Like today, I caught myself having a full-blown argument with someone in the shower—complete with imagined facial expressions, pauses, and dramatic exits.
The wild part is, the conversation never actually happened and probably never will… but I won the fake version, so there’s that.
Is this an anxiety thing? Overthinking? Lowkey emotional rehearsal?
I’m genuinely curious how many other people do this too.
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Why can’t it be both?
I do it all the time. I do not have anxiety problems, so I don’t think that’s the cause.
It’s a common enough thing that there are memes about “winning the shower argument” or calling the shower the “debate simulation chamber”
All the time. My guess is all of the above.
I don’t think it’s common enough irl because my friends think I’m crazy when I talk alone. But still many people be like that
Guilty
15 years ago, I did advocacy for a nonprofit. E.g., I’d table at community festivals. Lots of interactions with the public, including some friendly but strident debates.
I’d go over what I (usually correctly) anticipated to be the arguments I’d hear. I found this helped a lot. Not just in terms of, “Here’s how I can counter that” or “Here’s how I can win,” but also in terms of, “That’s a solid point; there’s partial agreement” and “Here’s where I think we could agree.”
My husband does this and gets mad at me over arguments we never had.
I think that’s pretty normal, anxiety or not, but I think it can be amplified by anxiety and overthinking. I definitely experience it sometimes.
I do it a lot too. I summed it up to a terrible childhood where I couldn’t share anything emotionally so I would get it out by myself. Just became a habit.
I don’t have anxiety and I do this all the time. I like having conversations with myself. I find myself interesting to talk to.
I do it but I have anxiety so I’m not sure it’s related. I’m also neurodivergent. So it could be anything.
Talking to the mirror n Inside the head, Practice for when I need to do a presentation. That what’s we were thought.
I’m so glad I’m not the only person that does this. I am a very anxious person myself. Not sure if it’s related, but I feel like it is. I also have fake conversations on how an actual conversation that has happened SHOULD have gone.
It’s bad enough when I lose a real argument, but losing an argument in my head is brutal!
All the time. For conversations that I am going to have, conversations I have already had, conversations I would like to have, and conversations that I will never have.
I do this a lot. I’m not an anxious person at least I don’t think I am
I do, I do! I mostly do it after the conversation and how things should have gone in my own head.
Anxiety is such a crippling thing.
LOL! I think most people do that sometimes. It’s fun. I like to concoct crazy scenarios and argue about them with different imaginary people.
This morning, I formulated a Reddit post in my shower. And I regularly imagine conversations when I shower, drive, or hike.
I don’t think it has to do with anxiety. Rather that it is the brain practising behaviour or organising thoughts while the body is occupied, but the brain is not. Similar to sleeping where the brain does the same by dreaming, while the body is busy recharging.
I used to do it when I was in my teens, I’m 50 now. I didn’t have anxiety as a teen, but I do now. And family can hear my 29 yo sister arguing in the shower. My sissy has always had anxiety.
Constantly. I thought it was an OCD thing.
Friend this is normal, anxiety or not.
XD at least you win the fake one! My brain just makes itself mad for no reason.
It’s good to know that I’m not the only one. I always practice a little bit in conversations, especially when I have to talk about something that makes me uncomfortable or that I don’t like about another person, to try to have a more assertive communication.
All the time.
Most of the time, it’s not a big deal. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am having all these stressful thoughts about something that will never happen
I definitely do this allll the time. It always takes me a moment like “oh wait that wasn’t real and it likely never will be” to snap myself back into reality
I talked to myself all the time privately because I’m bored out of my skull
Yeah, but I know it’s just me talking to me. I indulge in it, try to learn about myself from it. A lot of my internal conversations were really mean for awhile there. I had to puzzle out why I was mad at myself before things settled down.
Nowadays it’s mostly just me. I talk to older me, younger me, mean guy me, country hick me, insecure me, just whichever aspect of me I want to be figuring things out with. It saves me the mental struggle of disassociating “Mental Conversation IRL Friend” with the actual person.
Emotions are tricky. Even pretend conversations with people can affect how you feel about them, react to them.
I’m in my 50s now, and I’ve kind of gotten over most folks. Like 99.9999+% of humanity, I just couldn’t care less what they think about me, or if they think about me at all. There’s maybe twelve people on earth whose opinions I even care to know.
I do this a lot. The other imaginary person usually wins.