Why do people talk to themselves? To understand the reasons for this, it is necessary to first highlight the way people speak:

• They silently carry on an internal dialogue with themselves.
• They talk to themselves out loud.
• They talk with a non-existent interlocutor from outside or inside themselves.

Inner silent dialogue with yourself.

This phenomenon is completely normal for any person, and especially for an introvert who is closed and silent in his psychotype. The self-contained introvert is reluctant to contact outside world and does not allow any outsider to interfere in his personal life. So living in your own inner world, the introvert silently conducts dialogues with himself.

But internal dialogues are conducted and not. Self-talk begins in childhood, when the child is already able to pay attention to his inner psychological processes and continues until the end of life. According to Z. Freud inner speech is a conversation between the three components of the human psyche - the Ego (a conscious and comprehended part), the Id (a forbidden and repressed by consciousness part) and the Super-Ego (all manifestations of the Super-I). Therefore, the essence of the internal dialogue is the dialogue of our meaningful consciousness with its unconscious part, the censor of which is the Super-I. In the process of internal dialogue, an agreement occurs between these three structures of the psyche, which contributes to the process of continuous development of the personality.

In difficult life moments, internal dialogue helps a person to accept correct solution to get out of this situation.

Talking to yourself out loud.

You can also talk to yourself out loud. Sometimes people do this from a feeling of loneliness, longing and hopelessness. Speaking out loud replaces a person real communication with people, so when real interlocutors appear, the need to talk to yourself aloud also disappears.

As a result of numerous studies by psychologists, it turned out that in other situations, talking to yourself out loud is useful for improving brain activity. By speaking aloud the problem, a person stimulates the work of the brain and quickly copes with the task assigned to him. Scientists explain this by the fact that speech can significantly enhance brain activity, improve the processes of perception and assimilation of information. This is especially true for such a type of people as auditory, perceiving the surrounding reality by ear.

Thus, talking with yourself in any form - silently or aloud, helps a lot in solving problems of various content and complexity.

Conversation aloud with an invisible interlocutor.

The sight of such a conversation publicly, as well as the surrounding people, causes at least a strong surprise. It is strange to see a person talking enthusiastically with some invisible interlocutor. Moreover, the words of an imaginary interlocutor can come for him not only from outside. Listening to an extraneous voice within himself, a person answers out loud ... listens - and answers again. How to explain such strange behavior?

« Where is my jar of body butter? Damn, you always scatter everything, and then you can't find it!«.

I don't talk to anyone. I'm just looking for my favorite lotion.

« Aha, please! You rolled him under the bed!«.

« I often talk to myself for a long time“, - admits Gigi Angle.

And it doesn't just happen when I'm in the privacy of my own home.

I talk to myself as I walk down the street. When I'm sitting in the office or when I'm shopping.

Thinking out loud helps me materialize what I'm thinking about. It allows me to understand the meaning of things and events.

When a person talks to himself, from the outside he looks crazy. We all know this: Mentally ill people talk to themselves, right? After all, not everyone can talk to an interlocutor who sits between his ears.

I'm sure a lot of people saw me wandering the streets of New York and thought, "Oh my god, drug addiction is really terrible." And, yes, sometimes I talk to things like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings - especially rings and jewelry in general.

I decided to study the phenomenon. And you know what turned out?

Self-talk is actually a sign of genius.

The smartest people on the planet talk to themselves.

Look at the interior monologues the greatest thinkers. Look at the verses! Look at history!

Albert Einstein was talking to himself. When he was a teenager, he did not differ in the desire to communicate with his peers. I preferred to keep everything to myself. Einstein.org reports that he "liked to quietly repeat the same phrases to himself several times."

As you can see, I'm not alone. And I'm not completely crazy. I'm probably just very smart. Ha!

Talking to yourself makes your brain work more efficiently.

Experimental authors Daniel Swigley and Gary Lupian gave 20 different people task to find some certain commodity- such as bread, milk or an apple. During the first series of trials, the participants had to silently scurry around the store. In the second set, they were asked to say out loud the name of what they were looking for. Do I need to say that the second time they did much better?

