Is it normal to talk to yourself?

Many people will have heard the old expression ‘talking to yourself is the first sign of madness’ and when Newstalk reporter Henry McKean noticed he was doing it more and more, he began to wonder – is talking to yourself normal or something to worry about?

One person who also talks to herself and considers it “completely normal” behaviour is Jigsaw mental health support service spokesperson Laura Curran.

“We all do it, it’d be very common,” she told Henry for Newstalk Breakfast. 

“One big thing that we would say to young people in particular [is that] it’s important that you’re being kind when you talk to yourself. 

“We generally have a tendency towards negativity - particularly when we’re critiquing ourselves - and that can be an inner voice that can be really hard to turn off. 

“Research has shown that a negative inner critic that goes too far is actually detrimental to our success in the goals that we’re trying to achieve and that can slow our progress.” 

Practice positivity

For those who struggle with negativity when they talk to themselves, Ms Curran had his advice. 

“Imagine you’re talking to a friend or family member that you really care about,” she said. 

“If they’re talking about a situation that they weren’t happy with and they’re going, ‘Oh, I should have done this’ or ‘I should have said that better’, the likelihood is that you’d point out what they did do well or what they were really good at. 

“That usually works and they usually do feel better, so try and practice that technique for yourself.” 

When it is a problem?

Another person who talks to herself is consultant psychiatrist Dr Joanne Fegan. 

Her advice is you should only worry about talking to yourself if the voice that comes out is no longer truly your own. 

“Basically, it becomes a problem when we no longer recognise it as our voice and it becomes very many voices,” she said. 

“It can be very distressing to the person. 

“Examples would be many voices talking to a person, telling them to do something to hurt themselves. 

“Those types of experiences… are usually symptoms of a mental illness.” 

Anyone who is experiencing that kind of negativity should book an appointment with their GP and ask for a referral to a psychiatry team. 

“You’ll be met with compassion and it can be helped,” Dr Fegan said. 

According to WebMD, 96% of adults have an internal dialogues and 25% say they talk out loud.

Main image: Man sitting on the floor in kitchen talking to himself. Picture by: Alamy.com