Why do I feel others can hear my thoughts it's scaring the $*!? Out of me

I was Jesus… Thankfully I’m no longer Jesus

And of course voices of all kinds. I still get them but very rarely so it is no bother to me.

No harm intended.
I worked very hard for the past 5 years to get through my delusions and ultimately my hallucinations faded more once I got over the delusions.

I primarily deal with negative symptoms now

I wish you well in your journey

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I was put on Zyprexa for the same thing, you’re not the only one going through this so don’t think you’re alone! Feel free to message me if you like :slight_smile:

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thought i was the only 1!

You’re not alone with this :slight_smile: welcome to the forum

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Thnxs! I’m from the Netherlands so my English is not excellent…so there are more people in the world who think that the whole world can hear what they think? I’ve been almost 2 years psychotic-free…and for about 1 month i’ve got a psychose (where i got out from) but from the day that the psychose began till now the voices are back! It all started with a blackbird, i can hear voices through them…

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Thanks so much for posting that specific experience of schizophrenia. I also thought i was the only one that experienced thinking i could read minds and others read mine, along with people saying/reflecting what i am thinking. I also saw a reply below where another person felt like the rest of the world was in on something and i was the only one who didnt know. Because you bothered to post your experience and another person reply similarly, i think its pretty logical to see its just a weird experience and pretty common with this particular mental illness. I guess it seems real because when we are mentally ill and the brain is not firing properly, we are the only ones experiencing the weirdness. And when we look at everybody else going about their lives without mental health problems, makes us wonder "how come everybody else just seems to go about daily life so easily?. I have experienced many things that could be called “phenomena” or “telepathy” or “power over others”, but ultimately now that i am healthy again, all those experiences although my memory says they were real and i did experience them - they were all the result of a mis-firing - mis-connecting brain.

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I also might just add how my experience of psychosis came about for anyone interested, and how i got better. In a nutshell, 17 years ago (age28) i had numerous stresses in life that i thought i was handling. I was trying to process many problems mentally to find solutions, and ways to deal with significant issues. That involved many internal thoughts and conversations in my head. I paid a lot of attention and time on what i was thinking about, and didn’t notice the swing away from thinking about the everyday actions i was actively doing, to focusing more and more on my internal dialogue. After a while my internal conversation became quite loud as i paid more attention to it than my outer life. This just put more stress on an already stressed brain muscle. Eventually any stressed body muscle tears, and doesn’t work (cant be used, needs to rest and recover) and in my case my brain just did an “auto shutdown” and went into “basic functions only mode”. As it was breaking down i began hearing friends voices that weren’t actually there with me and getting directed by other voices to do weird things, and that’s when i had to be hospitalized. In the olden days some people called this a nervous breakdown. Mine got diagnosed as psychosis and when it persisted with the symptoms of hearing voices and visual hallucinations it got re-diagnosed as schizo-effective disorder with a depressive mood disorder -(schizophrenia). My recovery was done by reversal of paying attention to thoughts and re-establishing mental focus outside my head on normal everyday activities. Mind you it took 14 years of suffering before the healing began in the last three. But i sincerely believe if the medical professionals who treat us with medication had ever had schizophrenia they would be able to advise us of the above description of how and why and what has happened, and then help us out of it a lot quicker like hospitals do for other illnesses. Mind you, its also my belief that long term sufferers of intense schizophrenia may find it harder initially, simply because the brain is still in a state of some disfunctionality, so it might be harder to comprehend the concept of how to heal, or if the process is understood, the length or intensity of the illness
may make it harder to combat. Also after all the medications (anti-psychotics) my doctor and i tried, and finally getting off them after 10 years, i found the most effective medication for my schizophrenia symptoms was a couple of everyday headache tablets,(normal adult dosage ) and a good nights sleep. Occasionally i may take headache tablets two days in a row before i feel normal again. Nowadays I just take 2 headache tablets when i notice i have been thinking too much for a day or two and has started affecting getting to sleep, and only if i haven’t been able to mentally relax by deliberately deciding to. (I don’t take any sedatives either). I hope someone reads my story and its of benefit. I just want to pass on hope to others that mental illness may not be permanent like the doctors have always told us up to now.

