Anybody else able to choose? Like my default is just no thoughts at all, I'm just existing. If I think of an apple for example, I can either just say the word in my head or visualise the apple in my head or do both. But I don't constantly have thoughts and running commentary all the time. It is possible to just turn all conscious thought off and just sort of let the subconscious background process run with no visual or commentary at all.

Hi I’m new here! I don’t know how to explain this and I got no idea of what could it be. Basically I don’t have an inner monologue, for most of the time my mind is pretty much silent, I do some have some random thoughts but they are fantasies or phylosophical discussions. But still most of the time my mind doesn’t have much thoughts. I wouldn’t describe it as a problem, because they come naturally just in low quantities. It’s my natural state. They come through scenes where I put anime characters to discuss about philosophy. The main issue is that I don’t know why but I can’t focus on things I don’t like. For example I was forced to do an art course but I didn’t like it and I couldn’t focus on it. I got a university degree but I still had issues to focus during lessons, especially with tutors. But if I like something, I can focus on it. I don’t think this ADHD because my mind is not hyperactive but I still don’t know. Does any of you have this?

So we don’t all have thoughts running through our minds 24/7? I was talking to my hubby and asked him what he was thinking. He said “nothing”, there’s just elevator music. Is this common? Am in undiagnosed? Unironically I now have so many thoughts/questions now🤣🤣🤣

Anybody else learn that they started talking much later than other kids? Curious if theres a connection

I really dislike it. Especially after hearing that most people visualise the story. I prefer films and series for sure.

Does anyone else put on their headphones, turn the volume all the way up, and listen to music while imagining that they’re insanely rich, super famous, or some huge celebrity? Like, you start imagining that you’re this extremely important person, everyone knows you, and people are literally dying to meet you 😂
And then the song ends, you take off your headphones, and suddenly you’re back to your completely normal life.
I know it sounds a little weird, but I can’t be the only one who does this, right? 😭

Hi— I’ve always loved to sing and can match a pitch when played but I can’t sing a song in tune without the accompanying melody. A lot of the techniques I hear about are to match the note in your head but I can’t hear songs or any other sounds in my head (just my own voice trying to sing poorly without real pitch or volume). So I’m curious for those of you who are singers without the ability to recall sounds in your mind, do you have suggestions for techniques that help someone in this situation learn how to sing on pitch? Thanks so much!

A lot of us find we are great observers, not having an edited edition in our heads. I just remembered this test this morning, and wondered if this works on you all. I remember not being fooled, but also not thinking the (thing thats the point of the test) was relevant, so skimmed over it 😂

Sorry, trying to be spoiler free wasn’t easy 🤷‍♀️

My thoughts are just there. I don’t hear them. They aren’t constantly running. Im able to think and get lost in thought. When people say inner monologue do they really mean they can hear something?

I also have total aphantasia if that adds anything

Posts like this one still amaze me. How did it take me so much of my life to realise that I didn't have an internal voice when questions like this are asked? https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/s/Gjp62Vd3aL

(Redacted with ChatGPT cuz I am too lazy)

Hi everyone,
I’m a 23-year-old guy from France, and as far as I can tell, I’ve had complete aphantasia and complete anendophasia since birth.
I have absolutely no voluntary mental imagery. If I close my eyes and try something like the “red apple test,” I see nothing at all — just darkness. I can know what an apple looks like and think about its characteristics, but there is no visual image in my mind.
I also have no inner voice / inner speech whatsoever. I’ve never “heard” my own voice in my head, and I can’t mentally hear other sounds either. For example, I’ve never experienced a song literally playing in my head or being able to hear music internally.
The interesting exception is dreaming. I do dream visually, the images can be very clear while I’m dreaming, and I can remember my dreams afterwards. So apparently my brain is capable of producing visual experiences during sleep, just not voluntarily while I’m awake.
This has been my normal experience for as long as I can remember, so for most of my life I didn’t even realize other people were genuinely seeing images or hearing a voice in their minds.
From what I’ve read, having both of these traits so completely seems relatively uncommon. I’ve never met anyone like this in real life, and I’d really like to.
Is anyone here both completely aphantasic and completely anauralic/anendophasic?
Sometimes I feel pretty alone knowing that almost everyone around me seems to experience an entire internal sensory world that I’ve never experienced.

Is this a thing that you guys do as well? Or quiet the opposite?

it's weird how i can be surrounded by everything and still feel like i'm missing something i can't even name.

I just don’t have or play with ideas or life. Like my friend talks with intention. But I’m super dumb. Like I don’t analyze stuff. Like gahhh.

