Is it normal to talk to yourself? The enemy within: the dangers of dialogue with yourself

Talking to yourself is an adequate phenomenon if it looks like a monologue inside yourself. In addition, the norm is to talk to yourself out loud, if such a monologue helps coordinate your own actions and helps you cope with your emotions. The inner voice is an important assistant; it gives you a chance to put thoughts in order, plan actions, and look for things.

Scientists are sure that a person talks to himself 70% of the time. If a person tells himself something out loud, then this is evidence of an encounter with an unusual task or a search for things.

Conducting an experiment. Self-Dialogue Help

Researchers started an experiment to find out how a monologue helps find lost things. The volunteers were divided into 2 parts. One group looked for a thing, thinking out loud, and the other - silently.

The results were surprising. The first group found what was lost sooner than the second. This study proves that self-talk helps to more correctly perceive and understand brain data.

Where does systematic self-talk come from, and why is the voice within us exactly like this? Like other factors in personality development, it is formed at an early age. It is upbringing that influences our consciousness and internal dialogues. If you constantly hear insults directed at yourself, characterizing you as a lazy incompetent, then the voice inside will only utter insults. Such children become pessimists, aggressive or apathetic.

A conversation with yourself will help you find a lost item, understand a complex problem, and make the right choice.

If your parents made such a mistake, then do not despair. Everyone can help themselves. If you work on yourself, sooner or later you will hear an exclamation from within: “I’m doing great.” Researchers have expressed opinions about the primary inner voice. In 70% of cases, the inner “man” is the one who brings criticism and negativity in life. For a positive result, try to change it, subjugate it. Present all reproaches as a cute animal or an overly pretentious personality. If you focus on the way you speak internally, it will distract from the essence of the phrases, they will not offend your personality as much.

Then learn if it is a hindrance. This is difficult, but training will make the task easier: concentrate on several points at once, try to keep 3 things in your field of vision, perceive 3 sounds around you. Such workload will “drown out” the conversation inside.

If your inner “resident” loves you, then he helps in fulfilling your plans. And turning it off often helps not only in relationships (the voice talking about problems and past failures often spoils romance and intimacy), but also in work.

Remember, a conversation with yourself should support a person in everything, not cause panic, and not distract from important thoughts and moments.

Self talk. Signs of psychosis

If a person talks to himself and does not expect an answer, then this often turns out to be an early sign of psychosis - schizophrenia. If you just mumble something, this is not always a sign of such a disease. But laughter and long conversations in combination with other behavioral abnormalities (isolation, hallucinations) require immediate consultation with a doctor.

Self-talk as a mental disorder is easy to recognize. A person in such a state disconnects from everything, he is not interested in communicating with other people.

The most typical symptom of psychosis is hallucinations. This is an incorrect perception of reality in one of the sensory categories. In this case, there are no external stimuli in life, but the person hears, sees or feels something. Such phenomena appear at the moment between awakening and sleep, in an unconscious state, in delirium tremens, in severe exhaustion. Another reason is hypnosis. Most often, hallucinations are visual.

Clear hallucinations are a symptom of schizophrenia. With one of the varieties of this disease, people are sure that they hear orders from an internal voice or a voice from the outside, they obey, defend themselves, or commit suicide.

But you should not, contrary to popular opinion, assume that schizophrenia is the same as personality disorders in the form of duality, when a person also has conversations with himself.

Thinking out loud and alone with yourself does not mean that you are crazy. As strange as it may seem, such conversations can bring tangible benefits. We will talk about why it is so important to at least sometimes think out loud with yourself.

It has long been noted that talking out loud is one of the characteristic signs of the smartest people. Many geniuses had this feature. This is confirmed not only by historical facts, but is also reflected in works of literature, painting, and even scientific works. It is known that Albert Einstein reasoned out loud when thinking about his theories, Immanuel Kant said: “To think means to talk to oneself... to hear oneself.”

What is this phenomenon and why does a person need it? It turns out that almost all people tend to talk out loud to themselves. And this happens quite often - at least once every few days. Psychologists from the American University of Wisconsin-Madison argue that such a habit is not a deviation, but, on the contrary, has a positive effect on brain function.

Left to yourself, take a closer look at both.
Stanislav Jerzy Lec

If you are bored alone with yourself, then you are in bad company.
Jean-Paul Sartre

As a result of a person talking out loud to himself, the brain begins to work more efficiently, and therefore the person:

1. Can find items faster

An experiment was conducted in which participants were asked to find lost objects. Such activities, according to researchers, provoke people to talk to themselves. While completing the task, one group had to remain silent, and the participants in the second group could reason with themselves without restrictions. As a result, the second group completed the task more successfully; its participants found the lost things faster. Scientists explain this by the fact that speech significantly increases attention, speeds up perception and the thought process, which helps the brain quickly find the right solution.

