Dear LPG,

I wonder if there are any readers out there who are finding themselves thinking out loud as they get older.

These days, I live alone, and I have to say that on several recent occasions, I have found myself pottering around my home, muttering something or other to myself rather than thinking about it.

So far, I seem to be able to limit my habit to times when I am at home. 

I perhaps need to exercise my voice when I get up first thing in the morning, and I could add my lousy singing voice to the song on the radio or telly, but verbalising my thoughts seems to help me put them into perspective. 

I am all too aware that the average person is thought to be a bit odd if they start doing this in public, and it is a case of making sure that I know when I can do it and when not to do it, but I have caught myself offering me a little self-motivation first thing in the morning. 

Now that I know that I do it, it does worry me a bit because, even though I am now making a positive decision not to, and it only happens in the privacy of my home when I am alone at the moment, every now and then I catch myself at it and wonder if it is only a matter of time before others do too.

Not wanting to be thought of as a person who is on the road to going off the rails is one reason for the need to keep this habit in check, but another thing that might be worrying is that if it stops becoming more than a thing that I can control, where will I start letting out thoughts that really need to be kept private?

It got me looking online to check if I am going bonkers, and I have concluded that I am pretty normal.  A lot of what I found implies that many children and young people do it too, and as far as I can tell, I have only just started.  There is also some information about it being the habit of intellectuals, so perhaps I am getting clever in my old age and, as long as you limit it to only talking to yourself and not some other imaginary person and there is no sign of hallucinations involved, anyone who has a little natter to themselves now and then is not in danger of going mad.   

There are many different views about who does it, when, where and why, and the internet has led me to accept that it is OK if you do it in moderation.

Does any other reader have an opinion?  

  FC, Essex

FC links us to what she found…

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