I have an embarrassing habit I can’t break (yelling, psycho, adult)
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I talk to myself all the time. I don't try to control it and usually I am not aware. The dog lets me know sometimes that I am talking to myself; she will come and put her chin on my lap
But I also whistle to myself. I am very good and have been asked many times where I learned to do that. I sing to myself, too, and once met a beautiful young lady in the line at the airport when she was softly singing to herself in line. We had a cup of coffee, some wonderful conversation and managed to sit together on the plane. So sometimes great things happen as a result of these "bad" habits.
I think the OP may be, like me, an outgoing introvert. The introvert part of us allows us to be comfortable alone, and the outgoing part compels us to speak our thoughts aloud.
Talking to myself really helps me process my thoughts, but now that I do it in public, it’s no longer working for me. I feel like I don’t have control over it.
I don’t need to see a therapist for this, I just want to find a technique to control it. https://www.healthline.com/health/wh...u-want-to-stop
Actually, a few sessions with a hypnotist might be more effective. This falls less under OCD than as a pattern of relaxed inhibition. I used to see auto-diracts all the time at the state hospital. Their utterances were much different than what the OP is concerned about. A gerentologist might know of some sub-clinical dose of a drug that could assist breaking the pattern.
Neither you nor I are qualified to say where this falls. Obsessive thoughts/actions ARE indicative of possible OCD. The OP should seek a qualified professional for help.
You just really need to focus when you are in public. I know its hard, when you are trying to grocery shop. I would go into the store with a list, of what I am going to buy, so I could concentrate on not talking. I think after a few times of doing that, it will get better.
Thank for providing a solution. My question is why is she focused on letting that "mental health worker" not only intimidate her but it bothered her so much she made a thread. She's convinced she's not normal even after linking to an article that says she is.
OP, you're fine. That person was rude.
What were you saying when they opened their mouth and butted in?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Listener2307
I talk to myself all the time. I don't try to control it and usually I am not aware. The dog lets me know sometimes that I am talking to myself; she will come and put her chin on my lap
But I also whistle to myself. I am very good and have been asked many times where I learned to do that. I sing to myself, too, and once met a beautiful young lady in the line at the airport when she was softly singing to herself in line. We had a cup of coffee, some wonderful conversation and managed to sit together on the plane. So sometimes great things happen as a result of these "bad" habits.
I think the OP may be, like me, an outgoing introvert. The introvert part of us allows us to be comfortable alone, and the outgoing part compels us to speak our thoughts aloud.
I'm an introvert too, I'd rather post on forums then go out in public lol I also sing some days. Wish I could whistle like you. You're gifted
Quote:
Originally Posted by Disgustedman
I will talk to myself, plan shopping, discuss merits of purchases if alone. In store, I'll mouth the words.
Totally NORMAL IMO You're comfortable with your own opinion lol Me too
I speak out loud what I am sometimes thinking. I am not talking to myself but enunciating my thoughts can help clarify and keep my thoughts focused. It can help when driving alone to stay awake. I have phrases and thoughts I will repeat out loud just poke my mind awake at times.
I talk to myself all the time. I don't try to control it and usually I am not aware. The dog lets me know sometimes that I am talking to myself; she will come and put her chin on my lap
But I also whistle to myself. I am very good and have been asked many times where I learned to do that. I sing to myself, too, and once met a beautiful young lady in the line at the airport when she was softly singing to herself in line. We had a cup of coffee, some wonderful conversation and managed to sit together on the plane. So sometimes great things happen as a result of these "bad" habits.
I think the OP may be, like me, an outgoing introvert. The introvert part of us allows us to be comfortable alone, and the outgoing part compels us to speak our thoughts aloud.
I talk to myself. (FYI, I live alone and am retired, but I am not lonely).
This is how it goes, whenever a thought comes into my head, it comes out of my mouth. I walk around the house having full conversations with myself. When I go shopping, I talk out loud. Wearing a mask has helped to not blow my cover, but I recently had an embarrassing situation. I was in a store talking to myself when a woman approached me, she heard me talking. She said she was a mental health worker and wanted to see what “level” I was, she was referring to mental illness. I was so embarrassed.
The problem is that I can’t stop. I have tried everything, even taping my mouth shut. I have been doing this for about 3 years, it started when I lived in an isolated community.
Has anyone else had this problem, and how did you stop talking out loud when no one was around?
Donna
Reminds me of one time when my daughter was a teenager. I was in my room, trying to work something out in my head, talking out loud, when she came barging in with "Mom, can I--", and I yelled at her to stop interrupting me.
She looked around and started to slowly back out, saying, "But there's nobody else in here, Mom. Who were you talking to?"
I do it all the time, but I'm able to control it most of the time when out in public. I just try to be more aware that there are people close by. I tend to curse a lot out loud when I am by myself.
And hey, in the supermarket, sometimes I am NOT talking to myself but talking back to that obnoxious voice coming out of the self-checkout machine.
I talk to myself when alone or in public. If someone looks at me funny, or if I notice someone looking at me funny I just tell them I talk to myself all the time.
I also talk to dogs and sometimes even trees, and of course my car.
I have no desire to stop.
Quirky, crazy, senile: pick one. I just gotta be me.
HAHAHA, I have a particular tree I like in the park where I walk. It's near the entrance to a trail. OK, yes, this is crazy and I admit it, but I've put my hand on that tree and asked it to show me something. It's on a high bank overlooking a river that's dammed to make a reservoir, and one time when I did that, a big snapping turtle swam to the surface and another time a great blue heron flew past at eye level. Sometimes the tree is just quiet, of course, and we hang out for a minute or so until I continue on my way.
Well, I hadn't been there for a while, and when I got there, I put my hand on the tree and said, "Hi, I hope you didn't think I forgot about you, I've just been away."
Then I heard a jangle and realized that a man and his dog had entered the path right behind me and he must have heard me talk to the tree. He went ahead on the trail, kind of fast.
I talk to myself. (FYI, I live alone and am retired, but I am not lonely).
This is how it goes, whenever a thought comes into my head, it comes out of my mouth. I walk around the house having full conversations with myself. When I go shopping, I talk out loud. Wearing a mask has helped to not blow my cover, but I recently had an embarrassing situation. I was in a store talking to myself when a woman approached me, she heard me talking. She said she was a mental health worker and wanted to see what “level” I was, she was referring to mental illness. I was so embarrassed.
The problem is that I can’t stop. I have tried everything, even taping my mouth shut. I have been doing this for about 3 years, it started when I lived in an isolated community.
Has anyone else had this problem, and how did you stop talking out loud when no one was around?
Donna
I know a number of people who do this, sometimes I do it myself, I always thought of it as "thinking out loud". Unless you're constantly talking to imaginery characters you really think are around who but aren't, do it all the time to the exclusion of the people who really are there, and aren't oriented to the reality around you, I can't think that the "thinking out loud" is that much out of the norm.
And as for that woman who approached you and tried to hang a diagnosis of mental illness on a complete stranger about which she knew nothing, she was out of line and she was the one, not you, who should have been embarrassed. In fact, I can't think a real mental health worker would have approached a stranger like that ( ought to know better), so I think I'd have reminded her that it requires a medical license to diagnose a mental illness, so she really should keep her day job.
Kinda puts me in mind of the old saying about how talking to oneself is sometimes the only way for a person to have an intelligent conversation.
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