Talking to Myself

This blog is essentially about human communication and as such, the first post I would like to make is about Intrapersonal Communication. Something I'd like to term as talking to oneself.

When i ask people if they talk to themselves, most people say "No, only crazy people do that". Some others will tell me "Sometimes, when I need to motivate myself". Fewer still will tell me "Yea, I talk to myself. In my head". Well, i actually meant if they talk to themselves out loud, but i suppose that's better than nothing.

The truth is, we all talk to ourselves. Even those who told me that only crazy people do so. Most of the time, we are not conscious of our own self talking. Have you ever had those moments when you're deciding whether to get the chocolate or vanilla flavored ice-cream and while you eyes dart from one flavor to the other, a voice in your head was saying "chocolate, or vanilla?"
Yup, that's you, talking to yourself in your head. Once you realize this, you might notice that we humans talk to ourselves all the time. In fact, i can't imagine what is it like to not talk to ourselves at all.

Self talking occurs in varying degrees. First, is the self talking that happens in our head, for example making simple everyday decisions like which ice-cream flavor to have. Next, there is the self motivating pep talk that some people usually do just before they present a speech and such. And then there's talking to yourself out loud, which is probably the rarest of all. And all of these serve a very important purpose. Self-regulation. We talk to ourselves as a means to keep ourselves in check. So technically, it helps us develop our sense of self and self-esteem. Perfectly normal.

The only time we need to worry is when self talk occurs outside acceptable situations. But this statement by itself is pretty vague. Does it mean for example, still deciding out loud which ice-cream flavor to have even when you parents are talking to you about your less than perfect exam results? About this I'll have to say that my dad walked in one me self talking(out loud) some three times already. He still asks me who I'm talking to. But for the most part, at least he doesn't think I'm crazy. So talk to yourselves people!

Post written by,
Tham Sue Fern

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Reference: http://abnormaldiversity.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=35005