[Zen888]

I have been told be highly trained medical professionals that for some bipolars it is not uncommon for them to hear voices that aren't real.

For me they are outside my head. The is one male voice and two young female voices. I know that they aren't real at all. They don't say bizarre things or tell me to do stuff that would harm me or others. It's like having an imaginery friend in the room. But I only hear the voice when I am at home and no where else. And I do have periods where the I don't hear any voices.

Can anyone relate to this?

[Frost287]

I can relate to the voices. Don't hear them all the time but they're not only when I'm at home and it's not uncommon for people who are bipolar to have auditory hallucinations.

[bipolardisordermom]

Hi Zen888,

I have auditory hallucinations and visual hallucinations and I suffer with BPD as well as you do. I also suffer with the psychosis wich is the hallucinations. Mine are agressive right now but I am sorry that you are going through this. I suffer from the same thing that you do. I only have one voice so that's a bit different from what you suffer with.

[onlymedid]

I have auditory hallucinations, too. Sometimes I hear my name being called or the phone ringing, the doorbell, etc....but the sounds are not real. My husband says, "No, the phone isn't ringing", but I still get up and check the phone. Stuff like that. Sometimes it sounds like people are whispering around me, but I can't make out what's being said....and there is no one in the room!
Basically, I understand!

[thinker22]

I had an auditory and visual hallucination (each their own) going on earlier this year, but it was only under extreme distress and went away after being on Seroquel for a while. Not on SQ for 2 months now but still they haven't returned. It was a male hateful voice and a dark shape trying to kill me that were tormenting me. Sorry if this is triggering, just saying I'm bipolar and I relate. Not BPD though. You know they say there's a gene shared by both bipolar and schizophrenic people, so it doesn't surprise me that we can hallucinate during high or low or mixed episodes.

[vrba44070]

I sometimes hear commands to harm myself. I also hear whispers that I can't make out. Sometimes I hear a hateful male voice threatening me, which might be a flashback since I have PTSD also. Luckily I haven't heard anything in a few months. I'm on Invega & it helps.
This thread has really helped me. I don't feel so alone.

[lonegael]

I hear voices, but unclear and usually much like my children's. It is usually just my name being called. Doesn't happen all that often. Also get occasional corner of the eye halucinations of people. Pain in the butt when you're driving, but other wise they come up seldom and aren't that disturbing. I had a hideous time when I was put on Serazone: wheee! I was really walking with the fairies on that one until some friends of mine called the p-doc and had him change the meds. I hear it is not so uncommon to have these things happen especially when they are mood-congruent.

[BestWish]

The white coats say that I am schizoaffective. I hear voices, somtimes it is wispers that I don't understand and other times when I get nervous or stressed there is a mans voice in my head that tells me to do harm to myself. I am depressed alot and not often I am manic.

[Purple Hat]

Originally Posted by onlymedid

I have auditory hallucinations, too. Sometimes I hear my name being called or the phone ringing, the doorbell, etc....but the sounds are not real. My husband says, "No, the phone isn't ringing", but I still get up and check the phone. Stuff like that. Sometimes it sounds like people are whispering around me, but I can't make out what's being said....and there is no one in the room!
Basically, I understand!

I have often had these same kind of auditory hallucinations. My biggest concern is the whispering. I only become aware of it when it seems to have been constantly filling my mind for hours. Like a background noise of rushing water that finally gets so loud and so constant that it irritates itself into my consciousness. After that it usually only takes a couple of tries to make it to away. What the neck is that?

[lilypup]

Totally get it.My pdoc told my husband voices are caused by stress.

I have had trash cans talk to me. I also have heard dogs standing on corners with their owners talk to me. I've been told I was "going to hell" by a nasty male voice.

[Tucson]

Originally Posted by onlymedid

I have auditory hallucinations, too. Sometimes I hear my name being called or the phone ringing, the doorbell, etc....but the sounds are not real. My husband says, "No, the phone isn't ringing", but I still get up and check the phone. Stuff like that. Sometimes it sounds like people are whispering around me, but I can't make out what's being said....and there is no one in the room!
Basically, I understand!

I have just realized something. The auditory hallucinations about distinctly real sounding noises has happened to me several times in my life. I also hallucinated twice. Once seeing a revolving cube in my bedroom, and seeing my dead grandfather in the kitchen. However, all of this happened a long time ago. Still, I probably understand better about what this is like. I think this happened to myself during a stressful time in my life.

