Talk to yourself for reasons. What does it mean if a person talks to himself?

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Thinking out loud is not a sign of madness and can be much more beneficial than it might seem at first glance.

website will talk about why it is possible and important to talk to yourself at least occasionally.

The first thing to say is that talking to yourself out loud - sure sign genius. The smartest people our planet often talked to themselves. This is reflected in scientific works, poetry, painting, and history confirms this.

For example, Albert Einstein liked to think out loud about mathematical formulas And the most complex theories, and sometimes even consulted with himself. Besides, in There have been many studies confirming that thinking out loud speeds up and structures the thought process.

“Keys, keys, keys. Where did I put them? And here they are, right on the table!” Experimentally it was found that a person found the desired object faster by repeating its name out loud. Saying the name of what we are looking for this moment, stimulates memory, and we concentrate faster, which is why we find required item much faster.

However, you should understand that this only works if you know exactly what what you need looks like.

Children often learn by talking and repeating what they do. And at the same time they remember for the future how they solved the problem that arose. And, probably, everyone knows that when you are trying to remember something, it is better to say it out loud. Thanks to the fact that we hear the information we need in the voice most familiar to our brain, it is remembered much faster and for a long time.

Almost all of us have something going on in our heads. complete mess, and my thoughts are still rushing from side to side. But saying what’s bothering you out loud allows you to sort everything out and calm your nerves. Famous psychologist Linda Sapadin believes that by speaking out loud, we affirm important and difficult decisions: “This allows you to clarify your thoughts, decide what is important, and strengthen your decision.”

“That’s it, I’ll start running on Monday, learning foreign language“and I’ll definitely sign up for painting courses,” we often tell ourselves. But we all know how difficult it is to make a list of goals and start moving towards achieving them. By talking through each step, you can make this task much easier for yourself, making everything less difficult and more specific. This allows you to put things into perspective and move forward with more confidence.

And finally, the person who knows absolutely everything about you is yourself. Don't be afraid to listen to your inner voice and confidently, loudly answer it.

“It’s like I’m writing subtitles for my life,” admits 37-year-old Alexandra. – Everything I’m going to do, I comment out loud: “It’s warm today, I’ll wear a blue skirt”; “I’ll withdraw a couple of thousand from the card, that should be enough.” If my friend hears it, it’s not scary - he’s used to it. But in public place people start looking at me sideways and I feel stupid.”

It helps me concentrate. By saying our actions out loud, we are not at all striving for communication - so why don’t we just remain silent? “The need for comments appears when the task facing us requires concentration,” notes psychotherapist Andrei Korneev, a specialist in somatic psychology. – There was a period in the lives of each of us when we described out loud everything that we did or were going to do. Although we may not remember it: it happened at the age of about three years. Such speech, addressed to no one, is a natural stage of development; it helps the child navigate objective world, go from spontaneous reactions to conscious actions and learn to manage them. Then external speech“collapses”, goes internal, and we stop noticing it.” But it can “unfold” again and sound out loud if we perform some kind of complex sequence operations, for example we collect electronic circuit or prepare a dish according to a new recipe. Its function is the same: it makes it easier for us to manipulate objects and helps us plan them.

Elena, 41 years old, Norwegian language teacher

“Criticizing myself out loud, or even scolding, was a habit for me. I never thought about it and somehow involuntarily made a remark to myself in the psychotherapist’s office. And he asked: “Who told little Lena that she was a klutz?” It was like an epiphany: I remembered that this was exactly how my friend had scolded me. school teacher. And I stopped saying that - because I don’t think so, these words are not mine!”

I'm letting out my emotions. Exclamations that have no addressee can be a manifestation of strong feelings: indignation, delight. One day, Pushkin, alone, “clapping his hands and shouting, “Oh yes Pushkin! what a son of a bitch!” - I was so pleased with my work. Replies: “At least it’s gone!” student before an exam, “so what to do about it?” the accountant over the quarterly report and the things we say while looking after the train we missed - they all have the same reason. “A statement in such a situation serves as an emotional release and is often accompanied by an energetic gesture,” explains Andrei Korneev. “Strong is a surge of energy, and it requires some kind of manifestation outside so that we can get rid of excess tension.” I continue to have an internal dialogue. Sometimes we seem to look at ourselves from the outside - and evaluate, scold, and lecture. “If these are monotonous statements in which the same assessments are made, little dependent on changes in circumstances, this is a consequence of emotional trauma, most likely received in childhood,” says Andrei Korneev. “An unresolved conflict turns into an internal one: one part of us conflicts with another.” Strong feeling that we experienced in the past found no outlet (for example, we could not express anger towards our parents) and remained locked inside. And we relive it, repeating out loud the words once addressed to us.

What to do?

