Is this a hallucination? i always thought it was normal

hi...i have a family history of schizophrenia. I've never really thought about this until now, but ever since i was real little, i've been hearing voices--only they are inside my head, so i dont know if this would actually be concidered a hallucination or not.
It's hard to describe these "voices" it's like, i have a microphone or a speaker inside my head....
..i know everyone has thoughts and all inside of their head, but these aren't my thoughts. They are scary voices of other people and i have no control over them. They use to be real loud--to the point that it would really freak me out and hurt my head, but these days they are quieter...and are kind've like the way that everyone hears their own thoughts, but like i said...they are not my thoughts. Usually it's real hard to make sense out of what they are saying. I usually only get peices of it, because they talk so fast and a bunch of them will talk at once. Sometimes i have even heard them talk in other languages that i've never heard. They just seem to have lots of conversations between each other, and sometimes they will comment on something im doing, or get mad about something thats going on.
Also, they seem to get worse when i drink coffee...i dont know why.
And they get louder when i am laying down, getting ready to go to bed.

I also have lots of strange, scary images/visions inside my head when i am in a dark room. Most of the time, they are too hard to describe, because the are so weird, but sometimes i'll see things like, demon-like faces, and gaping wounds with blood coming out.

I've always thought up until now, that all this is normal. That this is something that probably everyone has going on. I've been this way since i was like 3 or 4. But lately, i'm wondering if it's as normal as i always thought it was. Should i be worried about this? are these a type of hallucinations? anyone knoe
thanks

HI.

I don't really know much about this kind of thing, but that does sound a little bit odd. If it's been going on for that long, maybe you should talk to someone about it. Have you talked to your parents about it? They could possibly help you. I know what you mean about having scary images in your mind. I get them to, and I can't make them go away. I did this a lot when I was little, and I was scared a lot. My mom even took me to the doctor because I had been having so many stomach aches. I believe they gave me some medicine, but it didn't help, because the reason my stomach hurt was because I was scared all of the time. Part of this came from the fact that my grandparents and aunt talked about things in front of me, that they shouldn't have been talking about. Like things that I could hear now, and it wouldn't scare me, but it was too much for a little kid. So, anyway, I still have scary images in my mind at times. I get paranoid a lot at night. And I have the scariest dreams!! My dreams are like horror movies, but I know I didn't get the ideas from horror movies, 'cuz I don't even watch horror movies. A month or two ago, I thought a demon was talking to me, and it really freaked me out. It was odd, but I want tell you all about it. If you want to hear more about it, then go to the bipolar forum, and read the thread entitled "feeling crazy..." Yeah, so anyway.

Good luck!

~element