I have had several auditory and visual hallucinations when manic and manic or depressed with mixed features in the past, though delusions were my most frequent form of psychosis, and most traumatic. Antipsychotic increases helped. Really, antipsychotics are generally my main manic fighters.

I have also had auditory hallucinations when not clearly in a mood episode. Those were actually the longest term. They started as musical hallucinations and sometimes turned into one or multiple voices talking at the same time, almost like DJs talking or talking over each other. I also had cases when I thought people said things to me that they vehemently denied saying. It's never been clear what caused these, but they happened more times than I can remember. The former started once or twice per day. After a few weeks they happened numerous times of the day, and that continued for a few months. The latter happened maybe a dozen times, and included visual hallucinations some times. It all became severely disturbing. My medication hero for ending these was Tegretol XR, an anticonvulsant moodstabilizer. I still take a high dose of this medication and never want to go off of it. Debates between my psychiatrist, a neurologist, and epileptologist suggested a psychiatric disorder and/or seizure activity. Dissociative hallucinations were also mentioned (for the ones that didn't include music). A definitive diagnosis for these has never been made.

My auditory hallucinations when clearly psychotic included mostly a woman calling my name over and over, knocking sounds again and again, and my deceased mother talking to me.

[MistressStayc]

I hear my name being called even if no one is in the house or everyone is alseep, my son yelling Mommy when he swears he didn't and I hear chatter I can't make out sometimes. It's like hearing a group of people talking, laughing, etc. in the next room with the door closed... they happen randomly and only occasionally. I have often wondered what triggers them for me.

I have only had one very odd though non-threatening visual hallucination. It was very detailed and made absolutely no sense, lol. I tell no one about it because the couple times I did, I got a look I have never seen on anyone's face before, lol.

[MusicLover82]

I hear voices inside my head, not with my ears, if that makes sense. It doesn't happen very often, but it seems to happen around the times when my routine is disturbed (like right after a vacation). They can get loud, even, and mostly happen when I'm trying to go to sleep. I take a bit of extra Risperdal (antipsychotic) and they go away. I'm actually going to see my pdoc about this problem this week because it has popped up again.

[~Christina]

I have both audio and visual hallucinations... I can ignore it for the most part. Even at baseline I get that , but I think it’s just my racing mind 24/7 being loud.

Annoying for sure

[Purple Hat]

Originally Posted by BirdDancer

I have had several auditory and visual hallucinations when manic and manic or depressed with mixed features in the past, though delusions were my most frequent form of psychosis, and most traumatic. Antipsychotic increases helped. Really, antipsychotics are generally my main manic fighters.

I have also had auditory hallucinations when not clearly in a mood episode. Those were actually the longest term. They started as musical hallucinations and sometimes turned into one or multiple voices talking at the same time, almost like DJs talking or talking over each other. I also had cases when I thought people said things to me that they vehemently denied saying. It's never been clear what caused these, but they happened more times than I can remember. The former started once or twice per day. After a few weeks they happened numerous times of the day, and that continued for a few months. The latter happened maybe a dozen times, and included visual hallucinations some times. It all became severely disturbing. My medication hero for ending these was Tegretol XR, an anticonvulsant moodstabilizer. I still take a high dose of this medication and never want to go off of it. Debates between my psychiatrist, a neurologist, and epileptologist suggested a psychiatric disorder and/or seizure activity. Dissociative hallucinations were also mentioned (for the ones that didn't include music). A definitive diagnosis for these has never been made.

My auditory hallucinations when clearly psychotic included mostly a woman calling my name over and over, knocking sounds again and again, and my deceased mother talking to me.

Until you said it I had forgotten about the music! People think it's like getting a song stuck in your head but that's not it at all. I can't count how many times I have heard distant and not so distant music that no one else could hear. I had to stop asking people "Really?! You can't you HEAR that?" People start thinking you're nuts. 😁

[*Laurie*]

I have music playing in my head when I get manic. For example, a Pink Floyd album will play so vividly and clearly that I can lie in bed and listen to the music just as if it was actually playing in my room.

I have frequently heard someone calling my name, but I thought that happened to almost everyone (not just those with a mental illness). Usually, the person calling my name is my sister. When that happens I believe she needs to get in touch with me. I call or email her and usually, she really did need to talk with me about something important.

My pdoc referred to "your audio hallucinations" (about hearing the music). I was kind-of shocked. I'm still not sure the music is exactly a hallucination.

[Faltering]

I have mainly auditory hallucinations, but I've had visual and olfactory in the past. I hear a demonic voice saying it will kill me, etc. and a witchy voice who taunts me. I also have hypnagogic hallucinations once in awhile.