Inner speech, self-directed language, and the experience of continuous mental conversation
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My brain never shuts up.
I am either talking to someone or having a conversation with myself inside my own head. The audience changes, but the conversation continues. Sometimes I am working through an idea, sometimes replaying something that happened, sometimes anticipating a conversation that has not yet taken place. Other times, I am simply thinking in complete sentences, as though there is someone on the other side of the conversation.
This is one of the experiences I associate with living with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). I have often described it as having a brain that is perpetually talking. What makes this experience particularly interesting to me is that my thinking is so frequently verbal. I do not simply experience a mind that is busy. I experience a mind that seems to narrate, question, explain, analyze, and respond to itself throughout the day.
There is a growing body of research that gives us a way to examine this experience. The relevant construct is inner speech, which refers to the experience of language in the absence of overt speech. It is part of a broader category of self-directed language that includes both internal dialogue and talking aloud to oneself (Alderson-Day & Fernyhough, 2015).
This is worth examining because not everyone experiences thought in the same way. Some people primarily think in images, sensations, concepts, or abstract representations. Others experience a substantial amount of their thinking through language. For those of us who experience a nearly continuous internal conversation, the mind can feel less like a quiet place where thoughts occasionally appear and more like a conversation that is always underway.
When thinking becomes a conversation
Inner speech is not a single, uniform experience. It can take the form of an internal dialogue, a running commentary, abbreviated phrases, evaluative statements, or language used to organize and direct behavior. Some inner speech resembles an actual conversation, complete with questions and responses. Other forms are more condensed, with meaning conveyed through fragments rather than fully articulated sentences (Alderson-Day & Fernyhough, 2015).
I recognize several of these experiences in myself. I can mentally rehearse what I want to say, evaluate an idea while simultaneously developing it, or move through several layers of a conversation without ever speaking aloud. Sometimes I catch myself verbalizing the same process externally. It is almost as though the conversation has simply moved from inside my head to the room around me.
Developmental theory offers an interesting explanation for how this relationship between social language and internal language develops. Vygotsky's work on the development of thought and language proposed that speech initially used in social interaction becomes increasingly available as a means of directing one's own thinking and behavior. Children's private speech, which can be heard during play and problem-solving, gradually becomes internalized as inner speech. This process illustrates how language can become a resource for cognitive organization and self-regulation (Alderson-Day & Fernyhough, 2015).
From this perspective, talking to oneself is not inherently unusual or dysfunctional. Language serves purposes beyond communication with other people. It can help us organize information, work through decisions, regulate behavior, and make sense of our experiences.
What I find particularly interesting is how frequently this process seems to occur in my own ADHD experience.
What the ADHD research tells us
A 2026 study by Benfield and Cole, published in the British Journal of Psychology, offers some particularly relevant findings. The researchers examined the relationship between ADHD-like behavioral traits and self-directed speech across three separate experiments, each involving 198 adults.
Participants completed the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-v1.1) alongside measures of self-talk and inner speech. Across all three experiments, individuals reporting higher levels of ADHD-like traits also reported greater use of self-directed speech (Benfield & Cole, 2026).
In the first experiment, ADHD symptom scores were positively correlated with self-talk scores, r = .436. In the second experiment, the relationship between ADHD symptom scores and inner speech was even stronger, r = .504. Both findings were statistically significant. These results suggest that adults reporting more ADHD-related characteristics also tend to report more frequent verbal self-directed activity (Benfield & Cole, 2026).
The third experiment examined something particularly relevant to my experience: whether the relationship involved talking internally, talking aloud, or both.
The researchers found that individuals with higher ADHD-like traits reported greater use of both covert self-talk (internal speech) and overt self-talk (speaking aloud). Importantly, they did not find a significant interaction between ADHD-trait classification and speech type. In other words, the association was not limited to one form of self-directed speech.
The correlation between ADHD symptom scores and the combined measures of overt and covert self-talk was r = .52 (Benfield & Cole, 2026).
This is where the research becomes especially interesting to me. I have often experienced internal and external speech as closely connected. I may be talking through an idea aloud one moment and continue the same conversation internally the next. The study does not establish that these experiences are neurologically identical, but it provides empirical support for examining both as related expressions of self-directed language in adults with elevated ADHD traits.
It also gives us something more substantial than the familiar description of an ADHD brain as simply being busy.
More self-talk does not necessarily mean more mental noise
One thing I would caution against is interpreting these findings as evidence that people with ADHD simply have more thoughts than other people. The research examined self-directed speech, not the total volume of mental activity. Those are not interchangeable concepts.
