This is what I wrote back in 2003 in a newsgroup post entitled ‘Is this hearing voices’
Hearing phrases inside your head as if said by someone else.They are not
constant more like a very occasional interjection such as ‘fatty that’s
what you are’ or ‘‘you’ll always be stupid’’.
I have not had this kind of thing very often but i find it very
disconcerting.
Someone suggested it couldn’t be voices as it was internal.
I had a period in the years before regular medication when phrases unconnected to my main line of though buzzed through my head . Again this was an internal thing. It was hard to tell if it was loud thoughts intruding or something else,
I guess if it had been external it would have been more clear cut.
What happened happened at night
The question I’d like to ask is do you hear voices regularly or intermittently? Internally,externally or both ? Are they something that can confine themselves to a part of the day only or are they an all day phenomenon ?
I guess the question is academic as nothing is happening thanks to the meds but a part of me is looking for a clear answer.
There are many different types of voices internally and/or externally
And what where their qualifications?
Mostly in my head and not so much since I started meds. But did last night and a totally big difference of psychosis mind voices and thoughts. Have had the odd externally though very very rarely.
No medical qualifications. Just a depressive on a depression newsgroup.
This is what they said.
J
10/6/03
My understanding is:
If you hear the voices from outside your head - as if you had someone else
talking to you and you can truly hear them then that is likely to be an
auditory hallucination. If however, as you suggest, the voice is in your
head (a bit like wearing stereo headphones) then that isn’t counted as a
hallucination.
Both of these are natural bits of depression and anxiety
The chatter in my head has been changing. Before, if I was awake, and not high or drunk then I had a much harder time ignoring them. It felt like someone sitting in the room talking to me.
In a sober and not high state they were loud and and close and sounded just like someone talking to me and others sounded further away and muttering. They were ugly and persecutory. The only relief I got from them was when I was nearly blacked out drunk.
I’ve been fighting them off for years and when I started to finally become med compliant and take classes on how to cope, they were pretty constant, but muted, sort of like that constant noise of whispers at a theater with a few spikes here and there. That was distracting but I was better at getting through it.
Now, I’ve lost some of the chatter in my head and they stay pretty internal and just sort of run through. They are faint… get loud of a moment… and go faint again. It’s when I’m really not doing well that they get loud and stay loud for a while.
The thing that has been sort of freaking me out is moments of quiet. There have been moments where there is NO noise in my head. It sort of feels like when you realize the training wheels are off and your riding on your own. But then I crash and the chatter comes back. But little by little that silence happens more often and stays longer.
Sorry for the ramble, it’s been an odd night. Hope this answers your questions.
I never experienced what could be called auditory hallucinations…I still called them voices as I had no other word for them…they were more like thoughts that didn’t seem to be my own and often seemed to be those of other people I knew. But I did not hear them with my ears as if they were being spoken aloud. They came as if thoughts really more than voices. But a lot of the content that voice hearers speak of is familiar to me…the negative comments, the put downs, heck they even made fun of the shoes I was wearing. But they were as you say internal not seemingly external auditory hallucinations.
I’ve never got a consistent answer from the professionals about what it was exactly I was experiencing…some said it was hearing voices…some said simply psychosis and others called it a ‘thought disorder’ despite the fact that I was the whole time thinking and speaking in a clear manner.
All I know is whatever is was it is in some sort of remission now…other than three weeks or so earlier this summer it hasn’t been something I’ve had to deal with for at least a year and a half.
But yeah I’d say it was more intermittent than consistently all the time…but it was hell at times to go through…it was hell.
I hear them all day, and both externally and internally. People who say internal voices are not voices atre not very well educated in this sort of thing. They need to experience it first-hand to truly understand this kind of thing.
I hear them in my own voice but some more different toned and I can tell which is which and sometimes they even change their voices to make jokes or speak in a certain way, sometimes in scary tones etc.
I hear them outside of my head but in the very worst cases outside of my head.
For me i hear both internal and external voices. As to say whether they are both from schizophrenia, the answer for me is yes they both are. ive talked with god and the devil both internally only, and had long conversations with them, when i was out of it.
The external voices, are more rare for me, are very short and to the point. so yes those things can be considered schizophrenic if the person is not thinking it themselves and it is an intrusion on their normal thought process. But thats how i see it. Seeing as how you heard them at night can also be a sign that its schizophrenic as thats how my voices show up when i am medicated, if im not medicated i talk to them throughout the day. Since i am medicated, they show up more at night because that is when they are the strongest.
I sometimes hear external voices or unnatural sounds coming from somewhere random but close by, and I can’t find the source of it. Sometimes it’s just a very brief burst of noises or someone saying somethings to me. It freaks me out because it sounds very “real.”
Most of my regular auditory hallucinations involve uncontrollable and annoying looping segments of human voices and music that I hear internally. There is the phenomena of “ear worms” or “getting a song stuck in your head” that most people experience. In my case it is like my brain has a sampler / looper that will repeat things I hear or draw from “soundbanks” from people’s dialog or things from memory. It plays faster and faster or gets stuck like a broken record on the most agitating parts. It’s like I’ll be hearing this phrase over and over. Like a glitched out remix of bad pop music and cacophony of singing voices saying stupid inane things with someone telling me negative or violent commands on top of it.
The plus side is that every once in a while, when I am in a very good mood. I’ll have full control of the music and I can synthesize any style of music, any genre, and effect or modulation, and it’s like an infinite track sequencer that I can use to play infinite music with to myself. It is very enjoyable when this happens.
One thing I am lucky to have found later was a thing called Korg Kaossilator. It is a little box that does exactly what my brain does except with only 100 samples. I can play with this thing and make actual music and it stops the things i’m hearing. But the problem is that time stops and I will be playing music for 24-48-72 time hours in a row. I’ve got better at stopping within around 2 hours. I usually play these songs and then I make the song more abrasive and it scrubs my mind clean. If I make it too catchy or do it too long I will have new auditory loops based on what I heard. It’s hard to work with. I love/hate making music and I have another thing on my computer I use to compose music, but I can’t do it for too long or it bugs me like torture. Just enough to clear my mind and then move on to something else.
I also have a favorite anarcho punk album that always fixes me. It is very intense and makes me feel understood and calm.
I was told for years during psych ed classes in both partial hospitalization programs and inpatient ones that external voices are hallucinations and internal are not.
Since hallucinations involve the five senses, an internal voice wouldn’t be seen as one because there is no sense involved. That’s my understanding.