what is meant by the voices inside your head?

smithywise wrote: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.

Actually, hearing voices commenting or discussing is not rare. Not only is it common in dissociative identity disorder (DID), but it is more common in DID than in schizophrenia.

Bipolar_Cat wrote:

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.

Wait..... That isn't "normal"?


I also sometimes (although I'm still exploring validity and frequency) get the thoughts commenting thing, although having their own tone is more rare and I'm still not sure if I'm consciously adding that.

Partial wrote:

Bipolar_Cat wrote:

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.

Wait..... That isn't "normal"?


I also sometimes (although I'm still exploring validity and frequency) get the thoughts commenting thing, although having their own tone is more rare and I'm still not sure if I'm consciously adding that.

Imagining conversations and playing parts in imagined conversations, as well as imagining what the other person would say, and putting on a sort of 'play', including speaking various roles aloud, is in fact, normal behavior. There is nothing pathological about doing any of that.

A person may do that and still have some sort of disorder, but that type of behavior in and of itself, is not diagnostic of any mental disorder or illness.

If you actually can hear a sound of a voice that seems to be coming from inside or outside of your head, that is different.

smithywise wrote:Imagining conversations and playing parts in imagined conversations, as well as imagining what the other person would say, and putting on a sort of 'play', including speaking various roles aloud, is in fact, normal behavior. There is nothing pathological about doing any of that.

A person may do that and still have some sort of disorder, but that type of behavior in and of itself, is not diagnostic of any mental disorder or illness.

If you actually can hear a sound of a voice that seems to be coming from inside or outside of your head, that is different.

Ah thank you. I've still got alot to figure out, and things have been.. confusing... to say the least.

Partial, for most of us the "voices" that concern us are the ones that just suddenly pipe up with some comment out of nowhere and we are startled even shocked and look around and go "Who or what was that!? Wow that was weird!"

For example, the first time I ever heard my Alter 5 I was listening to a colleague give a presentation on some topic or other when suddenly inside my head an unfamiliar female voice said loud and clear "I love him". Huh? What? I was bewildered, to say the least.

Una+ wrote:Partial, for most of us the "voices" that concern us are the ones that just suddenly pipe up with some comment out of nowhere and we are startled even shocked and look around and go "Who or what was that!? Wow that was weird!"

For example, the first time I ever heard my Alter 5 I was listening to a colleague give a presentation on some topic or other when suddenly inside my head an unfamiliar female voice said loud and clear "I love him". Huh? What? I was bewildered, to say the least.

Depending on how the voices present, I may have had similar occurrences. For me it mostly seems to be intrusive thoughts. Frequency and clarity are difficult to ascertain as they may vary, and I'm still observing. I'm sorry if I'm kind of getting in the way, things are confusing right now.

Hi Everyone,

Well it has been a very time since I have been here , I ruled out that I may suffer from a dissociative disorder and have been years in therapy but I am back again and It is because I actually suffer from a dissociation. Long story anyway I am hear about the subject of the topic which was mainly about inquiring about the voices inside the head and was a question at an early stage when discovering this thing and it was a mess, by now I do know what is meant/felt these voices.During the discussion of the voices , part of the thread also discussed the topic of making up stories and talking to oneself and pretend talking to others and some where asking if pretending to have conversations with others that these others could be alters trying to show themselves and part of these stories was fantasy and it is impossible that it could be real but one is knowing that he is making up these stories and aware of it but can’t control it or stop from this daydreaming like. And since it is known that they are not real then this is not psychosis and this could be something called maladaptive daydreaming. I am writing specifically to the part of making up fantasy unrealistic stories part that don’t fall in the category of psychosis because one can differentiate and know they are not real and at the same time part of these stories cannot be real or an alter because they are fiction. For this part check Maladaptive daydreaming. It is also an interesting topic for dissociation ingeneral

-- Thu Feb 15, 2018 12:18 am --

Hi Everyone,

Well it has been a very time since I have been here , I ruled out that I may suffer from a dissociative disorder and have been years in therapy but I am back again and It is because I actually suffer from a dissociation. Long story anyway I am hear about the subject of the topic which was mainly about inquiring about the voices inside the head and was a question at an early stage when discovering this thing and it was a mess, by now I do know what is meant/felt these voices.During the discussion of the voices , part of the thread also discussed the topic of making up stories and talking to oneself and pretend talking to others and some where asking if pretending to have conversations with others that these others could be alters trying to show themselves and part of these stories was fantasy and it is impossible that it could be real but one is knowing that he is making up these stories and aware of it but can’t control it or stop from this daydreaming like. And since it is known that they are not real then this is not psychosis and this could be something called maladaptive daydreaming. I am writing specifically to the part of making up fantasy unrealistic stories part that don’t fall in the category of psychosis because one can differentiate and know they are not real and at the same time part of these stories cannot be real or an alter because they are fiction. For this part check Maladaptive daydreaming. It is also an interesting topic for dissociation ingeneral