internal voices seem tougher cos they are inside your mind, you take them for real whereas external ones are just external sounds you can sometimes ignore. internal ones are one with you. they are in the core of your mind. you can’t distinguish them from reality. doc says that they are hallucinations no matter if they come from inside or outside.
some say that they may be intrusive thoughts. but intrusive thoughts have no gender, age, personality, distinct vocal tone & pitch. they dont talk with each other, they dont command or insult.
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in my first psychotic episode I was lost in imagination & I wrote a love letter to an internal voice I had. the voice was real person. if it was external, it would be just a disturbing sound, that I could say it is just voices and not reality. with the internal ones it is difficult to distinguish.
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voices may come from inside, outside or from an object or body part.
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intrusive thoughts are just thoughts. voices are sounds. you hear them clearly and the discussion goes on and on for hours.
For me the outside voices are evil so they are very disturbing. I have my internal voices (when I’m having them) all very organized so unless they all start talking at once I’m usually ok with them. It’s when everyone gets excited and starts blathering and getting loud that I have a lot of difficulty because I can not concentrate on the real world at all. I know I must seem insane when this is happening. But what can I do?
I can’t concentrate either when they talk…
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My internal voices were pretty hard for me to note as just thoughts, they were so intelligent and knew how to push my buttons…thoughts normally don’t do that.
When they push me, it’s hard to concentrate, too.
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Personally I found external voices more difficult to deal with
external may be more loud and disturbing but do you take them for real beings?
I don’t hear them anymore, but when I did yeah I always thought they were real (I’m not completely convinced they weren’t)
It goes against my instincts to disbelieve something if I can hear it or see it. I still get some internal ones sometimes, so I guess they are more persistent
hearing something is more convincing than thinking about it. for example a voice telling me to die is more depressing and real than a suicidal thought. it affects us more.
Do you think yours are real or part of your being ill?
while in psychosis I take em for real. now that i am good I would say that they are only my subconscious. but even now I am not 100% sure they are not real…
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I can’t even forget the “good” psychotic episode i had with rapture & bliss & me writing letters of love to the voice & online rants praising her god-like qualities.
Mine tell me that I am binging even when I am just eating to satisfy my hunger.
I know I am not binging, but there is still something inside my head saying I am binging and that I should feel guilty etc. Fair enough to them, but they’re not the one who has to feel the hunger pains and dizziness! I am!!
They don’t feel anything that I feel, yet they have the nerve to constantly provide a commentary to me about what I’m doing.
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