Hey there. Did something happen 6 months ago to trigger the experience? Were you going through a particularly stressful time or something like that?

There are two main theories of hearing voices. One theory is that they are thoughts that are experienced as 'not mine' or 'other'. Another theory is that they are the misinterpretation of 'noise in the channel'. The idea there is that a hunter might be waiting for a deer compulsively asking himself 'is it a deer? is it a deer?' Eventually he sees some movement (noise) and interprets the movement as 'yes!' and fires his gun. It turns out to be a leaf moving or his companion or whatever. I guess voices that sound fairly disorganised (simple phrases or repetitions of the same word) might be better explained by the last theory while more complicated statements might be better explained by the first theory.

> The thing is, i don't know whether the voices are just my thoughts or what

Yeppers. They are your thoughts. The regions of your brain that are active when you are generating thoughts are active when you are hearing voices. Language production areas. Most people don't really actively choose the thoughts that occur to them. Sometimes thoughts occur to us that we don't believe are true. Just because thoughts occur to us DOES NOT mean that we believe the thoughts are true (false things occur to me all the time like: 'you are a lazy sack of %#@&#! alexandra_k') and just because thoughts occur to us DOES NOT mean that we have to act on them (e.g., doesn't mean we have to do what the voice says), While we can control out thoughts (by directing them) sometimes nobody does this all the time.

> my head feel's crowded, and some nights when i'm in bed its unbearable.

Sounds very stressful to me. Sounds like you are going through a very stressful time right now. If you went to see a doctor they would most probably give you some kind of anti-psychotic which would work by sedating you a little. As a result of that your thoughts would seem to slow down a little and / or you would feel less distressed by them. The medication would also help you sleep.

Alternatively... Is there any way that you could take some time right now to take care of yourself? Your body might be trying to tell you that it needs some time out. Some time off work, perhaps. Some time to do something nice and relax and recouperate. Do you have anyone who you can talk to? I think that it is possible to get through this kind of thing medication-free but getting through it medication-free is helped a lot if you have good social supports and if you are in the position to be able to take it easy and stuff while you get through this.

What happened 6 months ago? Was it a traumatic experience? It might be that this is your bodies way of coping with it. Would you be able to try and see a councellor or therapist? They would only suggest an institution if they thought you were in danger of hurting yourself or someone else and if you don't give them any reason to believe that you would do that then they certainly can't make you go into an institution.

Hang in there.