8 ms·

Hey, it’s me! I’m one of the “inner silence” folks, in case anyone has questions. Didn’t realize y’all heard voices until five years ago.

bsid 5y ago
Question: What happens when you're reading? For me, my inner voice kind of repeats it, if that make sense. Can't wrap my head around what "understanding" would be without that lol.
- Aethylia 5y ago
  This isn't directly related. It's likely a product of how you were taught to read. You can learn to read without it by trying to have the inner voice say something different like 'a, e, i, o, u' while reading. It takes practice but it increases your reading speed.
  - weaksauce 5y ago
    Is comprehension changed?
    - Aethylia 5y ago
      I don't know of any particular studies on this, but in my own experience comprehension is changed by how quickly I read, not whether the voice is used. Learning this just raises the speed limit for when you want to read easily comprehensible texts such as news or comments.
  - state_less 5y ago
    Thanks for the pro tip!
  - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
    I just reread your post with my inner voice repeating “foo” over and over. Is that the kind of thing I should practice? I don’t understand.
    - Aethylia 5y ago
      Yes that works too, probably a nicer one for the HN audience as well! If you can learn to read that way, eventually you won't need to repeat any more and you can read without the voice.
    - junga 5y ago
      Hmm, I then hear my inner voice repeating that text and shouting FOO at the same time. It makes me feel stupid because I can't stop repeating what I read.
- floatingatoll 5y ago
  I glance at the paragraph, it glows briefly, I blink, I trace a spiral from the center counter clockwise, and if I still don’t have comprehension, I go back a couple paragraphs or try again the agonizing word by word way. Sometimes I read left to right to left depending on text width and such. I can usually keep math in the right order but I'm known to add left-to-right which involves the concept of 'one past nine' as a 'digit' for the sake of forcing it into base 10 math, and then I unroll the carries right-to-left, but not always, it depends.
  - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
    > I trace a spiral from the center counter clockwise, and if I still don’t have comprehension, I go back a couple paragraphs or try again the agonizing word by word way Wow. What?
    - titusjohnson 5y ago
      My experience on reading isn't as dramatic as the person you're replying to, but similar. I read whole paragraphs and/or sentences in one go. I don't really know "how" I do it, and there are limits (it really, really helps to know the author and their writing style). My eyes hit the paragraph, flick to see the end of it, traverse back up half-scanning each line, then I scan through the lines from the top, and afterwards I know what the paragraph was saying. It takes a few seconds per paragraph. I can't recite it verbatim but I can effectively describe the content of the paragraph accurately. If I have to read something word-for-word it's so slow that I tend to get bored or frustrated quickly. I don't find that slow, word-for-word reading gives me much more than by inhaling paragraphs whole.
      - floatingatoll 5y ago
        Yep, basically like this. I can’t repeat anything I read verbatim, but I can remember a sentence someone said and quote it back to them easily when context requires it.
    - floatingatoll 5y ago
- psyc 5y ago
  When I read normally, I hear it in real time. There’s a “default” voice, or I can make it a character voice at will. If I want to read a lot faster, I switch the voice off. I seldom do that.
xyzelement 5y ago
I didn't read the article yet but since you're offering... how do you "think through" problems? Example, this was a dialogue I had in my head this morning: "Avenue X has a lot of stop signs which is annoying. But Avenue Y is narrow and it's garbage-pickup time, so I can get unlucky and really stuck behind a garbage truck. That's not worth the risk, I'd rather deal with the stop signs so I am taking avenue X" What is your equivalent of that? Basically, how do you evaluate two alternatives? And how do you know how you made your choice? EG in my case, I know I picked Avenue X because I prefer the annoyance of stop signs to the risk of getting stuck, because that was part of my conversation. How is it for you?
- renton_wal 5y ago
  I don't always use my inner voice. I arrange all of the conditions in my head and then logically and rapidly resolve them. In your example, I wouldn't engage my inner voice for something that simple. If it was planning much more steps than that, I would separate them into blocks and use my inner voice to mentally arrange the inner blocks.
  - xyzelement 5y ago
    Yeah I think that's fair. I probably wouldn't actually use explicit inner voice to chose between two avenues either (unless this was something I apriori considered a very important decision I sat down to consciously think about)
- malwrar 5y ago
  I think in terms of pictures or concepts. Your example becomes me picturing being stuck behind a dump truck, then me stopping at numerous stop signs, then I’d decide based on which one feels like it would be more painful. Do people actually think in terms of complete sentences like you describe in this passage, or is there some nuance to the experience I’m not understanding? Thinking for me feels more like watching thoughts flow between black boxes representing some known factor than talking to a friend.
  - 5y ago
Bellend 5y ago
Hey! I don't know if I have the voice or not. I seen this on a video (Joe Scott maybe?) a couple of weeks ago and I wondered too. I don't know the difference between thinking and inner voice. Like if I am approaching a road, I don't recall an inner voice telling me to stop but I don't know if that is valid as an example. The question might be too broad but how do you know you have no inner voice?
- floatingatoll 5y ago
  Other people apparently hear perceptible voices talking to them. Those cartoons about a devil and angel on your shoulders aren’t just cartoons, it turns out, I guess. I’m not really great at explaining it :)
  - rags2riches 5y ago
    The problem is the devil and the angel both talk with the same voice. The trick is to recognize who's talking anyway.
- renton_wal 5y ago
  Can you speak to yourself in your head? I also think there's a difference between involuntary and voluntary inner voice.
  - WJW 5y ago
    For me there is definitely a difference between voluntary and involuntary. I can imagine speaking to myself, for example. I do/did that when writing this very sentence. But if I'm not consciously generating language (ie speaking or writing, or thinking about either) then it's nice and quiet in my head :)
TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
When you hear a song that you know and like, does the music and singing repeat in your head after the song is over?
- floatingatoll 5y ago
  So much yes. I can find the beat and hum along with it usually in the first ten or twenty seconds. I can remember songs from a single opening note. Apparently I have excellent pitch.
dylan604 5y ago
I'd love to be you at bedtime. That's when the voices love to just ruin your day/night.
- floatingatoll 5y ago
  As it turns out, anxiety-insomnia is just as much a problem whether it's with voices or not :(

