Do schizophrenics hear voices in their head or outside of their head? I hear voices IN my head which I know aren't real, but I can't make them go away no matter what I do. I also hear music in my head all of the time. I'm just wondering if this is the schizophrenic experience or something else. I've been "hearing" voices for 6 months now and I'm at my witts end. I've talked to so many people, some say it is schiz others (including my doctor) says all I have is a mood disorder. It's very frustrating having to put up with these internal voices (which are the voices of my friends and family that sometimes tell me how to run my life) and everything else that life throws at me. I feel as if my own ego has completely died and that I hold the essence of everyone I know inside of me, it's like having people live inside of you that you don't want. I know I've posted this kind of stuff before but I'm still struggling and still don't have any answers.

hello arebe. Mr.X here. listen one thing you really need to do and that i'm suprised ur doctor hasn't done it for you yet is get a referall to a psychiatrist from your physician.
maybe you already have but just to make sure you haven't over looked it. if you were examined by a psychiatrist a long time ago when this started to happen, then you would already have gotten a professionals point of view. however if you are hearing voices, there obviously is something wrong with your auditory cortex in your brain, but jumping to the conclusion of schizophrenia or suspicion of having schizophrenia isn't what a typical schizophrenic would do. schizophrenics can hardly reason with ideas, take advice, remember things, it is a veru disabling illness that normally gets looked over by the patient. schizophrenics are also normally introduced to treatment by friends or family because they usually can not or will not admit somethign is wrong with them.

however arebe, they are so many different mental illnesses that cause auditory hallucinations, even basic stress from work can do it, or social interactions can trigger hallucinations, on a certain level. but i have talked to you before and i can tell you honestly from what you told me and what i know, that schizophrenia does not fit in ur situation. i believe that every person in this world will have a psychotic episode at some point in their life whether its hallucinations or an uproar of violence on someone.

so the best thign you can do right now is seek a psychiatrist fast cause if schizophrenia is what you have, then you can't get a proper diagnosis fro ANOTHER 6 months and thats when the neuroleptics will start. if you look over this for too long than thiongs can and will get worse if you have schizophrenia

respectfully,
Mr.X.

Fabio,
I agree, sometimes God does speak to us, (although not in an audible voice) but ignoring Him sometimes won't send you to hell. It's ignoring the fact that Jesus is the savior and the son of God that sends you to hell. I've ignored God too many times, but He still forgives me for it. Just thought I'd add that.

Peace.

I'm sorry I don't agree with any of that. If you're hearing voices in your head it's not the voice of God. I've been hearing voices since August and none of them give me the impression that I'm receiving any form of communication with God. Even if I thought it was God communicationg with me I would highly question that belief.

Hello
Just visiting the board for the first time, out of curiosity.
Hard to believe the answers you got! They must be joking...
My mother had skizophrenia, she heard voices and believed them coming from outside her head. They were true hallucinations.
Inner voices are very common. I have them too sometimes. They speak too me telling me what my friends or family would tell me to do in certain situations.
You don't have to listen to these voices you can actually tell them if you disagree, you can even tell them to come back an other time or to go away for ever. It's just a little mind game.
A psychoanalysis could be very interesting for you....As for a psychiatrist I m not sure you need one. You don't sound insane at all, just worried...
fibrine, Paris , france

PS I very much agree with what Mr X descriptions of schizophrenics.
Fibrine

I don't agree with fabio or musicgurl at all, God speaks to you in all differnet ways and If the voices are telling you bad things to do, then then it may not be God at all, he does not control what goes on in yor mind, and schizophrenia is simply a mind game that you play with yourself that you are unaware of that you're playing. It is a TREATABLE disease so contact a psycologist to talk about the things you hear, even though I personally think that you are just a person worrying and probably packed down with alot of stress.

This sounds all too familiar, except I have been hearing voices for years, I think they became distinct in college. Do you have any advice on how to live with them? It seems like they have only gotten worse.

arebe, I hear voices outside my head and I am schizophrenic. However, hearing voices in your head can be an indicator of many diseases and disorders of the brain such as tumors or epilepsy! Time to see a doctor for sure.

sel999, living with voices is hard. Try listening to music, humming to yourself or doing a distracting activity when they get bad. Meds help a lot of people deal.