The scientific publication Live Science explains this phenomenon by saying that talking out loud - even to yourself - makes the parts of the brain responsible for memory work more actively. And it gives a tangible effect.

And here is how Lupyan explains it:

“If you know what an object looks like, talking to yourself will help you find it. You know that, for example, a banana is yellow and has a special oblong shape. When you say "banana" out loud, your brain activates its visual abilities to help you find it. So yes, it works."

Children who talk to themselves develop faster.

There is scientific evidence that indicates that children who talk to themselves from childhood develop faster overall. They start lacing their own shoes earlier, they do better in school, they know more words and learn to read more quickly without syllables.

And since children learn to talk by listening to and imitating adults, they usually pick up the habit of talking to themselves from their parents. So at least in the family and in the presence of your children, you can feel free to help yourself think in this way.

Talking to yourself helps organize your thoughts.

When my thoughts are incoherent, and I need to organize them, I know that the easiest way to do this is to start saying everything that is going on in my head out loud.

Plus, psychologists know that vocalized questions calm the nerves. If something bothers you, say it. It will get easier.

Psychologist Linda Sapedin even argues that speaking your problems out loud can help you make important and difficult decisions.

Everyone knows that The best way Solving a problem is talking about it. So why not do it alone, on your own?

Talking to yourself helps you reach your goals.

Making a list of your goals and then immediately begin to fulfill them is an unrealistic task. And it's very depressing.

But if you start saying your goals out loud, it will be easier for you to achieve what you want. If you support yourself in the process, each step will feel less difficult and less time consuming.

SAPEDIN explains:

“When you talk about your goals out loud, it’s easier for your attention to focus. Plus, you back up your intentions with words, control your emotions. It becomes much harder for the brain to be distracted.”

In general, you understand. We, those who like to chat alone, of course, are still “crazy”, but in general, we are also the most intelligent and effective people of all.

We do not regret the time spent the opportunity to listen to our inner voice. Now we will talk to ourselves loudly and proudly!

On the street a man is walking, he mutters something to himself, smiles or frowns, argues animatedly with himself. Passers-by react differently - someone twists his finger at his temple, someone calmly passes by - and they didn’t see anything like that, again, well, what’s strange, the person says to himself. But what if there is no good interlocutor nearby ?!

It's nice to talk to a smart person. Especially if this smart man you always have with you - you yourself. Of course, people expressively talking to themselves out loud on the street are still a sad picture, reminding some of Robinson Crusoe, some of the psychiatric hospital, some of the prison, some of the approaching insanity.

But really, let's be honest: more than with ourselves, we don't talk to anyone. That is, we are talking about ourselves. About yourself loved by yourself.

Psychologists say that a person talks to himself about 70% of the time. We tend to believe this. Our inner voice gives us advice, teaches us to live, reminds us of necessary purchases and deeds, evaluates whether we have done a good job. Right now, when you are reading these lines, you have probably already started an internal argument, discussing some of my phrases or continuing them. Of course, you did not say it out loud, but you have probably already begun to speak .... Someone calls communication and, most importantly, listening inner voice intuition, someone logic, but these internal stories are our internal dialogue.

Source of internal strategies
or Who speaks in our head?

Remember the bearded joke? A cowboy runs away from the Indians and thinks: “This is the end!”.
An inner voice tells me: “No, this is not the end. You have to climb the tallest tree."
Gets in.
The Indians set fire to the tree.
"Now the end!" - the cowboy understands.
“No,” says the inner voice, “we must shoot the leader.” The cowboy shoots, the Indians angrily fell the tree. “Now is the end!” - Ascertains the inner voice with satisfaction.

There are many anecdotes about a person’s conversation with himself, in which, as a rule, the inner voice gives a lot of useful tips, in the end, nevertheless destroying the life or health of its owner. In these anecdotes, the inner voice becomes, as it were, Kopelyan's off-screen voice in the film about Stirlitz - this is a separate creature that knows much more than him " outer shell". But what is it really, our inner voice that conducts an internal dialogue with us - where does it come from, why do we need it and how to deal with it so that it does not destroy anything in our life, like its doppelgänger from jokes?

