Talking to myself.

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I need to admit this. I talk to myself quite often.

From what I have read here and in other places, it is quite normal to do this. Many people have said in other postings that they use it as an organising device, to tell themselves what to do next. I do this, but I consider it one of the more harmless ways I talk to myself. Other people argue with themselves, although I am not sure I do this.

I often end up, when I am completely alone, or think I am, having long discussions about my feelings regarding my family and my friends, and the conflicts that often come on. I talk about my unhappiness with my family situation, how alone I feel in my family. Sometimes I celebrate good events. I tend to be the family "b***h," or "omega male" on account of my rather quiet, reclusive personality and staying out of family affairs. I often talk about life, politics, and philosophy in those long winded self-talks.

However, I worry that I am crazy (schizophrenia) or that others will think so.

I realize that I am talking to myself, and not to some invisible entity or imaginary friend, if you will.

I often feel like I am the only person I have to talk to. That is why I do it. If I have another person there, they will criticize me.

Places where I do this are alone in my bedroom (speaking rather quietly), or walking down the walking path near my house. When on this walking path, I often encounter people. I usually quit speaking if the people are 20-30 metres away, but I think I have been caught talking to myself by people who come up from behind me. They never say anything, or are too busy to say anything. When that happens, I walk through the rather nebulous open fields to avoid them, and I feel deeply embarrassed. When I get far away, I start inadvertently making funny sounds and rocking back and forth and flapping my hands.

My dad caught me a couple of times talking to myself. He told me to quit or people would think I am crazy.

So is what I am doing a way of coping with Aspergers or do I have Schizophrenia or some other mental illness? How can I work on increasing my ability to converse my feelings with others?

Do you have any similar experiences?

When NTs do this, they call it "thinking out loud". Perhaps you could tell your dad that's what you're doing.

You don't have schizophrenia. You said you are not hearing voices and I see no evidence of delusions. I have been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder though, mainly based on so called bizarre delusions which I believe they are real and not a delusion. I talk to myself all the time, but not to imaginary voices or people. By the way, schizophrenia is NOT crazy, its just a chemical imbalance in the brain. Crazy people kill others. By the way, how can I have a chemical imbalance in my brain if I got no brain??? What the heck is a brain? I was told for hundreds of years that I ain't got one! Don't worry, its not my family that told me, but rather other people.

It would only be considered schizophrenia if you did not realise you were talking to yourself.

I talk to myself daily and the talks i have with myself usually rate a lot higher than the talks i have with other people. Infact, i would encourage you to talk to yourself as i don't see any harm in doing so. The fact you have an ASD suggests you will never be able to convey your feelings to others as accurately as you'd like and talking to yourself provides an outlet for anything your subconcious might wish to share.

Talking to yourself is quite harmless. It's very common with Aspergers and other autism-related conditions, and many people even without autism do it to some extent. Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with it. Just go with it when you're not around others.

Internal verbal thinking is talking to yourself without moving your lips.

ruveyhn

I talk to myself quite alot but I don't really see anything wrong with it as such, as I only do on my own and not in the middle of public.

I talk out loud at work to solve problems, no real harm in that. People think it's odd but whatever. What I worry about is people hearing me when I talk to myself in the bathroom. I do this at home, work, etc. Anytime I go into a bathroom I feel the need to talk to myself, play out scenarios, etc. It helps me in dealing with people. I basically plan out any conversation I may have, as well as to figure out what I might have done wrong in a conversation. I tend to think, "this is what I should have said" and I will replay the conversation and change it up to make it work, so that hopefully NEXT time I won't be such a doofus during a conversation.

I talk to my self a lot, especially at school. The problem is, I've seen things when I was younger and heard a voice persistently. Now it's not as bad but I do hear sounds that no one else hears, like my email client going off, and then I'll check for my emails... no new emails.
I do argue with my self as well, which has resulted in me punching my self in the head quite a lot, but as long as you're not arguing with yourself in an aggressive manor like me, I don't see much wrong with it.
EMZ=]

I talk to myself all the time, to practice conversation ahead of time or sing along with a song in my head. It doesn't mean you're crazy. Just try to avoid doing it around other people.

One problem I have is that sometimes, if I've had a really good practice conversation, I kind of check it off as done in my head, and forget to actually go talk to the real person.

I am always talking to myself as well, sometimes aloud but mostly quietly. It's my way of studying the possible ways the thread of a conversation may turn before it happens. I know that if I don't know how to express the right words in a conversation in advance, I will invariably get lost and frustrated in my thinking while looking for them.

I talk to myself a LOT when alone. Usually repetitive phrases or words I like the sound of. Or random stuff just for stimulation.

If I am in any way out of it, or sick, though, I do it in public by mistake, which can be embarrassing...

I do that too. Usually not in the bathroom, but somewhere with privacy.

I also talk to myself quite a bit, especially when I'm alone or bored.

I do this all the time. I talk out problems or organize my thoughts. I talk out scenes or dialog for my stories. I also vent anger this way so I can deal more constructively with others. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Sometimes other people catch me doing it. My daughter just laughs at me. It bothered some folks at work but they've gotten used to me, now. I just tell them it's the surest way I've found to get intelligent conversation and they laugh about it with me.

I also try to work out how difficult conversations will go, but that's not always as successful. I can't really predict what's going to come out of other people's mouths and I end up with a script that doesn't match the conversation.

Regards,

Patricia

I have always done similar to that as well, flapping my hands and whining, whenever someone "catches" me being weird, or even worse, I felt, was when someone "caught" me in the flapping and whining reaction *cringe*

I like what you said, arielhawksquill, about saying to Dad that this is just "thinking out loud". Great response! There's no need for Dad to be making you feel weirder about what you do, anyway. NTs do that too, as Ariel said. I think we can, as time goes on, kind of carve out a domain for our own normal, anyway, without having a parent always telling us such things. It's hard: my dad was always telling me what I should and shouldn't do too, until I was quite advanced into adulthood. Eventually I was more willing to tell him I could work it out for myself.
A therapist told me when I was about 22, that when you talk to yourself, it's fine as long as it's just you in the conversation. LOL
I did talk to my deceased relatives during periods when I was trying to understand my feelings about the relationships I'd had with them in life. I knew it was a symbolic conversation - well for the most part.
Don't worry, you're fine!