I need some help to Clarify (normal vs abnormal)

All my life, i have experienced things, which for me have been normal and i;ve up until recently in the last couple years, always thought that other people experience the same things. For example, when i was about 3 or 4, i started hearing voices (or at least, that was as far back as i can remember hearing them...maybe i was born with them) anyways, the voices came in a form not exactly like they were outside of my body, as if someone else were in the room with me, but i was like there was a little speaker implanted inside my ear and sometimes the volume would be turned up so loud that it was startling. The voices say things which usually make noo sense, or they talk too fast and i can keep up with them. Sometimes i here them screaming or crying.
so anyways, up until about two years ago, i guess i always thought this was normal until i starting learning more about such things.

There are lots of things now which have also been going on most of my life and i still don;t know if they are concidered "normal" or not. For example, i talk to myself constantly. I have conversations with myself and imaginary people. When i am alone, i will talk out loud. These last few weeks, i have spent a lot of time with my cousin, who i havn't seen in years, and i will still be talking to her and spending time with her when she is not even here, if you know what i mean.
...I've always thought that everyone did this sort of thing, but now im not so sure. I know that everyone has thoughts inside there head and maybe talks to themselves a little bit, but where is the line drawn?

And then this whole thing with hearing voices and seeing things at night in the dark or when im starting to go to sleep. I've always had this. I hear strange voices at night, louder than the ones i hear durring the day when i am fully awake, and i have tons of visions when my eyes are closed or when the room is completly dark. I've heard from some people that this is somewhat normal, then again, i've heard from and equal number of people that it isn;t.

anyone have any opinions on this? thanx

-Becka

There is too much put on what is normal and what is not. For me hearing voices and seeing other beings is normal. Maybe others do not hear and/or see the same. Who is to judge what is normal and what is not?

I think it is normal for you. However, what is normal for you may not be normal for me. I suppose that doesn't really help much, but the idea of one sense of "normal" really doesn't work anymore.

i agree with what you guys are saying..that for me it is normal to have all of this going on, especially since it's been going on almost all my lifel, and normal has a different meaning for everyone, but i guess what i want to know, is what do doctors concider 'normal' or 'healthy' and where is the line drawn. I know maybe that seems stupid to ask, and maybe i ought to just ask my own therapist, but i just want to know if it would be concidered part of a mental 'illness' to be experiencing these things, or if it's something that is concidered healthy and 'norma'

-Becka

Hubby's first pdoc said that everyone dissociates from time to time (to use our example), however when it begins interfering in the way you live your life, that is when it becomes a problem.

I would think hearing voices is a symptom of mental illness. "Most" people don't experience the things you have mentioned. However, if you deal with it without problem, then there may be no need to seek any treatment. Does that make sense? The things you describe sound like symptoms of a particular mental illness (mind you, I am in no position to diagnose anyone). But treatment options are always up to you.

I can relate to you. Like the voices have always been there. The things i see that no on else sees has always been there. As far as whether they are normal or not i cant tell you and i dont think anyone should be able to tell you. Normal is the box in which society says you should be in. Dont let anyone tell you what is normal. You decide. For me i feel that it is normal... for me. mabey not for someone else but this is my normal. whats yours?

I hear voices too. For years psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists would ask if I heard voices and I would say yes and they told me this is schitzophrenia. They didn't bother asking for more information. Then one day I was with a therapist and she asked "do you hear voices?" I told her yes. then she did something different she asked where I hear those voices- inside my head or outside? , what those voices were saying. When I heard those voices what was I doing? She asked SO many questions. After I answered her questions she asked me to speak with the agencies psychiatrist and so some tests. I told her ok. One test was called a Comprehensive Psychological Evaluation which is talking with the psychiatrist, an IQ test and some computerized tests. minisota something or other, DDIS, DES, one that starts with an S. anyway after taking all these tests it turned out I didn't have schitzophrenia which is voices percieved outside the brain coming from other people, places and things out to confuse and get me. Instead I had Multiple Personality Disorder which is now called Dissociative Identity Disorder. The voices for this come from inside the brain and is stored memories of sounds, and voices heard through out my lifetime. Situations in my present day life was triggering my brain to basically rerun or replay them. for example I saw a green truck today and inside my head I heard the voices and sounds from a situation when I was riding in a relatives green truck as a child.

