Voices in your head, and insanity (do they go together?)

[Lord Hakk]

I Think that voices in your head doesnt necesserally mean your insaine. I think that the voices are ur subconces interacting with your conces. Now what the voices are saying, depends on if you are insane or not......

[InfiniteNow]

So did you have a question somewhere in there, or a point about wish you wanted to open a dialogue, or were you just responding to the voices?

[ronthepon]

Oh no you are not insane if you hear voices.

 

It's the extremly real subconsious expressing itself.

 

It could also be halucination (is that how it's spelt?)

 

In any case, it's the thought going on inside that seems much more real than it is.

 

There is an excersise you can do to demonstrate this for yourself.

---------------------------------------------------------

Just incase you have the time, just bother to do this excersise.

Go near some intense light source.

Close your eyes tightly, wait for your pupils to dialate.

 

Then suddenly open your eyes and look at the light source, letting it blind you for some time.

 

Now again close your eyes tightly. Cover them with your hand.

There will be wierd marks in the vision (with closed eyes) caused due to the intense light.

 

If you concentrate on the marks long enough and well enough, it may get more and more real until it appears that you are actually looking at something.

----------------------------------------------------

PS: If anybody feels this excersise is crappy nonsense, then either you have'nt done it correctly enough or you have'nt done it at all.

[Chacmool]

Lord Hakk, I'm not sure what you are referring to. These "voices" could just be your own internal dialogue, which is part of the normal thought process.

 

However, auditory hallucination, i.e. hearing voices that don't really exist, might be an indication of a psychotic disorder such as schizophrenia. This is no laughing matter, and professional help is essential.

[ronthepon]

Schizophrenia? This a mark of schizophrenia?

[Chacmool]

Hearing voices is not always a sign of schizophrenia, but it should certainly be considered, especially if the voices don't go away and if they start telling the person to do strange things.

[Lord Hakk]

Well, I guess it could be a though process, but supposedly voices in your head mean your insane. (I think its sterotypical) But I just think the voices are your subconcious and sane people dont admit that they have a voice because they think that poeple will think that there insane.

And who said I had voices in my head??(good guess who ever u are)

further more I think that some indane people have spoken to god, as an equal( what I mean is that god "dumbed" stuff down for moses and people like him, but some people god talked to like an equal, and scince god is omipotent and stuff, he made those people think in a different way thus making them seem crazy to us {my religious friend hated this theory...} but I wont go into that any more) back to the crazy theory..isnt hallilunicing your subconcious interaction with ur councious when ur awake?(for whatever reason, i.e. lack of sleep brain damage...)

[EWright]

Well, I guess it could be a though process, but supposedly voices in your head mean your insane. (I think its sterotypical) But I just think the voices are your subconcious and sane people dont admit that they have a voice because they think that poeple will think that there insane.

And who said I had voices in my head??(good guess who ever u are)

further more I think that some indane people have spoken to god, as an equal( what I mean is that god "dumbed" stuff down for moses and people like him, but some people god talked to like an equal, and scince god is omipotent and stuff, he made those people think in a different way thus making them seem crazy to us {my religious friend hated this theory...} but I wont go into that any more) back to the crazy theory..isnt hallilunicing your subconcious interaction with ur councious when ur awake?(for whatever reason, i.e. lack of sleep brain damage...)

 

Hakk, tell me more about the voices in your head, because it depends.

 

I believe everyone has a normal conversational type voice that carries on the dialogue of their thoughts in their head, called thinking. That is normal and product of the advanced human mind. (I'm assume animals think to a lesser extent, with no dialogue). The voice you hear in normal thinking should be your own; or if you are thinking of what another might say, you might imagine and 'hear' their voice. This type of voice is generally pretty low intensity and consistant.

 

Also, you generally control or guide these thoughts; but they can also at times think things you don't intend to think or don't want to think. This is somewhat normal still, but starts to border on problematic if it becomes too much.

 

So first identify your own type of thinking as I described above. Now if you're hearing voices in your head that are hearing voices *aside* from this type of voice, and it's not you 'thinking' about what someone else might say, this would be considered abnormal. You may also hear voices outside of your head, say from another room, when no one is actually there. On subtle scales this may occur when you have noise such as running water and think you hear someone call you. (I'd wager many people have experience a very subtle version of this, when thinking they hear the phone ring when running water.) But if the voices are very obvious, loud, continuous, make complete sentences, feel evil, tell you to do things, tell you bad things, claim to be an entity (good or bad), torment you, etc., then you're probably dealing with psychotic issues to some degree.

 

This type of thing can range from mild to extreme. If it seems you are dealing with the psychotic type issues, you should consider talking to a psychologist for an evaluation. He may recommend counseling or refer you to a psychiatrist who can prescribe a drug such as Risperdal to help. No one has to know you're receiving such therapy and you may be able to stop if you learn to get a handle on it.

