Inside Voices Vs. Outside Voices

The only voices I’ve ever heard seemed to originate from outside. I’ve had negative thoughts and an inner monologue but that’s something different.

I’ve had a doctor tell me the voices Lena and Melanie were just my subconscious but it’s really hard to explain that NO it is not. I would never tell myself those things because I was not typically an angry or sad person, and those voices were. As if by now I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between MY thoughts and OTHER people’s voices.

My inside voice mostly talk mean to me, rarely when they ask me to finish my life
the outside voices are just voices calling my name or saying some sentences that i couldn’t grasp

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After a panic attack I find myself hearing voices externally . Normal sounds like running water when I take a shower sound extremely explicit. Like they are cursing at me.

I hear inside voices when I’m psychotic but I’ve never heard outside voices. I have an internal narration that sometimes tells me to harm so-and-so or do such-and-such but it’s not separate from me — i.e. it doesn’t have an independent personality.

I think more therapists/psychiatrists should be made aware that internal voices exist. So far all the professionals I’ve talked to except one who had been in the field for a veerry long time had no idea what I meant when I said that the voices were telepathic. They all thought I just meant I was having bad thoughts and I had to stress that I could clearly distinguish between my thoughts and the voices talking to me.

My therapist understands now, but the psychiatrist didn’t and didn’t even try to, or care…

I don’t hear outside voices, as you call them, thankfully. I wonder if auditory and inner voices are caused by the same mental thing or a different one…

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I’ve only experienced “inside voices” a couple of times that I recognized. 99% of my voices are from the outside. I found the inside voices were much easier to accept and deal w/than the outside. Our definitions of the two differ though. My inside voice is like an outside voice but it sounded out what I was about to think next as in mocking me or giving me advice…My outside voices consist of all of the above, but definitely not from the inside. You’re not alone.

I’m having a problem with too much inner noise in my head tonight. Trying to sit back and relax, watch some old TV shows…but I just can’t concentrate.

Modern Family is the only show that takes me away and gives me some great laughs…worth a share.

I’m doing better today. I have my good days, and my bad…guess last night was one of the bad.

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yes i do. i believe they are splinter personalities created in my mind. they are all horrible and when they are nice i find it deeply suspicious as it always turns around again at some point. my shrink says that some of them are the voices of my abusers, which i agree with. they and the other others are just personalities…splinters of the self i guess. they are being nice at the minute but it won’t last, it never does. although how a voice can make you suicidal i don’t know. i’m used to dealing with their ■■■■, i’ve had it for nigh on 14 years years now so it’s pretty easy to deal with. distracting yes but that’s about it, they are all inner voices, though they threaten outer voices will start, though they also say they are getting me better…although quite how verbally abusing someone 24/7 does that is beyond me.

Most of my voices are inside voices lately but if I get stressed like for example smoking weed, they get louder but idk I’t usually because I give them so much power by listening to them with intense emotions.

i can usually control my inside voice which i like to believe is myself speaking to myself,

outside voices only occur when i am that bad that i need extra help like in a mental hospital,
outside voices to me are much worse in my opinion.

actually i get inside voices when i am that bad as well, i just lose all control lost in delusions, paranoid controlling voices :frowning:

but i’ve been good for a long time now thank god :slight_smile:

so nothing to do with smoking weed then?

Yeah a lot to do with smoking weed I think when I’m high I listen to them and start feeling their words with emotions. But I can get stressed and make them louder by other ways too like being in a room with a lot of people like a gym.

does this happen at any other time or just when you are high?

Yeah they pop up every so often but they are inside my head. But when I am stressed they become outside my head.

They were more frequent when I actually believed that they were other people talking to me.

My voices had changed with the delusions I had. I used to have a delusion that I heard my neighbours talking about me and later at me, at that time I heard them outside. This delusion later changed into a telepathy delusion and the voices were located more inside, although ‘inside’ doesn’t seem appropriate - without location at all seems more apt.

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I’ve also had a lot (and get some still) voices inside my head, and when i hear them (or particularly talk with them) I get delusions about where they are coming from like telepathy etc. As far as names for symptoms is there a name that would cover those ‘inside’ voices? Like they presumably don’t really count as hallucinations?

Same here. If I believe them to be from some external source like telepathy or something instead of just being from my brain it means I interact with them more and that seems to make them louder and more constant