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I’ve been experiencing thought broadcasting in combination with schizo dialogue which has been a very anxiety producing experience for me.

There is nothing more horrifying than thinking the whole world is hearing the schizo dialogues which can be haunting and humiliating.

There are the odd pointed coughs, the bangs on the walls, the strange ticking noises that seem to follow you around, and of course the people that seem to be able to pick up on your thought processes and who subtly hint at it but who will never actually tell you what is going on directly… only a strange barrage of indirect coincidences.

I’ve experienced lack of sleep and complete paranoid nervous breakdowns as a result of thought broadcasting and a worsening of schizophrenic symptoms like visual, auditory, and olfactory hallucinations (the weirdest).

I’ve had to stop working to take some time for mental health. On my worst days I’ve been unable to leave my bed, battling the schizo dialogue in my head and begging God and his angels to help me. A living hell, basically.

I’ve noticed that stimulants seem to bring the thought broadcasting thing as for me thought broadcasting seems to have started only recently and relates to a stimulant induced psychotic break episode which has worsened over the past year with regular stimulant usage (had a script for adderall - probably too much of it)

I’m now on 10mg of Abilify daily which stops me from thinking that my thoughts are being broadcasted and I’ve stopped taking the adderall entirely although I’m still using Ephedra here and there (ADD and frontal lobe functioning issues) to help me with my executive functioning.

I notice that still the Ephedra (at a strong dose of maybe 100mg-150mg) triggers the schizo dialogues in my head but the Abilify at 10mg daily seems to shut down the broadcasting pretty well.

I would avoid stimulants altogether if I could but my brain is largely non-functional without them and I don’t want to live a handicapped depressed shadow of what I’m capable of being.

I’m probably going to end up trying to balance the Abilify and maybe Seroquel or Olanzapine too with lower doses of adderall (or hopefully vyvanse) for a long term success strategy.

I find that lack of sleep both and sometime real strong marijuana contribute to Schizo flare-ups too even without any stimulant substances being used.

It feels like my mind has worn very thin and weak and that mind altering substances trigger psychosis for me which is made up of schizophenic symptoms and I’m still figuring it out.

I’ve nearly lost all my marbles believing genuinely that I am broadcasting my thoughts but i am just glad that it doesn’t seem to be happening so strongly anymore and that I’m not paranoid and living in fear.

I would recommend Abilify to stop the broadcasting. Of course check with your psychiatrist. I’m no professional.

I have many interesting theories about thought broadcasting as it’s been a large focus of mine recently. Let me know if you want to hear any of them.

I’ve decided to keep them quiet for now and I’ve decided to believe that nobody knows my thoughts no matter how much it seems like they can. I’ve decided that my mind doesn’t broadcast my schizo dialogues no matter how much it seems to be a real phenomenon. I know my mind is weak right now and that minds can play nasty tricks on us when they are abused or deprived in some fashion.

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@GoodCharlieT.

I agree. Abilify is the only antipsychotic that stops mind reading for me.

I suggest you speak to your doctor about adding abilify. A small dose is all you need.

I take risperidone and it helps with positive symptoms but does nothing for mind reading. As soon as I added 1mg of abilify my mind reading stopped and now I’m pretty much 100% better.

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Guys, please remember that every drug works differently for every person. I’m glad Abilify has worked for you, but we are not medical professionals and cannot recommend specific medications to others.

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@Green

What kind of symptoms does the risperadone help you with? I don’t know much about positive and negative symptoms yet and I’m curious as my psychologist recommended it to me. ive not heard the best reviews of it so I’m curious to hear your story of how it helps you and what types of symptoms it helps you with. Maybe I will give it a try if my doctor thinks it’s a good idea. Also I guess I should research the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia more. Thanks for your input

@GoodCharlieT.

Positive symptoms are delusional thoughts, where your so high from schizophrenia that you think you are invincible or a god. But those delusions can be positive or negative.

I had delusions that people were out to kill me and I was being watched by everyone in the world on a screen in their heads, lol. But risperidone stopped them positive delusions.

