What it's like to be a schizophrenic with auditory hallucinations

Originally posted by christina-66

And yet when it comes to psychiatric ailments we still live with mythology re their root cause...I'm thinking bio-chemical imbalance for a start.

I agree it is mostly mythological thinking that rules the institutions of psychology and psychiatry. Anyone who asks hard questions will quickly unravel that.

I also like science and considering things from a physical point of view.
Like "IF" something is wrong, it's a chemical poisoning or it is a deformity or injury of some sort.
I don't believe in hocus pocus.

reply to post by muzzleflash


So, everyone is lying about hearing them?

Not being condescending, I just want to be sure that's what you're saying.

Originally posted by muzzleflash

Originally posted by akushla99

Science can neither confirm nor deny 'voices in the head'...

Ding ding ding.

That's why I don't buy it one bit.

I have heard a thousand arguments and none have convinced me yet.

yes it can, take a patient who hears voices, hook them into a fMRI connected to a computer system equipped with artificial telepathy. Then get the patient to make the voices talk to them. Or find a way to detect signals coming from the brain, people have used RF detectors and electromagnetic detectors to prove voices use these frequencies somehow without being detected generally, although i beleive there has been detection but people dont talk about it.

Wow! The first and second posts were very helpful in putting the auditory effects that some who experience schizophrenia have to deal with into a better perspective. S and F for that.

I have always been fascinated by the different aspects of mental illness. What makes a mind turn a certain way, or people react to things the way they do. I think that just like anything in life there is not one clear simple path that gets people to whatever place they happen to be. I find it interesting that different cultures have also had different views of people with schizophrenia, from the "demon possessed" or how about the "saints" like Joan of Arc who also heard voices in her head. Native Americans would take care of their mentally ill, believing that they were touched by the gods.

I have dealt with mental illness on different levels, both personally and professionally. I have a B.S.W. and due to my earlier stated fascination on the brain/mind and how it works my focus while in college was with people who were severely mentally ill. After I graduated I worked in a residential facility. My older half brother that lived with us for a few years when I was a child became schizophrenic in his young adult years. I myself have suffered from Major Depression.

So yes this is a personal issue for me and I often pull out the Soap Box when the subject comes up.

I believe that the aspect that angers me the most when it I hear ignorant or uneducated people talk about it, although I have not really seen it yet on this thread is the mistaken belief that people who have schizophrenia are somehow stupid or not as smart as "normal" people. When a better argument could be made that they are quite often on the higher side of the scale.

Genetics are believed to play a role, but as in many disorders that have a genetic aspect, it is most often triggered by something, a reaction to stress or drug use. I believe in my brothers case it was a reaction to the "Make em or Break them" policy of the U.S. Army boot camp brainwashing, he went in. It is heartbreaking in that it hits young people most often between the ages of 18 to 25, Young adults who more often than not of above average intelligence with the whole world ahead of them.

From what I understand from my studies and research on the subject, the brain often misinterprets the messages the signals that come in, and it can also affect sight, taste and smell which can be where the fear of being poisoned can come from. If you gave me some food that did not smell or taste right to me, I might wonder if you were trying to poison me.

If all your senses are telling you one thing and the people around you are telling you something else, trust is a hard thing to come by.

A lot of the people who lived in the facility where I worked were always walking around with headphones on and music playing, I kinda knew why but after listening to the first two posts, I understand. Thank you for that .

"Sigh" sorry for such a long post. I told you it was one of my soapbox issues.

reply to post by christina-66


There is something that can be seen on cat scans that is more pronounced in people with schizophrenia than it is with a control group, but it has been over 10 years since I have been in the field and I can not remember what it is. I can try to look it up for you, then tell you where to go. I do not know how to link anything kinda dumb when it come to the computer, which is why I am responding to your whole post instead of putting a quote up and responding to that and then to the video.

I gave you a star for that video.

NOBODY should ever be forced to take drugs against their will. But on the other side of that fence a person who is dangerous to their self or to others should not be free to do so.

I have seen and felt angry about doctors who drug a person up until they become a zombie, then just continue to throw more and more drugs at them to deal with the side effects of the drugs they gave them in the first place. It becomes a neverending cycle with the person that just needed a little help as the victim. And in the early days of psychiatry, some of those side effects were irreversable.

I believe that today there ARE drugs can help. It takes a doctor that will listen to his/her patient and they both work together to find the solution that works best.

Like I said in my last post, a person who is getting one message from his or her own senses and another message from everyone else out there is going to have a hard time know who or what to trust, if anyone, but if they are shown genuine respect and care, that will go a long way towards finding a way back to where they need to be.

Originally posted by Mr Headshot

Can you imagine that playing in a loop all day long, while you're trying to have normal relations with folks? Nope.

I've lived like that for several years and it's doable. Just make yourself believe you carry a mobile phone all day long which dials random bad people. How many people in bussiness life can interact with people while having a headset connected to a phone and listening to business contacts like for example a hectic environment on Wall street. For visual hallucinations, there are glasses out there with tiny lcd screens, sometimes the voices get from the phone to the glasses but the glasses can be taken off at any time to sever the connection. I already had a photographic memory before the voices came so I was never disturbed by images.