In general hearing voices (auditory Halucinations is what the psychological world calls it) can be Schitzophrenia, Bipolor disorder, DID, and sometimes borderline personality disorder but only a psychiatrist or psychologist with the help of accurate testing of Comprehensive Psychological Evaluations can determine which one the person actually has. Self Diagnosing or diagnosing a friend or having a friend diagnose a person can be a dangerious thing. The person can read more into the symptoms or miss those symptoms that the psychological world does not disclose to the general public. so my suggestion is if you really want to know what your diagnosis is contact your therapist who can refer you for testing. If you don't have a therapist psychiatrists and psychologists can be found at any county mental health agency and other community mental health agencies listed in your phone book under - mental health, psychiatrists, and psychologists. good luck.

Well, what makes something normal or abnormal is just statistics, really. The majority of people don't hear voices - so not hearing voices is normal. A small minority do hear voices - so hearing voices is abnormal. That doesn't really say much, though. (I'm in a very small minority of people that like the movie "Cabin Boy", so that's abnormal, too.)

I agree with Myself. Talk to your therapist about this. It's going to take some real work on your part to determine what these voices really mean.

I agree with Myself--people may at first tell you it's schizophrenia (because that's kinda what psychologists will first think when you say you hear voices). In my opinion, however, (and granted, I'm just a second year psychology student), your symptoms don't sound like schizophrenia. This is simply because schizophrenia tends to develop and show the first signs around 19-20 in males and a little older in females. There are one or two signs that can sometimes predict which chidlren will go on to develop schizophrenia, but as far as I know, hearing voices as a child isn't one of them.

The illnesses that come to mind for me are Borderline Personality Disorder (possibly), Schizotypal Personality Disorder (Which is basically a mild form of schizophrenia which is pervasive throughout life), severe depression or mania, and Myself's explanation of DID, sounds plausible, as well.

Keep in mind that something is only considered "psychologically abnormal" if
a) it is statistically abnormal
b)it causes perceived psychological stress to you
c) it is unexpected within a given social context.

It seems like you meet a and c, but you don't seem to be worried by your behaviors.

All the same, I would recommend that you ask a professional about it.

-Kari

lots of people hear voices! i hear voices and i know there are lots of other people out there too. jesus heard voices (the voice of god) socrates heard voices (which we would probably call his 'conscience'). lots of people hear voices and live happy and productive lives. one of the hardest things can be how to make sense of your experiences. why you have them. what they mean to you. etc etc.

but as for hearing them...
if they aren't really distressing
(and it sounds to me that they aren't so much distressing as a part of your life)
then thats okay.

who is to say what is normal?

if other people didn't hear the voice of conscience
didn't hear the voice of reason
we'd worry about them

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AlairaKasimer said:
I agree with Myself--people may at first tell you it's schizophrenia (because that's kinda what psychologists will first think when you say you hear voices). In my opinion, however, (and granted, I'm just a second year psychology student), your symptoms don't sound like schizophrenia. This is simply because schizophrenia tends to develop and show the first signs around 19-20 in males and a little older in females. There are one or two signs that can sometimes predict which chidlren will go on to develop schizophrenia, but as far as I know, hearing voices as a child isn't one of them.

The illnesses that come to mind for me are Borderline Personality Disorder (possibly), Schizotypal Personality Disorder (Which is basically a mild form of schizophrenia which is pervasive throughout life), severe depression or mania, and Myself's explanation of DID, sounds plausible, as well.

Keep in mind that something is only considered "psychologically abnormal" if
a) it is statistically abnormal
b)it causes perceived psychological stress to you
c) it is unexpected within a given social context.

It seems like you meet a and c, but you don't seem to be worried by your behaviors.

All the same, I would recommend that you ask a professional about it.

-Kari

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i know this is an old post that i started, and maybe no one will read this, but i was bored and had nothing else to do.

Alaira,
I only mentioned a few of my symptoms-- just the things i thought were normal. I have many other symptoms of schizophrenia--negative symptoms, delusions, visual hallucinations, ocasional auditory hallucinations outside my head, etc. And i have been diagnosed with schizophrenia. I have to disagree with you that i could not be schizophrenic because SOME of my symptos started in childhood. There is something called childhood onset schizophrenia ...it is fairly rare but schizophrenia CAN and DOES sometimes begin in childhood. However, my symptoms did not really take flight until i was about 16 years old. And yes, the voices i heard when i was a child were always very distressing to me, they terrified me, but i was too young to understand what was going on, so i didn;;t tell anyone back then and i came to believe for quite some years that it must be somewhat normal.

Also, i could not be DID, in order to be diagnosed with DID, you must have had one or more personalities preasent. Most people with DID refer to themselves as "we" or "us" and i dont do that. I have never had any evidence of having more than one personality.

