Giving voice to the voices in your head

[james1]

Okay so a lot of us have, in various posts, talked about having thoughts in our head. You know, the ones that keep talking and talking and you can't shut them up.

So one of the things I thought about on my ride in to work today was: what if I actually speak them out aloud every time they start "talking" in my head?

I mean, it helps that I'm wearing a helmet and people can't hear me properly when I'm talking to myself, but yeah.

Has anyone done this before? We all talk to ourselves every now and then, but what if we make a conscious effort to speak the thoughts in our head every time it happens? I'm curious to see if it works for people to make the thoughts less intense and less noisy.

James

[james1]

Oops, I forgot to mention:

the thought that brought all this along was I started vaguely singing along to the music I was playing and I noticed that hearing my voice with my ears, but more importantly my throat, rather than hearing it with my mind, really grounded me in being inside the helmet rather than inside my head. It was a bit of a weird realisation to be honest.

[Guest_322]

Hi James,

I'm so sorry that I didn't see this thread earlier...

Wow, this is an interesting one and I'm not 100% sure if I'm the best person to respond. Then again, when has that ever stopped me (?)

While I admittedly do talk to myself, I'm not necessarily vocalising the "voice in my head." Like, I'll have conversations with myself out loud but it's not the same as vocalising ruminations.

But I think everyone is different and if you find giving a verbal voice to the "head voice" is grounding and helpful then go for it.

My 2 cents is it also depends on the head voice. For example, if it's a sinister head voice that is putting you down, etc, I'm not sure if vocalising those thoughts will be helpful. But if it's a problem that you need to work through then maybe vocalising will help.

Dottie x

[james1]

Hey Dottie,

I completely forgot I wrote this to be honest, haha.

It hasn't really come up for me recently because I've gotten into the habit of talking to one of my friends whenever the voices start coming back and that's usually enough to quiet them. I'm wondering whether I'm bothering her, but I tell her that too and thankfully she's quite receptive to my constant worrying.

Still, I get where you're coming from about the sinister head voice...I suppose that's where it comes down to how much you trust yourself to be able to work through it if you vocalise it. I found (before) that vocalising those helped me think about them objectively rather than let them swim around, but it may be a bad idea for others. I guess our brains just work differently!

Anyway, thanks for your 2c 🙂

James

[Guest_322]

Hi James,

I'm glad you have her in your corner. She sounds like a good listener.

True, everyone is different. But if vocalising helps you then go for it. Sure, I realise you now have your friend- and that's great- but at least you know that that coping mechanism is there.

Dottie x

[quirkywords]

James what an interesting thread.

I haven't tried talking but I have as a writing exercise , written to my inner critic. It was very intriguing result.

I also wrote a letter to my illness.

I know that's not the same as talking but is amazing to see how I answer my critic.

Thanks again for opening this as a topic.

Quirkywords

[Gruffudd]

Well James, yes I do talk to them, I respond out loud which makes sense because they sound like they are out there somewhere.

I've noticed that they require different responses though, and I tend to leave the conversations for when I am otherwise alone.

The grumpy one that is prone to say unfortunate things and use quite rude language is often best responded to with a bit of planned ignoring. And when that doesn't work I need to remind myself that he means well and just wants to keep me safe.

The Welsh lady who chats away is quite nurturing, she is great to discuss different options with, but does not get along with the grumpy one. Fortunately she can speak Welsh and he can't, so she just switches languages.

It really only impacts me in daily life when they are having a fight about something, that is very distracting.