How to stop talking to yourself

Yes you got it. That is the type of a awareness I try to keep. Realize others got ears too sounds like something way damn obvious but when we gauge the amount of crap we juggle in out head that id not under our control like where the hell is this all coming from totally yes everyone is listening but not like the walls got ears way but like more of a aware conscious paying attention

Get a cheap ear amplifier and listen to what you sound like to others.
I was horrified at how stupid the things I said were, and worse, no one told me that they misterpred everything I said and/or thought I was talking secretly with someone else!

Martin ,

Are you actually using your vocal cords , or is this in your mind , ruminating , etc.

Vocal chordsā€¦speech musclesā€¦talking aloud

I never had that problem , was it always the case , I guess you have control of what you say , but the urge to say it , is quite massive? When you try to stop talking , is it like uncomfortable. Maybe therapy could help , you may have to look at alternative methods , you might not get a therapist that deals with that unique problem. What about therapy that helps stuttering , would there be any insight gleaned from that. Or some other therapy that engages similar pathways.

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So this is a big problem for me, like a compulsion. I think part of the reason I talk to myself is also that I have lived in isolation for many years, the longest I went without talking to anybody was 2 months(my job enabled that), not even online, not good.

Journaling has helped somewhat. Also meditation helped immensely but it makes me psychotic. Trying yoga atm to see how it goes.

The techniques that worked the best that I found were these 2 techniques:

  1. Sit in your room, and start describing what you see. DONā€™T WRITE IT DOWN or TALK OUT LOUD. For me it was really difficult at first but this was the thing that made the biggest difference. Just say things in your head like ā€˜Iā€™m sitting in a chair. In front of me is a desk. etcā€™ forcing the thoughts back into your head and re-training your brain.
  2. When you find yourself talking to yourself ā€˜grabā€™ one of those sentences and switch it around. Like ā€˜I canā€™t believe how cold itā€™s gotten hereā€™ changed to ā€˜Itā€™s surprising to me how the weather has gotten cold all of a suddenā€™ or you can change the topic to something else entirely. Again, not saying it out loud.

You need to be very CONSCIOUS as you preform these, because talking to yourself out loud is a very unconscious thing, you need to become conscious again.

Good luck!

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My suggestion would be to make a recording of your voice over youā€™re favourite songs. Via instrumentals or karaoke. That should trick the brain into over-riding voices. Youā€™re externalising your thoughts in a verbal manner in an attempt to over ride the internal bombardment of internal thoughts.

Or if anything, try self-hypnosis through youā€™re own voiceā€¦ Isochronic theta waves on yourube should help induce a hypnotic state much faster, easier and ensure the stability of such a stateā€¦

I started doing it to remind me what Iā€™m trying to do at work. These are my last 2 months. Will I last that long? I got an MS dizzy spell and couldnā€™t drive home.
But go figure. Sz is not bothering me this month but it feeds off the weird sensations of ms, balance.

These are my final work months forever. Iā€™m going to start a daily and then hourly countdown.
This is just too ridiculous I just have to laugh about it and then I cry. I see my pdoc tomorrow because something is not right.

I will definitely give that a try. Thank you!

Youā€™re welcome. It took me a while to put a serious dent into the bad habit, so I would not give up if you donā€™t improve in only a couple of times.

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If I remember correctly if when you start to talk out loud or the voices through you, if you focus on my jaw and how it feels, how warm it feels and any tingling.

Effectively pay mindful attention to what your doing, it stops and lessens over time the move often you use this technique.

I got taught this years ago and it helped me a lot after I was discharged form hospital.

people donā€™t like it when i talk to myself. they all think i am talking about them. my father in law yells at me and tells me if i can say it to myself i can say it to others even if i am just reminding myself of a chore over and over again.

This used to be a huge problem for me, but now Iā€™ve almost gotten rid of it.

I started thinking about the time the need or compulsion to talk to myself started happening. It was the time time I quit Sarcosine after taking it for over 3 years.

I was put on Abilify at the same time and thought that was the culprit. Also it started happening a month after quitting Sarcosine and was really mild at first, getting worse over the course of 2 years, didnā€™t make the connection.

Now Iā€™ve been taking Glycine, Sarcosine messed up my sleep and wasnā€™t helping negative symptoms, only memory. Iā€™ve been taking it for 2 weeks and it seems to be reduced by about 95 percent.

Iā€™m hoping it will completely go away in the near future. If someone were to try this Iā€™d still recommend Sarcosine because itā€™s cheaper per dose. Not saying this will work for everybody for this problem but it seems to be a fix for me.

I have made a lot of progress toward stopping talking to myself. It has been a problem for 18 years. For one thing, having moved out of NJ, I find that the environment in MD is a lot quieter so I donā€™t have the constant need to talk.