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What my stroke taught me (2017)

nautil.us

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Re: What my stroke taught me (2017)

#11

Post by Baeocystin »

aucisson_masque wrote: post #7
JohnMakin wrote: post #3

Well written - I do not possess an internal monologue (which apparently isn't uncommon), and a common thing people think is that it is like this author's description of "quiet" - yes, there is not a person "talking" in my head, but my head is anything but quiet most of the time. It just doesn't take the form of words/sound.

Don't you ever think to yourself when waking up 'time to wake up' ? Or when you see someone you don't like 'oh here is that motherfucker' ? I mean the inner voice isn't like a deep discussion between you and you, its spontaneous stuff you just wouldn't say out loud. I have a hard time believing some people don't have it.

Not the person you're asking, but as someone who also doesn't have an inner monologue, no, I literally never think either of those two things you gave as an example. I feel the feelings they describe, but they never bubble up to my thoughts in word form.

Re: What my stroke taught me (2017)

#12

Post by the_gipsy »

JohnMakin wrote: post #3

Well written - I do not possess an internal monologue (which apparently isn't uncommon), and a common thing people think is that it is like this author's description of "quiet" - yes, there is not a person "talking" in my head, but my head is anything but quiet most of the time. It just doesn't take the form of words/sound.

I know it's bad to say this - lile telling someone who is ill that they are not - but I cannot believe that someone truly has no inner monologue and at the same is capable of expressing complex ideas in writing or speech.

What IS there then, if it's not quiet like the author describes?

Could it be a lack of introspection? Have you been examined by any kind of specialist or is it self diagnosed?

Re: What my stroke taught me (2017)

#13

Post by RGamma »

groby_b wrote: post #9
RGamma wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't quite get my head around not having an inner monologue. Mine's been around since I can remember. Its absence sounds quite scary to be honest.

I feel the same way about having somebody constantly chatting in my head :) I'd assume for both of us it's mostly fear of the unknown.

How would you think through complex scenarios otherwise? Like: "How does the current US president influence global welfare?" (relevant, but rather trite, I know).

Genuinely curious how you could form an opinion or at least analyze the question without verbalizing the ensuing self-conversation in your mind. Much (abstract) thought is informed by language.

Re: What my stroke taught me (2017)

#14

Post by bombela »

aucisson_masque wrote: post #7
JohnMakin wrote: post #3

Well written - I do not possess an internal monologue (which apparently isn't uncommon), and a common thing people think is that it is like this author's description of "quiet" - yes, there is not a person "talking" in my head, but my head is anything but quiet most of the time. It just doesn't take the form of words/sound.

Don't you ever think to yourself when waking up 'time to wake up' ? Or when you see someone you don't like 'oh here is that motherfucker' ? I mean the inner voice isn't like a deep discussion between you and you, its spontaneous stuff you just wouldn't say out loud. I have a hard time believing some people don't have it.

I also don't have this internal monologue. But I can talk in my head just fine if I want. But doing so is the same effort as talking out loud.

I suspect that it does make articulating my thoughts verbally to other people more difficult since I must go brain thinking to text before speech.

That's probably why I prefer textual communication so much more. I can take the time to read, think, and textualize the answer.

I also find it incredibly useful to pretend I am teaching in my head; thus producing the text; before going into a meeting on a given topic. Of course anything I haven't thought to reharse, I am now naked.

As for your specific example, instead of a concrete set of words about waking up or a specific insult. I simply think a similar concept.

Re: What my stroke taught me (2017)

#15

Post by nailer »

My father recently passed, and on the way there had 3 strokes (he's been smoking since he was 8).

The unnerving thing about his first stroke recovery is that as the brain healed, his personality seemed to change.

My dad is friends with everyone, my mental picture is of him telling a fascinating story while everyone listens. For a few months, the confident man I'd known for 40 years became like a teenager, quiet and timid. I think the timidity came from him not being able to find the words as easily, but it felt like there was a different person inside him for a moment.

Re: What my stroke taught me (2017)

#17

Post by JohnMakin »

the_gipsy wrote: post #12
JohnMakin wrote: post #3

Well written - I do not possess an internal monologue (which apparently isn't uncommon), and a common thing people think is that it is like this author's description of "quiet" - yes, there is not a person "talking" in my head, but my head is anything but quiet most of the time. It just doesn't take the form of words/sound.

I know it's bad to say this - lile telling someone who is ill that they are not - but I cannot believe that someone truly has no inner monologue and at the same is capable of expressing complex ideas in writing or speech. What IS there then, if it's not quiet like the author describes? Could it be a lack of introspection? Have you been examined by any kind of specialist or is it self diagnosed?

People have asked me this. I don’t know what to say other than I just make the connections I need to in my head. sometimes it’s visual but it’s usually pretty abstract and I’m not really very conscious of it. From the outside it probably looks like intuition. I write a lot of things out and sketch things.

i have a math heavy degree so pretty sure im not disabled in any kind of way. sometimes I struggle to explain my thought process but not usually. it is equally perplexing to me that people seem to think that verbalization of thoughts is needed to think.

Re: What my stroke taught me (2017)

#18

Post by Taniwha »

Had a minor stroke a couple of months ago - scans show two holes in my brain, one was in my right arm's motor control (I realised what was happening when I kept missing the keys on my laptop) which came right within hours. The other is a mystery, it's hard to think of things that are gone, I'm hoping it was something I don't need anymore from a long time ago like COBOL or Fortran

Re: What my stroke taught me (2017)

#19

Post by financltravsty »

the_gipsy wrote: post #12
JohnMakin wrote: post #3

Well written - I do not possess an internal monologue (which apparently isn't uncommon), and a common thing people think is that it is like this author's description of "quiet" - yes, there is not a person "talking" in my head, but my head is anything but quiet most of the time. It just doesn't take the form of words/sound.

I know it's bad to say this - lile telling someone who is ill that they are not - but I cannot believe that someone truly has no inner monologue and at the same is capable of expressing complex ideas in writing or speech. What IS there then, if it's not quiet like the author describes? Could it be a lack of introspection? Have you been examined by any kind of specialist or is it self diagnosed?

Intuition.

The neurons fire and piece together the dots. I can write quite well if I'm primed for it (big if). Speaking as well; but I have to be in the "headspace" for it.

It's like sports. You are in the "zone." Though I've been told many people still have an inner monologue even during sport (sounds terribly distracting).

Re: What my stroke taught me (2017)

#20

Post by uniq7 »

aucisson_masque wrote: post #7
JohnMakin wrote: post #3

Well written - I do not possess an internal monologue (which apparently isn't uncommon), and a common thing people think is that it is like this author's description of "quiet" - yes, there is not a person "talking" in my head, but my head is anything but quiet most of the time. It just doesn't take the form of words/sound.

Don't you ever think to yourself when waking up 'time to wake up' ? Or when you see someone you don't like 'oh here is that motherfucker' ? I mean the inner voice isn't like a deep discussion between you and you, its spontaneous stuff you just wouldn't say out loud. I have a hard time believing some people don't have it.

Language is just a way of encoding semantic meaning. If your brain already knows that it is time to wake up or that it hates that guy, what's the point of encoding a description of that feeling into spoken language and replay it? That sounds inefficient.

I have an inner monologue, but most of the time (and especially when I want to work fast), I "disable" it.

Then my mind simply works in the "meaning space", where it can leverage other modalities (e.g., visual 3D representations of system behaviors).

When I write or talk in formal environments I "enable" it just to double check and polish what I want to say.

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