what is meant by the voices inside your head?

From what I've heard around the forum (and what I may or may not be experiencing myself; I do not have a dx), a large number of DID voices are not heard audibly. These types of voices are recognizable as thoughts, but they may use a different pitch and tone than what your thoughts generally "sound" like.

For example, say "I am reading this post" in your head. It carries a certain tone and pitch, even though its not an audible noise. Inaudible DID voices are like this, except they carry a different tone and pitch, and are out of your control.

Auditory hallucinations are perceived as actual outside noises. Some people with DID have these, where they hear their alters speaking to them as if they are outside (or inside) their bodies. This is also the type of voice that schizophrenics hear. This type of voice can be mistaken as coming from the environment, and can be rather unnerving if you keep hearing someone talk to you when no one is there!

Hope that helps clear things up

Thank you latenightlight for your explanation

Reading this thread has been very helpful! It never occurred to me that playing out possible conversations with friends could be related to all this. I do that all the time! Sometimes the person is fuzzy, sometimes more clear (in my imagination, not reality!).Some conversations don't really make sense for the person I'm imagining talking to, though, now that I think of it. I wonder if maybe my alters are showing themselves by presenting as people I know? There's also ones I call imaginary friends, since i was little, mostly cat-people and things, I talk to like this as well. Wow. This has been an epiphany for me towards my dissociative stuff.

As in terms of hearing it versus thinking, usually I'm thinking it, but sometimes I actually start to speak the words aloud (of both me and who I am talking to)! Luckily I only ever do that when alone, most these conversations only happen when alone.

Hmm. Now I'm thinking when I told the dr earlier today I hear voices in my head but I know they are part of me, I should have said instead they are thoughts talking loudly inside me or something.

Interesting topic

I never thought I heard "voices" in my head. I thought I was just thinking and verbalizing the thoughts in my head, kind of like endless daily commentary with a variety of opinions in there. After realizing that perhaps I do have parts (about a year ago), I have started paying closer attention to this commentary and listening more carefully. I have also heard what I thought were voices outside my head but that would happen right before I fell asleep sometimes I would hear someone talk and then I would ask my husband if that was him? Sometimes he would be asleep so clearly it wasn't him. Once I was in the car driving and I hear a word or two. I look around, it's just me in my car! And it seemed to be a little making a comment about a bumper sticker on the car in front of me. That's about the extent of it though. ..oh I was shopping the other day (again me alone in my car ) and I asked hey what else do we need to get? To my surprise a little piped up " Mr. B needs ink for his printer." Well, I don't call my husband Mr. B , I usually use his first name so that was strange. Was it a voice? I dunno more like a clear thought in a complete sentence

reading this, i think i have a female alter :O
i keep hearing a female voice saying my name around once every three days, and i answer but no one is there... damn you... uhm... Sophia!

I also have experiences with hearing voices. Sometimes it's full sentences or just a voice calling my name repeatedly. Usually they commentate on something I'm doing or giving an opposing opinion on something. When I was younger, I didn't realize they were voices, just other thoughts I was having. I can now tell that the voices sound different than my thinking voice and that they have a distinct not me quality to me. Sometimes the voices are male and sometimes female.

Good topic!

Before I started to expirience "alters", I used to talk to myself in my mind all the time, also I had conversations with friends and people I know pretending what they would say and making up scenarios, I thought this was something everyone experienced.

Then I started talking to myself outloud, and now I talk to my "alters" (I still don't know if calling them alters because I still don't have an official diagnosis) all the time, and they talk to each other, and although they have my voice, each of them have different pitchs, I have a little girl around 4-5, two or three versions of me, Nikki, a 23 year old girl, also a disabled person that doesn't speak and a non-specified animal that makes noises), the conversations are very real, and sometimes we even talk on the phone. I don't "hear" anything, I don't have auditory hallucinations, so when I talk on the phone I only listen to my own voice. I sometimes scream really loud in my head, and if I ever tell my alters a bad word they react and tell me not to treat them that way.

L0rena wrote:Before I started to expirience "alters", I used to talk to myself in my mind all the time, also I had conversations with friends and people I know pretending what they would say and making up scenarios, I thought this was something everyone experienced.

Exactly the same here! I had no clue it wasn't 'normal' until the end of high-school/start of college. It's hard for me to imagine someone not experiencing that, since I have for as long as I can remember.

angel123 wrote:i read this question a few days by a user and there were no an answers for that part ,,i tried to find the thread but couldn't so sorry for asking the question again in a seperate thread.
what is meant by voices inside your head?Are the voices inside your head are voices(that has SOUND) you really hear or THOUGHTS in your head like things you mentally think of INSIDE without a sound and you don't know where they are coming from

It really depends on who you ask and what their opinion is.

When a person has schizophrenia, they very often actually hear sounds that others don't hear - these are hallucinations.

Often in the form of a voice commenting on their every action. They occur often but not continuously. These voices have a biological origin. They can sound like they come from a person's head, from a tv, from a fan, from the sky, or from anything else. The source can appear to be located anywhere. This symptom starts a few weeks after certain brain cells are injured by the illness, schizophrenia, and these brain changes have been observed, in process, in people with schizophrenia, by MRI.

With schizophrenia, it doesn't have to just be voices - it can be any sound. Scraping sound, footstep sounds, sounds like breaking glass, anything.

While people with disorders other than schizophrenia rarely hear such a running commentary, somewhat similar symptoms have been reported in depression, bipolar, dissociative identity disorders, as occasional episodes in borderline personality disorder when the person is stressed, in PTSD, etc.

Many people think of memories, sudden thoughts and impulses, as 'voices in their head' and refer to them that way. That isn't really the correct use of the term, but oh well.