Self-talk refers to the way that you talk to yourself, whether positively or negatively. Positive self-talk can help you hype yourself up and feel confident before a situation. When you talk to yourself this way you’re able to motivate yourself and pay more attention to your thoughts.
Why Do People Talk to Themselves?
Most people talk to themselves regularly. This may happen when thinking through ideas, when debating decisions, or when in need of a pep talk. Some people feel that self-talk creates a “presence” around them that makes them feel better. This can help with loneliness.
But in some cases, when people talk to themselves in an erratic or muttering way, it could indicate a mental health disorder. This type of talking out loud can be an early sign of schizophrenia that can worsen if untreated.
The way we talk to ourselves can have positive or negative effects. Below you’ll find more about self-talk, why talking to yourself is good for your mental health, and whether to be worried about it.
Why People Talk to Themselves
It’s more common for people to talk to themselves than to not. According to one study, 96% of adults say they have an internal dialogue. While self-talk out loud is less common, 25% of the adults say they do it.
Many people talk to themselves in everyday situations. There’s a stigma around talking to yourself out loud in public, but doing it can help you understand the world around you. When you talk to yourself you’re intentionally taking in your surroundings.
Inner dialogue usually sounds similar to the way you would speak to others. This kind of self-talk can occur quietly inside your head or be spoken out loud. Either way, it’s a passive activity – simply listening to your own thoughts.
Another type of internal self-talk happens when you’re debating something with yourself – not just listening to your thoughts. Some people feel their inner dialogue come from a specific place in their body. This could be in their chest or certain parts of their head.
Self-Talk and Mental Health
When people talk to themselves, they may be working problems out in their minds and speaking them out loud. This is also known as “self-explaining.” Talking out loud helps people work through their thoughts.
This is a healthy problem-solving tactic. There have been studies that show when people talk through what they’ve just experienced, they’re more likely to learn from it and understand it.
Self-talk refers to the way that you talk to yourself, whether positively or negatively. Positive self-talk can help you hype yourself up and feel confident before a situation. When you talk to yourself this way you’re able to motivate yourself and pay more attention to your thoughts.
The mental and social benefits of self-talk have long been debated by philosophers. Self-talk can help you make decisions more easily and motivate you to do things you may be putting off. Keeping a positive outlook and talking to yourself kindly can have great impacts on your overall mental health.
Mental Health Conditions
There are some cases where talking to yourself can be a sign of a mental health condition. Muttering and speaking random sentences out loud could be a sign of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia affects many people worldwide. It’s more common in young people when they’re going through major transitions in their life.
Schizophrenia is more common than Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis. It can affect men in their mid-20s and women a bit later in life. Schizophrenia in children is rare.
This condition doesn’t have an exact cause, but certain things make someone more prone to developing it. These could include brain chemical balance, genetic causes, and environmental issues. Drugs could also play a part.
One of the main symptoms of schizophrenia is disordered thoughts. Your thoughts may feel blocked or jumbled. When you speak them out loud they may not have a logical order. When you talk to yourself you might make up new words, repeat single words or phrases with no context, or give new meanings to words.
If caught early, schizophrenia can be treated and managed.
Show Sources
Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association: “Why people talk to themselves.”
Harvard Business Review: “Talking to Yourself (Out Loud) Can Help You Learn.”
Merck Manual Consumer Version: “Schizophrenia.”
Research Digest: “The science of how we talk to ourselves in our heads.”
Review of Philosophy and Psychology: “Making Sense of Self Talk.”
Social Psychological and Personality Science: “Splitting of the Mind: When the You I Talk to is Me and Needs Commands.”
Is it normal to talk to yourself?
Researchers say that the act of talking to yourself — self-talk or self-directed talk — is a common and normal behavior at any age. It may help people find mislaid items and understand instructions, among other benefits.
Although people often associate self-talk with mental health issues, healthcare professionals consider it normal at all ages and even beneficial in some circumstances.
In this article, we explore why a person might self-talk. We will also look at its benefits and when it may indicate a mental health condition.
Researchers have been studying self-talk for a long time. In the 1880s, scientists were particularly interested in what people say to themselves, why they talk to themselves, and the purposes of self-talk.
Research defines self-talk as a verbal expression of an internal position or belief, meaning it expresses inner feelings, non-verbal thoughts, and intuitions about a situation through speech. The person only intends to direct their speech at themselves.
While children often talk to themselves, it should not be a cause for concern for parents or caregivers. It is a way of developing language, staying stimulated during a task, and improving performance while completing tasks.
The habit of self-talk may continue into adulthood and is generally not a problem.
