I was wondering if there were any diagnosed schizophrenics out there and if so, could you describe any hallucinations you experienced (visual, auditory, tactile etc.).
I may be schizophrenic and am currently being treated for psychosis as the result of a traumatic experience- I'm not sure if some of the things I've seen and heard are hallucinations (as some people have told me) or actual events- I was wondering if any of you experience events you know are not real, but which aren't specifically unreal (by that I mean supernatural, or beyond the possibilities of reality- like dancing dinosaurs or talking dogs). I'm embarrassed to go into detail, but have been experiencing things that are highly improbable, but not technologically impossible. Do any of you experience "mundane" hallucinations that could also be misinterpreted as real events, such as conversations with people who seem totally possible and real, but aren't actually there? Or do all schizophrenic hallucinations flow over the boundaries of the real and incorporate traditionally fantastic elements- archetypes, impossibilities, magic, etc... Thanks!
Oh, how amusing. Are you the same person from the telepathy paranoia topic?
>>2
They're serious questions. I'm not trying to be amusing, or a troll.
>>3
Why don't you then start and explain us what you experience? It will be more enriching for everybody, even for those like me that until now did not have to deal with those questions.
And don't mind feeling embarrassed. For god's sake, this is an anonymous site! Besides, articulating your experiences into written words may be useful.
OP
Yes, I am pretty much rehabilitated but what I used to have:
Important to note that I knew these are not real, I knew monsters don't exist and nobody could have sneaked in the room, but that still didn't help alleviating the extreme fear.
Also, it will be different for everyone. Schizophrenia is pretty much used as a blanket diagnosis when the doc doesn't really know what's going on.
My experiences went away when the sun came up (I only had them in darkness), or when someone touched me forcefully but in a friendly way, like sitting in my lap or hugging me. Unfortunately I saw lonely most of the time, but there was a nurse in the final years who would sometimes hug me and I think that helped me overcome this.
>>5: excellent description, thanks a lot.
I have read about this, and it seems that it comes from a faulty integration from personal sensory information. In fact your brain ils placing your body wrongly in your personal mental space, and basically the person behind you is yourself. For some reason the misplacement seems to be always on the back, but I'm not too sure about that.
In any case, these types of illusions can be induced artificially by electrically stimulating the brain.
Maybe someone hugging you helped because that extra-sensory information helped your brain to correctly place your body in your personal mental space.
This is interesting. You say that "the person behind you is yourself", but I (not the guy you're responding to btw) have experienced the same thing as >>5 but it was a person that was standing over me at the right of my bed.
I've also experienced sensations of people being behind me, and from what >>5 describes it seems like I used to experience the same thing as him, even when I felt someone at my bed (in front of me, and some distance away).
Do you have any sources I could look into about this? More info, etc?
>>7 Well, maybe it's not always on the back, that's why I made that comment.
>Do you have any sources I could look into about this? More info, etc?
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7109/full/443287a.html
If the link doesn't work, just go to the closest library and check out Nature 443, 287 (21 September 2006): "Induction of an illusory shadow person" by Arzy et al.
> Nature 443, 287 (21 September 2006): "Induction of an illusory shadow person" by Arzy et al.
Goddamn proper APA citation standards. Everytime is see that bureaucratic bullshit I want to drive down to my alma matter college campus punch my English professor in the cunt. Uptight nazi bitch.
>>9 Who knew a simple citation would arouse such emotions. If you have trouble with citation standards, I suggest you use a proper citation manager program such as JabRef ^_^
this thread is interesting...
(WARNING: I'm a native spanish speaker so I don't speak english very well)
my father was a schizophrenic, but I don't remember so much about him... he suicided 5 years ago
my brother was schizophrenic too, I do remember about him because all of this happened the last two years, he was on drugs, my mother always says we don't have to use drugs because of my father's genes, but well... he didn't understand
he always said he felt somebody raping him, and that our neighbours had curse him. He also said our neighbours could "listen" to his thoughts, and "communicate telepathically" with him, and they always said bad things... like he was gay, a fool, etc etc etc
he went through many doctors, he even went to a shaman, he tried to suicide at the beginning of this year and got hospitalized on a psychiatric hospital, he was OK there, but when they discharged him, he went again into drugs, and started to steal things to get money to buy drugs. He commit suicide on 6th June, the same way my dad did
>>11 Geez man, talk about poor medical follow up. Hope that neither you nor anyone else in your family has to go through that again, but if it happens, please seek competent professional help
>>11
I've felt the thought theft feeling before, I absolutely hate it.
For a while I thought people were stealing ideas from my journals and using them on me (story ideas, invention ideas, etc). It got so bad that I began to fear that whatever I wrote would be twisted back around on me. Whatever happened to my mind took over my imagination and pointed it back at my conscious mind- the more creative it got, the more frightened I would become.
My family has a history of mental illness, I have/had two uncles, one of whom killed himself before I was born, the other has a restraining order against him keeping him away from most of our family.
I've had what I think are hallucinations for a long time. At night, I often believe there are faces outside my windows, looking at me, but I'm always too scared to look and make sure. During the day, I often see tiny things floating all around me, that look somewhat like the spots you get in your eyes when you've looked too long at a light.
Not long ago, I overheard my dad telling someone that he sometimes sees yellow lights floating in his eyes, which I think are the same thing I see, which makes me wonder if they might be real.
Some of my family members say that my uncle is schizophrenic, so it might run in my family, but I don't have much faith in the diagnosis, so I'm not sure if it helps you.
>>14
Now that I think of it, probably most people see these things at some point. What makes one a mental case is how they react. I also used to see faces looking in my window, and I got shit scared. (I live in a high story so it's impossible someone would look in.) When it happens to normal people though, they might just dismiss the thought or check who's there, or make a joke like Feel free to come in you shy ghost, etc
And the tiny floating spots - I think they are called orbs - I see them too, in my case they are magenta and lemon like yellow. It's an artifact of our nervous system - noise if you will.
Anyway these are both illusions not hallucinations, those are supposed to be more elaborate, like I'm Napoleon, etc
BTW I'm >>5