Mr. X
You sound very knowledgeable on this subject so I would like for you to read a post from a little boy on this thread under "HELP! Please!" by peachatheart. Everyone is telling him the obvious and I don't think it is what he wants to hear. I would like to help but not to long ago we lost a close friend of my baby sister shortly after I tried to help with the same problem. I'm afraid for this little boy and don't want to actually do harm instead of good. Thank you.

Hey Kid,

My son has the disorder and I can tell you he was hearing voices. They where telling him my dog was the Devil. He also had halluciantions he saw people who weren't there and was really messed up. If you really hear voices you should let your doctor know asap. It will only get worse without treatment.

My husband hears, sees, smells and feels things and sometimes tastes things that are not there. He is one of the worst cases of schizophrenia diagnosed. I agree with Beau, you need to see a psychiatrist for treatment. There is now some really good medications to help alleviate the symptoms. Good Luck

Arebe,
Are you still reading this thread? I hope you are no longer distressed by the voices you hear (or perhaps they are gone or have become friendly companions to you) and that the mood problems your PMD thought might be contributory to your inner voices have abated. I would not be too eager to address these voices with medications. The meds that are available for reducing psychosis are only marginally effective, and have many dangerous side effects. As a medical student considering a career in psychiatry, I see them as s aolution to be used only once everything else we can think of has been tried unsuccessfully. And I don't agree that simply running to a psychiatrist is necessarily the best approach. You must be sure you are seeing a psychiatrist who has your interests, and not his compensation for prescribing drugs, at heart.

Thank you for your concern. I am still currently taking antipyschotic medications for my psychotic symptoms. The medication helps me immensly and has silenced the voices. I don't know of any current treatment for schizophrenia that doesn't include antipsychotic medication. There is orthomolecular vitamin treatment but I have never had any luck with it.

You are a lot better off taking the antipsychotic meds. As I have mentioned before my husband is severe, he sees, hears, smells, feels, and sometimes tastes things that are not there. He is on Cloziril and this is it for him. Next time he relapses, the dr will have to mix antipsychotics. I can't even imagine what you guys go through, I just know from a family members'stand point. I hope you have great success with what you are on.

I know sometimes when I lay down to go to bed I hear only what I can describe as "clippings". It's like someone saying one word, or like a clipping of a conversation. I couldn't even tell you now what was said. It is usually after I have been laying there for a while and I may turn over or something. I am usually very relaxed at that time as well. So it could even be dreaming in a sense. (Although I am still awake) It scares me if I think about it too much..so I stopped thinking about it. It only happens occasionally. As for any other time...the only other voice that is in my head 24/7 is my own! But that is just annoying! LOL.
No one asked..when do you hear these voices? Is it all the time, at night? Different times? When you are stressed or having other emotional problems? I personally don't think you should worry too much about it. Actually, when I was evaluated once by a psychiatrist and they ask you a million questions...one was if I hear voices. I explained to him what I explained to you and he said that sounds perfectly normal. Good luck...and try not to worry to much about it if possible!

I have been hearing voices for more than 10 years. These voices come from outside my head. When it all started, I found it very disturbing and even comtemplated suicide at a point. But from the very start, I know I am not crazy. These 'voices' I hear are real people's voices. Some of them sound like my friends and colleagues and some of them I do not recognise. However, most of the time, these voices say things that imply that I am talking to them and they tell me to shut up. Also, they are able to see my thoughts as they repeat whatever I think using their own words and sentences. So one day, to prove that I am not crazy, I thought a lot of negative things about some colleagues of mine whose voices I heard. So guess what happened when I met them physically the next day? They show me sour faces and some of them look like I've insulted them. I have repeated this with a lot of other people and the result is the same. Some of them even barked back at me! This has confirmed my suspicion: certain (if not most) people have the ability to spy on our thoughts and they can also project their voices over a distance of hundreds of miles so we can hear them. This is not a science fiction scenario as the current technological advances already allow for this. Think of your tiny mobile phone. You speak into that tiny gadget and another person on the other side of the world can hear your voice with another tiny gadget of his. What if someone has figured out how to do this without a handset? Also, our brains emit alpha waves which might be picked up and transmitted over existing telecommunications networks. This will allow other people with the proper 'gadgets' to spy on our thoughts. As to how this works, I do not know as I'm not one of those who can 'see' other people's thoughts. So before you guzzle large quantities of antipsychotic medications that carry harmful side effects to yourself, think about this.

