How can I stop talking to myself it's really annoying!?

Question

Some times when I'm thinking I realise I'm talking out loud.
Or I find myself going over situations in my head over and over again why is this.

Answer 1

Talking out loud --
This is a memory function. You remember things you've heard (auditory memory) about ten seconds longer than you remember silent thoughts. If you're coming up with important points, you may talk to yourself just to keep them at the forefront of your mind. An easy way to stop this is just to write down what you're saying, since the paper will remember it for a lifetime.

Thinking over and over --
In psychology it's called "ruminating." It can be bad for you, actually -- if you're prone to depression. This is why women get depression more often than men... they ruminate more.

You can stop ruminating by learning how to mind-map. You can look it up online, but, basically, you get a blank piece of paper and write the subject in the center. Everything that comes to mind from that topic, you splinter off to the sides with lines. Just a word or two for each, or pictures. Then you do it again for each of those. (Not in order, just do your thinking naturally, whatever comes up; this is a visual way of seeing how the brain naturally works.)

In this way, you can explore every bit of the topic you're thinking of without having to go over and over it again to remember things, or remembering to double-back to look at tangents.

This isn't a mindmap, per se, but it will give you the idea: http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

Answer 2

The talking is just a way of getting the thoughts out of your head, verbalizing them in order to make them less abstract/muddled, and returning them to your head all neatly verbalized. Also, there is a different process going on when you verbalize; and you may have discovered that using all the processes available to you helps you think more effectively. Sometimes, too, talking to yourself is a way to get yourself to listen to what you're saying!

Going over and over things/situations is the process you're using to let everything go around and around until somehow something clicks and stops the over-and-over thing from continuing. You're waiting for the click, which is the idea that you can seize and go with from there is a more directed way. When you have the over-and-over thing going on with a situation, and there's no "click" you may either get tired or decide to stop, in which case you let all the "circulating thoughts" just stop circulating and lay there until you decide to get them going again.

Its all normal. If its annoying talk to yourself and tell yourself to find another way to think.

Answer 3

honestly, a lot of people do it too. but if you reallly want to put a stop to it, start telling your conscinece that i want to stop. afterwards you start thinking of the procedure to use to gradually end it. To my best of knowledge, go to the seashore or a river anytime you have a lot of stuffs in your head and shout or yell everything that is in your head out. Finally you will get exhausted and realise that there will be nothing more to say. that way, it keeps you quite and not talking publicly because it sometimes it gets people irritated and have negative thoughts about you. i use to do that, but after i watched a soap opera with such an alternative, it worked.

Answer 4

About the talking-out-loud-situation, I wouldn't know what to do...

About the thinking: you are probably worried about something OR insecure about yourself. It all depends of what you are thinking about. If you are thinking about situations that happened to you, and you rethink all the time what you could have done instead; OR think of stuff that didn't happened yet, but possibly may come... It can drive you insane.

Perhaps you need to go to your doctor and talk about this. He might know something that can help you, or give you some tips on how to be more relaxed... It helped me anyway.

Answer 5

Don't worry - perfectly normal. I solve all the worlds problems in conversation with myself (or with my cats!) I sometimes find myself talking out loud to myself in my car - can be a little embarrassing at traffic lights! Most people 'rehearse' upcoming difficult situations out loud. It clarifies the situation in your mind. Who cares if other people look at you a little oddly - it's none of their business. You need to worry only if you find yourself getting really argumentative & violent with yourself. If you give yourself a black eye, then it's time to stop!

Answer 6

i think it is quite endearing, mainly because my daughter has that habit. she also gets annoyed with herself.

I looked it up on the site

http:///www.helpyourselftherapy.com/topics/selftalk.html

and I quote;" In old movies if you wanted to show that someone was really crazy you'd show them talking to themselves. Even if they were only doing it mentally it was supposed to be a sure sign of mental illness.

What's really bizarre about this is that the act of talking to ourselves is actually a sign that we are self aware and that we seek insight into our own actions.

talking to ourselves mentally is actually a hallmark of being human and proof that we are a higher species. we all do it. we all have mental conversations with ourselves "

o.k it goes on to explain more and to give tips ,if you want to make some positive changes. I buy it, you are just very self aware and that is not a bad thing.

Answer 7

has been proven that if you instead of talking to youself when you feel the urge to talk to yourself take some paper and write down what you were going to say. After a few weeks it will pass. on a side note talking to yourself is perfectly normal

Answer 8

My son used to do this also. I took him to a Psychiatrist who simply laughed and said it's normal. He said when there would be cause for concern is if a person starts answering themselves.

I think he meant if the person who is talking to themselves doesn't realize it's their voice and thinks someone else is talking to them and therefore replies accordingly. Given that a Psychiatrist says it's normal-I think that should put your mind at ease.

Answer 9

The internal dialogue, the "inner civil war" as Bob Geldorf put it, the "mind's house-dog" according to T S Eliot: all this is how we solve our problems -- it's an evolutionary thing.

And if we actually vocalise these thoughts, so what?

Answer 10

It's just a natural way of your brain working through a problem. I do it myself, another quirk I have is when concentrating very hard on a subject is my tongue sticks out the side of my mouth.