Some of the best conversations I have are with myself
I’m one of the supposedly smallish percentage of people who talk to themselves. This won’t be news to you if you know me or if you’ve seen me walking down the road. And yes, I do sometimes talk to myself in public, though I’m quick to STFU when I realise there are people nearby.
I really enjoy talking to myself and I look forward to those sessions. This is pretty consistent with what some other people experience, though I know I’m looking at a tiny section of the self-talking population — people who admit to talking to themselves 2) in blog or forum comments on the internet. Some of these people are INTP or INTJ and they are or were only children.
So I had what started off as a debate about the advantages of self-talk last week. I couldn’t think of any off-hand but then I started to think about it on Friday.
I tend to talk to myself when I’m alone or when I think I am alone. But there are also differences — when I know that I am alone I’ll be a lot more expressive with my facial expressions and arm movements. When I’m walking somewhere for example, I’ll speak softly and I’ll try to keep hand and facial movements to a minimum.
There are definitely benefits to self-talk. I tend to plan things by talking to myself. I’ll consider what to do this month and then weigh that up to what I’ll do next month. It helps to clear up confusion, even if just by a little bit.
It also helps me to solve problems when I talk out loud like that. I remember doing this with math problems in high school. It also relieves stress but what’s strange is that I sometimes stop talking to myself when I’m under extreme stress. And then I get lonely.
At other times I’ll be commenting on an article that I’m reading, never mind that someone else is around with whom I can talk. It’s a pity that we’ve stigmatised self-talk as particular to schizophrenia. I don’t hear voices in my head so I kinda can’t be schizophrenic.
So now you know that you’re not the only one. And it’s really not such a crazy or unusual thing to do, this talking to yourself.
Being a self-talker, means you see yourself in the 3rd person, as if observing yourself playing on the stage of life.
This means you should have a very clear perception of your role as a human, and in general be a very open-minded type of person that can view situations and conversations from all angles, and not be bias to your own ideas and perceptions.
Is this true?
Markus
17 Mar 10 at 11:54 PM
No, I don’t think I see myself in the 3rd person. Why do you suggest that’s a possibility?
I try to be as open-minded and unbiased as possible. It’s just a struggle sometimes.
Joy-Mari Cloete
19 Mar 10 at 9:07 AM