Question: What purpose does self-talk serve?
Sweta Sukhani: Self talk –
- Keeps me sane and alive
- Helps me figure out what to do when it gets overwhelming
- Helps regulate emotions objectively
- Makes me feel less lonely and alone
- Helps me get over executive dysfunction and do something
- It’s super fun because I love my brain. It can go from thinking about food to reading a theoretical book to a song I remembered to a meeting tomorrow to fitness to dating in like a minute, and while not many people can handle that, it’s my day-to-day reality. Self-talk is the platform coordinator for these running trains.
Also, self-talk is something which is common to every human alive. What you say to your child becomes their self-talk too. It took me years to change my self-talk from negative to positive. Journalling is nothing but self-talk in writing form.
Navin Israni: Executive function. It helps me make things real. Although I rarely do self-talking loudly, I do need to self-talk to just start to re-orient myself after a strong sensory and emotional experience. It may or may not be very loud. It may or may not look the same for every Autistic individual.
Soumya Mishra: Exactly the same for me. I engage in self-talk to get things done or to make sure I’m not missing something. It’s a way for me to reassure myself too.
Gauri Joshi: I’ve found my self-talk serves basically the function of unravelling the mind form one thing and sending it in another direction. I’ve gotten into the habit of mental self-talk to help with transitions. I will recount the steps in my path and describe them to myself along with expected actions.
