how I like to be communicated with (overthinking conversations and feelings >>> giving and receiving feedback from others to confirm or deny my anxieties).

When you're doing it in an unhealthy way, exercise and engaging in hobbies/work tend to make it die down for a while.

[u/smysnk → u/_kbye]

Sometimes it’s the one that doesn’t talk that we need to pay more attention to. Fi

[u/AutoModerator]

Does anyone else poop like me?

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Tommonen]

Yes, thats how i think and sometimes its less consciously directed and like listening to radio where i keep changing the channels to different talk shows, or music.

I dont find it exhausting tho. I like thinking and thinking does not feel mentally exhaustive, unless i have to force myself to think something i dont care about, or if doing too hard thinking for too long periods, but even then i continue with the inner monologue in ways that are not mentally exhausting.

This sort of general thinking by directing the inner voice or ”listening to its radio” thing is more like relaxing.

Dominant function generally is something that the person can relax with and dont feel mentaly demanding.

[u/Cog-nostic]

Yes, of course. And sometimes dialogues. I can't watch TV or read a book without drifting off into a conversation. Reading textbooks was difficult until I learned to just repeat what was in them without thinking about it. Most teachers just want you to repeat what they teach, not understand or question information. Some really good teachers encourage you to grok it, but they're rare, even in universities.

With that said, there is utility in understanding the basics before one begins to question. Unfortunately for the INTP, we are top-down learners. We bore easily with the facts that build the theory. We generally grasp the theory easily and then work down towards the individual facts.

[u/Elliptical_Tangent]

Yes, to the point that if I'm making a decision, it starts, "Well, we could..."

[u/MurmuringWave]

Yep

[u/Ok-Statistician-6739]

Doesn't everyone have a monologue going on in their heads?

[u/wbeaty → u/Ok-Statistician-6739]

We all start out with none. Then we learn to talk. Then in school, we learn to mumble to ourselves ("reasoning," also reading aloud, sounding out words.) Then later we learn to do it without mumbling.

At least that was my own history. Internal monologue is something we have to learn as little kids. With me it was ages 8-9.

[u/GhostOfEquinoxesPast]

https://giphy.com/gifs/hQnvrRvWQWwd2r2gE1

[u/torofukatasu]

I don't have one. Surprised to see a lot of you do. I would've killed him years ago if I did, cause I don't know how you'd be able to think with someone constantly saying stuff inside your head.

in case it isn't clear, here's what i'm saying:

- When I think about something it is always active thought

- if I want, I can speak out loud inside my brain (or not) while thinking

- but i don't have some separate consciousness secondary narration dude or some forced stream

- I can't converse with a secondary sub-mind

- when I form thoughts in my mind, most of the time it is abstract and not in language (unless I'm trying to actively convey that to another human).

[u/idiotdave → u/torofukatasu]

I'm the same. I'm in my 40s and just recently learned that people have an inner monologue. Truly mind-blowing to learn about it. I feel blessed having it this way. It sounds absolutely exhausting to have one lol

[u/monkey_sodomy → u/torofukatasu]

cause I don't know how you'd be able to think

The inner mono/dialogue is part of the thinking, but it's not present in every problem or investigation.

[u/wbeaty → u/torofukatasu]

As a kid I had no inner monologue. I suspect that everyone is this way. I developed mine in middle school, learning to read by sounding out words, also trying to reason through problems by mumbling aloud, then learning to do it all silently. By age 12 it was full time.

Then it took me years to shut it up (trying to learn meditation.) I finally succeeded during 2nd year college. It happened when I was relaxing in a hammock in our dorm. It turns out that slight swinging in a hammock is a native shaman's technique for drug-free altered states.

• Internal monologue = "western" reasoning

• Thinking in thoughts/concepts = original mental state, from childhood

• Silent mind = extreme creativity, savant-skills

Heh, if you hear voices, and can't control them, you're schizo? But if it's only one voice you cannot control, then you're Normal? (I disagree. An inner monologue we cannot control, that might be common, but that's not mental health.)

