Talking to oneself.

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I talk to myself all the time. But I suppress it around other people. It helps me to concentrate and organize my thoughts. Otherwise its just a big jumble in my head.

Its interesting reading HOW other people talk to themselves. Personally, I talk to myself like I am having a conversation with someone else. Never really asking any questions, but more like making statements and describing things.

But one of my major problems is being able to take the jumbled up mess of thoughts and feelings in my head and putting them into words. Its usually not too bad when I'm alone. But when I'm around other people it gets a lot worse. So I end up not talking and I can't really carry on a conversation with anyone. It helps if people ask me direct questions that I can answer.

I'm NT and I do it all the time. I have done this all of my life. I rehearse conversations I'm going to have, I rehearse conversations that I had but would have liked them to go differently (this is stress reduction), I go over things that I am trying to work through, I ask and answer questions to myself. I do this alone mostly, in the car a lot. I have gotten busted by people who I think can't hear me, and I'm a little embarassed but I don't show it. I think more people do it than we think, they just do it in private. It's really funny sometimes when I am having a conversation with myself in the car and my ASD son is in the back seat doing the same thing.

Yes I do that too - I forgot that one. That's the most embarrassing one for being overheard.....I tend to practise my intonation and delivery style, so it really looks like I'm talking to somebody who isn't there I don't usually do re-runs of conversations I've had though - what's done is done, as far as I'm concerned.

As you're NT, I guess this tendency can't be very diagnostic of AS. Come to think of it, I've heard a lot of people counting out loud, and even speaking the words they're writing down, I guess it's generally a good strategy for making things clearer.

I always talk to myself. Pretty much, if I am not sleeping or unconscious,I am always talking, whether to myself or not. Actually the only time I am quiet is if I am in a room full of people, which i do not like to be in, so I get quiet because I am too overwhelmed to talk. I even talk to myself in public. i just talk about what is on my mind. I am in my own world when i do it because I have people in their, which whom I am talking too. Physically they may not be there, but because they are in my head, I talk to them out loud or not. It is usually people that I know or have known in the past. If they are good people, i am happy and talk about good things. If they are people that upset me and/or I do not like, I would always have "unpleasant" conversations. usually the unpleasant talk is in the form of memories, where in my own world, these people and the events that happened would interfere and in order to get rid of them, i have to "argue" and/or confront them by saying and Usually the actual incidents were emotionally upsetting and did not go the way I needed to go. So I get rid of the "memories" by making the event go my way, the way I needed it to end, not the actual way it ended. As soon as I am done, all the good things and people are back into my world.

You might be able to make the case that people with AS do it with a lot more frequency, especially if it involves rehearsing everyday conversations which most NT folks wouldn't bother doing. NT people stim, too, but again... it's a frequency thing.

Yes, that's me.
I'm always talking to myself out loud. Kind of a running commentary on life. I've been doing it for as long as I can remember. A lot of times it's just observations and random thoughts, although sometimes it actually helps me to problem-solve.

What's interesting is that I will change the point of view from where I am speaking. Sometimes I speak in the first-person (I see this, I think this, etc). Other times I speak in the second-person (You did this, you heard that, etc). It's like my point of view alternates between being inside my own head, and inside someone else's. I will talk to myself in a very audible speaking voice when I'm alone, and I not so loud when in public. Like fiddlerpianist said, "a sort of muttering". And indeed, I think it does make me look crazy.

On past occasions, people have said things about it. I was at work one time recently, muttering to myself aloud about nothing in particular. One of the other guys at my job saw me doing this, and said, "Hey man, what are you doing? You're always talking to yourself all the time..." Surprised and self-conscious, I replied with sarcastic self-deprecation, "Yep, I'm nuts, don't mind me."

I think that a lot of people do this, but for different reasons. My opinion is that people on the autism spectrum talk to themselves to help them make sense of the world. I know that when I say things out loud, they become more "real" to me, than if I just thought them. When I read something, I will usually do so aloud because I retain and comprehend more of the words that way. I think that talking to oneself is just a mental tool that some people need more than others.