What I have done is to try to live with these voices. We hear noises all the time. Some noises are easier to live with such as engines running, birds chirping, dogs barking, etc. Some noises are harder to live with such as having a voice of your colleague telling you nasty things that hurt your feelings in the privacy of your own bathroom! These people are really abusive. I have analysed my feelings toward these two types of noises and found that they are hard to live with because they hurt my ego. Why doesn't a dog bark hurt me as much as some nasty words from someone? That's because the dog's bark does not carry as much weight as a person's words. We tend to put much too respect in other people because we have been looking to other people for answers as to how to live our lives our entire life! That's what a human being is basically all about - copy from other people and do what they do and believe that is the way of life! If we don't do that, what do we know to do with ourselves? So most of the time, if others work against us, we feel depressed.

I keep asking myself what I can do about this. And finally after many years of confusion and suffering, I told myself I am going to take charge of my own life and I am not going to respect these people anymore. I am not going to let them play with my feelings. I am going to debate over every single issue these 'voices' tell me and I am going to come up with a superior answer and a superior way of life. This will prevent them from putting me in an inferior state of mind and possible depression. This has worked for me the past few years and I am beginning to feel wonderful about myself. This requires many years of hard work but it will pay off. These voices are still around but they affect me less now as I have no respect for them anymore. I have proven to myself the are not the boss of me! :)

hello macaronicheese
really interesting post and glad you've managed to triumph over your voices --- its a kinda unmedicated method and it's working so that's important. i also been wondering where and how these voices come from - like whether it is just from one's own brain or if they really are real and exist in some other realm or form that we just don't know a lot about yet so its kinda reassuring to find someone else who also thinks they exist outside of our own heads even if they do know what we are thinking at the time!!!!
i wish other people would say where they think they come from - nobody talks too much about that side of things!
all the best to ya.

Hi Christine, I figured years ago that my goal is to be happy. And in order to achieve that, I need to be in control of my mind and my feelings. If I am not in control, then my emotions will be subject to all kinds of external forces that life has to throw at me. Keeping control over myself minimizes the effect these external forces has against me. That is the reason I didn't resort to taking medications and drugs. These medications make me dizzy and easily cause me to lose my senses. I can't think straight under the influence of these medications. Therefore I will easily lose control over my feelings. Relying on the effects of these medication for a prolonged period of time will cause loss of self esteem and depression. This is a psychological problem actually. We have a problem that is causing us anxiety but we drown it out with medication that make us dizzy. What happens when the medication wears off? We have to face reality again. The problem is not solved and if this lingers on, depression sets in. Even if I am having hallucinations, I would consult a good psychiatrist and try to identify the problem. I believe the mind is sending us a signal that it is in trouble. Having company who are both supportive and truthful to me helps most of the time. Who needs people who deny reality when it is facts that we need to understand and solve problems? I remember the days when I was in college. My coursemates and I had to struggle it out to make our grades. Everyone was having a hard time with the coursework. This puts pressure and anxiety in people. I thought to myself, would the professor who teaches these courses be under the same pressure if they were to do the same assignments that we do? Of course not! They are the experts. They know everything as far as the course is concerned. Then they wouldn't feel pressure or anxiety, would they? So I came to this conclusion: whether we are happy or not will depend on whether we understand and know how to deal with life's issues. So I made a point to understand every issue that bothered me, even those that normal people take for granted and never give it a second thought. This helped reduce my anxiety a lot over the years and I am more confident now. So even if these 'voices' linger on to throw all kinds of accusations against me, I am in more control of my feelings. ;)

Hi i went to see my doctor today and he said you hear voices,see things because you have a strong imagination,anyone who has a strong imagination could hear things(usually when you go to sleep or after you wake up) its not the same thing as the schizophrenic paople have

xxxxxxxxxx

"schizophrenics can hardly reason with ideas, take advice, remember things, it is a veru disabling illness that normally gets looked over by the patient.."

I can reason. Sometimes.

From what you are saying I think my cat has schizophrenia.

Hi i went to see my doctor today and he said you hear voices,see things because you have a strong imagination,anyone who has a strong imagination could hear things(usually when you go to sleep or after you wake up) its not the same thing as the schizophrenic paople have
Well, then that rules me out, probably. I've heard voices before going to bed and after waking up. They were in my head, and they weren't my own thoughts, it's like they were inserted. They told me what to do and talked about me. I have a strong imagination, though. I don't know how that would explain the people calling my name.