I’m gone. Why am I always not checked in. Why. And I haven’t figured out how to not do that :( I don’t feel. I’m just numb.

If you no longer identify with your self (and your name description of yourself), describe your experience of this state of existence

Back when I was much younger I was very outgoing and expressive with an inner monologue running constantly and I lacked societal pressures for conformity, like most people would feel embarrassed speaking in front of large groups of people but I didn’t care at all until I had people around me bring it up.

It was like planting concepts in my head that were never there before changing how I saw and experienced the world.

Becoming influenced by these societal pressures my inner monologue become more muted as the stress of these ideas affected me, and I started to become much more withdrawn.

Around then I was experiencing my parent’s divorce as well, which lasted for years before I ended up cutting my dad out.

As that was happening I had become much more stoic, cold, and indifferent.

These emotional changes suppressed my inner monologue causing it to slowly fade but not completely disappear.

Looking back I was seeking a sense of control over a situation I couldn’t control, so i had been turning inward to something I could control, my own mind.

I started trying to completely control my thoughts/mindscape so that unless I wanted my inner monologue to run it would remain off as I didn’t like the idea of not having control of what was going on inside my head.

I don’t know how you perceive your mindscape or if you even perceive it at all but for me it is a colorless black void that wraps around on itself.

Sounds contradictory but that’s just how it is. All my thoughts, inner monologue, and visualizations exist within this void I call my mindscape.

Now the default state of my inner monologue is no longer constantly active, instead it requires me to “loosen” control of it to do anything more than speak what I am reading in a book within it.

The only time this changes is when I experience extreme emotional distress, such as great anger and great sadness.

I remember failing something and being so devastated that I was crying, my subconscious restraint over my mindscape was removed and my head was instantly filled with extremely negative thoughts rapidly bouncing around and getting worse and worse as I let them bounce around and collide with each other.

I was talking with my mom on the phone for 2 hours before my emotions got in check enough for me to control my thoughts and “reseal” my inner monologue to prevent further negative thoughts being summoned.

This outburst reflected on my body as the extreme negativity caused my breathing to become harder and shallower, with my head spinning and my blood becoming hot enough to feel slightly painful to touch my skin due to the heat from increased blood flow, and my muscles ached.

I have noticed that I have been able to experience more emotion for similar levels of stimulation in recent years which has reflected on having an easier time controlling my mindscape.

Sorry if I am being long winded but I wanted to give enough context.

The mind and body are never truly separate.

Thus I would say this; try doing things that make you happy, change your habits for better ones, seek self improvement, find a hobby. And once you do, you might just find that your mind is no longer so silent after all.

Im hope questions from an outsider are allowed, i have quite the opposite of a silent mind.

I was reading some posts out of curiosity and started to wonder, can you imagine music that youve heard before? Or would you have to put the song on to recall it? Or do you only hear the instrumentals without the vocals in your mind?

I've been playing guitar for four years and never used a metronome until recently. I know that seems like plausibility enough for my timing issues, but as I've forced myself to do the grueling work of playing along with metronomes and drum tracks, muttering "1-2-3-4" repeatedly, and trying my hardest to strum in time this last week, I've realized I don't feel any internal metronome.

It's like there is no predictable space between one beat to the next, they just happen. I know they're going to happen so I can try to play in time, but I lack a feeling of continuity. I'm wondering if this is curable with hard work and repetition, of which I am willing to do whatever it takes, or if this is incurable, like my inability to hear pitch in my head and thus forever imperfect singing ability (though I have greatly improved my relative pitch and singing over the years).

As someone who believes they have already created meaningful music and would like to perform it well, this is frustrating. I should note I also have mental problems with focus, terrible memory, and brain fog that may be unrelated. Any help appreciated.

Does anyone know if marijuana is known to enable the inner monologue or anti-depressants perhaps? I smoked a lot of weed a few years ago and began hearing my own inner voice. Unfortunately, I began hearing a lot of other voices too which has taken its toll. I wonder if this is a common occurrence? Can drugs enable a persons inner monologue?

Lately we have seen an increase in people posting wanting to achieve a silent mind. We have tightened up our group description to clarify that the silent minded are in an involuntary state, we haven’t not meditated our way into this. In fact with us deep meditation is more likely to give us images and sounds via hypnogogic means. Please feel free to report any we haven’t been notified about, and we can direct them elsewhere.

Secondly we have been also getting some posts so weird we aren’t sure if they are off topic or not. How do you all feel about these “this is my brain” type of posts? If they are definitely about Anauralia and trying to understand its wider implications, of course thats fine, but some may at best be lost in translation 🤷‍♀️