# voices



## theuniversetalkingtoitself

For a long time I sometimes "hear voices." For instance, if I spend a lot of time talking to a friend, my inner voice might be in their voice for a while. It's not just my thoughts in their voice, it's things they might say in their voice, mixed with things I might say (also in their voice). I can also have conversations between friends in my mind in their voices. I have always just thought this was theory of mind. I have a model of them in my head and it's possible for me to run the model. Is this normal?


----------



## Guest

I have this.

Feel free to pm me about it.

You are not alone.


----------



## theuniversetalkingtoitself

Thanks. I found this really good article about it:

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-a-z/H/hearing-voices/

I have never recognized my voices as "me." If I am in the shower and I am thinking about something, I might rely on a friend's advice by running a model of what I think they might say in their voice in my head. Or, if I am planning to have a conversation with someone, I might simulate the interaction including by saying what I think they might say in their voice in my head.

This seems basically normal. I mean, I don't know if most people do this, but it doesn't seem unhealthy.

I think I still just have PTSD, smoked too much weed and did too much coke that one time. I don't think I can ever go back from DP. I just have to learn to live with it. I actually don't find it to be that unrealistic of a perspective, it's just hard because the rest of culture is so egocentric that I don't have very much support or anyone to talk to.

Well, except my voices, I guess.


----------



## Guest

Do you also feel energies/vibes since dissociation started?


----------



## theuniversetalkingtoitself

I don't and I can't imagine what that would be like. I am very much against pseudoscience and suspicious of 'energy' etc so that would freak me out beyond belief. I also know a lot about psychology so I think that's why I rationalized the voices as theory of mind right away and just assumed it happened to everyone. That said, even knowing a lot about psychology has not made the fog of PTSD easy to see through. Insensitivity to reward is just terrible. It's so hard to see through it until everything starts falling apart.. at least for me.


----------



## dpsucks

ive also experienced this before


----------



## vannasarous

Is this common with dp/dr? I experience this too, and never knew how to put it into words, and it freaks me out bc I'm convinced it's a sign of schizophrenia.


----------



## ThoughtOnFire

vannasarous said:


> Is this common with dp/dr? I experience this too, and never knew how to put it into words, and it freaks me out bc I'm convinced it's a sign of schizophrenia.


Can you explain how it is for you?


----------



## vannasarous

ThoughtOnFire said:


> Can you explain how it is for you?


Pretty much the same thing. I couldn't have put it in words better. It makes me wanna cry when it happens bc it freaks me out bc I'm terrified to be schizo, but my sister and brother said that it both happens to them so idk if it's like a normal thing or not ya know?


----------



## ThoughtOnFire

vannasarous said:


> Pretty much the same thing. I couldn't have put it in words better. It makes me wanna cry when it happens bc it freaks me out bc I'm terrified to be schizo, but my sister and brother said that it both happens to them so idk if it's like a normal thing or not ya know?


Yeah I've heard of others without DP/DR or really any mental health problems having this happening to them.


----------



## vannasarous

ThoughtOnFire said:


> Yeah I've heard of others without DP/DR or really any mental health problems having this happening to them.


That makes me feel a lot better, or sometimes I'll just randomly hear my dad's voice in my head with like a conversation we had when I'm like in the zone doing things.


----------



## Alex617

vannasarous said:


> That makes me feel a lot better, or sometimes I'll just randomly hear my dad's voice in my head with like a conversation we had when I'm like in the zone doing things.


This is fairly normal, I get this a lot before I sleep which can be annoying. Schizophrenia as far as I'm aware is hearing voices that seem very real to you, and which you can not distinguish from actual voices. The fact that you are considering you have schizophrenia and are worried about these symptoms is a sign you probably don't have much wrong with you, just heightened anxiety from focusing on every little thing you may see as a symptom.


----------



## dissoziation

I've experienced this as well. I think that it's just something that happens with everybody.


----------



## Zed

It's interesting that on a forum for a dissociative disorder, people bring up schizophrenia so often when talking about hearing voices. I'd recommend people here hearing voices look at the possibility of a diagnosis of D.I.D or DDNOS..... D.I.D. and DDNOS are just further along the spectrum of dissociation than DPD. There're some fundamental commonalities between the disorders.

Hearing voices is common for people with D.I.D.. In fact hearing voices is one of the boxes that often gets ticked in the diagnosis of D.I.D. That's not to say of course, if you hear voices you've got D.I.D.. It takes a bit more than hearing voices to build up a proper picture.

D.I.D.'s all too often a very misunderstood condition and almost always gets treated like 'the elephant in the room'. It's not that far different from DPD tbh. There are many symptoms which over lap, even down to the fragmentation of the mind and the dissociative 'walls' in the mind. The thing that takes D.I.D. to another level is, I believe, the 'amount of separation' of the individual fragmented 'parts' from the 'self'. The separate 'parts' or alters of a person with D.I.D. often take on an identity and life of their own. Though some parts are far less complex and may only hold a specific emotion for example.

I'd be much more scared of a possible diagnosis of schizophrenia than D.I.D. any day. The chances of recovery are quite high given the right treatment and drive to achieve it.

Just some food for thought.....