Also, i have to disagree with "myself"... Schizophrenics can hear voices internally, externally, or both. I know many schizophrenics who hear voices inside their head, like me. and they are clearly schizophrenic, not DID. They have other symptoms of schiz, like delusions, disorganized speech, negative symptoms, etc.
I hear both external and internal voices, though mostly internal. The ones i heard when i was a child went away for a long time. When i turned sixteen, i started developing more symptoms (bizarre delusions, visual hallucinations, negative symptoms, and voices again) The voices i hear internally are not memories of voices from my past. They are voices of people i do not know. Usually they mumble a lot in the back of my head, or whisper, sometimes they say things that make no sense, or sometimes they comment on things i am doing or command me to do things.

Something called" thought insertion" is a very common delusion in schizophrenics in which the person believes thoughts are being inserted into their head by an outside force. I had this delusion very strongly when i was off meds and it clearly indicates that schizophrenics often DO hear voices internally.

i am about 99.99999% sure that i do have schizophrenia, not just because i hear voices but as it has severely effected my life, i';ve been hospitalized 5 times, i;'ve been delusional, i suffer from negative symptoms, cognitive disfunction AND just about all my symptoms including the internal voices, disappear when i take antipsychotic meds.

DID voices -
Auditory memorys, trigger related take care of the trigger and the memorys stop replaying.
Sometimes more than one memory gets triggered by the same or different trigger into replaying which gives the perception of Alters having a conversation, take care of the triggers and the memorys stop replaying.
Medication does not stop the replaying of thse memorys.

I don't know much about Schizophrenai but what a friend goes through and this past month of research so I may be wrong here but here goes -

Schizophrenic voices
Chemical imballace, with the right medication and dosage the voices go away
voice content cannot be traced to a rerunning of memorys.
Voices are percieved as being outside the body coming from people places and things around the person.

(so far I have not found a professional that says the voices of schizophrenia is inside the the head. Course I have only just begun researching this)

my voices ( both internal and external) go away with antipsychotic meds
the voices i hear have nothing to do with memories
i've been researching schizophrenia for 2 1/2 and have read that schizophrenic voices can be either external, internal, or both.
and i've talked to many schizophrenics who say they hear internal voices.

were did you hear that schizophrenics don't hear internal voices, and only external?

also, like i said.. i DO occasionally hear external voices and also internal.

another thing;
i talked about thought insertion which is very common in schizophrenia, many schizophrenics believe they are telepathic. Clear signals that schizophrenics DO hear internal voices.

how many professionals have you talked to that are saying schizophrenics don't hear voices internally? Because i've been to a number of psychiatrists, all were aware that i hear mostly internal voices, and all believe i am schizophrenic.

Like I said I could be wrong. I have only just begun looking into this disorder. A friend of mine has this and there is a good chance my child has this. both of them have heard voices outside their heads but not inside and my friends treatment professionals are who I talked to so that I could get some resourses to start my research. Also when I talked to the professionals that have helped me reseach DID and set up my therapy program told me that one of the distinguishing factors for DID and Schzophrenia are the types of voices that DID voices are inside from memorysreplaying when triggered and Schizophrenia is outside percieved from the tv, computers, pictures hanging on walls and so on.

I am not saying you are not schizophrenic just posting what I know of how it compares to what I have - DID. if you don't fit what I wrote fine.

Not all schizophrenics hear voices that seem to be coming from the tv, computer, pictures, other people, etc. They can just be hearing external voices that don't seem to be coming from any particular sorce...they may seem to simply be coming from the air around them.

...i'm only trying to help educate you, because like you said you only just started researching it and that your son may have it . Schizophrenia is very complicated. I believe i know a lot about the disease. I myself at first didn't believe i was hearing voices because i thought to be termed "hearing voices" they had to be external...but as i learned more about the illness and talked to more and more schizophrenics, i realized i was wrong.

Thanks I appreciate it.

myself,

i want to say im sorry for coming off rude. I was just in an irritable mood I'm sorry that i came off as a smart @$$ that thinks i know everything. I could be wrong myself, so im really sorry. I guess i was just annoyed with people trying to tell me that i dont likely have schizophrenia, when i;ve made peice with the diagnosis and feel sure that i do. Anyways, that's no excuse for my attitude . I'm really sorry.
Hope you can forgive me...you seem very nice. You have been through a lot.

Thats ok worry no more. I have been in on line support groups to know not to take things personally. Im not always so nice either. As my friends here in real life who were with me on a guest speaking engagement and saw me go of on a convicted perpetrator who claimed his victim wanted it - a 2 year old!- I may be quiet at times and very nice but I also know how to make heads roll.