Myth 2: Voices are always heard outside one's head

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Fact: Voices can be heard both internally and externally.

Voice hearing is most commonly thought of as hearing a voice outside one’s head. Most people have an internal monologue or thoughts that are experienced auditorily. Still, this is a continuum. When someone experiences voices inside their head that they do not identify as coming from the self, they could be hearing voices. It’s important to differentiate these from other experiences such as intrusive thoughts. In people living with schizophrenia, internal voices are often cited as being more distressing and negative than those heard outside one’s head (Docherty et al, 2015), however, those who identify their voices as internal often show greater insight into the nature of their experience.

My PDOC said the same, and I was still questioning those internal voices…what a nice day to find this in kinda reliable source. :slight_smile:

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My voices are only internal in the last couple of years.

Still they are annoying when I hear them frequently.

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same same!! Mine most of the time are internal. My first real auditorial hallucination was also inner voice…

Sometimes it seems the sentences or comments I hear in my head are created by me, because even that voice sometimes sounds like mine. it’s very confusing

But I know it’s not me, because well, I have no intentions to talk so stupid things in my head to myself.

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I don’t have voices anymore, thanks to good medication and other stuff not mention here that….

But when I had voices they were just a thoughts speaking to me , I mean in your regular healthy mind thoughts are controlled by you by somehow . You can direct them in any direction , of course you can be sad or depressed but you still have understanding what’s going on , when thoughts get musical and wild has it’s own character and you start believing them it’s schizophrenia .

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I kinda blame Hollywood in part for ALWAYS portraying hallucinations as external. Every single movie about sz/sza acts like we all see things indistinguishable from reality. This isn’t true. I’ve never had indistinguishable visuals, and very rarely have I had indistinguishable audible hallucinations. It’s always a hallucination I can tell apart, like a voice in thought-form or a flashing hologram in my mind’s-eye image.

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I know it’s out of context,
but your language is so fluent! I am terribly jealous in fact
as a non-native English speaker I learnt a lot on this forum

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Oh well it’s the only language I speak, I think people who can speak two are pretty gifted

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I wholly agree. But it is also difficult to portray an experience that isnt entirely perceptual with only perceptual media at disposal. Same holds for the socalled sz simulations, those are made with the best intentions Im sure but silly really.

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There are still some psychologists who just refuse to accept that auditory hallucinations can be internal. Most are up to date on this, fortunately.

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When I’m unwell I hear voices outside of my head however the vast majority even when unwell is inside my head idk how that BS myth came to anybody’s mind also my therapist said any doctor who says you can’t hear voices inside the head is a quack

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External voices for me like people outside and also feeling someone in my body. but I keep telling them to leave me alone. It’s disheartening thinking that these people outside don’t care and are mean.

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I wanted to write a family friend about what I go through, her brother has sz.

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I hear voices coming from outside of me.

That say brain scans show activity where our hearing is located physically. That’s schizophrenia for you, messing with our senses.