That was me until I got some earphones and went to bed listening to podcasts every time. Having another voice chattering away (which I can ignore) stops my inner voice (which I can't ignore) chattering away. Works a treat.
But yes I think I'm the same as you, I can ignore what other people are saying to me (my girlfriend hates that) but it's hard to ignore my own internal voice.
Interestingly that trait may not be very heritable, or at least the effect of training/environment may be quite high. My anecdote for that is that my mother always falls asleep at audio books.
Yeah, but the problem is if I don't, I have a voice in my head talking instead. Literally, my internal voice is "talking" in my head non-stop all day coming up with ideas, figuring out what to do, complaining about crap, etc. Perhaps it's a mental illness but I never considered it a problem (yet). :-)
I wouldn't call this a 'mental illness', but non-stop mental chatter is a sign of disease -- in that your mind is not at ease.
You might find the symptoms to be relatively useful (non-stop idea factory!), but I think it is already causing you problems if you have to drown out the voices in your head with other voices just to fall asleep at night. Can this state be considered healthy functioning of the mind?
Then again, maybe it works for you. :)
but non-stop mental chatter is a sign of disease -- in that your mind is not at ease.
It once irritated me enough that I ended up in front of some sort of mental health practitioner. They came up with some things that involved taking poisonous metals as a "cure" but I privately went to a meta-cognitive therapist instead.
The result was that I can now "ignore" the errant part of my mind with the more usual, conscious "executive" part (I don't know all the terminology, sorry) but enjoy the fruits and spontaneity of what the uncontrollable side has to offer when I choose. It works, because I couldn't be much happier or productive now! :-)
I spoke with friends who had depression and were taking reasonably pedestrian drugs like Prozac, and while they were "happier" in the typical sense, ultimately they were less satisfied with life because the drugs dampened their vitality in a way they couldn't define.
(I know, a serious overshare, but that's part of the deal ;-) I suspect the majority of people have these sorts of issues at times, but society has entrained most people to keep it under wraps.)
Maybe an app that requires you to hold the iPod vertically and pauses audio playback out when it goes into any other position for more than a configurable number of seconds?