Separate your thoughts from others

Who speaks to us during such monologues? Are we really expressing our own thoughts and opinions or are we repeating what our parents, relatives or close friends once told us? “Try to remember who it was. Imagine that this person is now in front of you, suggests Andrei Korneev. - Listen to his words. Find an answer that you can give now as an adult, taking into account your life experience and knowledge. As a child, you may have been confused or scared, unsure of how to respond, or afraid. Today you have something to say, and you will be able to defend yourself.” This exercise helps complete the experience.

Try to speak more quietly

“If talking through actions helps you, you don’t need to try to get rid of it,” reassures Andrey Korneev. – And if disapproving glances or comments from others who do not want to be aware of your plans interfere with this, then try to avoid them. What should I do for this? Speak more quietly, in a whisper. This is exactly the one rare case, when the more illegible, the better. Then those around you will not suspect for a second that you are addressing them, and awkward situations will become smaller. Gradually you can switch to silent pronunciation, it’s a matter of training.” Look closely and you will notice other people moving their lips near a store shelf with twenty types of cereals. But this doesn't bother anyone.

Prepare in advance

Make a grocery list when going to the store. Calculate your time when getting ready for the train. Learn everything exam papers. Planning and careful preparation will eliminate the need to think on your feet and worry out loud. Of course, there are emergencies that are beyond our control and that cannot be foreseen. But, hand on heart, we admit that they happen rarely.

What does it mean if a person talks to himself?

We all lead internal dialogues with you, as in famous song: “Quietly with myself, quietly with myself I’m having a conversation.” And such “conversations” do not surprise any of the people around them, because no one hears them. But sometimes you have to deal with someone who is talking very enthusiastically to invisible interlocutor aloud. It is clearly evident that such a person does not even understand that he is not just thinking about some serious issue, as we all do, “talking” to ourselves in our minds, but is conducting a dialogue, responding to the words that seem to come from from outside. Why do people talk to themselves and why don’t they notice that in fact they don’t have any interlocutor?

Talking to yourself is a sign of psychosis

When a person talks to himself without expecting an answer, this may be an early symptom of schizophrenia. Of course, if he mutters something under his breath for just a day or two, then this is not necessarily a sign of pathology. But if someone laughs for no reason, or if they talk out loud for quite a long time long period, and all this along with other behavioral abnormalities - such as hallucinations, social isolation, emotional disorders, strange behavior, - then this person, without a doubt, needs urgent consultation with a psychiatrist.

Most characteristic manifestation psychosis – the presence of hallucinations. A hallucination is a false perception of reality in any of the five sensory modalities, when an external stimulus does not actually exist, but people subject to hallucinations see, hear or feel a non-existent object. Hallucinations may occur in the twilight state between sleep and awakening, in delirium, delirium tremens, or exhaustion; they can also be induced under hypnosis. Most often, hallucinations are visual.

Persistent hallucinations are characteristic of schizophrenia. With one type of this disease, sick people believe that they hear an accusing person command voice, to which they react in complete panic, with complete obedience, or with an attempt at self-defense or even suicide. Illusions are somewhat different from hallucinations - if hallucinations occur without any external stimulus, then illusions are characterized by a false perception of the actual stimulus.

Schizophrenia is severe mental illness which is characterized by a variety of symptoms. These include loss of contact with reality, the aforementioned strange behavior, disorganized thinking and speech, decreased emotional expressiveness and social isolation. Usually, one patient does not experience all, but only some of the symptoms, and each person may have an individual combination of these symptoms.

The term "schizophrenia" itself comes from Greek words"schizo" (meaning "split") and "phreno" ("mind, soul"), and can be translated as "dividing the soul." However, contrary to quite common belief, schizophrenia cannot be attributed to a person with a split personality or multiple personality syndrome.

What is the difference between schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder?

Schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder are often confused, and some people believe they are the same thing. In fact, these are two completely different diseases. Schizophrenia is a disorder of brain functioning; some people are already born with this disorder because it can be inherited. But symptoms of the disease usually do not develop for many years. In men, symptoms begin to appear late adolescence or at the age of twenty years; Women typically experience symptoms between the ages of twenty and thirty. It happens, of course, that symptoms of schizophrenia appear in childhood, but this happens extremely rarely.

When a person suffers from schizophrenia, he experiences hallucinations and delusions, sees things that do not exist, talks to someone whom he sees quite clearly, believes things that are in no way true. For example, he can see demons who sit at the table with him during lunch; or may quite sincerely believe that he is God's son. People with these disorders also suffer from disordered thinking, decreased concentration, and trouble focusing. They also lose the ability to take initiative and make and implement plans. As a rule, such people cannot be socially adapted.