Watching young children, all parents notice that the child often talks to himself, commenting on his actions. And all these “I put a cube on a cube” he says not counting on the educator - he thus learns to think in the language.

For some people, the habit of commenting on their actions aloud remains - we all saw the process of finding the right thing, when a person, walking around the room, thinks aloud: “Where could I put it? Came yesterday in this jacket, maybe in your pocket? No, I’ll have to go to the kitchen and see if I suddenly posted it ... ”.

This process is very understandable to people who already in adulthood teach foreign language: at some point there is a desire to pronounce their actions in a new language, and then a statement of fact comes: "I began to think in this language."

Internal dialogue helps us not only to formalize in words, but also to form an internal picture of the world. And sometimes even completely replaces it. For example, a man was walking and stumbled. What does the inner voice say? "Here they put, freaks, stones." That is, the inner voice said that the world is not perfect. Another person at this moment thinks: “Well, when you put on white shoes, you immediately fall into the mud, and in general - you always have it like that.” An inner voice said that it is not the world that is imperfect, but this stumbled man. The third inner voice comforted: “Well, it’s nothing, it’s nothing, and in general everything will be fine, life is like a zebra ...”

Where are all these voices coming from? A very large number of voices sounding inside us (we are not taking a clinical case when angels or demons talk to a person, but normal person, within which there is a discussion of his actions and deeds) - comes from childhood. These action comments are most often what small man hears from parents. Our internal dialogue shapes our self-esteem!

If you listen carefully, the words that sound in the head of an adult often have a very clear “original” affiliation: if you ask a person to think about who pronounces certain words in his head, then, after thinking, he will say in surprise: “So my mother said!”

Indeed, the process of finding our "inner friend", which forms our self-esteem, goes like this: a small person is going to Kindergarten, and his mother, hurrying to work, hurries him irritably: “Kulema, come on quickly, you always dig, one trouble with you!”.

If a child often hears such a text in childhood, he begins to treat himself this way further. Remember how in Alice in Wonderland? “If a piglet is called out loud, from the cradle, bayushki-bayu, Even the most meek child will turn into a pig in the future.”

Well, in a pig, not in a pig, but, of course, mother's voice is "recorded" on a tape recorder in a person's head - and then in life a person begins to say this text to himself at the "right" moments. And if this very baby buries himself in the garden with things, and no one notices this, the “vigilant mother” will still speak in his head - and now the baby, pulling boots on his feet and tying a scarf, says to himself: “Well, kulem, forever you're digging!"

The words that the child hears most often then form his life strategies. And mother's irritated words form losers.

It is clear that we have already inherited the set of internal voices that we have received. With him, too, you can do a lot of things, we will definitely talk about this. But what conclusions can we draw for ourselves about the "legacy" "records" with the recording of voices?

Firstly, psychologists have noticed that 70% of people conducting an internal dialogue look at themselves through the eyes of someone who does not love them, finds fault with them, evaluates them not in better side. The exit suggests itself. Let's put into action the one who loves us! Let him, as a writer, admire his character (that is, us), say: “Oh, how lovely her cheeks are today ...!” You can learn from the example of how Leo Tolstoy described Natasha Rostova, his beloved heroine. Why are we worse? It's all up to us!

At the same time, we can begin to shape our children's strategies by offering them "winning" strategies. my little son we taught to eat with a spoon while doing this experiment. Showed - you take, bring, swallow. He diligently performed everything, after each “successful” spoon we shouted: “Well done!”. The next day, the son ate by himself and shouted “madees” to himself. But what is remarkable - and now, if he succeeds, he says to himself "well done!". While listening. But I think that soon he will learn to speak to himself in a “good inner voice” and inside. It is important that already now he knows that he is good.

But what should we, adults, do when the inner voice tells us nasty things?!

Well, firstly, the most important thing is not to start arguing with him internally, like that same cowboy. Who are we arguing with? If the internal dialogue is the voice of people who are authoritative for us, it is hard to argue with them. And besides, starting to argue, we recognize the right of the inner voice to a separate existence. But these thoughts are our property, they are part of us!