In the evening hours when everybody went to pubs, bars or any other social activity, I had to sit on my couch and listen to this phone, made characters out of them and discovered most characters don't have more than 10 methods to bring somebody down. Know all these and think of valid reasons why they are telling nonsense and the brain automatically loses all interest and fears the voices could go on forever. Which is what most psychiatrists would want others to believe otherwise they would be out of business.

Originally posted by Thecakeisalie
When i was seeing a psychologist years ago, i became friends with a salvation army officer who worked with people with mental illnesses. She became like an guardian angel for me.

She warned me on a number of occasions never to get hooked on drugs. She went on to say that she's seen a lot of people turned into schizophrenics by excessive drug use, and she didn't want me ending up like that.

By pure coincidence i was in seeing the shrink one day and when i came out of his office, my new next door neighbour was talking to my Salvo friend. The guy seemed alright, i had talked to him on a few occasions. Anyway I asked him what he was doing here, and he said jokingly "I'm a schizo" .

He told me his story. In his younger days he smoked weed all day, everyday. After a while eventually the hallucinations wouldn't stop, and he ended up being diagnosed as being in a permanent state of psychosis. Curiously i asked him what it was like. He said voices would tell him to blow stuff up, and how he could 'see the music' coming from his stereo. He was sure someone was rearranging his coffee table when his back was turned (he lived alone), and he couldn't talk to certain people because he was convinced they were evil and plotting against him.

Ten years later and we're still good friends, although he has to take drugs for the rest of life to stop the symptoms. I know not all Schizophrenics are that way due to drugs ( trauma and genetics can cause it too) but it is a cautionary tale of what happens when you don't take things in moderation.

Ummmm.......... I'm going to take a leap here and say that your friends hallucinations had nothing to do with the grass he was partaking in, and more to do with internal problems.

You say he smoked every day, all day. Then after a while the hallucinations wouldn't stop, by your statement this means that he would smoke to stop the hallucinations (which this eventually stopped working for him).

To correlate the herb with causing hallucinations and schizos is a reach beyond reaches.

reply to post by Mr Headshot


This isnt how it is at all....

Diagnosed 13 years ago with this but had it from 6 years before the Diagnosis!!

Let me tell you that the video is maybe how a few people hear things but not me....

When I watch an Episode of lets say 'CSI' ... I am really trying to concentrate on what is actually happening, what is being said?? I do find it hard sometimes and my mind begins to drift and think of things i've thought of that day or things i've said and while thinking about these things, I may receive an answer or laughter through what the Character on TV has just said.... its as if I can have a telepathic conversation with the Character on screen!!

Can be Annoying at times but can also be Hilarious because I wonder how the funk did you know what I was thinking just then.... can also be Emotional!

I'm not crazy..... I'm just different.

However, when the TV is off, I do get random words and voices in my head from people i've known in the past, sometimes from people I know now.... can be anything from rude words to calming words... can also be scary.

One of my x-girlfriends asked me if I ever heard anything from her Mother...... well, I won't type here what I heard!

Hope this gives you a little insight into my World!!

Originally posted by TruthxIsxInxThexMist
reply to post by Mr Headshot

 

When I watch an Episode of lets say 'CSI' ... I am really trying to concentrate on what is actually happening, what is being said?? I do find it hard sometimes and my mind begins to drift and think of things i've thought of that day or things i've said and while thinking about these things, I may receive an answer or laughter through what the Character on TV has just said.... its as if I can have a telepathic conversation with the Character on screen!!

I've explained such events as part of my brain or my attention is focused on the tv, all expressions of people can be known and so predicted especially with tv and scripts, they are just predictable. So another part of the brain predicts the television show and scripts the internal show in such a way it would intersect with eachother to create the effect of social interaction or someone real close by. The brain probably does this many times a day and one of those 100's attempt might actually be on the mark, giving the illusion of something magical taking place.

Is there something wrong with me if I found that to be relaxing?

Originally posted by Mr Headshot
reply to post by muzzleflash

 

So, everyone is lying about hearing them?

Not being condescending, I just want to be sure that's what you're saying.

No of course not, I contend that due to the computational nature of the brain, it is clearly a type of shorting effect whereby the " programming" was buggy being a probable causation. Im sure we could list various possibilities, poisoning being one worth examining, or even dna damage, etc.

However, the point being, the memory/dreaming/imagination function runs out of control and operates freely.
To make it stop without medicine we have to stop treating it like disease and more like a correctable talent ( self control of the mind ).

Because in actual reality we are all 100% delusional, just most of us learned to control it through training by our mentors, disipline, etc. Proper programming is paramount lest the mind will snap out of control.

Consider most of us fortunate for avoiding those traumas. But isolating and falsely labeling and burying them in myth and stereotypes? Its prejudice.

We are all suseptable to losing control. Let us rehabilitate those suffering with companionship and love and understanding. Not pity and pills and isolation.

Sorry I didnt explain better last time.

Originally posted by trollz
Is there something wrong with me if I found that to be relaxing?

