I always assume that my brain is structured in a way that at least 5% of people could relate to my general thought processes, but it turns out that some of my experiences of being a human are really just a “me” thing. I’ve often told myself that I’m just like everyone else, and that all of my personality traits are explainable by a mishmash of stereotypes and systemic influences. But I guess there’s more to it than that, and I’ve been selling myself a bit short.
My partner thinks in words and hears his own voice as an inner monologue. It’s like saying what you’re thinking but not out loud, like “I should go to the store to pick up some milk. I’ll do that after I finish this episode. What’s the time right now? Oh it’s 10:15am.” Something like that. Completely bizarre for me to wrap my head around because I think in images and feeling. If the thought is associated with a sound, I’ll imagine that sound. But I have no inner voice narrating whatsoever.
It matches the way we prefer to learn too. He prefers to learn by reading. He finds videos or images tedious because to him, they don’t convey information fast enough. Whereas I prefer to learn visually or hands-on and might have some difficulty understanding the reading material.