I’m in 8th grade in high school and I think I might have a mental illness (SCHIZOPHRENIA) or is it just me being delusional? In schizophrenics, apparently the voices are more common then the hallucinations (this may not be true, don’t hold me to it) but I’ve been experiencing ‘reality distortions’ for over 4 years. These are figures that I know are trying to hurt me. (apart from that pink dancing dinosaur I saw once. Pretty sure that wasn’t going to hurt me) They are sometimes armed, sometimes unarmed, but I know they want to hurt me. Over time they became less ‘Shadow people’ and more detailed which confuses me still, because I’m never sure if they’re real or not and that just spikes my anxiety and paranoia. Also with the hearing distortions (don’t know if schizophrenics hear things apart from voices, but I do.) There’s little things like draws opening, cupboards opening and shutting, doors being opened/closed, glass cups being moved around, and when I was a little younger I used to think it was a ghost, which is ultimately when the paranoia and anxiety peaked and it hasn’t come down yet. (If that makes sense.) Also, intense anxiety and I’m very paranoid. Every night (for the past four years) I’ve either convinced myself that it’s a ghost or a burglar. There is no in between. Also I’ve been having these more-disturbing-than-usual thoughts. I’m convinced someone is going to come into my house and kill me, but I get time to change into something pretty or whatever conceited delusion I have. With the voices side of things, I’ve only heard two to this day. It was a woman whispering to me, ‘I love you’ and my name. These both occurred at separate times. I am also obsessed with self diagnosing, which, even I can tell, is extremely self destructive, because I think, at every chance, I’m going to die from an unknown disease//disease with no cure. Slight problem though. As much as I said about thinking I have schizophrenia, I also find it unfathomable to comprehend. I was told I should get a psych evaluation by my guidance counsellor, and I shook my head violently and internally had an anxiety attack and spent the rest of the day trying to find out if you can be committed from schizophrenia. Problem 2. When you’re me, and you develop strange emotional connections to strange things (such as a coin, if I’m holding on to it for too long. Also hoarding isn’t an issue for me, I have no problem later discarding things I know I’m not going to need.) I have developed a slight emotional connection to the hallucinations and don’t want to seek help in case of losing them. Please let me know if this is something I should seek help for, or if I’m delusional and it’s a little bit of anxiety and hormones. (because hormones in the fourth grade makes sense to me)