This is my first post. So I’m not sure how to start. So I’ll just start. My name is William, I’m 16. I hear voices almost all the time. I… Am feeling very anxious about this post. So I suppose if you want to hear about my symptoms you can just ask. I was diagnosed with schizophrenia recently. Well I was expecting it for a long time. My symptoms started a little over a year ago. My thoughts have become so disorganized and I’m so depressed all the time. I don’t really do anything. I’m just sort of chilling all day, I try to do chores and such. Idk what I was saying. But any who. I was hoping someone could tell me about how to ignore voices. I can’t do anything without my voice of reason criticizing me and telling me how I should live my life. I feel so obligated to comply. I think I’m running the big decisions of my life but I’m not sure who is really in charge. I know he makes all of my little decisions like what to watch, eat, and wear. However I shouldn’t call him a he. Because its really just like my other voice. There is also an alien woman. She speaks in tongues I can’t understand and she can drive me crazy if I try to listen to her. But the worst is when I’m not doing anything. Or trying to sleep. Its different people telling me I’m going to die. They tell me my heart is weak. They tell me I have tumors in my head. They tell me I should just kill myself anyway. I try to ignore them. Turn on music. Or something else. But. I don’t know how not to listen. I don’t start medication for three days and I’m really looking forward to it. I don’t know what I’ll get but I hope it kills them. But it would be nice to hear how you guys ignore yours… It would also be nice to now how to ignore the delusions I create from nothing. I always think my old. Friends are reading my mind and making fun of me… I don’t know. I ramble alot and its hard for me to stay on track. I hope this post makes sense because I’m not typing it again
Suggestions:
tidying the house
having a relaxing bath
walking going to the gym
changing positions e.g. sit, stand, walk, run or lie down
singing
jogging
mouth and jaw exercises
taking extra medication
using earplugs
breathing exercises
relaxation methods
put fingers in your ears and close your eyes
talk to a trusted friend or mental health worker
ring someone on the telephone.
[quote]‘Voices’ often tell lies and make false predictions.
Remember: it is you who makes the decisions, not your ‘voices’.[/quote]
listening to music
reading aloud
watching TV or listening to the radio
hobbies
counting backwards from 100
describing an object in detail
writing a diary or poetry.
• agreeing to listen to the ‘voices’ at a particular time
•try not to argue with the ‘voices’, as they will get worse and upset you more
•don’t do what the ‘voices’ ask, because if you do you may find it harder to stop, especially if they make you feel afraid.
For me it’s not ignoring as much as it is trying to think my mind out of it and back into reality. I have trouble with delusions more often though. It takes some strain but if you can try to stick with checking your thoughts and double checking what’s going on you get used to it and things get better. I hope that helped. Also, everything @plumber said is something to try for sure. Good luck. We wish you well.
Great tips by Plumber already, but as for not knowing who’s in charge: I used to follow some sort of ‘5 second rule’, where if my voices suggested something I was about to do, I would wait a bit and reconsider if i really wanted to do it myself. Sometimes id change plans and sometimes not. It makes sure though that you are really in charge and not your voices. For me without meds the most important thing to help ignore them was to reestablish my authority. For instance, id make lots of noise with the vacuumcleaner and this would make my voices shout. And I could control their tone of voice with the vacuumcleaner. This gave me power over them such that it became easier to ignore their suggestions and commands. It was also helpful for me to realise their content was always a reaction on my situation whenever I was feeling uncomfortable in any way, the voices would exploit that and go negative (for me they would go very positive as well whenever i was feeling good, saying i was the best and all - it was ridiculous the kind of compliments they gave me). In this sense, they are merely the commentators to a football match, they do a lot of shouting but they can’t score the goals.
Medication is best though, could possibly make them disappear completely or make it easier not to listen. You have to realise it takes a bit of time though, maybe you will need to try different medications but theres a very good chance you’ll find a med that works for you and things will get better.
hi and welcome. my voices try and convince me that they thought of ideas first, be it what to eat on any given day or an invention i’ve been toying with but if you really think about it, you thought of it first. you may not have verbalised it or said it out loud in your mind but it came from you so eat what you like, do what you like, think what you like. you thought of it, not them. it also helps to keep cognitively busy and by that i mean interacting with people outside the confines of your own mind. parents, friends, strangers…anyone you can have a conversation with really. you’ll notice they go quiet or stop talking when you’re conversing with someone so do it and do it often. as for the mind reading, don’t worry. noone can read your mind. it’s just not possible. if it were then everyone would be doing it and stealing passwords to online accounts all over the place but they’re not because it simply isn’t possible. my voices tell me i’m a telepath all the time but i know i’m not. try not to believe the hype…i mean they tell you you’re going to die every night right and nothing happens? look at the telepathy ■■■■ in the same way, it’s just your own mind, unconsciously winding you up is all. good luck with the meds and if after 2 months the first one doesn’t work try a different one and so on. personally i’ve never found a med that worked but maybe i’m just unlucky.
nice to have you here.
jayne
I’m 18 and it sounds like your experience is similar to what I had. About a year ago I started getting lots of paranoid thoughts and delusions, things like thinking my old friends were stalking me online or they had some big plan for me centered around things like TV shows. I was also abusing adderall at the time and smoking weed daily, which I think contributed to me developing schizophrenia so early in my adulthood. I don’t know how long after that, or even before that, I had been hearing voices but they were never harmful and I assumed they were just my normal way of thinking. They were never harmful until around the end of Summer this year, which is when I started doing psychotic things that eventually built up into a full-blown psychotic episode that landed me in a mental hospital for 5 days where I was put on meds. Ever since being put on meds I stopped hearing them almost completely, and the ones that are still there are very minor.
After being diagnosed for nearly 3 months now I’ve realized that the best thing you can do is take your meds and let your psychological wounds heal with time like any other wound would. Don’t try to rush your recovery because you might see other people your age and get intimidated with how much they can accomplish. Whenever I start to feel intimidated by normal functioning people I tell myself it’s time for a break and try to do something I enjoy. If my symptoms start acting up even while on meds then I talk to my dad about it and lay in bed and try to nap while telling myself I’m safe at home where no one’s going to try and hurt me because my family loves me.
Also make sure you talk to your doctor about any side-effects at all you may feel from the medication. I ended up in the ER 3 times from akathisia where they finally figured out what was wrong and gave me an immediate med change solving the problem.
aye whts up man I have schitzophrenia. I’ve had it for a while now, went through the huge episode, mental hospital procedure…the meds. Yeah I do not like it at all 
Its going to be okay because in a way, in my opinion, SCHIZO makes you special. Others people dont know what its like to wake up and get a few moments of peace before the auditory voices start going for the day. Some things that help me stay focus, self-loving, and prepared is to watch videos and talk to others that got sick. Its such a huge world and yea we’re the ones affected with “schizo” . Man I try to use a good sense of humor about it. Every time I take a bathroom break at work I remind myself that I am worthy of every good thing about life. Kanye West, which is considered a creative genius has went thru schizo.
You should get some relief when you start your medication hang in there