What would you think if I offered you to coax your finger to bend? Brad, right? When we need it, we just bend our finger. You also need to treat your inner voice - this is your inner voice, and in order to control it, you must first of all treat it not as a living being, but as a finger.

And this means that you can try to somehow transform it, “bend it”.

Conduct an experiment: try to pronounce the text that condemns you “well, you always make it to the last, and then you suffer”:

• 2 times faster
• voice of Disney cartoons
• or, on the contrary, stretch these words, sing in the voice of Chaliapin: “well ... what are you .... again ....”

Is it possible to keep attention on the "tragic and condemning" sense of the phrase?

Notice your attitude? Are you still upset? Is that “you failed again” squeal still meaningful to you?

One of my acquaintances experienced great difficulties in meeting girls: he, a very interesting outwardly man, thought that the girls did not like him. Every time he met a girl, he scrolled through the following text in his head: “She will tell you, they say, where did you come from, there are many of you ...” As a result, he was offended in advance - and did not get acquainted with the girl. Or he went to get acquainted, but already with such an expression on his face that he did not have to get acquainted - and really received such an answer.

The fact is that our internal dialogues are reflected in the body, and a person inside whom the text “here, again you are acting like an idiot” sounds can cause such a reaction. The funny thing is that in the final we begin to relate to the interlocutor (in this case- to the girl) as if he really gave a predictable answer.

But this can and should be changed!

With my acquaintance, we spoke in a “cartoon” voice the entire text of the girl’s imaginary “refusal”, in the final I would definitely add: “Well, isn’t it funny yourself?” He laughed, and this cheerful attitude helped him then build real dialogues with real, not imaginary, girls.

The internal dialogue is not something that is given once and for all, it can be controlled. What do you do if you suddenly start playing music that you don't like on the radio in your car? Switch to another wave, make it quieter or turn it off completely. You can also switch the record of the inner voice, or you can make it quieter. Ask yourself where your inner voice is coming from. For example, mentally transfer it to your knee or little finger ... What does it have to do with the little finger, which dares to condemn you, being at a distance of eighty meters ?!

Speaking of talking to imaginary girls. The fact is that that “series” - dialogues and even whole situations that we scroll through in our head - as a rule, has nothing to do with reality. Of course, good opportunity to occupy your head, for example, while you are going to a meeting, but there is a danger that at a real meeting your interlocutor simply will not understand the reasons for your condition.

For example, a husband returns home late and thinks: “I’ll come, my wife will tell me why later, I worked - I know your work, I suppose they took beer with Sidorov - yes, we haven’t been drinking beer for a long time - that means vodka ...” ... The man thought - and I forgot, but on the threshold, instead of “hello, dear,” he throws: “You broke my whole life!” After all, the "wife in the head" has already driven him into a corner. And even if the wife is happy to see him and does not say anything, all the same, the negative will break out of him.

In such a dialogue between husband and wife, there are not 2 people, but four: she is married to an idiot, he is married to a bitch, and everyone speaks not with real spouse but with the one in my head.

The trouble is, our worst opponents, wives, husbands, and critics, are in our heads. Happiness is that real people not so terrible and nasty!

Why often with a change of job or wife, nothing in a person's life changes? Because nothing has changed inside: the face of the boss or wife has changed, but that “inner boss” and that “inner wife” that were there remained.

So isn’t it better to “change the record” here too, forbid yourself to scroll through the “serial” about a bitch - and show yourself, for example, a love comedy with your wife in leading role. And you will see that your intonation and the face with which you will appear on the threshold will change from this. And the text that meets you will change accordingly.

human brain virus

One more negative property our internal dialogue is that it eats away attention like a computer virus..

Conscious attention of a person is limited. Living in a huge information flow, we are aware of 7 + - 2 objects. Right now, when you are reading this article, do you pay attention to the sounds that are around?

If so, how many of them do you hear? How many windows are in the room where you are sitting? If the information we have is this moment doesn't matter, we switch. This ability protects us, but also interferes: when there is an internal dialogue, it takes a lot of our attention - and we may not notice a lot of important things in the outside world.

