Experiencing extreme paranoia and occasional aural hallucinations?

Hey, first off I’ve not been professionally diagnosed with schizophrenia, but the closest thing I could find to my experiences was paranoid schizophrenia so I figured I’d post here to get some input from you guys. I think I have the right section here, if not then I apologise!

Recently I’ve been getting incredibly paranoid with seemingly no reason for it. Often when I walk around alone I just feel like someone, somewhere is watching me and I often end up looking around to make sure they aren’t, or even in busy streets I find that I feel like everyone is looking at me when in reality it would appear that they’re not. When I switch to a different room even in my own house I often look around the room for anything suspicious, and peek out the window to see if there’s anything out there before I do whatever I went into the room to do.

On top of this I’ve been experiencing some audible hallucination, but they normally occur as I’m in bed falling asleep so I’m not certain if that’s just part of me falling asleep. I’ve also had occasional visual hallucinations in my peripheral vision that upon turning round have not been there. In my entire life I’ve only ever had one full hallucination that I can clearly remember. I was out in my back garden as a child and I remember seeing a strange man standing at the kitchen window just staring out at me, and I know it wasn’t a real person as the only people home were me and my mother, and she was out with me. That lasted at least 5 seconds, most likely more though, in clear sight before I turned and he was gone.

If anyone could give me some input on these experiences it would be greatly appreciated.

I should also note that I have an appointment booked with a GP for an unrelated matter next Thursday so I’ll probably bring it up with him then.

Thanks!

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lots of normal people can experience sz like symptoms due to stress etc…it is best to talk to your g p and he can refer you to another professional if need be.
but in my opinion everyone is welcome on here and by talking to each other we can find comfort, so here is a ’ welcome ’ from me.
hope all goes well with the g p appointment.
take care

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Welcome to the forum. I know you’ll find lots of support and information on here.

I’ve been battling paranoid sz for 8 years now. So I can certainly identify with your post.

I’m glad you’re seeing a doctor about this. But be aware that GPs are not well-trained in diagnosing and treating mental illness. So hopefully the doc can give you a referral to a good psychiatrist.

Also be aware that there are many disorders that present with paranoia. So you might go through a few different diagnoses before getting the right one.

I hope you get the help you need and get some relief from this terrible paranoia.

Blessings,

Anthony

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Thanks to both of you!

I’ll come back here after the appointment and let you’s know what he said. Hopefully it can all be put down to stress or something but I figured it’d be better to get checked out just incase, rather than running the risk of just hoping for the best.

To radmedtech, I was thinking the same thing about the GP but I just figured he’d be the best place to start, especially since I already have an appointment for something else. I’m happy to take my time and go through whatever diagnoses I get in order to get better!

Thanks!

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Welcome to the forum and yes discussing this with your GP is a good place to start. As radmedtch says hopefully he will refer you to a good psychiatrist. There are other disorders that have some of the same symptoms so a psychiatrist would be better equipped to help sort them out.

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Welcome J11. How old are you? I ask because sz has a range of onset years, so you may or may not be in that window. Your symptoms don’t sound too severe, so that may be in your favor. The earlier you catch it, the better the prognosis. But I would definitely get to a psychiatrist and get this addressed.

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Thanks, I’m 17 right now, and I’ll be 18 in around a month if that helps.

What was the oral hallucination? Is that “olfactory”?

I think i’ve only had one of those when i drank some tea and it tasted like something gone rancid.

I’m sorry, I mean aural. I typed that up quite late at night, my bad. It’s normally just people (not voices I recognise) whispering my name or gibberish I can’t understand.

Sorry to hear, i get that alot, just going to bed the other night in my mind they said “he tastes like judas.”

It was so clear, a feeling of sickness and fear washed over me.

I look forward to the day when people know someone is actually talking to me, and saying horrible things.

Welcome J11. It is good you see a doc to check this out. It could be anything from epilepsy to sz.

I’ve heared it is pretty common to hear voices in the evening. I usually hear voices when things settle in the evening and kids have gone to bed and everything is quiet. The worst thing I’ve heared was my son scream in terror. I ran to him…he was asleep and my husband didn’t hear it at all. I often use my husband to check if I heared right. If he didn’t hear anything then I just let it go and forget about it.

Animals are good too. If the dog doesn’t react on some noice, strangers talking in my home, then nobody is there. It’s a hallucination.

To Comatose, are voices at night common in general, or common within schizophrenia? If it’s just generally common then I guess that’s one good sign for me! I’ve had that a few times, I’ve heard noise and went to investigate but the dog just sits there looking at me. That doesn’t happen very often though.

