Some questions please

people with schizophrenia come in all shapes and sizes. we are not limited to the stereotype

I suppose all of you are under medications now ?

i am. and i think everyone else here is. or most here is on medications.

i dont really take my meds. sometimes that causes problems but im learning to live with my illness.

i actually found that insulting intrusivn. about being normal just from your online perspective. believe me the internet can hide a lot of things. dont take things at internet-face-value.

It is not insulting actually. Didn't mean it that way at least. I just heard of schizophrenic people as strange. Of course, I don't judge and I realize that's only what I hear and that actually I don't know schizophrenic people. Never meant to disrespect

ok thats ok. well im very strange in real life. the internet hides a lot of stuff about people. what they look like. how they really act. etc.

What do you mean by strange ? What do you do that makes you think you're strange ?

I would seem quite normal apart from maybe appearing a bit depressed... which I'm not but lack of emotion, slight flat affect... and I don't tend to say much & avoid having to look people in the eyes a bit.

I guess I might seem a bit on edge depending. I always try to avoid any odd behaviour whilst around people. Probably how I managed to get through an acute phase without anyone realising I was psychotic.

As newtus said earlier though, we come in all shapes & sizes.

ive been called strange by nearly everyone i meet. so i dont say that about myself. ive been called that. and been called weird and different. i think its my behavior.

It's not exactly painful (at least not to me), but it can be incredibly taxing in that the voices can break up your thought process.
I hear voices much of the time, and it is a pain in the *****, I have trouble maintaining my focus, but I feel lucky that I recognize them fairly quickly.

I'm at about 85% when it comes to recognizing the voices as hallucinations, The more people in the room, the less likely that I'll be able to identify a voice as a hallucination. Most of the time the voice are destructive, encouraging me , to act out, harm or kill myself. Most of the time I'm ok, I've accepted the voices and can filter them out of my daily life, I do have to process each voice to decide it's reality. It only takes a second to do (for me), it's become almost automatic with me.

However, if I'm in a low spot, the voices can be dangerous, I've had a long history of self injury.

I ask this with all due respect, are you asking out of curiosity as someone who doesn't hear voices?
Or are you hearing voices and merely seeking to compare notes?
I'm just wondering, either way it's okay.

I don't hear voices, but I have very intrusive thoughts. SAdly, though I recongnize them as my thoughts, I seem to be so hard on my self that they seem persecuting

Do your voices cause you severe anxiety and distress ? Could you have a real conversation with them ?

It depends on how much insight I have into my voices & how loud they are... which seem largely correlated...

When they are quiet & I know they are coming from me, they don't bother me. But if they get loud & I start believing what they say, which often triggers delusions too, then it can get a bit distressing for short periods of time.

My voices have the ability to bring out just about every emotion in me depending on shay they are saying though.

And I could have a 'conversation' with them if I wanted but I'm more likely to just talk to myself because I feel I can't form thoughts.