[Lord Hakk]

You have a good point, exept I think im just interacting with my subconcious. When I ask the voice questions it answers, alot of the time it doesnt know, and i dontknow either.... I doubt its anything harmful....

 

and if my phycologiest couldnt find anything wrong than I doubt its serious.

[EWright]

You have a good point, exept I think im just interacting with my subconcious. When I ask the voice questions it answers, alot of the time it doesnt know, and i dontknow either.... I doubt its anything harmful....

 

Personally, I would try to stop doing this if I were you. Are you able to stop if you want to? The reason is that you may be conditioning your subconcious voice to become more present and possibly to start to have the answers to your questions or to become more controlling. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to cognitively answer the questions you have on your own. You may also condition yourself to allow the subconcious voice to direct you, and then blame your actions on it.

 

I'd be interested in knowing how old you are, if this is a new phenomenon for you/how long you've been hearing voices, and if you have use drugs and/or alcohol. Also, is the voice that answers basically your own? How loud is it compared to your thinking voice or the voice you ask question with. What differences do you hear between the two?

[Lord Hakk]

Personally, I would try to stop doing this if I were you. Are you able to stop if you want to? The reason is that you may be conditioning your subconcious voice to become more present and possibly to start to have the answers to your questions or to become more controlling. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to cognitively answer the questions you have on your own. You may also condition yourself to allow the subconcious voice to direct you, and then blame your actions on it.

 

I'd be interested in knowing how old you are, if this is a new phenomenon for you/how long you've been hearing voices, and if you have use drugs and/or alcohol. Also, is the voice that answers basically your own? How loud is it compared to your thinking voice or the voice you ask question with. What differences do you hear between the two?

hey, I take responsiblity for myself, im 14 and I would NEVER do drugs or drink.this voice is relitivly small and you make it sound like its an addiction. and heck I havent consulted my voice scince 2 days ago apart from saying hi to it in the morning..........

it speaks from the back of my mind and its small so I think its my subconcious as my concious brain sees it, or it could be one of those consince things people talk about (you know its supposedly steers you in the right direction.) and maybe i just characterize what i think ( so it seems to come from a voice rather than my brain. instead of thinking to myself I think I just am starting to speak to myself but instead of "Me" answering its this "voice"

[EWright]

hey, I take responsiblity for myself, im 14 and I would NEVER do drugs or drink.this voice is relitivly small and you make it sound like its an addiction. and heck I havent consulted my voice scince 2 days ago apart from saying hi to it in the morning..........

it speaks from the back of my mind and its small so I think its my subconcious as my concious brain sees it, or it could be one of those consince things people talk about (you know its supposedly steers you in the right direction.) and maybe i just characterize what i think ( so it seems to come from a voice rather than my brain. instead of thinking to myself I think I just am starting to speak to myself but instead of "Me" answering its this "voice"

 

Hey, good to hear you feel you have a handle on it. I didn't mean to make is sound like you have an addiction. I was asking if you are able to not communicate with it when you choose, because I was wondering if you were in control of if it had its sort of own individuatlity and spoke when it wanted to. It sounds like you're just coming to terms with who you are and perhaps experimenting with this sort of voice. Good luck with that. If it shoudl change for some reason or you feel more concerned about it down the road, send me a message.

 

Take care

[CerebralEcstasy]

hey, I take responsiblity for myself, im 14 and I would NEVER do drugs or drink.this voice is relitivly small and you make it sound like its an addiction. and heck I havent consulted my voice scince 2 days ago apart from saying hi to it in the morning..........

it speaks from the back of my mind and its small so I think its my subconcious as my concious brain sees it, or it could be one of those consince things people talk about (you know its supposedly steers you in the right direction.) and maybe i just characterize what i think ( so it seems to come from a voice rather than my brain. instead of thinking to myself I think I just am starting to speak to myself but instead of "Me" answering its this "voice"

Hey Kiddo,

 

I think we all to a degree talk to ourselves. However, if you're consulting the voice to assist you in making decisions or so forth, there could be a danger in this.

 

I don't believe that hearing voices makes you insane, however it might indicate a mental illness. Mental illnesses can show themselves in a multitude of ways.

 

Some people get depressed, others have racing thoughts, some consider suicide and so on. The best way to deal with any of these is to see a physician.

 

You'd mentioned that your psychologist didn't find anything wrong with you.

 

Sometimes this happens too, because before we get too ill, we are capable of hiding the fact that there is something odd happening to us - this is pretty natural too. You may not have even told them everything you should have.

 

Some things you should mention when you see your doctor again, are the voices, how many times a day you hear them, whether or not you feel sad, or really, really happy and have lots of energy.