To atabo, I’m sorry, but I don’t quite get what you’re trying to say. Are you saying that everyone with schizophrenia is incapable of typing coherently? If so, I’ve seen and met many people who have excellent linguistic skills, many even better that my own.

@J11 i believe it is common for all ppl to hear voices just before you go to sleep. It is the brain messing with you and nothing to be worried about.

If the voices tell you your food is poison, to kill yourself or harm yourself or other ppl you have to watch out. That could be a sign of sz. Voices telling you to or not to do things are dangerous and you need proffessional help with them.

It sounds to me you don’t hear voices or noice very often. I hear them every day. Several times every day. Mostly it’s just junk. I don’t even remember everything they say.

I’m really sorry, and I don’t mean to offend but I don’t quite understand what you’re getting at. I severely hope that I don’t have schizophrenia, and I’m pretty sure I don’t, but this was just the most sensible place to post as I figured I would get good answers, and I did! It is, however, possible to have schizophrenia without visual or audible hallucinations. Instead, someone with that type of schizophrenia would only be experiencing delusions.

I’m definitely going to go see a GP as I’m not willing to take any risks. It’s free to visit one in the UK anyway, and I already have the appointment booked.

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Here’s a decent reference point: http://www.psychforums.com/schizophrenia/topic62605.html

If you research it further you will find that it is possible to have schizophrenia without the hallucinations.

Just my 2¢, but I read you must have 2 of the main symptoms to be DX’d with SZ. So if you ONLY have delusions and no other symptoms (positives or negatives), then the diagnosis is much less likely.

In my case, I have what would be considered by others to be delusions and paranoia. I also have VERY bad negative symptoms (avolition, affective flattening, etc…). I do occasionally see things, but I noticed this happening around the times I’m hypomanic so it’s probably from my bipolarness.

So even if you consider my hallucinations as caused by bipolar II, the delusions and negative symptoms (that are independent from mood) are enough for my Pdoc to conclude my diagnosis of SZ (well, SZA since I’m also bipolar.)

Also, a tip on whether to consider something as a symptom or not: If it interferes with your life in a significant way, then it is a symptom.

In fact I keep reading that around 10% of the general population hear voices and aren’t diagnosed with any disorders because they don’t affect their life enough to be clinically significant.

Finally, lookup ‘Hypnagogic Hallucination’. It will explain what you hear before going to sleep.

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To Apokalpz. Thanks for that, I had heard that the noises before sleep are a regular thing, so that clears that up!

To atabo. Judging by Apokalpz post it seems like you definately can have sz with only delusions and paranoia, but look, I’m not trying to prove anyone wrong so I think we should just drop this. I just want to find out what’s up with me and what I have, if I even have anything, and that should be cleared up Thursday at my appointment!

You wrote "if you have delusions and no other symptoms {negative or positive },
then the diagnosis is MUCH LESS LIKELY }

  • MUCH LESS LIKELY !!
    It is possible to have schizophrenia without hallucinations
    { YES} or { NO} without get round

Why are you so offended that I pointed out that it’s possible to have sz without intense hallucinations? It’s alright to be proven wrong. I already have some basic knowledge of schizophrenia, and I provided you with a source when I told you something. You don’t need to have an illness to be able to research it. You’ve provided no sources and you just expect me to take your word for it. I’m also struggling to understand what you’re actually trying to say.

You act like everyone has horrible, intense symptoms when it begins. Not everyone starts like that, and it can come on over the years. It’s the same with any illness. Not everyone is reluctant to seek help when they find that something is wrong with them either.

I just don’t understand why you’re so offended by me asking for help. You’re acting like you think if someone isn’t as bad off as you that you think they’re not worthy of help. I never once said that I have sz, I even said in the first post that I’m only posting here because I don’t know where else to post this question. I never once said that it doesn’t exist either. I assumed that the people here would have some knowledge about what I’m experiencing even if it’s not sz, and I was right.

Now that I look at your recent posts I can see that you like to start arguments with people. Mocking people and insulting them doesn’t make you the bigger man. There’s no need to act so hostile towards everyone.

Hi and welcome to the site.

You might try contacting these locations (find one close to you) that are specifically focused on the symptoms you’ve described. They know a lot more than the typical GP.

These centers are specifically set up to help people like son as early as possible.

http://www.raiseetp.org/sites/

Here is another list of Early Psychosis Treatment centers - call them also if there is not one listed above that is close:

http://www.schizophrenia.com/earlypsychosis.htm