By saying the name of an object and talking to ourselves about our previous actions, we not only activate our memory, but also concentrate better.

2. Learns faster and thinks faster

It has long been noted that a mathematical (for example) problem read aloud by the student himself is solved faster. The fact is that two channels of perception are involved - auditory and visual, plus - reading aloud is somewhat slower than reading “to oneself”, and thus the brain better perceives the condition of the problem and the solution comes faster. Therefore, children in the learning process often pronounce and repeat what they do. This makes it possible to remember for the future ways to solve those problems that arise.

When repeating educational material out loud, the same thing happens - the brain better assimilates and remembers information (due to several channels of perception), its structuring occurs, and the articulatory muscles develop and adapt to pronouncing new words, which makes it easier to reproduce the learned material in class. As a result, memory improves, speech and verbal handling of complex concepts develop.

3. Calms down, successfully organizes and structures thoughts

In moments of emotional stress (and sometimes in a calm state), a person’s thoughts randomly jump and rush around, there is complete confusion in the head. Speaking out loud what worries you slows down the process of anxiety and slows down the flow of thoughts. This allows you to calm down and clear your thoughts. After all, in a calm state it is easier to sort everything out and come to a reasonable, albeit sometimes difficult, decision.

4. Reaches the goal faster

At least once in our lives, each of us said to ourselves: “that’s it, starting on Monday I’m starting a new life - I’m going on a diet, learning English, going to the gym.” But at least once in our lives, each of us never did anything. But if we agreed to run in the morning with our friend, then it’s more difficult to retreat from the agreement.

By speaking out loud our intended goals, we agree with ourselves to start doing something, we take upon ourselves unique obligations, which are more difficult to break. This is how the psyche works in an interesting way.

At the same time, discussing each step with ourselves, we prepare the brain and psyche, thereby removing internal resistance and making the task easier for ourselves, making everything less complicated, clearer and more specific. We spend less energy fighting ourselves, which means we have more energy left to achieve our goals, this makes it possible to see things in perspective and move forward more firmly and confidently.

5. Gets rid of loneliness

Thoughts are spoken out loud most often when a person is alone in a room. If a person is lonely or is not used to being alone, then this is one of the unconscious ways to get rid of loneliness.

6. Eliminates self-doubt

By speaking out loud the events that happened, a person calms down and begins to analyze. Such monologues help relieve emotional stress, coordinate actions and put thoughts in order. But most importantly, they help you hear yourself, and not just accept the negative opinions of others. And also, to come to the conclusion that not everything is as bad as it seemed at the first moment.

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The cause of inner speech

Inner dialogues, whether spoken out loud or not, are normal. Scientists suggest that a person talks to himself, on average, about 70% of the time. How did such communication with oneself arise, where does our inner voice come from, and such as it is?

1. Negative self-talk. If parents believe that the child must be kept under a tight rein, constantly reprimanded, forbidden, scolded and punished, then the inner voice will tell you that you are incompetent, lazy, bungled or a loser. Such children often grow up to be pessimistic, uninitiative, lacking self-confidence, aggressive, and even failures. According to scientists, most often such an inner voice in a child is formed by people who bring negativity and condemnation in real life.

But there is good news! It lies in the fact that your inner voice can be reconfigured to a positive strategy. And finally hear praise and support from yourself. How to work on yourself?

Firstly, learn to turn off your inner voice in time, especially when you begin not only to scold yourself, but simply to “gnaw” at yourself for a mistake. To do this, you need to try to focus, for example, on simultaneously tracking sensations in three different points of the body, or perceive three sounds from your environment. With such a load of consciousness, the inner voice with negative information will not reach you.

Secondly, learn to approach yourself positively. In response to your own criticism, learn to ask yourself the question: “What was good and positive in what I did or in what happened. Was everything really so hopeless? Learn to see and appreciate everything O the best thing you have. When assessing an event, first of all think about what was done correctly and well? And then the internal critic and scolder will have no power over you.

2. Positive internal dialogue. If the child hears from his parents that he is loved and valued, he is given support and offered help, or if he can do it, they encourage him to solve the problem himself, and then express meaningful praise (for example, “how you carefully and quickly did !”, and not just “well done!”), then the inner voice will be supportive, encouraging, constructive and motivating to find a solution to the problems or problems that have arisen.

An inner voice, based on high but adequate self-esteem, based on love, support and self-respect, will help in achieving your goals, creating inner harmony, peace of mind, and increasing inner strength. Our internal dialogue should help in our personal life, work and in the process of self-development. It should be short and constructive, not intimidating, not causing anxiety, not causing panic, not lowering self-esteem. And also, be able to shut up in time so as not to distract from the world around you and real life.