No. Id say you were clever for Choosing to enjoy your life even when people fabricate silly audio files in attempts to spook you.

Originally posted by HomerinNC
i dont hear them like that, just whispering, nothing that can be picked out or distinctive voices, and ill hear muisic

Hearing music is very common. The brain tries to make sense and find a pattern for all data, when it encounters data that it can't immediatley identify or quantify it will fill in the blanks. If you are near running water, or something with an electrical motor (ceiling fan, AC unit) in an otherwise quiet setting, your brain may decide it is hearing music and fill in music even where it does not exist. I would suspect that in the absence of a musical solution the brain might decide it is hearing a conversation instead and react the same. (Although, I have never read any documentation of that.) As I said, this is very common and has nothing whatsoever to do with mental illness.

I hear bluegrass music usually, some I recognize, some not. I wish I had the ability to write it down. I have tried to memorize some of the tunes. My son hears classical/orchestral music when he is in the shower or by flowing water. It is an amazing little trick of the brain/mind, enjoy.

reply to post by Dragonfly79


Sorry!

I logged out before I saw your reply.

You know I used to think my thoughts and others with this illness or capability were able to travel Electronically through the airwaves!!

And now we see that this process is coming to fruition using Computers and Wires taped to the forehead!!

That video and the second one are pretty creepy, I wonder is it always negative things the voices say? And why if they do hear voices all day are they negative? Maybe from childhood trama, hearing adults say these things to a toddler and then the brain decides to play it back over and over when the person gets older? I don't I know very little about this, but I would like to know if the voices are always negative?

Originally posted by jaguarsky

Originally posted by HomerinNC
i dont hear them like that, just whispering, nothing that can be picked out or distinctive voices, and ill hear muisic

Hearing music is very common. The brain tries to make sense and find a pattern for all data, when it encounters data that it can't immediatley identify or quantify it will fill in the blanks. If you are near running water, or something with an electrical motor (ceiling fan, AC unit) in an otherwise quiet setting, your brain may decide it is hearing music and fill in music even where it does not exist. I would suspect that in the absence of a musical solution the brain might decide it is hearing a conversation instead and react the same. (Although, I have never read any documentation of that.) As I said, this is very common and has nothing whatsoever to do with mental illness.

I hear bluegrass music usually, some I recognize, some not. I wish I had the ability to write it down. I have tried to memorize some of the tunes. My son hears classical/orchestral music when he is in the shower or by flowing water. It is an amazing little trick of the brain/mind, enjoy.

Thats what you think happens, but i knw otherwise. Your brain doesnt produce real sound for the ears. at least ive never had that before starting to hear voices, music, drums, nukes and seeing mystical things. My belief is that its induced technologicaly.

Originally posted by Aquarius2150
That video and the second one are pretty creepy, I wonder is it always negative things the voices say? And why if they do hear voices all day are they negative? Maybe from childhood trama, hearing adults say these things to a toddler and then the brain decides to play it back over and over when the person gets older? I don't I know very little about this, but I would like to know if the voices are always negative?

No. they aren't always negative!!

I think it also depends on ones mood although alot of the time it can be negative when out and about.... I just try my best to ignore it and succeed to the point where I won't hurt anyone.... I will just brush it off and get on with what I was out there to do.... however, when I get home I may say under my breath.... you MUFCKN BSTRDS!

Originally posted by Aquarius2150
I don't I know very little about this, but I would like to know if the voices are always negative?

The voices are not always negative, and i can relate to the whole "soft whisper thing" I've noticed when I am down and out, the negative voices are more prominent. When my overall well being is positive and happy, they are positive voices ,.. the "good voices" Someone mentioned energy vibrations before, so I would think that if you are on a higher vibration,,.. you would only be picking up on the the higher vibrations,... of loving,.. caring voices. When in a dark depression, your vibration would be lower, thus picking up on the lower , negative ones. I have actually had one of the voices tell me something about a person who I just met. I do play guitar,.. I met this guy , and right away I "clicked" with him. If you are a musician, you tend to be able to read and tell if someone "plays something" or that is my case anyways. So anyhow, I was going to meet up with him and on the way I heard " he plays bass"... and there is no possible way that I could have known that beforehand. I outright asked him, do you play anything? He says,. yeah I play bass guitar. I was pretty much blown away, the rest of the day , trying to figure out what had just happened. I am still trying to understand it all, I cannot actively get the "voices" to talk to me. They just randomly do. No rhyme nor reason.. Also they are not constant for me. Depending on where I am,.. I may hear more, or none. I have also noticed, in older buildings and houses, it is more prevalent.

reply to post by GuitarEnlightened


It sucks to be us sometimes ha?

Yes , sometimes it does suck.. but makes life that much more interesting.
Here is some food for thought,..
From Crystallinks page...

Clairaudience is receiving messages in thought form from another frequency or realm. It is considered a form of channeling.

We actually do it all the time, especially under duress, or in an emergency, when we focus/listen to what we call the 'little voice' in our head. We are always connected to the other side, we need only focus on what is being said to realize how our immediate destiny is manifesting. Stop, Look, and Listen.

Link to source... www.crystalinks.com...