I have aphantasia and don't "see" things when I close my eyes. It shocked me that people could and weren't just saying it metaphorically. I got to be shocked again when people actually hear things that aren't there. Like, how do y'all survive the lack of quiet?!

Just like how you don’t notice the ambient scent of a place you’ve been for a while or the feeling of your tongue inside your mouth, until your attention is drawn to them they just melt into the texture of life.

Plus, at least for me, they aren’t on the same level as real sights and sounds, more of a phantom version.

how do y'all survive the lack of quiet?!

Barely, by constantly having music playing or something else to distract me. Hyperfocus is a useful superpower, but easily led astray. And the evil capitalists are trying to undermine me with psyops (ads that have catchy tunes or catchphrases that live in my head rent-free)

similarly, do normal humans not have the same 40 seconds of music looping in their heads at almost all waking hours

I had warrant’s cherry pie stuck in my head for a year and a half in high school. It was awful, but it did eventually end.

If you’re looking for advice, whenever something threatens to get really wedged in there since, I sing a Complete History of the Soviet Union Arranged to the Melody of Tetris to myself (internally, lol) and it resets things for me.

Honestly, because it's all I've ever known. As far as I'm concerned the voices are me, the real inner me, and things I say out loud are just an expression of that. Who are you when you're alone and quiet?

I used to use my constant loop of the entirety of "They're Coming to Take me Away" to time how long I'd been working on something using the number of loops.

I'm still me. Lots of thoughts (sometimes too many) but they're more nebulous than narrated. Just like with the aphantasia thing, ideas are just kinda data. I could draw a map from memory, I just could not represent it visually in my head. I played in bands and composed music, but I don't "hear it" as such

strangely, i can turn off the "mind's mouth" for a bit

Of all the songs to have stuck in your head, that one would probably be one of the ones that'd give you the most looks if you give in and start belting along 😄

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5827200/

This and other works by the same researcher delve into the various modalities of experiencing the world including aphantasia (like me!). He has some pop-academia content on YouTube but (surprise surprise) I prefer consumption via text.

Yeah some of us are drowning it out with YouTube videos and by scrolling this

yeah that’ll be a funny comment, we should post that says the monologue, naively

The other way around for me

I have synesthesia and "see" sound. Was confused when I learned that not everyone has this

This thing again. I remember when this first went around the internet a few years ago. I was indeed shocked to learn that people actually hear a voice/monologue in their head narrating their day or whatever.

I always thought it was just a lazy trope used in movies and tv to help explain the plot.

The only time I have anything close to that is if I am actively trying to rehearse what I want say in my head. Then I hear my own voice.

I have ADHD, so chaos at all times. My husband has nothing. It's fascinating to watch in real life. It's just peaceful up there. I'll never not be mesmerized.

That's gotta be so cool. I know the guy who did the score for game of thrones has that and it makes his music more impactful I think.

It actually makes a lot of sense when you consider how stupid and gullible so many people are.

^I cooked your food, I cleaned your house, and this is how you pay me back for all my kind, unselfish loving deeds?^

HUH?!

Well you just wait, they'll get you yet, and when they do they'll

put you in the ASPCA, YOU MANGY MUTT!

The Nature of Unsymbolized Thinking, victno. Is this the source they are commenting on?

It's pretty neat. But can also be annoying. Any small sound when trying to fall asleep is now double as annoying, for example