Pathology

All of the above, of course, does not apply to pathological conditions when a person talks with an invisible interlocutor, especially if this lasts for a long time. Such strange behavior of a loved one should alert you; this is a reason to definitely seek professional help. Moreover, it’s not a runny nose – it won’t go away on its own. Be healthy!

We all conduct internal dialogues with ourselves, as in the famous song: “Quietly with myself, quietly with myself I am having a conversation.” And such “conversations” do not surprise any of the people around them, because no one hears them. But sometimes you have to deal with someone who is very enthusiastically talking out loud to an invisible interlocutor. It is clearly evident that such a person does not even understand that he is not just thinking about some serious issue, as we all do, “talking” to ourselves in our minds, but is conducting a dialogue, responding to the words that seem to come from from outside. Why do people talk to themselves and why don’t they notice that in fact they don’t have any interlocutor?

Talking to yourself is a sign of psychosis

When a person talks to himself without expecting an answer, this may be an early symptom of schizophrenia. Of course, if he mutters something under his breath for just a day or two, then this is not necessarily a sign of pathology. But if someone laughs for no reason, or if they talk out loud for quite a long period of time, and all this along with other behavioral abnormalities - such as hallucinations, social withdrawal, emotional disturbances, strange behavior - then this person , without a doubt, needs urgent consultation with a psychiatrist.

The most characteristic manifestation of psychosis is the presence of hallucinations. A hallucination is a false perception of reality in any of the five sensory modalities, when an external stimulus does not actually exist, but people subject to hallucinations see, hear or feel a non-existent object. Hallucinations may occur in the twilight state between sleep and awakening, in delirium, delirium tremens, or exhaustion; they can also be induced under hypnosis. Most often, hallucinations are visual.

Persistent hallucinations are characteristic of schizophrenia. In one type of this disease, sick people believe that they hear an accusing commanding voice, to which they react in complete panic, with complete obedience, or with an attempt at self-defense or even suicide. Illusions are somewhat different from hallucinations - if hallucinations occur without any external stimulus, then illusions are characterized by a false perception of the actual stimulus.

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness characterized by a variety of symptoms. These include loss of contact with reality, the aforementioned strange behavior, disorganized thinking and speech, decreased emotional expressiveness, and social isolation. Usually, one patient does not experience all, but only some of the symptoms, and each person may have an individual combination of these symptoms.

The term "schizophrenia" comes from the Greek words "schizo" (meaning "split") and "phreno" ("mind, soul"), and can be translated as "division of the soul." However, contrary to quite common belief, schizophrenia cannot be attributed to a person with a split personality or multiple personality syndrome.

What is the difference between schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder?

Schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder are often confused, and some people believe they are the same thing. In fact, these are two completely different diseases. Schizophrenia is a disorder of brain functioning; some people are already born with this disorder because it can be inherited. But symptoms of the disease usually do not develop for many years. In men, symptoms begin to appear in their late teens or early twenties; Women typically experience symptoms between the ages of twenty and thirty. It happens, of course, that symptoms of schizophrenia appear in childhood, but this happens extremely rarely.

When a person suffers from schizophrenia, he experiences hallucinations and delusions, sees things that do not exist, talks to someone whom he sees quite clearly, believes things that are in no way true. For example, he can see demons who sit at the table with him during lunch; or may quite sincerely believe that he is God's son. People with these disorders also suffer from disordered thinking, decreased concentration, and trouble focusing. They also lose the ability to take initiative and make and implement plans. As a rule, such people cannot be socially adapted.

Often, a person with schizophrenia believes that the voices they hear are there to control them or cause harm. He probably gets very scared when he hears them. He can sit for hours without moving and talk, talk... A sane person, observing a patient with schizophrenia, will not catch a single drop of meaning in his speech. Some people with this disorder appear quite normal; but this is only until they start talking, and most often - talking to themselves. Schizophrenia is also marked by clumsy, uncoordinated movements and an inability to take care of oneself sufficiently.

The main difference between schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder is that the latter disorder is not congenital. This mental state is caused by certain events that occur in a person’s life, and they are usually associated with some psychological trauma received in childhood. This could be, for example, physical or sexual violence. People with this disorder seem to develop additional personalities as a way of coping with the traumatic event. To be diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, a person must have at least one alternate personality that significantly controls their behavior.

In total, one patient can develop up to one hundred personalities, but on average their number is ten. These may be “additional” individuals of the same sex, the other sex, or both sexes at the same time. Sometimes different personalities of the same person will even take on different physical characteristics, such as a certain mode of movement or different levels of health and stamina. But depression and attempts at self-harm can become common to all facets of the personality of the same person.

