
Learning to Live with the Voices in Your Head (2014) - Vigier
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/11/learning-to-live-with-the-voices-in-your-head/382096/?single_page=true
======
andy
I hear voices, or inserted thoughts as I call them. It's like hearing a
thought in your head (not an audible voice), but your brain didn't produce it!
Like my Mom said who heard a non threatening inserted thought about a month
ago "it's like it's coming from a different spot in my brain"

I have written down some of the inserted thoughts I heard. They are from a
couple years ago.

[http://pastebin.com/FdNGwmRJ](http://pastebin.com/FdNGwmRJ)
[http://pastebin.com/7f4cTkDW](http://pastebin.com/7f4cTkDW)
[http://pastebin.com/BREdSSGb](http://pastebin.com/BREdSSGb)
[http://pastebin.com/VLEPLFzJ](http://pastebin.com/VLEPLFzJ)
[http://pastebin.com/Zy1JbCTC](http://pastebin.com/Zy1JbCTC)

I'm a member of Intervoice on Facebook. I take Perphenazine, and see a
Psychiatrist every 6 months.

~~~
xaedes
How do you tell, "your brain didn't produce it"?

I don't really understand by what your voices are different from what I simply
call my thoughts. I mean I also hear random thoughts. Just the same kind of
thoughts that you wrote down. Often it's a dialog or chatter from multiple
different voices. They are different in what they say. Isn't that normal? Do
other people have a mute inner voice?

How are your voices different from your thoughts?

~~~
andy
Here's a good example of when I think my brain didn't produce the inserted
thoughts: [http://andytriboletti.tumblr.com/post/32437656234/roger-
wate...](http://andytriboletti.tumblr.com/post/32437656234/roger-waters)

"A couple years ago I was reading Incognito where they mention Pink Floyd’s
lyrics “There’s someone in my head but it’s not me”. Later that night I was
lying in bed trying to go to sleep when I thought “Roger Waters” At the time I
didn’t know who he was but I found his Wikipedia page."

~~~
theWatcher37
Hello. I created an account on this website specifically to reply to your
comment despite the fact that I usually only lurk here.

I read your linked blog and honestly, if that's yours, I feel compelled to
reach out to you.

The behavior you've documented (helpfully, for both yourself and others) is
textbook schizophrenia.

The paranoia, the the voices, the "I could control what showed up on tv" all
fits the bill for mental illness.

You have to learn to stop trusting your own head and document with outside
sources. In the TV case, film yourself on your phone. Say what's going to show
up, then wait for it. Watch it. See if you "remember" being able to control
it. Then watch the video back later, then realize nothing you said actually
was right.

You've got to use the wonderful technological tools available to you to fight
this, and included a trusted healthcare professional.

I'm reaching out in hopes that this helps you, not trying to troll/insult at
all. There's no shame in what's happening to you.

The only shame is that science doesn't understand the brain well enough yet to
detect/heal these things before they impact our lives.

~~~
x5n1
He says above that he is on perphenazine and that he sees are professional
every 6 months. Seems like he knows what's up. No need to be concerned.

------
crazycode
This is crap. As someone who has suffered with schizophrenia and heard voices
for over 7 months when I was symptomatic and after 1 month of meds became
completely "normal" again. It's been over 7 years since then and I'm still
just fine. I can tell you that if you hear voices you should go to the
emergency room at your nearest hospital. They have mental health workers there
that can evaluate you and get you treatment - most likely in the form of a
5150 hold. They will give you meds to stop the voices (if your lucky, some
people don't respond to the meds).

The reason you should deal with it immediately is with every "episode" you
have you get worse, eventually hitting a baseline where you don't get any
worse but you don't get better either. My sister has the same thing and is
permanently screwed with the meds barely doing anything for her. If she would
have delt with the voices as soon as she heard them and started taking meds
for it she may be just fine today - shes not and never will be because of
trying to "Learn to live with voices" crap. Just a heads up... maybe this will
help someone.

~~~
mercer
Please don't make such a strongly worded blanket judgment of what someone
should (or for that matter, shouldn't) do, especially when it concerns mental
health.

Our understanding of mental health issues, and especially schizophrenia, is
still very rudimentary. For all we know there are multiple forms of
schizophrenia that require different approacher. Furthermore, there already
_is_ evidence that (some) schizophrenics are best helped not by medication,
but by learning to 'deal' with their voices (by not suppressing them, or
setting 'limits', etc.).

For my part I have one friend who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and who is,
so far, managing okay without medication. He's also talking to a therapist,
which I would definitely recommend to anyone suffering from anything (even if
just for a while).

My point is not to advocate one approach over the other, but to nuance what
you said. I can understand that your experiences play a big role in the
strength of your recommendation, and I by no means want to tell you to shut up
or anything. I'm also happy to hear medication worked for you.

I'm just asking you to be a little more cautious when telling others how to
deal with mental health issues, especially if there's no consensus on how to
treat them.

------
_98fj
For anyone interested in the dynamics of disorders like this and how they can
develop, you might want to read "I never promised you a rose garden" by Joanne
Greenberg [0].

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Never_Promised_You_a_Rose_Ga...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Never_Promised_You_a_Rose_Garden_\(novel\))

