Speaking out loud helps me to ignore external distractions, and keep track of which is the number one priority I want to think about. Most of my life, I’ve had multiple things being worked out in my brain simutaniously, and speaking helps me not to not start off on a tangent process. For the last half decade of severe illness I’ve had a lot of problems. On bad days I reach a point where I’m going in circles and not completing a task. At that point I start saying the word for what I’m trying to do. Like “broom” until I have it in my hand. I’m not crazy in this case, just easily distracted so that the cereal is still on the floor where I dropped it, half an hour earlier.
Errata: A year and a half ago I couldn’t remember most spelling, and I couldn’t even do phonic spelling at times, because I couldn’t associate a sound with a letter. Last fall, when I rejoined this crowd I was starting the climb back up and have improved considerably, but the short term memory has some bad days. It’s the reason I go into verbose mood on these threads. In my case pratice makes better. Please don’t hijack the thread to reply on my illness. I’m trying to improve myself by doing, not hijack the thread. Merry Christmas!
I’m good at mimicing accents and voices too. You don’t get to that point being quiet. I tend to use physical gestures and voices that match my tale of the moment, while also having a voice that carries accross a big noisy room. I automatical switch and mimic the person I’m telling about.
So it’s OK to have sex with oneself, but weird to talk to oneself?
“What’s happened? You never want to talk afterwards anymore.”
Regardless, I do wish writers would stop ripping off Mark Twain with variations on the “so I says to myself, ‘self’ I says.” line. It’s right up there with “I’m shocked, shocked!” from Casablanca among annoyances.
I don’t think talking to yourself is a pathology, but as a rider of public transportation, I can attest to the notion that it occurs quite frequently in people that obviously have some sort of mental pathology.
I never liked my habit of talking to myself, so I switched to talking to my dog, which seemed slightly less nutty by comparison. It was only when I caught myself asking my pooch, “Well, what do you think?” that I decided I had to stop both habits or end up in the padded room.
There are two kinds of people: those for whom silence is the default and it takes effort to speak, and those for whom talking is the default and it takes effort to shut up.
I’m one of the first sort. I hardly ever talk to myself or think out loud, because it would require extra effort to push air past my vocal cords and move my lips and tongue to form my thoughts into audible words. How am I supposed to think and do all that at the same time?
But for the second sort of people, talking to oneself seems perfectly natural.
Actually, I’m one of the first type, but I find that having to say something out loud will force me to organize my thoughts. As for bullshit-that-you will-allow-yourself-to-get away-with-in-the-confines-of-your-own-head…when said out loud, becomes much more obviously bullshit.
The first rule about Fight Club is you don’t talk about Fight Club.
Hee. This is a very interesting thread so far. I should make it clear I’m not talking about idle comments…I’ve had whole dialogues…err…monologues with myself, with the TV, with the books I’m reading (and no I don’t think they can hear me and no they’re not talking back!!!) But as I’ve said I’ve freaked out a few roomates trying to articulate my thoughts to myself. But some people have no imagination…
oh heck, yeah.
i still do it to this day. even been known to answer myself on occasion.
thirteen years in radio where you sit alone in a booth for 5 to 8 hours a day and have nothing to do but look at spinning LPs will make you that way - even if you weren’t before.
an intern who worked at my station one summer boasted that it wouldn’t happen to him. ‘there is no way i’ll talk to myself,’ he said. ‘not gonna happen.’
we smirked and placed bets. within a week he was busily conversing with himself.
most of my internal conversations are just that, internal, i talk to myself nonverbally, heck, i’m not much of a talker anyway, when at work, if i don’t have to talk on the bloody frelling telecommunications device, i can go almost all day without saying a word, if it wasn’t for the quiet clicking of my keyboard, ny co-workers and customers would never know i’m here
it’s we “quiet” ones you have to worry about
i have no problem talking to people, but if i don’t have to, i won’t, if i have something to say, i say it, if i don’t i don’t, no talking just to fill the air with noise
(not that you could tell from my post anyway )
this whole “talking to yourself” thing reminds me of a comedy routine by Maine comedians “Bert and I”
<woman on ship, to the ship’s captain> Captain, i hear you speaking to yourself often, are you lonely?
<Captain> I like to talk to an intelligent man, and I like to hear an intelligent man speak…