A person can have an active mind without experiencing much of that activity through language. Another person can spend considerable time engaged in internal dialogue without necessarily experiencing racing thoughts, confusion, or distress.
The function of inner speech also deserves attention. Alderson-Day and Fernyhough (2015) describe its involvement in cognitive processes such as planning, working memory, self-regulation, and the organization of behavior. However, inner speech does not serve the same purpose in every situation, and its presence does not automatically mean that it is helping someone think more effectively.
Benfield and Cole (2026) found that participants described using self-directed speech in situations involving emotional experiences, task completion, and self-motivation. Their findings also showed that ADHD-related differences were not present across every measured dimension of self-talk. For example, the first experiment did not identify a significant group difference in self-reinforcement, despite finding differences in other areas of self-talk. This matters because it moves the conversation beyond the assumption that frequent internal speech is simply an unwanted symptom.
Sometimes I am talking myself through a task. Sometimes I am trying to understand something that interests me. Sometimes I am mentally working through a complicated idea, and the verbal process is part of how I get there. Other times, I am replaying an interaction or thinking through something that may not require nearly as much attention as I am giving it. The experience is not always useful, but neither is it always problematic.
I think it is important to ask what the internal conversation is doing rather than automatically assuming that its frequency makes it dysfunctional.
What we know, and what we still do not know
As interesting as these findings are, there are limitations worth considering.
First, participants were classified according to their responses on an ADHD screening measure rather than through diagnostic evaluations conducted as part of the study. Consequently, the findings concern adults with elevated ADHD-like traits and should not be interpreted as establishing that all individuals with a clinical ADHD diagnosis experience more inner speech.
Second, the researchers relied on self-report measures. Participants described their own experiences of self-talk and inner speech rather than having their internal verbal activity measured continuously in everyday settings. The findings therefore reflect reported experiences, not a direct measurement of how frequently a person's brain produces verbal thought.
Perhaps most importantly, the study does not establish why higher ADHD-trait scores are associated with greater self-directed speech.
Benfield and Cole (2026) proposed two possible explanations: displacement and camouflaging. Displacement suggests that individuals who have a tendency to speak may redirect some of that verbal activity toward themselves rather than expressing it outwardly. Camouflaging suggests that internal self-talk may provide an alternative when speaking aloud would be considered socially inappropriate or undesirable.
These are interesting possibilities, particularly given the social expectations surrounding when and how adults should speak. However, the authors acknowledge that these explanations remain speculative. The study did not establish either mechanism.
We should also be careful not to assign the experience to a particular neurotransmitter, brain region, or compensatory process without supporting evidence. The association is worth investigating, but its underlying mechanisms remain unclear.
For now, the research supports a more measured conclusion: adults with higher levels of ADHD-related traits may engage in more frequent self-directed speech, both internally and aloud. We have an emerging empirical basis for examining this experience, but we do not yet have a complete explanation for it.
My brain is still having the conversation
I find this research interesting not because it explains every aspect of my ADHD, but because it gives language to something I have experienced for a very long time.
My brain is almost always talking. Sometimes the conversation is useful, sometimes entertaining, sometimes exhausting, and sometimes completely unnecessary. I can be physically sitting in a quiet room while my mind is having several conversations, working through an idea, anticipating what comes next, or revisiting something that happened earlier in the day.
And sometimes, I just want it to be quiet.
I do not think every aspect of this experience needs to be treated as a symptom requiring correction. At the same time, I would not romanticize the experience or suggest that continuous internal dialogue is always beneficial. There are times when the mental conversation interferes with rest, makes it difficult to disengage, or consumes attention that I would rather direct elsewhere. Both experiences can be true.
From a humanistic and neuroaffirming perspective, I think we need to make room for individual differences in how people experience and organize their thinking. The goal should not be to assume that everyone with ADHD has the same cognitive experience or that a particular way of thinking is inherently better or worse. It is to understand how that experience functions for the individual, where it supports them, and where it creates difficulty.
For me, the simplest description remains the most accurate. My mouth may stop moving, but my brain is still talking, and there is now some research suggesting I am not the only one.
References
Alderson-Day, B., & Fernyhough, C. (2015). Inner speech: Development, cognitive functions, phenomenology, and neurobiology. Psychological Bulletin, 141(5), 931–965. doi:10.1037/bul0000021
Benfield, E., & Cole, G. G. (2026). Self-directed speech and attention deficit hyperactive disorder-like behaviours. British Journal of Psychology, 117(1), 301–313. doi:10.1111/bjop.70027
