STORM2K

I am succeeding in my battle against paranoia (accompanied by hallucinations- visual, sensory, and auditory) and voices in my head.
I am also succeeding in stopping obsessive-compulsive behavior which
results from fear/paranoia.

With medicine and therapy, I have learned to deal with this.

I wanted to update everyone on my condition.

I started getting voices during July 2005.
It got much worse by September 2006.

I was nearly hospitalized with paranoia/voices in head/compulsive behavior 4 months ago...but I am slowly recovering with medicine and therapy.

I cannot imagine how difficult that must be to overcome. Best of luck.

Thank you... the real big challenge was understanding/believing that voices that insult me are not real threats...that they are merely products of the mind...and that any compulsive behavior is based on delusions...which my psychologist pointed out...just the fear/paranoia can be nasty...

It's a good sign that you can so openly discuss the matter. Hope you have family and friends that truly understand, and are willing to take the time to discuss this problem with you. Nothing beats a good support base when dealing with issues such as this.

Mind is a powerfull thing...Keeps us updated and best of luck....

Best of luck to you, glad that you have it under control.

Luckily for me I was not diagnosed with schizophrenia...because my voices were not often heard through the ear but experienced instead as internal dialogues...
What happened was like a dissociation of thoughts.

My doctors attribute my symptoms to severe anxiety, which causes sometimes hallucinations when experienced at a very high level, or make internal critical voices seem real when I don't actually hear them.

Because I rarely hear the voices through the ear and mostly hear them internally within me- I am not schizophrenic but I still find them somewhat disturbing.

Interesting thing is a medicine used for treating voices really diminishes the critical internal voice insults.

Thought Dissociation/Severe Anxiety resulted in some visual distortions but luckily severe anxiety is treatable with medicine.

My question is--- what is really happening to me? I don't usually "hear" the voices but they come as very strong, disturbing thoughts- which may be part of my obsessive compulsive disorder...but I'm confused still...

Keep the faith! And you will overcome anything that comes your way.
I just can't imagine it, but I am glad to hear of your progress in fighting this.

-justin-

I heard voices just a moment ago, but it was only that Pink Floyd I was listening to. Hang in there.

j wrote:I heard voices just a moment ago, but it was only that Pink Floyd I was listening to. Hang in there.

Hope everything works out for you Tampa!

Tampa Bay Hurricane wrote:I am succeeding in my battle against paranoia (accompanied by hallucinations- visual, sensory, and auditory) and voices in my head.
I am also succeeding in stopping obsessive-compulsive behavior which
results from fear/paranoia.

With medicine and therapy, I have learned to deal with this.

I wanted to update everyone on my condition.

I started getting voices during July 2005.
It got much worse by September 2006.

I was nearly hospitalized with paranoia/voices in head/compulsive behavior 4 months ago...but I am slowly recovering with medicine and therapy.

Wow.. Tampa I wish you the best in all this. Its not easy to deal with the voices at all. It always depends on what they say or want you to do... its hard to understand from an outsider's viewpoint.

Hearing voices is a weird thing. I've been very quiet with mine... very few know that I am the same way. I want to echo and agree with you Tampa that is very scary (well for me at least) Only my closest friends know about it, and they do worry each day. Were yours mainly insults or command ones? It can be hard to distinguish between them.

I hope you the best in your recovery and wish you well.

The voices you hear, specifically their manifestation implies to me that it's more related to the OCD/anxiety disorders. If the voices take the form of unwanted thoughts, the obssessive mind will...pretty much compulsively...dissociate the thoughts from the mind. It's like, the more your push, or try to push, the thoughts away, the louder they become.

There are still a number of open questions in this particular field. With full blown hallucinations, the medical field is narrowing in on particular neurotransmitters and receptors as causative; however, in the case of obtrusive, obssessive thoughts, there's still so much to learn. My own personal theory is that the tension is caused by trying to dissociate the mind from the unwanted thoughts. What we consider unwanted thinking is usually culturally based--taboos, illegal things, sacrilege, etc--and it's that personal-cultural friction that really makes things difficult.

Having lived with OCD and other mental issues myself, I can say that it sometimes helps to simply let yourself think these things. Even if they're unpleasant, odd, or however they may be, confront them if you're able. And always...if you're thinking about hurting yourself or others, get help immediately.

Glad to hear you're in the care of doctors and such. Do you have other means of support--friends or family you're able to talk openly to? That can be good medicine in itself.

Feel better and take care!

Thank you all for the well-wishing; my voices are mostly insult voices with a few command ones

Thierry_Gironde wrote:The voices you hear, specifically their manifestation implies to me that it's more related to the OCD/anxiety disorders. If the voices take the form of unwanted thoughts, the obssessive mind will...pretty much compulsively...dissociate the thoughts from the mind. It's like, the more your push, or try to push, the thoughts away, the louder they become.

There are still a number of open questions in this particular field. With full blown hallucinations, the medical field is narrowing in on particular neurotransmitters and receptors as causative; however, in the case of obtrusive, obssessive thoughts, there's still so much to learn. My own personal theory is that the tension is caused by trying to dissociate the mind from the unwanted thoughts. What we consider unwanted thinking is usually culturally based--taboos, illegal things, sacrilege, etc--and it's that personal-cultural friction that really makes things difficult.

Having lived with OCD and other mental issues myself, I can say that it sometimes helps to simply let yourself think these things. Even if they're unpleasant, odd, or however they may be, confront them if you're able. And always...if you're thinking about hurting yourself or others, get help immediately.

Glad to hear you're in the care of doctors and such. Do you have other means of support--friends or family you're able to talk openly to? That can be good medicine in itself.

Feel better and take care!

thank you for the information and well-wishing. Yes I think the voices are disturbing thoughts in anxiety disorder because I don't normally hear em through the ears, but my family is supportive and I have been diagnosed with OCD so that could be the source of these disturbing thoughts that try to manifest as voices.