Ever caught yourself talking through a problem while driving, rehearsing a difficult conversation in the shower, or muttering instructions while looking for misplaced keys? Most people feel embarrassed when caught talking to themselves, but psychologists say the habit is usually a normal way to organise thoughts and prepare for difficult tasks. Research suggests that self-talk, whether vocalised or internalised, is a more common and important part of our daily lives than most people realise.
The Origin of Self-Talk
The roots of self-talk can be traced back to early childhood. Developmental psychologists noticed how pre-schoolers often narrate their actions, verbally guided from beginning to end, as they built with blocks, drew a picture or solved a problem. Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky described this 'private speech' as the young child's way of guiding his own actions, controlling his own behaviour and planning ahead. Vygotsky argued that much of this private speech gradually becomes internal thought, what we recognise as our internal voice, but the habit persists. We adults sometimes revert to verbalising our thoughts when dealing with complex situations, moments of intense concentration or emotional challenge. Essentially, talking yourself through a challenge at age 35 could be no different to how a five-year-old verbally narrates his way through a jigsaw puzzle.
Naming the Feelings May Help
The usefulness of talking to ourselves perhaps stems from our ability to make the amorphous nature of emotional experiences somewhat more concrete by finding words to describe them. A 2007 landmark study published in the journal Psychological Science, available through PubMed, found that participants who named their emotional experience showed less activation in the amygdala, which is responsible for emotional responses, and more activation in parts of the prefrontal cortex, which control responses. The researchers suggested that putting emotions into words may help regulate emotional responses. This might explain why stating "I'm nervous about this interview" or "I feel overwhelmed today" can actually reduce the intensity of a feeling. Psychologists have given the name 'affect labelling' to this process of giving a name to emotion, which enables people to have a handle on how they are feeling.
Why Using Your Own Name Can Create Distance
What we say to ourselves might be even more important than the fact that we are saying anything at all. In a 2017 study published in Scientific Reports, it was found that speaking to ourselves in the third person or by using our own names helped people regulate emotions by creating psychological distance from their problems without requiring a high level of cognitive effort. For example, instead of saying, "I can't deal with this," a person might say, "Sarah can handle this." This subtle shift might allow us to maintain a clearer and less emotional perspective when faced with difficulties.
Most People Do It Without Even Noticing
Self-talk, as stated earlier, seems to be widespread. A 2025 study published in Scientific Reports, which tracked 208 individuals over two weeks, collected 13,000 survey responses about everyday situations in which people engaged in self-talk. The participants reported improved positive mood during situations in which they had to plan what to do or say. Self-talk isn't an unusual behaviour confined to an extremely small number of people, then, but is a normal way that a great majority of us deal with situations.
When Self-Talk Becomes Unhelpful
But when is it not beneficial to talk to ourselves? Constructive self-talk tends to be more practical, helpful, and solution-oriented, whether it is used for mental organising, for planning the next step in a complex task, or simply for getting our mind to relax before a nerve-wracking event. However, self-talk could become problematic if it is negative, ruminative, and repetitive; instead of working through issues, the thought process goes over the same difficult topics over and over without providing an outlet for change. Psychologists typically distinguish between reflective thinking and rumination.
Not a Warning Sign on Its Own
In itself, self-talk is considered normal. Clinical concern generally arises when a person experiences voices as coming from an external source or cannot distinguish them from their own thoughts. Reportedly, talking to oneself can be beneficial by helping us think through problems and manage our emotions, but concern may arise if someone is hallucinating or believes the voice belongs to another person. So the occasional pep talk before a job interview or the running commentary while vacuuming can be a normal way of making sense of the world.
