Non verbal echolalia?

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Does echolalia need to be verbal (said aloud)? Most of the time I have something that I have heard going around and round in my head. Sometimes the last thing someone said, sometimes a noise, sometimes a song or just a string of notes. It can be there playing in the background over and over and sometimes when I realize it is there I can identify that it was something that I heard maybe 30 minutes ago.

Well I've seen people with an actual diagnosis talk about non-verbal palilalia, so that exists, and accordingly (as they're much the same thing) non-verbal echolalia probably does too?

If you are experiencing it it must exist somehow, probably.

But if it's repeating in your head so much I don't see how it could also not be expressed verbally. If someone talks to you and your head is still going in loops the looped sound is what will probably come out.

I do the same thing. I repeat words and phrases inside my head all the time, but I don't say them out loud. It can be something I heard someone say or that I said myself or something from a movie or a song or something. Sometimes I keep repeating it inside my head for a long time, or I stop it and start again later. I don't know if this counts as echolalia or not, but you're definitely not the only one who does this.


It doesn't necessarily come out verbally. Not everyone thinks out loud or feels the need to say out loud things that are going on in their head, even repetitive thoughts like this. Plus not everyone on the spectrum is verbal in the first place.

Only a tiny percentage of my thoughts ever comes out verbally. I talk very little in the first place and pretty much only about necessary, practical stuff. I repeat words, phrases and thoughts in my head all the time, but I never feel the need to say them out loud. Talking out loud just doesn't come naturally to me, so I just talk inside my head, be it repeating something I heard or something else.

This happens to me sometimes when I try to think in words quietly/to myself. Sometimes when I shift to talking the stuck phrase might come out. Sometimes not.

So if somebody talks to you and you are supposed to respond you would never repeat what has been going on in your head instead? I find this really hard to believe if you were actually having echolalia in your head. Besides that, one can be nonverbal and have echolalia. Nonverbal is basically no PURPOSEFUL language. It hasen't anything to do with talking to oneself.

It doesn't sound like it's impairing (I mean, what I experience is mostly avoidable and not impairing since I don't even think that way unless I try to force it), but related. Doesn't make it less real, I think.

Thank you for the point on the definition of nonverbal.

I guess that makes sense. Maybe I was seeing it too black-and-white. I just thought anybody who repeated things in their head would also be unable to switch it off if you're trying to talk to someone. Since stims can be for enjoyment I think maybe people can have echolalia in their head that can be ignored or just for some type of unknown enjoyment. I'm rambling, /exit

When people talk to me and I need to respond I don't repeat what has been going on inside my head. I need a moment to snap out of whatever was going on inside my head before I take in what the person said to me and respond, but that's all. After I'm done talking to them I may or may not continue repeating the same words as before in my head, or I may start repeating something from that conversation instead.

Like I said previously, I have no idea whether repeating meaningless phrases internally like that without doing it verbally counts as echolalia or not. This may be a different phenomenon that works slightly differently from echolalia. I don't know. But it happens to me all the time and I can't stop it, even though I get annoyed with it sometimes.

I don't have verbal (out loud) echolalia. I think I had it as a kid though.