How do you refer to yourself in your head?

How do you talk when thinking?

  • I statements: "I need to get ready to go to the store."

    Votes: 49 86.0%
  • We statements: "We need to get ready to go to the store."

    Votes: 25 43.9%
  • You statements: "You need to get ready to go the store."

    Votes: 22 38.6%
  • He/she/they statements. "He/she/they need(s) to get ready to go to the store."

    Votes: 2 3.5%
  • Your name: "Y/N needs to get ready to go to the store."

    Votes: 6 10.5%
  • Other

    Votes: 3 5.3%

  • Total voters
    57
Ive never thought about this before I read this thread! Honestly, Im a 'we' person. I don't necessarily think from 'my' point of view, I view my mind as more of a teammate I guess?? 'We need to get stuff done today' is a pretty common vibe for me! I have caught myself saying 'they need to do this' in reference to myself, but not enough for me to choose that option.
 
I usually use "I" statements, but I sometimes find that I refer to myself as Bug hehe, like "Buggy's gotta let the doggos outsideeee" 😂
 
I think it depends. But when thinking of this response I definitely used "I", so that's likely the most common. However, any of the first three I could see happening.
 
I usually use “I”, but sometimes when I split myself into almost two parts like the thinking part and the listening part I’ll use “we”. Hopefully that somewhat makes sense. 😅
 
I mainly use "I" and "We" but sometimes, rarely I use "You" but I never use third person like "He/She" or my name
 
I gravitate towards using 'we' -- I've been improving my self talk over the last year, actually, and it tends to come up more now than 'you' (which I've also done) alongside that progress. I've noticed it but never put it into words before! I use a journal and sometimes I'll catch myself writing 'we' or 'you' to refer to myself.

Using 'we' adds this sense of comfort to my thoughts that I'm not alone and I'm cheering myself on to get through the day-- like 'we've got this!'-- and 'you' definitely has a much more lecturing tone to it, probably because it is like it's coming from someone else. I don't refer to myself by name, but sometimes I'll refer to myself with a nickname in my thoughts, like 'babe' or 'girlie' or something like that when I'm leveling with myself. like 'alright babe, time to go to the store', haha. I'll also use sweeter ones in situations where I need to self soothe. I used to call myself some very unkind names, but I've been really good about catching those thoughts and throwing them away these days. Now they rarely come up at all. It's truly so important and makes a world of difference to refer to yourself with kindness in your thoughts-- maybe it sounds cheesy, but I've genuinely learned so much and improved my mental health by putting that into practice.

Now that I'm thinking about it, it's actually kinda rare for me to use 'I' in my thoughts? I use it plenty when I'm writing and thinking of what to say when I'm planning to communicate my thoughts, but if I'm not thinking 'we need to go to the store', it'll be more like 'oh, need to go to the store now'. Maybe I don't feel the need to clarify with the 'I' because it's my thoughts? It's interesting! I know I definitely use it sometimes, it's not a never situation by any means, but I wouldn't say it's my go-to. It happens most often if I'm speaking my thoughts aloud to myself than if I'm silently thinking them.
 
I usually think in "I" statements, but sometimes I'll think in "we" statements if I feel like doing that. The way I think of myself is fluid and I don't like limiting myself to just "I."
 
Most of the time it's We have to get ready to go to the store. It than follows by I don't want to go to the store.
I stopped driving after a med change and never drove again when it was okayed. My husband/ family drives when needed.
 
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