Self-talk may have several benefits. It causes no significant health risks unless a person also experiences other symptoms of a mental health condition, such as hallucinations.
While performing a task with a set of instructions, self-talk may improve control over the task, concentration, and performance. It may also enhance problem-solving skills.
A 2012 study examined how self-talk affects visual search tasks. The findings suggest that self-talk while looking for a particular object, such as a lost item of clothing or set of keys, or trying to find products in a grocery store, may help a person find them sooner.
Research also suggests there could be benefits to engaging in self-talk during sport, depending on how the person self-talks and what they say.
For example, self-talking in a motivational or instructional way could improve performance. However, although negative self-talk may increase motivation in sport, it may not improve performance.
There are three categories of self-talk that differ depending on the tone of voice. These include:
- Positive self-talk: Encourages and reinforces positive beliefs about a person. Engaging in positive self-talk may decrease anxiety and improve concentration and focus.
- Negative self-talk: Usually involves critical and discouraging dialog.
- Neutral self-talk: This type of self-talk is not significantly positive or negative. People may use it to give instructions themselves rather than reinforcing or encouraging a particular belief or emotion.
People may also refer to talking to yourself as overt and covert self-talk. Overt talk is self-directed speech that other people can hear. Covert talk is speech that occurs internally that no-one else can hear, for example, by mouthing speech rather than speaking out loud.
There are several reasons why a person might self-talk, including:
Regulating emotions
Self-talk may help regulate and process emotions. For example, if a person self-talks about feeling nervous or angry, it could help them by:
- directing their focus to improve their nerves or anger
- controlling their emotions
- thinking about how to respond to their feelings at that moment
Reducing anxiety
A 2014 study suggests that people with anxiety, including social anxiety, could benefit from engaging in self-talk.
The researchers found that people referring to themselves in the third-person could distance themselves from their distressing feelings and process, regulate, and analyze these emotions to help reduce anxiety. Engaging in self-talk may also decrease anxiety after stressful events.
If self-talk interferes with a person’s life, there are ways to reduce this behavior.
Writing down self-talk in a journal may help a person transfer thoughts from their mind, organize thought processes, and manage stress and anxiety.
Maintaining a journal can help people identify everyday situations that cause them to self-talk and become more aware of what could trigger these scenarios in the future.
Practicing the shifting of self-talk to internal thoughts when they occur or mouthing speech instead of vocalizing it may also reduce self-talking.
People may find their self-talk affects their mental health if they are negative and self-criticize when they talk to themselves.
In these situations, they should speak with a mental health professional to find ways to improve self-esteem and adjust self-talk to focus on being more positive and encouraging.
Schizophrenia
If a person self-talks as part of a hallucination, they should seek help from a healthcare professional. Self-talk and hallucinations may indicate a mental health condition, such as schizophrenia.
A person with schizophrenia may experience changes in their behavior and thoughts, such as hallucinations or delusions. Hallucinations cause a person to see, hear, smell, taste, or feel things that are not part of the world around them and are only present in their mind.
Hearing voices and responding to them is a common hallucination in schizophrenia. These voices and sensations seem real to the person experiencing them. Healthcare providers state that the brain reacts to these voices in the same way as if they were engaging in a conversation with a real person.
People with schizophrenia may also withdraw from the world, losing interest in everyday interactions with friends and family and finding it hard to express emotions.
For most people, talking to yourself is a normal behavior that is not a symptom of a mental health condition.
Self-talk may have some benefits, especially in improving performance in visual search tasks. It can also aid understanding in longer tasks requiring following instructions.
Self-talk is not a harmful act to engage with, and parents or caregivers with children who often talk to themselves should not be worried.
It is natural for a person to have an internal monologue while engaging with tasks and processing thoughts and emotions. They may choose to verbalize this inner monologue, which is common.
Last medically reviewed on January 6, 2021
- Mental Health
- Neurology / Neuroscience
- Psychology / Psychiatry
How we reviewed this article:
Medical News Today has strict sourcing guidelines and draws only from peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical journals and associations. We avoid using tertiary references. We link primary sources — including studies, scientific references, and statistics — within each article and also list them in the resources section at the bottom of our articles. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.
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http://selfcontrol.psych.lsa.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/KrossJ_Pers_Soc_Psychol2014Self-talk_as_a_regulatory_mechanism_How_you_do_it_matters.pdf - Launer, J. (2020). Why you should talk to yourself: Internal dialogue and reflective practice.
https://pmj.bmj.com/content/96/1138/507.full - Lupyan, G., et al. (2012). Self-directed speech affects visual search performance.
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