Do you ever talk to yourself as a form of therapy?

I've been doing it for years, and usually it hasn't been through choice, as I have no-one else to talk to. Talking to myself has helped me to express my thoughts out loud, get to the bottom of a lot of issues, and straighten out a lot of vague and muddled thinking. In fact, a good self talking to has helped me to recognise the error of my ways, and has greatly enhanced my sense of independence.

I usually talk to myself at home, but sometimes I used to talk openly to myself while walking down the street, and in shops, then realised that the old erroneous adage that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness may cause some people to view me as in possession of compromised sanity, which of course is not the case.

Talking to yourself can actually help to improve your mental health by acting as vehicle to focus your concerns, but all too often our self talk consists of the negative chatter-box within telling us how awful we are, and how we are no good at anything. This seemingly independent voice (which is actually our own) constantly seeks to undermine our self-esteem and precarious sense of self worth by giving us an inferiority complex, or exacerbating one which has already been allowed to take shape.

The trick is to turn off the internal negative chatter-box and switch a new (positive) one on, or highjack the negative chatter-box and re-program it to say positive, optimistic things, as opposed to the fuelling the usual and predictable daily negative thought train, which unlike British rail, is always reliable and on time.

I know that positive thinking is never easy, and especially if you are habitually inclined to take a critical and pessimistic approach to just about everything; viewing cynicism as a safer and more realistic lens with which to view the world. But hey, I learned that it's just as valid and realistic to take a positive and optimistic perspective on personal and social issues as it is to take a negative and cynical view.

These days I prefer to view my glass as half full as opposed to half empty, and I'm never going to stop talking to myself while I have a tongue in my head.

Do you talk to yourself? If so, do you feel that you benefit from it?