 

This way, the doctor can analyze these symptoms better than strangers on the internet. If you're hearing these voices on a regular basis, it would be a good idea for you to go as soon as possible to the doctor.

 

People who ignore the symptoms tend to get worse, and then it requires maybe a hospital stay, whereas if they'd gone to the doctor, they could have tried a prescription.

 

It's sort of like if you start off with a cold, but the cold doesn't go away right away. Sometimes colds develop into other things, like bronchitis or pneumonia. If the person had went during the first part of their illness the doctor may have been able to prevent the further problems.

 

Let us know how you're doing. Ok?

[HappytheStripper]

So did you have a question somewhere in there, or a point about wish you wanted to open a dialogue, or were you just responding to the voices?

 

 

LMFAO I wondered the same thing .. I think the first sign of insanity .. insanity is when you hear voices inside your head ... then answer answer yourself back ..

[The Head Of Me]

I have the same thing happen to me, i have a guy talk to me in my head, and i can have conversations with him about stuff and its like talking with a real person only i dont here the voice in my ears as if he was standing next to me i more so hear it in my head. He stopped talking to me about 8 months ago because he told me not to tell anyone about him as it will only make me look silly/mad, i told a friend and she kinda humored me and i know she thought i was mad.

 

i always thought everyone had this to some extent then i soon realised they dont, but for me its been there as far as i can remember, and totaly normal, all i could find on the internet was that if you hear voices then your crazy and i for one are not that kind of crazy, iam just a "Normal" guy.

 

When he went away i kind of missed him, but now hes coming back and this is why i decided to get some advice on it from the net.

 

So thats a little of my story, thanks for reading :shrug:

[nkt]

You'd mentioned that your psychologist didn't find anything wrong with you.

Well, the obvious question is, why did you go to see a shrink?

 

If you are an American with rich parents, it will be because it is a fashionable thing to do - everyone is in therapy. Now, recall that therapists have to pay a mortgage, just like everyone else. Why are kids so "sick in the head" these days? Could it be because drugs companies are market driven and profit driven, and that lack of a new market drives them to create one for profit. See the other thread in this forum called "Why so many disorders in children?".

 

In the UK, saying you went to see a psycologist would raise red flags all around. You would have had to be pretty nuts for that to happen.

 

Either way, know yourself, and learn when to bite your tongue. Saying nothing, rather than what you are thinking, will get you a long way in life. If you hate the idiot trying to analyse you, relax, and let it wash over you. He's insignificant once you leave, and if you make clear that you are cured, he will lose interest, or try to find something else wrong, as he doesn't want to see that money walk away.

 

When did you last hear of a psycologist actually solving anyone's problems to the extent that they were "100% cured"? Happens all the time, but those people still go back for more! It is a business, plain and simple.

 

Unless you are really messed up, and you believe that you are, not that someone else is telling you it, don't go to therapy. It's like messing with anything complex and undefined, a slight tweak or a mighty blow might do nothing, but the wrong look, and the next thing you know, it's 100% worse.

[HydrogenBond]

If I was trying to visualize a building design, visual images may appear within my head or mind's eye. This is not a visual halucination but an unconscious ouput becoming conscious via imaginary imagery within the mind's eye. Some people are more audio orientated than visual orientated such that a similar output can appear as words or sounds in the mind's ear. The musician writing music may begin to sing to themselves trying to translate the audio imagination into something more consciously tangible. Both are aspects of creativity. Many small children will have imaginary playmates. They both see and hear these playmates through the mind's eye and ear.

 

In culture there are extroverted people and introverted people. The extrovert is more in contact with sensory input/output, such that these things are often less conscious. The introvert is less sensory dependant and has more sensitivity to internal output and feedback. In an extroverted society, this connected is not fully understood, so it is shunned. If we were part of an introverted culture it would be developed a lot further and seen as a diamond in the rough rather than social taboo.

 

On the down side, other things can come into play. The human personality is based on personality software called archetypes by Jung. Not all of these are rationally or spatially orientated, many are highly subjective and irrational. The commnication between conscious and unconscious, via personality software can stir the ego into irrational orientations. For example, many religious fanatics have an inner voice of God . If this archetype voice is irrational and they follow it they can become stirred in the most irrational directions (terrorists).

 

These dynamics were more common in ancient times. Religion was a way to differeniate which personality software was at work. The devil was a wide range of irrational personality software manifestations. These were far more common resulting in the need to throw out the baby with the bathwater and deem it all socially taboo (Joan of Arch).

 

Innovators often come to understandings through internal processing. Before acceptance, most innovatiive ideas was considered crazy even though they are more in touch with reality than consensus thinking. That is why it is not always good to throw out the baby with the bathwater because innovation can often appear irrational because it is ahead of its time.