Some people suffering from severe mental illness, particularly schizophrenia, hear “voices,” known as auditory hallucinations. This symptom, which afflicts more than 80% of patients, is among the most prevalent and distressing symptoms of schizophrenia.
Most commonly though, people diagnosed with schizophrenia will hear multiple voices that are male, nasty, repetitive, commanding, and interactive, where the person can ask the voice a question and get some kind of answer.”
If you have schizophrenia and you hear voices, know that it's not uncommon for people with the condition. Up to 80% of people diagnosed with schizophrenia have this symptom, too. Doctors call them auditory hallucinations. It's as if someone is speaking to you, but they're not actually there.
Some people with schizophrenia display atypical voice patterns. Some atypical voice patterns have been associated with the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, including blunted affect (lack of vocal intonation) and alogia (poverty of speech).
I usually try not to listen to them, but sometimes my schizoaffective voices are so loud even music can't drown them out. And sometimes, as other people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder may know, the voices say good, or even helpful, things.
When they talk, other people might have trouble understanding what is being said. They may even stop talking mid-sentence, make up strange words, or use existing words that don't make sense in conversations with others.
Unfortunately, most people with schizophrenia are unaware that their symptoms are warning signs of a mental disorder. Their lives may be unraveling, yet they may believe that their experiences are normal. Or they may feel that they're blessed or cursed with special insights that others can't see.
If left untreated, schizophrenia can worsen at any age, especially if you continue to experience episodes and symptoms. Typically, early onset schizophrenia in the late teens tends to be associated more with severe symptoms than later-life onset. But aging can change the trajectory of how symptoms show up.
For many people suffering with schizophrenia, the most terrifying aspect of their condition is the voices—the phantom sounds that echo menacingly through their brains. Too relentless to block or ignore, they often take the form of verbal tormentors.
When it comes to schizophrenia, one of the most common questions is where do these inner voices come from? It turns out that people with schizophrenia are actually hearing their own voices in their heads. This is due to a phenomenon called subvocal speech, which most of us experience in a slightly different way.
The voices can vary in how often you hear them, what they sound like, what they say, and whether they're familiar or unfamiliar. Sometimes hearing voices can be upsetting or distressing. They may say hurtful or frightening things. However, some people's voices may be neutral or more positive.
The auditory hallucinations experienced by people with schizophrenia are phenomenologically diverse. One dimension on which the sounds and voices vary is their perceived location. Although always perceived as if other-generated, they may be heard as coming from some external location or from inside the head.
They may believe other people are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them. They may sit for hours without moving or talking. These symptoms make holding a job, forming relationships, and other day-to-day functions especially difficult for people with schizophrenia.
Be respectful when talking about the condition. Schizophrenia doesn't define a person. It's just something they have. If someone uses negative terms like "psycho" or "crazy," tell them why it's hurtful.
In most people with schizophrenia, symptoms generally start in the mid- to late 20s, though it can start later, up to the mid-30s. Schizophrenia is considered early onset when it starts before the age of 18. Onset of schizophrenia in children younger than age 13 is extremely rare.
The age of onset in men and women
In general, schizophrenia is diagnosed in late adolescence through the early 30s. Men are usually diagnosed between the late teens and early 20s, with a peak at 21-25 years of age. Women are diagnosed a few years later, at 25-30 or again after menopause.
Without treatment, a person with schizophrenia can undergo brain damage, though experts debate the mechanisms through which this happens. People with schizophrenia also have higher rates of liver disease, diabetes, and heart disease than their peers.
Schizophrenia is a severe mental health condition that can involve delusions and paranoia. A person with paranoia may fear that other people are pursuing and intending to harm them. This can have a severe impact on their safety and overall well-being.
Personality disorders such as antisocial, borderline, histrionic, narcissistic, avoidant, dependent and obsessive-compulsive types have been detected in one third to one half of schizophrenia patients (Nielsen, Hewitt & Habke, 1997; Solano & Chavez, 2000).
The negative symptom domain consists of five key constructs: blunted affect, alogia (reduction in quantity of words spoken), avolition (reduced goal-directed activity due to decreased motivation), asociality, and anhedonia (reduced experience of pleasure).
In sum, in this study we found that schizophrenia patients make a higher number of false memories when episodes lack affective information, especially for new plausible information.
Responses suggest that about 37 percent of schizophrenia patients were happy most or all of the time, compared with about 83 percent for those in the comparison group. Approximately 15 percent of schizophrenia patients reported being never or rarely happy.