let’s make a poll.
●internal or external?
●how many voices?
●familiar or unfamiliar voices?
●do meds decrease them?
●do you have a relationship of love/hate with them? do you miss them?
●when do they usually happen?
●how long do they last?
●how do you distract yourself?
●do you find it tempting to obey their commands?
internal and external, one mean man one young lady (telepathy), 1 guest speaker, three Teras, A bunch of toddlers, familiar, yes meds decrease, yes love/hate, yes miss, usually all the time, they last all day, I don’t distract myself
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●internal or external?
minor external stuff like hearing my name and footsteps, doors opening, etc. internal i have voices and hear music playing a lot in the distance, like it was being played in the back of my head and is echoing out
●how many voices?
one that is unique and doesnt sound like anybody i know, and then occasionally ill hear others that are identical to family members or friends
●familiar or unfamiliar voices?
the familiar ones are the most convincing and ill sometimes answer them by shaking my head or saying yes or no before realizing they arent there
●do meds decrease them?
medicine eliminates the external ones completely, puts a bit of a dent in the internal ones but not completely gone by any means
●do you have a relationship of love/hate with them? do you miss them?
the familiar ones dont bother me, theyre not super common anyway. the unfamiliar makes me angry and ill sometimes tell it to leave me alone or shut up or something like that which i usually get a response of no. the music is benign but gets annoying after a while
●when do they usually happen?
if i concentrate on things, talk to myself or play music it drowns them out, but otherwise theyre there, so if im idling with nothing to do or focus on they get the most annoying, and when im in public
●how long do they last?
for as long as i idle or remain in public
●how do you distract yourself?
i try to talk to myself to drown it out, and if im at home ill play music or videos like they were podcasts and try to keep busy to ignore them
●do you find it tempting to obey their commands?
sometimes the unfamiliar one will tell me to jump out of the car or jump off things or throw my phone out of the car, i usually just avoid being near the edges of things or sit on my hands because im scared someday ill have a lapse in judgement and listen to it
External
3 male voices
Unfamilliar
Clozapine decreased the frequency of them
I hate the two that argue. Used to think jack was ok but now he’s become a lot more aggressive
Any time mostly when I’m alone
Last for hours
Just listen to them or watch a movie or go for a walk
When I’m not at my best I find it hard to not obey the commands
Both internal and external but the internal ones provide more dialogue and are generally with more to say, external is usually just short phrases and words.
There can be as little at one, to as many as 5 some times, all different genders.
Usually they’re unfamiliar for me.
Meds do decrease them, yes, Risperidone only killed them off for so long though.
Relationship? I had a toxic relationship to say the least.
Usually they occur when I start panicking or just at random times, but stress brings them in easier.
Time wise, they last as little as an hour or can go for hours at a time.
Um…distractions, when they attack me, I can’t really distract myself.
Oh gosh, I have found their commands tempting, the ones about hurting others I usually resist though.
internal. 3 so far. unfamiliar. meds may make them disappear or just decrease them. yes. I miss them sometimes. usually when I am quiet. from minutes to hours. doing things. they don’t command except for one time that they said “kill, murder” but they never said who & why.
I am very interested in auditory hallucinations because they are so strange, because I want to understand them, because for some people they are extremely disabling (like what I read in this sequence), and because the explanations seem to be readily attainable.
I worked for about 3 hours yesterday trying to figure out hallucinations which seem so obvious to me–that my voices all seem to be a will completely apart from my own will–and they are not my own mind talking to me. And they are completely rational thoughts relevant to the current environment. I don’t believe they are my own mind talking to myself.
I believe hearing voices is part of disease and is never good. But I can’t do anything to suppress them when they come. My voices are actually good, but I still don’t want them. They are a sign that my illness is flaring up.
I was fortunate to meet a cyber security expert yesterday and he proffered a theory that our brain has been hacked. This would just be a theory at this time.
Here are my answers to the survey:
●internal or external?
external
●how many voices?
usually one. sometimes 2 or 3 in the past. Talking about me, not to me. Often talking about events occurring at the time. It’s usually one intelligent woman, but it has been the woman with a man in the past. The voices always come from a place approximately 8-10 feet over my head, and I hear them anywhere I am, including outside in the open air.
●familiar or unfamiliar voices?
unfamiliar. Except about 25 years ago one of the voices, for a little, while was one of my housemates!
●do meds decrease them?
yes. So does time in the hospital.
●do you have a relationship of love/hate with them? do you miss them?
no, my relationship is mostly love. I don’t think I ever miss them. But the fact that I cannot stop them (usually) bothers me.
●when do they usually happen?
When I have deteriorated some and my mind is slipping, and I am concerned that I will get sick (and be hospitalized) again.
●how long do they last?
just a few minutes and sometimes a few times a day. They talk about me, not to me. Mine are helpful.
It’s usually a woman and I don’t recognize her voice. She is also very funny, often saying, “Call God!” for example.
I can go for several months without any hallucinations. My voices go back at least 20 or more years. They are accompanied by delusional thinking too.
●how do you distract yourself?
One time I was getting ongoing hallucinations and I was resisting (when I was quite sick) and I asked my voice to stop, and she did so. Otherwise, I can’t do much to distract myself from them. I am almost always incapable of responding with clear conscious comments in my head. I cannot “talk to my voices.” (I am blocked.)
●do you find it tempting to obey their commands?
My voices do not command me.
I prayed with God for the explanation. I have not yet received an answer, except to say that the explanation “is not obvious.” Yesterday I found myself writing, “I can’t explain this.” Maybe that was His answer to me.
I am glad to have this site where people are interested in this highly personal experience I have. How can I, this little person in such a large world, get so much attention (from what may be some sort of a spiritual voice)? Am I really that important? Should I be thankful? I wonder if she is an angel, in my case? Or a fallen angel in the case of some others? I have several theories.
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I am really interested too. that’s why I make this poll…