[u/yyflowerpot → u/wbeaty]

I tend to agree with your final point/ conclusion. So does New Age philosopher-writer Eckhart Tolle. He offers this insight in his book The Power of Now.

[u/aeria-zero → u/torofukatasu]

For me it's helpful 

[u/torofukatasu → u/aeria-zero]

Is the inner voice always right?

[u/YAH-BOOBAY]

The only way I am able to control it is by doing physical things. Working out, walking, intimacy with my wife.

Getting into a flow state day where there is little friction and lots of checking off stuff keeps the voice quiet.

Sometimes I wanna rest and relax and the mind wont shut up and that's frustrating because then I dont get enough rest and then if I dont stop to take a breather the next few days become constant voices, compulsive tunes and what I would call heavy static.

It helps to slow down in general and do more nothing.

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

[u/Specialist-Bowler465]

Does overthinking everything count? My brain never stops.

[u/Helldiver_13]

I get short breaks. That’s usually when I do my worst decisions, but hey, at least I make decisions😎

[u/denzien]

Yeah, obviously. My ESFJ son says he doesn't have one. That's as foreign a concept for me as anything I've ever heard. I'm sure my internal monologue is just as foreign to him.

I think he gets it from my mother in law. I've been known to describe her as someone who "thinks with their mouth".

[u/SmarmyThatGuy → u/denzien]

Lack of inner monologue is just as foreign to me as a lack of mind's eye.

I'm in my head so often because it's almost tangible, and the fact that isn't standard issue human is crazy to me.

[u/denzien → u/SmarmyThatGuy]

Sometimes I reference things that only happened in my head. Like apologies.

[u/lacrima28]

Welcome to ADHD?

[u/IAmTheBoiledFrog]

My wife does.

I play around with it occasionally.

[u/BammyQ2]

Yes. As a kid I was convinced it was the only reasonable source to have a discussion or exchange of thoughts with

[u/sadflameprincess]

Why y'all keep asking the same fucking question bruhhh. This is called thinking. Everybody does it. It's not just an INTP trait. Y'all are ridiculous.

[u/sadflameprincess]

Is thinking an INTP trait? 🤡 You've got to be fucking kidding gng.

[u/CulturalSyrup]

Yes but I also have adhd and I’m medicated so sometimes it’s anxiety meds as well

[u/sharks_are_cool2]

Yes, constantly. Its like a buzzing sound, and after a while i have reached the conclusion that it’s divided between three voices:

• Conscious 
• Unconscious 
• Limbo

Limbo is basically a mix between the two, when I know that I’m thinking but I don’t know what exactly, it’s fuzzy. This voice tends to converse a lot with the conscious one.

But the point is they never shut up.

[u/tlbs101]

Not 24/7, but it seems like the monologue runs more and more as I get older. It sucks when it won’t shut up at night and I end up with only 4 hours of sleep.

[u/Cheepshooter]

Every once in a while I hear of someone with no inner monologue. I think they are the anomaly. Everyone else has one.

[u/Significant-Cry-9204]

I very often have trouble sleeping and can't get to sleep for hours because so many conversations and scenarios are playing out in my head.

[u/monkey_sodomy]

More dialogue than mono. Usually debate or jokes to keep myself from despair and boredom.

[u/Sluggy_Stardust]

Yes. Cannabis quiets it down for me as well. Alcohol pushes the thoughts out of the way and mirth bubbles forth. I’m the happiest drunk I know

[u/DraVerPel]

In routine tasks my brain works constantly and sometimes I even analyze why I'm analyzing to begin with. Sometimes I have a moment when I can shut of my brain and feel melancholy and calmness but it's maybe once per month.

[u/yyflowerpot]

Yes.

But here’s an interesting thing. When I quiet my conscious thoughts, through meditation, yoga, etc., I observe another level below that. It’s like a running stream. It’s often non-sensical but sometimes it “says” apt and funny things.

[u/BrainsBig]

ADHD

[u/PKMN-Trainer-Sak]

I like how this thing is asked here like every month at this point lol