I recently stumbled across an article on BPHope and the second I saw the name of the article I thought “Yes!”.  My ‘Bipolar Brain’: Constant Conversations in My Head by Dave Mowry is a quick read, with an equally quick vlog to watch at the top.  In it Mowry said he has conversations in his head every minute of every day, and I thought, “Me too! But how do other people think?”

These conversations are something I have thought about before, and have been concerned about before.  I first grew concerned when I started a sentence with “I was telling myself earlier today…” and realized the second I said it I sounded a bit…off.  The thing that is important to note is that I am in control of both sides of the conversation, I am not hearing one side and responding, it is not a hallucination.  It’s more like my responsible side and my emotional side (I have a dialogue example in my post Two of Me).

Sometimes the conversations are neutral.

“You have to get ready to go soon.”  

“I don’t want to!”  

“Too bad, you have to”

Sometimes the conversations are more along the lines of positive self-talk.

“I’m so stupid!”

“No you’re not and you know it, you’re smart, you got this!”

Maybe these conversations contribute to my love of podcasts, they distract me enough to keep me from having a conversation in my head about how cute a dog I just saw is, or how much I hate my hair because I’m listening to someone else. As Mowry states in his article, books are a helpful distraction as well.

Honestly, until I read Mowry’s article I thought I was weird and alone in the constant chatter, now I know that there’s at least one other person out there with these constant conversations.