My exact issue right now

Same problem though I also always have music. Background music and thoughts mithering away on top. My head is noisy!! I have to read in order to try and shut it down. Also suffer with 'Exploding Head Syndrome' and that's fun in the middle of the night!

Oh, I don't know, mine solves thorny coding problems while I'm half asleep and then I have the solution in the morning. :D

It’s like a f*****g weird monkey with bells flickflacking in your head.

Yep. The hamster in the wheel never stops running.

Mine is the WORST when I am trying to sleep. I've tried all the exercises, I loved this idea. Picture a black box in your mid (OK I'm there) that blocks out all the "chatter" .... Uhhh yeah ok....all my thoughts in the form of text is just ZOOMING and I mean zooming all around the outside of that dumb ass box. Another one bites the dust.

Me too. My mum doesn't dream though. Her sleep is blank.

So, if Otter just has one person talking in their head, does a dialog mean that most people have two?

Brilliant!! Lmfaooooo

SAME, AND I CAN HEAR PICTURES

This is very common, the condition you are describing is called synesthesia, it’s a type of Neuro-diversity and is more common, though not restricted to, people with other types of neuro-diversity, i.e autism, ADHD, dyslexia etc. I find things like this fascinating!

That's interesting to hear! Sometimes I think I'm more of a mutant that I realize, but I see I have company: ) I can do the both above and also feel the actual, real textures of things in photos.

k, what exactly does "picturing smells" mean? is it like being able to smell coffee if i think about smelling it?

Sauteed mushrooms and onions

That is really cool, I can see sound and certain words as pictures or patterns.

What do you think of it?

I just can't imagine what that would be like.

I'm jealous.

FINALLY, someone who doesn't hear in their brain!! Are your thoughts in pictures too like me or is it just completely empty?

😍

How do the thoughts and ideas appear to you if not in a voice? I just can't imagine it!!!

I've had people tell me this, too. And it's tricky - your inner voice is just...so... "there" you almost have to learn to catch it talking to you. Along with the ideas, thoughts, flashes of photos whirring by, which you're paying attention to, try to see if there's a "patter" of thought going on, too. Focus on why you jumped from that one thought to another. Was there a guidance? It doesn't have to be an actual voice but you can 'hear' an intelligent babble under it all. Or,. maybe not, which is fine. My mom learned to hear hers, and I was shocked hers wasn't right "there". Mine is like a running conversation with myself. Hers was just a subtle feeling of words that nudged, but she didn't hear them. Too fast or fleeting. It's so interesting, all our differences here. We could do an awesome study!

Lucky. My head feels like it heats up sometimes

inner dialogue here, still have all that some in spades.

I wish someone could point out the off switch, then!

But I get that kind of thing anyway, my inner mind is very busy some days.

Tinnitus is my background sound but I still have the dialog and pictures. idk what I'd do if it went away. I've had it forever.

That's kind of a personal question anyway.

Now we want cookies..

Why do you believe that you know better than I do what is happening inside my own head? I am perfectly capable of thinking, but most of the time I have no inner dialogue. The only time that I do have it is when I deliberately 'turn it on' when meditating or in deep introspective thought.

Perhaps you shouldn't "just say" about things you don't understand. Aphantasia is a condition wherein people cannot internally visualize, and sometimes lack an internal dialogue as well. Just because a concept doesn't make sense to you, that does not mean it doesn't make sense at all.

Perhaps you shouldn't "just say" about things you don't understand. Aphantasia is a condition wherein people are unable to internally visualize, and sometimes lack an inner dialogue as well. Just because a concept doesn't make sense to you, does not mean it doesn't make sense at all.

It really sounds like there are a lot of people who only have it when they decide to, though. Maybe the difference is ability to control it.

Look up "aphantasia." :)

I can only do so vaguely. It's why I don't read much. I also have a pretty bad memory for faces.