bsid 5y ago

Question: What happens when you're reading? For me, my inner voice kind of repeats it, if that make sense. Can't wrap my head around what "understanding" would be without that lol.

Aethylia 5y ago
This isn't directly related. It's likely a product of how you were taught to read. You can learn to read without it by trying to have the inner voice say something different like 'a, e, i, o, u' while reading. It takes practice but it increases your reading speed.
- weaksauce 5y ago
  Is comprehension changed?
  - Aethylia 5y ago
    I don't know of any particular studies on this, but in my own experience comprehension is changed by how quickly I read, not whether the voice is used. Learning this just raises the speed limit for when you want to read easily comprehensible texts such as news or comments.
- state_less 5y ago
  Thanks for the pro tip!
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  I just reread your post with my inner voice repeating “foo” over and over. Is that the kind of thing I should practice? I don’t understand.
  - Aethylia 5y ago
    Yes that works too, probably a nicer one for the HN audience as well! If you can learn to read that way, eventually you won't need to repeat any more and you can read without the voice.
  - junga 5y ago
    Hmm, I then hear my inner voice repeating that text and shouting FOO at the same time. It makes me feel stupid because I can't stop repeating what I read.
floatingatoll 5y ago
I glance at the paragraph, it glows briefly, I blink, I trace a spiral from the center counter clockwise, and if I still don’t have comprehension, I go back a couple paragraphs or try again the agonizing word by word way. Sometimes I read left to right to left depending on text width and such. I can usually keep math in the right order but I'm known to add left-to-right which involves the concept of 'one past nine' as a 'digit' for the sake of forcing it into base 10 math, and then I unroll the carries right-to-left, but not always, it depends.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  > I trace a spiral from the center counter clockwise, and if I still don’t have comprehension, I go back a couple paragraphs or try again the agonizing word by word way Wow. What?
  - titusjohnson 5y ago
    My experience on reading isn't as dramatic as the person you're replying to, but similar. I read whole paragraphs and/or sentences in one go. I don't really know "how" I do it, and there are limits (it really, really helps to know the author and their writing style). My eyes hit the paragraph, flick to see the end of it, traverse back up half-scanning each line, then I scan through the lines from the top, and afterwards I know what the paragraph was saying. It takes a few seconds per paragraph. I can't recite it verbatim but I can effectively describe the content of the paragraph accurately. If I have to read something word-for-word it's so slow that I tend to get bored or frustrated quickly. I don't find that slow, word-for-word reading gives me much more than by inhaling paragraphs whole.
    - floatingatoll 5y ago
      Yep, basically like this. I can’t repeat anything I read verbatim, but I can remember a sentence someone said and quote it back to them easily when context requires it.
  - floatingatoll 5y ago
psyc 5y ago
When I read normally, I hear it in real time. There’s a “default” voice, or I can make it a character voice at will. If I want to read a lot faster, I switch the voice off. I seldom do that.