----------



## vannasarous

Alex617 said:


> This is fairly normal, I get this a lot before I sleep which can be annoying. Schizophrenia as far as I'm aware is hearing voices that seem very real to you, and which you can not distinguish from actual voices. The fact that you are considering you have schizophrenia and are worried about these symptoms is a sign you probably don't have much wrong with you, just heightened anxiety from focusing on every little thing you may see as a symptom.


I get it before I fall asleep too. It just scares the shit out of me. I do pick out every little thing that may be wrong with me, and I obsess over it!


----------



## Alex617

vannasarous said:


> I get it before I fall asleep too. It just scares the shit out of me. I do pick out every little thing that may be wrong with me, and I obsess over it!


Find a way to relax your worried mind, and this will go away. I made the decision to use benzos (i.e valium), which helped a lot, but I am now dependent on them for sleep unfortunately so I would try to find another way if at all possible.


----------



## ThoughtOnFire

The before sleep thing is the most common, they call it Hypnagogia or Hypnagogic Hallucinations



> Hypnagogic or hypnopompic hallucinations are visual, tactile, auditory, or other sensory events, usually brief but occasionally prolonged, that occur at the transition from wakefulness to sleep (hypnagogic) or from sleep to wakefulness (hypnopompic). The phenomenon is thought to have been first described by the Dutch physician Isbrand Van Diemerbroeck in 1664.[1] The person may hear sounds that are not there and see visual hallucinations. These visual and auditory images are very vivid and may be bizarre or disturbing.


There is scientific conjecture, though it's not officially recognized, that the Hallucinations of Hypnagogia are from the release of a small amount of the chemical DMT - Dimethyltryptamine. DMT is known as a psychedelic compound, though it's known to actually be a naturally forming chemical made in our brains, most likely in or around the Pineal Gland. The Pineal Gland IS officially known to produce Melatonin, which is the Sleep Chemical. (It is also theorized that DMT is released in larger amounts during near death experiences.)


----------



## Dr B

Most people hear voices at some point in their life. However, most people do not have this occurring regularly. Voices come from the inappropriate activation in speech / inner voice centres in the brain. If you are merely 'feeling' that you hear voices then that's something different.


----------



## vannasarous

I did a little research on what I was experiencing myself, and I found that it's a racing mind. A racing mind doesn't only consist of your inner monologue going from one thing to another, but it can be things in the background and it could be music playing, snips of a movie, or something someone has said to you, or books etc and it can be a bunch of it going on all at once. Either in your voice, others voices, and it's not something you're controlling it's just doing it by itself. It's different than hearing voices like all schizophrenic would. Racing mind is common with ocd, bipolar, anxiety.


----------



## Aus29

I have this big time, anyone have luck with certain tools or meds to assist with this?


----------



## Aus29

.


----------



## Zed

Aus29 said:


> I have this big time, anyone have luck with certain tools or meds to assist with this?


I hear voices occasionally but mostly I experience 'loud thoughts'. I've come a long way by working on understanding what the voices are and where they come from and building strong internal communication.

The voices we hear are not the enemy as most doctors would have you believe. They are natural 'parts' of our mind. People with dissociative disorders have fragmented minds and these parts make up our minds. Early on in the healing process we feel detached from them and we don't understand who they are or even sometimes what they're saying, but over time and with a healthy understanding, we can begin to work together together and not against each other..

One the best websites/blogs I found when trying to understand what was going on is a site called 'Discussing Dissociation'. The women who runs it (and many people who comment) have very healthy understanding of what the voices are and how to work with them on the way to recovery. I'd thoroughly recommend having a look if voice hearing is one of the phenonomens you experience.

https://discussingdissociation.com


----------



## Surfer Rosa

You need to clarify whether or not you imagining hearing the voice, or actually hallucinating it. I have imagined voices before, like most people have. With dissiciation, the inner monologue gets more elaborate and can include other identities. If you don't like this experience, you can try to ground and refocus instead of chatting with them.


----------



## Zed

Surfer Rosa said:


> You need to clarify whether or not you imagining hearing the voice, or actually hallucinating it.


There's another reason ppl can hear voices. The voices are real. The voices ppl with higher end dissociation hear are mostly real. Most treating doctors and professionals have a hard time understanding that, so the general consensus is that voice hearing is some kind of psychosis, but's it's not always the case.



Surfer Rosa said:


> With dissiciation, the inner monologue gets more elaborate and can include other identities. If you don't like this experience, you can try to ground and refocus instead of chatting with them.


If the voices are from dissociated identities, it's really best not to ignore them. No-one likes being ignored. Ignoring dissociated voices leads to internal chaos.

Grounding's always a good idea though for dissociative people!


----------



## oshuway

at the onset of all of my anxieties and physical symptoms, one of the first things i experienced were the voices of the people i knew talking to each other in my mind. from best friends to relatives even to imagined, made-up people. it was one of the scariest symptoms i've experienced to this day. and at the time, i always thought that i would slip into believing that they were real. that was one of my greatest fears that i had at the time, along with losing control and going crazy.

the way i went about rationalizing it was by saying that since i were a young boy i've always sung songs in my head in the voices of the actual singer/songwriter's. as in, the radio songs, i never sang those in my own voice when i was having it play in my mind. i found it bizarre that there was so much stigma surrounding the chattering voices in a person's mind, while on the other hand people welcome the voices of popular singers into theirs.

after the voices in my head settled down, which took a couple of weeks, i still had short bouts of dealing with it before i fell asleep and on an occasion, during the day.


----------