Often, a person with schizophrenia believes that the voices they hear are there to control them or cause harm. He probably gets very scared when he hears them. He can sit for hours without moving and talk, talk... A sane person, observing a patient with schizophrenia, will not catch a single drop of meaning in his speech. Some people with this disorder appear quite normal; but this is only until they start talking, and most often - talking to themselves. Schizophrenia is also marked by clumsy, uncoordinated movements and an inability to take care of oneself sufficiently.

The main difference between schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder is that the latter disorder is not congenital. This mental condition called certain events, which occur in a person’s life, and they are usually associated with some psychological trauma received in childhood. This could be, for example, physical or sexual violence. People with this disorder seem to develop additional personalities as a way of coping with the traumatic event. To be diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, a person must have at least one alternate personality that significantly controls their behavior.

In total, one patient can develop up to one hundred personalities, but on average their number is ten. These may be “additional” individuals of the same sex, the other sex, or both sexes at the same time. Sometimes different personalities the same person is even accepted by different physical characteristics, such as a certain way movement or different level health and stamina. But depression and attempts at self-harm can become common to all facets of the personality of the same person.

There are several signs that are the same for both schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder. Patients with schizophrenia may have hallucinations; While people with multiple personality disorder do not always experience them, about a third of patients do experience hallucinations. Multiple personality disorder can cause behavior problems and difficulty concentrating during school at a young age; This can confuse specialists, who sometimes confuse this disorder with schizophrenia, since it also develops and manifests itself most often in adolescence.

As you can see, if a person is talking out loud to an invisible interlocutor, this can be a sign of a very serious condition. Therefore, you must do everything possible to ensure that the person close to you receives necessary help– otherwise he may cause irreparable harm to himself!

More information

Talking to yourself is an adequate phenomenon if it looks like a monologue inside yourself. In addition, the norm is to talk to oneself out loud, if such a monologue helps to coordinate own actions, helps to cope with emotions. The inner voice is an important assistant; it gives you a chance to put thoughts in order, plan actions, and look for things.

Scientists are sure that a person talks to himself 70% of the time. If a person tells himself something out loud, then this is evidence of an encounter with an unusual task or a search for things.

Conducting an experiment. Self-Dialogue Help

Researchers started an experiment to find out how a monologue helps find lost things. The volunteers were divided into 2 parts. One group looked for a thing, thinking out loud, and the other - silently.

The results were surprising. The first group found what was lost sooner than the second. This study proves that self talk helps to more correctly perceive and understand brain data.

Where does systematic self-talk come from, and why is the voice within us exactly like this? Like other factors in personality development, it is formed in early age. It is upbringing that influences our consciousness and internal dialogues. If you constantly hear insults directed at yourself, characterizing you as a lazy incompetent, then the voice inside will only utter insults. Such children become pessimists, aggressive or apathetic.

A conversation with yourself will help you find a lost item, understand complex problem, make the right choice.

If your parents made such a mistake, then do not despair. Everyone can help themselves. If you work on yourself, sooner or later you will hear an exclamation from within: “I’m doing great.” Researchers have expressed opinions about the primary inner voice. In 70% of cases, the inner “man” is the one who brings criticism and negativity in life. For positive result try to change it, subjugate it. Present all reproaches as a cute animal or an overly pretentious personality. If you focus on the way you speak internally, it will distract from the essence of the phrases, they will not offend your personality as much.

Then learn if it is a hindrance. This is difficult, but training will make the task easier: concentrate on several points at once, try to keep 3 things in your field of vision, perceive 3 sounds around you. Such workload will “drown out” the conversation inside.

If your inner “resident” loves you, then he helps in fulfilling your plans. And turning it off often helps not only in relationships (the voice talking about problems and past failures often spoils romance and intimacy), but also in work.

Remember, a conversation with yourself should support a person in everything, not cause panic, and not distract from important thoughts and moments.

Self talk. Signs of psychosis

If a person talks to himself and does not expect an answer, then this often turns out to be early sign psychosis – schizophrenia. If you just mumble something, this is not always a sign of such a disease. But laughter and long conversations in combination with other behavioral abnormalities (isolation, hallucinations) require immediate consultation with a doctor.

Conversations with yourself as mental disorder easy to distinguish. A person in such a state disconnects from everything, he is not interested in communicating with other people.

The most typical symptom of psychosis is hallucinations. This is an incorrect perception of reality in one of the sensory categories. In this case, in life there is no external stimuli, but a person hears, sees or feels something. Such phenomena appear at the moment between awakening and sleep, in an unconscious state, in delirium tremens, in severe exhaustion. Another reason is hypnosis. Most often, hallucinations are visual.

Clear hallucinations are a symptom of schizophrenia. With one of the varieties of this disease, people are sure that they hear orders inner voice or voices from outside, they obey, defend themselves, or commit suicide.

But you should not, contrary to popular opinion, assume that schizophrenia is the same as personality disorders in the form of duality, when a person also has conversations with himself.