For example, the same acquaintance of mine, while pronouncing her “negative speech” for a girl, did not notice how other girls looked at him with interest at that time.

Gurdjieff offered his students the following meditation: choose a rose and begin to contemplate it silently. How long can you do it?

A person usually looks for three seconds, then starts talking to himself: “Did you buy this in a passageway or in a store? I wonder what kind it is? Dutch, probably. I wonder if she smells? Now all the roses have stopped smelling, but about 10 years ago ... "

It turns out that most of us cannot just contemplate for one minute without speaking inside. This dialogue takes us away from reality, making us smart, right, but preventing us from absorbing any other knowledge. It is not bad, but it prevents us from correctly perceiving reality, immerses us inside ourselves - instead of letting us look at the world. When we are absorbed in the internal dialogue, all our strength and emotions are spent on it, and real sensations are dulled.

So, for example, the internal dialogue in sex terribly interferes. Anything is spinning in a person’s head: “But I wonder if he read the Kama Sutra?” “What if he turns on the light and sees how fat I am ...”, “We should whitewash the ceiling”, “what will mom say ?!” ... And this does not at all contribute to enjoying body contact. Why do people love alcohol? He knocks out the inner voice, in which there are always a lot of prohibitions and morality.

No wonder there are techniques to turn off the internal dialogue. Learning to "turn off" it is difficult, but it is possible after some training.

Here, for example, one of them: find in the visual channel and select 3 points: one is close, the other is far, the third is in the middle, but not on 1 line. For example, the edge of a magazine, a window, a house outside the window. Try to focus on all three points at the same time. There comes a slight defocusing of vision - but this is what we wanted.

Now, hearing. Choose three sounds: inside your body (for example, breathing), the second one is nearby (for example, a humming computer), the third one is far away (footsteps outside the window). Continuing to hold three points with your eyesight, listen to three sounds. Now select three points on your body that are as far apart as possible, for example, thumb right leg, point on the back, point on the cheek. Connect this feeling to the already found points of hearing and sight ...

Welcome back. Have you noticed that it is absolutely impossible to continue the internal dialogue - and do this exercise? As soon as you start saying: “Where are they all running to?!” - at this moment you stop seeing, hearing and feeling? And this explains, by the way, the great trick in which, for a good love evening, they put good music and light the candles – the changes in sound and the rippling shadows from the candles draw attention and load most of the channels of perception of the world, helping to drown out the inner voices.

But this rule to “turn off” the inner voice will be very useful not only in love, but also in business. At negotiation trainings, we often draw the attention of participants to the fact that if they go to negotiations full of internal dialogue, then they are negotiating with a virtual character.

If you go to a business shark, you will fight with him, without even noticing, perhaps, that he is not a shark: after all, you have already rehearsed everything that you will say and what they will answer you. And at the trainings we teach: in a situation business communication internal dialogue - help us after the fact, not instead of, but before negotiations, there should be an “uptime state” - “dissolved in time”.

Why stop the dialogue?

One of the directions of psychology says that very often in our subconscious there are answers to our main questions, but the dialogue that sounds inside is the gate that does not allow us to extract this resource. By stopping it, we can get the answer to the question. It drowns out all channels, it’s like we have headphones on our ears - and we don’t hear the “voice of God” ...

The basic principles of prayer in many religions: smells, body, sight, singing involve your attention completely, you dive into it, pray (sometimes it is even a monotonous repetition of the same “mantra”, in the process you forget about your question, but it goes nowhere does not disappear, and when the subconscious is activated in the process of prayer (or you can consider this as clues higher powers, to each according to faith) - you receive answers.

Another property of the internal dialogue is that it constantly conjectures.

Here, for example, the boss frowned, looking at you. What does it say? The internal dialogue immediately thinks out: “Yeah, I came 5 minutes late, he’s probably unhappy with this and wants to express it to me” ... Or “probably, a check is coming soon” ...

Find 10 reasons why the boss frowned - and neurosis is guaranteed. Or maybe the boss was shaking his shoes? Or a headache? After all, maybe he is having an internal dialogue with his wife in his head - and not with you at all?

