Mental health problems – you may hear voices as a symptom of some mental health problems, including psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder or severe depression.
There are many significant factors that can cause hearing voices. The major factors that contribute to this condition are stress, anxiety, depression, and traumatic experiences. In some cases, there might be environmental and genetic factors that cause such hearing of voices.
Hearing voices is actually quite a common experience: around one in ten of us will experience it at some point in our lives. Hearing voices is sometimes called an 'auditory hallucination'. Some people have other hallucinations, such as seeing, smelling, tasting or feeling things that don't exist outside their mind.
Hearing voices may be a symptom of a mental illness. A doctor may diagnose you 'psychosis' or 'bipolar disorder'. But you can hear voices without having a mental health diagnosis. Research shows that many people hear voices or experience other types of hallucinations.
In fact, an estimated 70% to 80% of people with schizophrenia hear voices. 1 These voices can call your name, argue with you, threaten you, come from inside your head or from outside sources, and can begin suddenly as well as grow stronger over time.
There can be “voices that are more thought-like,” says Jones, “voices that sound like non-human entities, voices that are perceived as the direct communication of a message, rather than something you're actually hearing.” Voices aren't always voices, either. They can sound more like a murmur, a rustle or a beeping.
Yes, severe anxiety can cause a person to hear voices. It's not that severe anxiety can lead to psychosis, but that severe anxiety stresses the body, and stress can cause psychosis-like sensory symptoms, such as hearing voices that aren't real.
This could depend on how you're feeling, what's going on in your life or what types of voices you hear. It's common to think that if you hear voices, you must have a mental health problem. But research shows that many people hear voices and don't have a mental health problem. It's quite a common human experience.
You might hear someone speaking to you or telling you to do certain things. The voice may be angry, neutral, or warm. Other examples of this type of hallucination include hearing sounds, like someone walking in the attic or repeated clicking or tapping noises.
What is an internal monologue? Whether you refer to your internal voice as your inner dialogue, self-talk, internal speech, or stream of consciousness, an internal monologue is the voice inside your head that you can “hear” when you think.
Schizophrenia can usually be diagnosed if: you've experienced 1 or more of the following symptoms most of the time for a month: delusions, hallucinations, hearing voices, incoherent speech, or negative symptoms, such as a flattening of emotions.
You may have hallucinations if you: hear sounds or voices that nobody else hears. see things that are not there like objects, shapes, people or lights. feel touch or movement in your body that is not real like bugs are crawling on your skin or your internal organs are moving around.
Auditory hallucinations are often associated with schizophrenia and other mental health conditions, but they can happen for several other reasons, such as hearing loss, and aren't always a sign of a mental health condition.
The Voices in My Head
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. Have you ever thought so intently about something that you subconsciously said it out loud?
A critical inner voice may develop during times of extreme stress. It's also sometimes seen in mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression. In such cases, your mind may engage in negative self-talk by criticizing the way you work, socialize, participate in family circles, and more.
Most people with schizophrenia make a recovery, although many will experience the occasional return of symptoms (relapses). Support and treatment can help you to manage your condition and the impact it has on your life.
Residual schizophrenia is the mildest form of schizophrenia characteristic when positive symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia (hallucinations, delusional thinking) are not actively displayed in a patient although they will still be displaying negative symptoms (no expression of emotions, strange speech).
Schizophrenia usually involves delusions (false beliefs), hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that don't exist), unusual physical behavior, and disorganized thinking and speech. It is common for people with schizophrenia to have paranoid thoughts or hear voices.