By the way, talking to yourself in public is once again acceptable when you have a 10-month old with you. It's fantastic, actually.

i do not talk to myself much because i already know what i am thinking, and if i took the time to vocalise it, it would be very impeding on my thought process.

but i do sometimes erupt into a some caricature outburst that i suddenly think of.
it is totally controllable and i never do it in public, but when i am at home i get the urge to suddenly release a tirade of absurd words as said by a grossly exaggerated character that i have imagined.

it feels like stretching the muscles (which in turn feels like yawning in a way).
when you suddenly feel like you need to catch up on your breathing because you have been breathing shallowly and relaxedly for a while, you will yawn. it satisfies a nervous requirement as well, because yawning feels good and it releases pent up nervous energy.

the next step up from yawning is stretching. often one yawns while one stretches, but stretching is the firm contraction of every muscle in all areas of your body, and the stretching muscles fibers feel good that they are releasing some sort of dirty excess energy that has built up. it is a release of some sort of waste energy and it therefore feels good and refreshing.

then another step up from stretching (in my imagination) is the sudden release of mental energy by yelling for no reason. in my case, i tend to expend my "mental stretch" on imitating characters to an extreme degree.
things that are on the TV when i hear them in the background often are catalysts for a tirade.
like when i heard of the airbus a330 that went down between brazil and paris, i got up and stretched and yelled in an exaggerated scottish accent (like robert the bruce going into battle doing a war cry) "and wee better bloody get a decent "air crrraash investigation" episode frrrom that incident laddies!! !! !" etc. (i can not spell that sentence as i pronounced it because the "t"'s are obliterated by a "throat cut off" thing that staunch scotsmen exhibit in their accents when they pronounce a "t" in the middle of a word).

oh what ever. yes i do sometimes talk aloud while alone, but i do not talk to myself. i just let off mental steam in a verbal way sometimes.

i feel kind of naughty doing it but no one sees except for zany friends that do not care and they know i am not serious.

My mother used to do this . It was soooooooooooooo embarrassing to me, especially when we were walking together outside. I hated her for it....

I became more aware of her eccentric/ weird behaviour the older I got .

I got to wondering whether ordinary people have the same reasons for talking to themselves as I/we do, and it seems they do:

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/96580

The winning answer was:
"When you verbalize a thought it is a more active process and exposes your reasoning to higher, linguistic brain function. When you meerly "think" a thought, it is not as stringently reviewed by the rest of your brain. I verbalized thought has a harder time making it past logical shunts, or falacies, which may be below you conscious awareness.

That being said, I think most people talk to themselves because they are lonely or just enjoy conversation, even if no one is around."

I also rather liked answer no.7:
"Because they are the only person that agrees with them and logically goes over plans/scenarios. They know people out there are nut jobs and can't be trusted.
"
It's rather judgemental, but apart from the "agreeing" part I can relate to it - certainly I have a hard time getting people to listen carefullly enough to what I'm trying to say, and to answer properly. You wouldn't catch me saying yes to myself when I meant no, for example, but people seem to do that to each other all the time . I do better using the written word though.

Another "yes" vote, here.

I've talked to myself ever since I could talk, and I now credit it with greatly strengthening my social/conversational skills. I can either act friendly, or speak intelligently; I cannot manage both, because the "friendly" bit is an act that eats up most of my mental resources. But, if I have a well-practiced routine, I can reply with that MUCH more easily, and thus, sound less moronic, while still looking fairly friendly and remembering what to do, in social settings.

I'm generally freaking AWESOME at predicting how people will respond, in most situations. I used to think that was "empathy," which is why I refused to believe I could have AS, at first. Eventually, I realized that I'm really just extraordinarily skilled at analyzing behavior patterns, and ONLY from the "outside." I can never use any of these skills, while actually IN an active conversation.

So, I rehearse most conversations I have, heh. Predict them, and design brilliant responses that involve a level of expression I will never, ever manage, in real-life situations. Have these convos over and over, while pacing around alone, or doing housework, etc.

Then, when the real-life convo happens, I don't act or look "right" and am never charming or natural as I was, by myself. I get overwhelmed and confused, and can't manage any of it. EXCEPT for those carefully-practiced responses, which have been well-stored, and can be pulled out with ease, as little mini-speeches.

Talking to myself is the secret to my success, lmao. Just don't let people catch you doing it. Maybe "everybody" does it, but every single person who's ever found out I do it, has been really freaked out by it. And usually, that reaction is without even knowing the extent to which I do it, lol.

I do. It is mostly replaying things I wish I would have said to people.

I don't think it is an AS thing. I think NTs talk to themselves as well, but won't admit it.

I will

I also have that "even" thing I read a thread about a while back. If I pinch myself on my left arm, it drives me crazy until I pinch myself on my right arm in the same place. We're all a little quirky.

I have done most of my thinking in words out loud for most of my life. Some coworkers are bothered by it so I have learned to whisper it instead. I know people who I am fairly certain are not ASD who also do this. I think the commonality might be folks who think in pictures.

I often talk to myself in the car. I often struggle expressing myself clearly so I use those opportunities to practice upcoming conversations and presentations I might have coming. I imagine someone driving by me would see me and think I was completely bonkers.

Nordic

I talk to myself all the time at work. My mother has reminded/nagged me multiple times not to do so but I still do. I just try doing it without moving my lips and it's noisy enough there that no one can hear me.