Do you have an internal monologue?

You know, that voice inside your head that nags you, or sometimes encourages you, or sometimes at 3 am brings up that awkward situation with Cindy Reid back in the 4^th grade. Are you reading this sentence in your head right now? Congratulations, you have an internal monologue! An inner voice that guides you through life, helps you sus things out when reading, and can sometimes be a real pain.

It turns out, not everyone has this voice and it was, frankly, quite shocking to me when I heard about it. How do they read? How do they form sentences before they speak. How do they psych themselves up to do that thing they are not sure about?

From interviews I have seen and read, it appears that this mechanic is largely done with images, or visual interpretation. Sentence structures flow like an image with curves or other shapes to depict their meaning. Talking to oneself out loud or by moving lips while reading seems to be popular too. Things also tend to manifest themselves in physical form more than emotional, such as depression being more about body aches and fatigue instead of mental anguish, or that nagging voice making you feel worse. This makes sense if you can literally not hear this information inside your head without verbalizing it in some fashion. And it is also very difficult for me to comprehend.

As with most things in life, these are not always absolutes, but shades of gray between having an inner monologue, and not. Some people hear the voice, but much less frequently and rely more on the visual concepts that make more sense to them, and vice versa seeing or visualizing some things in context, while relying on the inner dialog more for deeper understanding or contemplation.