What to do? Do not speculate - either ask the question directly to the boss, and learn everything from him, or ignore it. And you will be upset already when the boss formalizes his dissatisfaction with words or takes some actions. After all, is self-talk your ally or just another enemy?

Mood and state

Our internal dialogues are very dependent on our mood and state, and we all know this in practice too. Mood - from the word "tune". Piano tuners tune pianos. We, in fact, must be able to tune ourselves, bring ourselves into the mood. And we treat the mood as if it does not depend on us: “I have no mood today!”. Meanwhile, you can set yourself up for both good and bad. If you want something bad, read as much crime news as you can, watch action films from Soviet reality, talk in the yard about what has become worse, remember that you are getting old, find defects in your clothes. And if you, having set yourself up in this way, were going to negotiate, you can at the same time explain in advance why they will definitely fail.

Who among us needs such a mood? Nobody. Let's learn to be positive then. For example, consider the advantages in our life. Your inner voice is indignant: "Where can I find the pros!". Change his intonation from indignant to interrogative - and let's look.

Write out 10 good events that happened to you during the day. From global (“they gave out an award”) to small ones (“comfortable shoes”). A resisting harmful inner voice sarcastically asks: “Where can I scrape so many of them ?!” Scrape, try. Pay attention to your surroundings. See what you like about yourself. Even, let's say, if you say: "My nails are fine ..." - this is already a step. pay attention to happy faces in crowd. Yes, of course, there are not only happy faces, but in a rose there are petals, but there are thorns - concentrate on the petals. And then let your inner voice ask you: “What else will please me this day?” Reply. Only - without irony!

summarizes and rides on those rails that are, and we are laying these rails. In this way, you will allow the inner voice to record another, optimistic, record. All auto-training techniques help to change the rails for the inner voice and give it a good mood.

More important word- "condition". Literally means - with what are we standing next to?

Buddhists have a practice of standing next to Buddha statues in the same position. I do not propose to do this, but let's pay attention to what we stand next to, who surrounds us? Those who say "what all the bastards" - or people who smile? What books and films do we watch? This is how we charge ourselves, setting the rails for the internal dialogue. Let's use mood and state to their destination, to guide them and to enjoy.

Well, firstly, it is practically impossible and only people who have been cultivating in higher spiritual practices for many years succeed. And secondly, we need him - we just need to make him a friend. After all, he:

1. helps us to be in society, to think in words. You have probably noticed that people who are constantly in meditation (the option is immersed in working with a computer and its details), in terms of ordinary people are not very comfortable in communication, because for them the formulation of thoughts out loud is a very hard job?

1. allows you to remember the sequence of events

1. helps to think over the system of public entry - only BEFORE and AFTER, but most importantly - not at the time! After all, it's funny when a person talks to himself, not noticing that the audience is already asleep. Internal dialogue should be constructive, carry positive emotions to help achieve goals. Help structure the experience, not replace it.

1. helps us to be in a good state - if we, of course, have worked on it. As the Russian people say, “you can’t praise yourself - no one will praise you”

Internal dialogue is what makes us look smart, the main thing is that we must still have time to receive feedback and reactions to it.

Well, if you still really, really want to continue dialogues with your only friend- your choice. Nowadays, these dialogues are becoming even more comfortable: hang the accessories of a mobile phone in your ear - and speak to your heart's content, no one will think that this is not telephone conversation With myself. But it's always nice to talk to a really smart person!

Sometimes people talk to themselves. Most often, this is a sign of loneliness when you want to talk, but have no one to talk to. For such people, it is recommended to have a pet. You can calmly talk to him out loud, it's even funny. Sometimes children talk aloud, often during the game. In this case, they are trying to voice their role, they lack attention. Perhaps such a child needs to play with peers more often so that he does not get used to speaking for himself and for the doll.

If people talk to themselves out loud, then they often lack human attention. In this situation, it is necessary to expand the circle of contacts, go out more often, communicate with people. Start a business, a hobby, you do not need to close in on yourself. You can try to look for friends on the Internet, this also helps.

Why else does a person talk to himself out loud?

