I can create whole "movie" scenes (I can create the story, see the characters, hear the dialogs, ...) in my head while trying to fall asleep

This is so fascinating. I don't know how I would have survived childhood without that internal voice. I was incredibly shy and my step dad was mentally and emotionally abusive. If I couldn't have escaped into my own mind, I would have gone crazy. As in padded room institutionalized crazy. Now I'm worried that all these people are lonely because they don't have themselves to talk to and it's legitimately stressing me out.

Internal monologues? Try an internal dialogues, ranging from the gentlest to the angriest, with a cast of hundreds of self-appointed philosopher kings who constantly vie for the shifting locus of control, to get some sense of my internal mental state. It's like an enormous parliament in there, with an ever growing cast of voices and another election every 1-4 hours.

I didn't know so many people had this. I do. It's one of the reasons I have insomnia. I try sleeping, a thought comes over me, and a complete monologue happens. I have to watch mindless TV shows to shut out the noise.

Some of my thoughts are words and some just pictures.

Not the first time I encounter this piece of info, but still I can not imagine how a non-narrative thinking process works. Me, I'm very verbal and picturesque in my mind. So, when I'm going to literally paint you a picture to understand what I'm saying, don't get offended, it's for me, easier to communicate this way. Likewise, I need a story to understand things. Give me a hypothetical situation, a scenario, an illustration, an actual image.

I actually remember having had a conversation about this with my mother as a kid, and at that time I did not think in sentences. The conversation started with me asking what happens if someone is never taught a language, and she told me they would not be able to think. At that time it made so sense to me, because that's not how I thought. Weird thing is, I now only am able to think in sentences, and have a hard time not speaking them out loud. (I'm that weird guy speaking to himself as he walks the street). I wonder when and how the change happened.

Yeah it's true! My husband is one of those who doesn't have an internal dialogue. Me, it's like Netflix on autoplay and there's also a radio playing in the room and I'm like a sports announcer responding to EVERYTHING. You can imagine how maddening it was to ask my husband what he was thinking about or what song was stuck in his head that day 😂 My brain can be so much but mediation really helps.

Yes I hear my own voice when I read stuff. Or put it other voices to make a conversation if reading it that way. Like those texts. And yes also picture images when describing something to someone too. But the best to ask someone is if when dreaming can they see themselves if they looked in a mirror or is it like real life where you participate but don't see yourself (but like your hands or legs an body but not face as in normal existence).

I have internal monologues all the time. And dialogues. In several languages (not bragging, it's the nature of my job to use several languages). Brushing my teeth can be doubled by an entire speech. I simply could not picture a different way of thinking. Full sentences, pictures that are sometimes crystal-clear, or even entire movie-like sequences (loading activities, parking manoeuvers). Without this kind of thinking environment, I doubt I could do my job. It is kind of exhausting, however...

I've always thought in dialogue. There's two of us, we're both me and we're both one but when I think, it's always a conversation between us. I always thought everyone thought like that. How do you ever decide whether something's the right thing to do if you can't have a discussion with yourself before hand?

There must be other people who do both, c'mon. I switch quite often between having a monologue and just a series of images in my mind. If I think out loud, it's usually a dialogue with an audience. When I imagine things, it's like a movie scene but it can contain a monologue.

I have thought about this a lot. And my interest lies in both thoughts and dreams. I dreamed exclusively in black and white until my early twenties. My dreams have always been HIGHLY vivid (I lucid dream regularly). I can feel and smell, but I cannot read in my dreams for the life of me. I might get one or two words in then it will start melting away. As far as thinking goes, I'm a mix of both visual and narrative. My inner monologue is constant, LOUD and over powering. My thoughts race and are intrusive (I'm diagnosed bipolar I and generalized anxiety). But my visual thoughts can be just as overbearing and invasive. Someone can say "imagine how it must feel to be shot" and I don't just think, damn... that'd hurt. I picture a gruesome scenario that is vivid, I hear the shot, see and smell the blood, feel the pain and panic.

What's most shocking to me is that this seems to be an either/or situation for most people. I do both. Sometimes I think in words and others I think in abstract ideas and then have to verbalize it. I can't believe some people do one or the other.

I looked this up a few weeks ago, so weird. Personally my thoughts are more images/abstract but I don't necessarily visualize when reading. Brains are strange.

I recently had a similar mind-blown experience. You know when people say they have a photographic memory, you picture Benedryl Cucumberpatch doing his Sherlock thing? Turns out it's nothing like that - found out recently I, in fact, have one (it's actually called eidetic memory). Pretty much it just means I remember in movies/snapshots that last with excellent clarity for years. And I can pause/rewind/zoom in on the movies. I thought everyone did that and was really shocked to find out they don't!

That is interesting! I'm actually much more eloquent in my head than I am out loud. I can have full clever conversations explaining myself and my emotions or actions and thinking up phrases to say to myself or other people. Or I can come up with stories and things for my characters to say-- then the moment I open my mouth I'm a mess of verbal nonsense and awkwardness.