Aphantasia came up again, and it reminded me I'd meant to write a blog post about my startling realization while watching a YouTube video that apparently a lot of you actually have an internal voice? Like a real, actual voice that is speaking to you? This BLEW MY MIND, and led to a fun family conversation.
@hollie "How are you not driven to instantaneous madness by the incessant chattering?" I pretty much was until I learned to calm it down[1]. Most[2] thoughts still take the form of voices[3], but they're not happening all the time anymore.
[1] Before learning that I had no idea it was possible to change.
[2] Some thoughts are entirely nonsensory. It's more like connections between abstract concepts.
[3] Yes, multiple voices. It's been a large part of how we tell headmates apart.
@hollie To elaborate on nonsensory thoughts, over time we learned to be aware of those, and seems like all thoughts start out that way, and then they can go through a headmate who internal "speaks" them. If we don't speak them, they don't lead to other thoughts and can easily fade from awareness. Which is how we learned to calm our inner voices.
@madewokherd Oh my gosh, Esme this is fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing this! <3 I've often wondered how one tells headmates apart, or how a headmate decides to voice one thought but not another. This is really cool! :)
@hollie Someone in another reply mentioned that they sometimes can't hear things in another person's voice if it's something they wouldn't say. We've found headmates are similar: we can shove a thought their way but if they disagree with it they won't speak it. We think our inner copies of other people's voices are actually budding headmates (introjects), but most won't do more than voice things when asked, unless we push them to take initiative.