Also, from the abundance of information volume that the brain receives during work, many begin to pronounce numbers or words so as not to get confused. This speaks of the special attentiveness of a person, his fear of making a mistake. Of course, this cannot be called a pathology. It may look weird, but it's not scary. Some call such things still egocentric appeal, that is, words to themselves. It can also be like an overlay of loneliness.

Mental illness

However, in addition to the usual pronunciation of the text or dialogues in a voice, many have real disputes with the absent surrounding. Sometimes the conversation looks quite aggressive. This speaks of mental illness a person, some of them are congenital.

What pathologies are:

• Psychopathy;
• Schizophrenia;
• Split personality and others.

A split in the human personality is a diagnosis, it can be obtained as a result of experienced mental traumas, often they come from childhood. sexual or physical impact affect the behavior of later adults. It seems to him that he develops several personalities, and of different sexes. There may be about a dozen of them. He can experience not only depression, but also try to harm himself. Many people suffer from schizophrenia. They are quite adequate until they start talking to themselves. Often suffer from schizophrenia creative people, it's like withdrawing into oneself from the stresses of the world around.

Don't self-diagnose, see a doctor

These diseases are already being treated by a psychiatrist, but in any case, you need to examine a person, and not put a diagnosis on him unfounded. If a person has experienced severe stress, was in a state of loneliness for a long time, likes to think aloud, then he will often behave strangely. That is why the reasons why people talk to themselves can be different, and pathology is not always the case. However, if the family had schizophrenia, it must be borne in mind that the disease is often inherited and, under certain circumstances, may well recur.

Finding out why people talk to themselves is not difficult, you just need to contact a specialist, and he will name the reason in each case.

Many probably have a colleague who gets up and says as if to himself: “I’m going to eat” or “It’s time to go home.” For others, this information does not carry any value, so why absolutely normal people comment aloud on their actions? The Village asked a psychiatrist and a townsman who sometimes talks to himself about this.

Timur Enaliev

psychiatrist, psychotherapist, narcologist

The human mind is constantly in a stream of thoughts. Information - for the most part absolutely useless - is becoming more and more, our mind is overloaded. A large part of the living verbal communication steal social media- that's probably why there are more and more people who talk to themselves. This is a kind of obsessive amulet, so as not to forget how to speak at all. Joke.

Seriously, the spoken word has special power. It's vibration. It is a pity that many people treat words superficially. How a person speaks is to some extent more important than what he says. People are very focused on the form, everyone has to choose the right, “right” words in order to be understood. However, in order to be felt, it is enough to be in a relatively relaxed and friendly mood, to voice your thoughts, and not to use templates and blanks, which makes our communication insipid and formal.

No matter how strange a person may look from the outside, commenting aloud on his actions, voicing intentions, this is rather protective. This is a protection against feelings of loneliness, self-doubt, a kind of self-reinforcement and reinforcement. Most often this is not realized, and therefore does not hide.

And a little about the other side of the phenomenon - a state well known in psychiatry. With obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is quite diverse in manifestations, a person, figuratively speaking, becomes a hostage of his thoughts. He is painfully worried, and it is not in his power to resist the pronunciation of certain words and phrases aloud. Fear and apprehensions are so strong that they provoke the performance of various protective rituals, including verbal ones.

With personality disharmony (psychopathy), there are cases of uncontrolled negative speech. And finally, the deepest and most difficult to reach is the psychotic level. A person in such states can be in dialogue with hallucinations.

Julia Kalinina

talking to herself

This is called egocentric speech - that is, speech addressed to oneself. I have it from time to time. When the porridge in the head starts from a large number simultaneous affairs, or fatigue has accumulated, or you need to concentrate heavily on the details, I pronounce my actions aloud in order to sort of control myself. I drew attention to her several years ago, when I began to live alone - that is, in a situation where, apart from me, no one makes sounds in the apartment. Personally, egocentric speech helps me a lot: the feeling that you are not alone in doing something. As if two people control each other: me and me. For example today tax return filled in, there are a lot of numbers in which I do not understand anything. I said each number aloud so as not to get confused.

Illustration: Nastya Yarovaya