this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024
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[–] lurch 53 points 9 months ago (11 children)

do people really have inner voices that demoting?

[–] [email protected] 54 points 9 months ago
[–] OberonSwanson 35 points 9 months ago

Yes, imagine a self-critical version of yourself voicing its opinions on your failures.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 months ago

Yes literally all the time on everything I do

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's pretty tame tbh, mine likes to remind me about my failures like it's a Facebook memories post, like I'm not saying my inner voice is constantly horrible to me, but when it is, it goes hard on me.

I wish I could find a way to make it stop but I'm 37 and as long as I can remember that pricks been there telling me I'm a failure.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You can make it stop, that form of mental distress makes you a prime candidate for a variety of therapies including CBT, DBT, and a different one that I don’t remember the name of but it’s based on Buddhism.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I'm personally a big fan of DBT so I'd like to advocate for that one!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'm objectively very successful, but starting every morning in the shower, and probably a few times per hour throughout the day, I have to manually derail that voice telling me how stupid I am, how I deserve nothing I've gained in life, and how I've failed to be a good enough person.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'm a good person but i'm not successful.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

success is subjective anyway. To some you might be.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Do some people not? It was fucking constant at some parts of my life. It’s why I can’t judge addicts, I had the strength and conditions not to fall, but I’ve had times where I deeply understood trading my future and health just to make my brain shut the fuck up.

[–] lurch 1 points 9 months ago

No, I basically actively summon mine and it is part of me and disappears when I get very distracted. It thinks what I think. It never critisises me, but more like celebrates good things and curses if bad things happen and plans ahead what I should do or say.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

mine keeps trying to come up with new words to insult me with after telling me how much it hates me. I like to laugh at how hard it fails

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yes. And for peopke like me with concentration problems i have 24/7 monology going on my head which is really rarely quiet at all. If it ain't speak it's random songs I play in my head on repeat

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

ADHD is particularly bad for causing that.

Brain: Give me stimulation now.

Me: I'm trying, I'm trying, but I got to get things done.

Brain: Give me now, or I'll make my own!

Me: Please, no, I'm trying!

Brain: I'll do it...

Brain: I will!

Brain: Fine... Baby shark! do do dodo dodo...

Me: <Attempts emergency lobotomy with a spoon!>

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

An inner voice is a useful internal communication tool.

Growing up, a massive amount of what we learnt was either provided or reinforcing via verbal instruction. Because of this, all of our brain areas have some sort of tie in with our ability to listen. Conversely, a huge amount of our expression is in the form of verbal communication. So almost all of our brain is also tied to provide data to our speech centre. It's a small step to use this as a useful internal communication pathway. We experience that as an inner voice.

Not everyone has an inner voice, while others are totally reliant on it for internal communication. Most are somewhere in between. It's an artifact that isn't required to be able to think. It's just extremely useful to most.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Also fun fact, people who are native users of sign languages tend to have inner signing. Like disembodied hands

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I unintentionally created one when I was depressed. I used a sort of imaginary person to bounce ideas off when I was writing or doing anything creative, just a kind of mirror me who I spoke to and then who responded (not literally, it was just me responding "as" them, not a hallucination). When I got very depressed though, I lost control somehow, the self-hating part of my brain took over, and they became a voice very much like what's shown in this meme.

I dealt with that, eventually. Now I just have my own voice in my head. I'm still not nice to myself all the time, and I wouldn't say I have total control over that... But it's a step in the right direction.

[–] objectionist 3 points 9 months ago

i have complete control of mine, so it’s about as demoting as i think i am, which i’m not thankfully