xyzelement 5y ago

I didn't read the article yet but since you're offering... how do you "think through" problems? Example, this was a dialogue I had in my head this morning: "Avenue X has a lot of stop signs which is annoying. But Avenue Y is narrow and it's garbage-pickup time, so I can get unlucky and really stuck behind a garbage truck. That's not worth the risk, I'd rather deal with the stop signs so I am taking avenue X" What is your equivalent of that? Basically, how do you evaluate two alternatives? And how do you know how you made your choice? EG in my case, I know I picked Avenue X because I prefer the annoyance of stop signs to the risk of getting stuck, because that was part of my conversation. How is it for you?

renton_wal 5y ago
I don't always use my inner voice. I arrange all of the conditions in my head and then logically and rapidly resolve them. In your example, I wouldn't engage my inner voice for something that simple. If it was planning much more steps than that, I would separate them into blocks and use my inner voice to mentally arrange the inner blocks.
- xyzelement 5y ago
  Yeah I think that's fair. I probably wouldn't actually use explicit inner voice to chose between two avenues either (unless this was something I apriori considered a very important decision I sat down to consciously think about)
malwrar 5y ago
I think in terms of pictures or concepts. Your example becomes me picturing being stuck behind a dump truck, then me stopping at numerous stop signs, then I’d decide based on which one feels like it would be more painful. Do people actually think in terms of complete sentences like you describe in this passage, or is there some nuance to the experience I’m not understanding? Thinking for me feels more like watching thoughts flow between black boxes representing some known factor than talking to a friend.
- 5y ago

Bellend 5y ago

Hey! I don't know if I have the voice or not. I seen this on a video (Joe Scott maybe?) a couple of weeks ago and I wondered too. I don't know the difference between thinking and inner voice. Like if I am approaching a road, I don't recall an inner voice telling me to stop but I don't know if that is valid as an example. The question might be too broad but how do you know you have no inner voice?

floatingatoll 5y ago
Other people apparently hear perceptible voices talking to them. Those cartoons about a devil and angel on your shoulders aren’t just cartoons, it turns out, I guess. I’m not really great at explaining it :)
- rags2riches 5y ago
  The problem is the devil and the angel both talk with the same voice. The trick is to recognize who's talking anyway.
renton_wal 5y ago
Can you speak to yourself in your head? I also think there's a difference between involuntary and voluntary inner voice.
- WJW 5y ago
  For me there is definitely a difference between voluntary and involuntary. I can imagine speaking to myself, for example. I do/did that when writing this very sentence. But if I'm not consciously generating language (ie speaking or writing, or thinking about either) then it's nice and quiet in my head :)

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago

When you hear a song that you know and like, does the music and singing repeat in your head after the song is over?

floatingatoll 5y ago
So much yes. I can find the beat and hum along with it usually in the first ten or twenty seconds. I can remember songs from a single opening note. Apparently I have excellent pitch.

dylan604 5y ago

I'd love to be you at bedtime. That's when the voices love to just ruin your day/night.

floatingatoll 5y ago
As it turns out, anxiety-insomnia is just as much a problem whether it's with voices or not :(