What risperidone didn’t help with was negative symptoms like mind reading and paranoia, feeling like I couldn’t sit in the same room as anyone, and basically unmotivated.

Abilify helped me with both the negative and positive symptoms. In small doses abilify gives me energy, but everyone responds differently to antipsychotics and substances.

Positive symptoms- delusions (good or bad), thinking your god… etc.

Negative symptoms- racing heart, paranoia, mind reading, global thought broadcasting, feeling negative in general etc.

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mind reading, thought broadcasting and paranoia are positive symptoms.

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Positive symptoms are the things added to your life that make you miserable. They include delusions (such as thought broadcasting), paranoia, and hallucinations.

Negative symptoms are the things missing from your life. They include lack of motivation, lack of emotions, inability to enjoy things, disorganized thinking, and cognitive problems.

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Obviously these first 2 posts of mine are too wordy.

Apologies to readers, I can now see its much easier to read shorter posts, with more spaces.

Ive been well for quite a few years now without any psychotic symptoms at all,

So looking back i can say all the weird experiences i had with psychosis, (such as;

reading thoughts, telepathy, power over things, hearing voices, thought broadcasting etc.,)

were all symptoms of mental illness, and a brain that was ill and over stressed with distorted ideas.

What happened to me was i had too many life pressures all at once, and my brain couldnt handle it, so it shut down temporarily.

No one can just switch off their brain when they need rest and recovery otherwise you die, so whens mine overloaded and I didnt take a mental holiday from stress, it had to do an automatic half shut down.

Unfortunately when my brain switched into this mode, it was only able to use a very few of its functions.

And those functions of thinking properly were the first ones to get shut off.

My brain was just keeping my basics going - like breathing, standup and down, eating, sleeping, in order to rest itself, and normal thinking and functions wouldnt work again until it was rested. And with psychosis you often need people to help tell you when to do these basic things too.

It took me 12 years, but I found myself getting mentally healthy the more i made an effort to mentally relax my mind.

Thats easier said than done for a mentally healthy person, so its even harder when you still have psychosis.

The best method i found after i was well on my way to recovery, was to lie down and think about my brain as any other muscle in my body.

Then i would notice if it was tight from mental stress and worry, and it always was. (infact from a young child i was mentally stressed and scared producing high anxiety about every aspect of life)

So instead of trying to work out all my mental problems, i just stopped thinking about them and the weird symptoms of psychotic experiences and deliberately relaxed the brain muscle instead.

To deliberately relax the brain muscle i just did the same as i would my bicep, - i flexed my bicep, and then relaxed it. Then i attempted the same exercise with the awareness my brain is also a muscle. The way i know it had an effect is the same as putting down something heavy - you instantly feel relief. When i relax the brain as a muscle my whole body feels relief including my brain.

So just the same way you can “pull a hamstring” and its painful and takes time to rest it fully without any weight on it until you can use it again - - the same was needed in my life for my brain muscle to repair.

I would like to hear from anyone who gives this a go themselves,

It worked for me and hope others can benefit from my experience.

I grew up in an intense household, lots of pressure, from every direction. The most important lesson i was never taught about life was how absolutely critical mental rest is for a healthy and happy life.

I learnt that through psychosis and depression.

Sorry - another long wordy post - but hey at least this one is spaced out more.

I just want to say to anyone with psychotic symptoms - voices, directive thoughts, - just know they werent permanent in my case, i got better again, and i have hope that you can too. Just rest up mentally and give yourself a chance to recover.

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I am also experiencing thought broadcasting, today is to forth day taking abilify. Do you remember how long it took for the ability to make the thought broadcasting go away completely? Thanks

I hear so many reports of people stopping thought broadcasting on Abilify, I want to try 10 mg now.

@Ramle94, are you on 10 mg?

Hi @Ramle94. Typically, we like to leave inactive threads alone and just start a new thread instead. This is different than how some forums are run, but we do it this way because it frequently upsets users to have old topics revived when they are no longer relevant. It can also be frustrating to the person who revived the thread when they don’t get a reply, because the original poster is no longer active or no longer finds the topic relevant. Feel free to start a new thread on this topic.

Thanks,

Ninjastar
Volunteer Moderator