There are several signs that are the same for both schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder. Patients with schizophrenia may have hallucinations; While people with multiple personality disorder do not always experience them, about a third of patients do experience hallucinations. Multiple personality disorder can cause behavior problems and difficulty concentrating during school at a young age; This can confuse specialists, who sometimes confuse this disorder with schizophrenia, since it also develops and manifests itself most often in adolescence.

As you can see, if a person is talking out loud to an invisible interlocutor, this can be a sign of a very serious condition. Therefore, you must do everything possible to ensure that the person close to you receives the necessary help as soon as possible - otherwise he may cause irreparable harm to himself!

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Thinking out loud is not a sign of madness and can be much more beneficial than it might seem at first glance.

website will talk about why it is possible and important to talk to yourself at least occasionally.

The first thing to say is that talking to yourself out loud is a sure sign of genius. The smartest people on our planet often talked to themselves. This is reflected in scientific works, poetry, painting, and history confirms this.

For example, Albert Einstein loved to think aloud about mathematical formulas and complex theories, and sometimes even consulted with himself. Besides, in There have been many studies confirming that thinking out loud speeds up and structures the thought process.

“Keys, keys, keys. Where did I put them? And here they are, right on the table!” Experimentally, it was found that a person found the desired object faster by repeating its name out loud. Saying the name of what we are looking for at the moment stimulates memory, and we concentrate faster, and therefore find the desired item much faster.

However, you should understand that this only works if you know exactly what what you need looks like.

Children often learn by talking and repeating what they do. And at the same time they remember for the future how they solved the problem that arose. And, probably, everyone knows that when you are trying to remember something, it is better to say it out loud. Thanks to the fact that we hear the information we need in the voice most familiar to our brain, it is remembered much faster and for a long time.

Almost every one of us has a complete mess going on in our heads, and our thoughts are rushing from side to side. But saying what’s bothering you out loud allows you to sort everything out and calm your nerves. Renowned psychologist Linda Sapadin believes that speaking out loud helps us make important and difficult decisions: “This allows you to clarify your thoughts, decide what is important, and strengthen your decision.”

“That’s it, I’ll start running on Monday, learn a foreign language and I’ll definitely sign up for painting courses,” we often tell ourselves. But we all know how difficult it is to make a list of goals and start moving towards achieving them. By talking through each step, you can make this task much easier for yourself, making everything less difficult and more specific. This allows you to put things into perspective and move forward with more confidence.

And finally, the person who knows absolutely everything about you is yourself. Don't be afraid to listen to your inner voice and confidently, loudly answer it.

I agree with what was written... But I want to add something. And I believe that the topic of the inner voice should be one of the main ones in our lives. HE can both create and destroy our different lives.. To be honest, I haven’t figured this topic out yet.. But I was very interested and I’m sure that every person has this. For some reason, this begins for many with an internal dialogue from childhood, and we are not very interested in this matter from the people who surrounded us, right?.. They could explain this to us with internal thinking and nothing surprises us. But as they grow up, many people develop their inner Thinker...or it was already developed!.. I am not an old-timer of mystical ideas. But there is a voice that advises inexplicable things and people in psychiatry sit because of this and remain with these inner Thinkers forever. Why did this interest me?. After all, at first glance, internal dialogue is ordinary things, and psychologists and psychiatrists will deal with the Thinker if moments dangerous to society arise.. But this came to me and this is not at all an internal dialogue.. But communication with oneself and out loud from my real friends.. I treat this normally because I live alone and am far from a savage and I believe that the lived process - a person’s life experience deserves respect and attention.. Ordinary in short) But relatives think that this is not normal.. And they give examples different people who speak out loud... consider this to be a deviation from the norm. But there is a strong difference of opinion regarding the norm. And there is one more thing.. I don’t feel in myself an inner thinker or advisor, announcer, voice.. whatever they call it!?.. And I think that internal dialogue is similar.. but still different.. In my life now hard minuses to be brief... I even began to think and understand that soon the journey of life would be over... I noticed that I like to go to the cemetery... a terrible name for a place of the dead, don’t you agree?)).. I began to think often about those who passed away this world about his late father... Some kind of fatality and calmness as I tried on myself... I repeat that I am not a supporter of mysticism, but I have my firm conviction that in every seeming chaos there is a clear order that no one has yet explained.. I became talk to yourself, these thoughts do not come from me!! I’m like a receiver now... And of course I don’t do this in society.)) I can’t figure out where this comes from.. But I conduct a dialogue out loud in some kind of special sobriety and this helps me a lot to deal with problems, correctly laying out situations into details, but also think about why we are here. . And you are right that there is no need to have other advisers.. But one moment bothers me quite a bit, I’m getting used to doing this and getting used to being alone.. We are in society after all))).. I don’t know how life will turn out in the future and By the way, I’m not very worried about this.. Although the needs in life are, of course, relevant in many respects)) I think that the topic of this should be widely known and requires discussion, but only by those who understand what I mean..