a question for those who hear voices

[Valarie]

Ive been bipolar for a little while, then i began to hear a radio playing in the background. Now my mental illness has always been a gradual change, but for the worse. Starting when i was 14 with depression, then 21 with bipolar2 and now 23 bipolar with psycosis. But the psycosis has only been happening the past couple weeks. So i was just curious if when you started hearing things did it start out small, like the radio i hear and then turn into voices. Or was it hearing voices from the start?

 

[Miss Moody]

I just wrote out a big reply then it got deleted grrrrrr

I started hearing voices straight away aswell as other 'querky' things, I heard owls making noises and my voices were command voices - a woman telling me to hurt myself. It was terrifying. I got dx as bipolar 2 but went into denial and refused meds and thats when things got worse, now im on anti - psychotics and they help alot, so if you do start developing them there is alot of meds that can help so dont worry too much there. I have been symptom free for 7 months. No voices at all, I dont know how people put up with them all the time, I only had mine for a period, and thats because I let things get out of hand. Now im on Meds, there are other psychological approaches aswell, meds are not for everyone, and if you find a way to deal with them without medication I would strongly advise that would be the better route. Drugs have alot of side effects and effect our brain and can lower your quality of life. Bizzarre really, there supose to help us with our quality of life ?? hey ?? I also thought men on the Tv were talking to me, I think thats quite a common one between us beepers !

 

[Valarie]

Well i was on an anti depressent and an anti mania. Then, as it always goes, before everything came crashing down i realized i was having a severe manic episode that lasted for a month and a half. All while taking my meds. (And i had never had an episode last longer than 5 days) then the depresive stage set and i of course ended up having a nervous breakdown. But after that it usually gets better, this time it did not. Over a course of two months, i was going days without sleeping or eating. Then i started hearing the radio. It was always when i wasnt sleeping or i was just to overwhelmed with everything. Things got really bad, i had two more nervous breakdowns, broke down and cut myself after going six years without doing it. I committed myself. They put me on 20mg prozac and 300mg lithium 2x a day. I havent even been on it a weekk yet. So i still hear the radio, a lot now, i am going on day three without sleeping. And my hands wont stop shaking, a normal side effect of the lithium until your body adjusts. But im just like damn, is something gonna give already or what?????

 

[Lilac]

No I started hearing voices in 2002 and not before. I was first sectioned in 2001. The voices started off quite small at first but definitely audilbe to me - no one else. They have had periods of being worse like hearing them day and night at one point and having them in my head at one point. They're not too bad at the mo but whether they'd be worse without the Risperdal Consta that I'm on I don't know. I've also seen things that no one else can see which is different. I have thought I was bugged too but don't currently.

 

[Lilac]

There was an interview on Jeremy Vine last year - at the end of the year, where a person called Rachel something from Mind in Camden said she heard voices but wasn't on meds. I did try to get the same but my psychiatrist believes this is better for me.

 

[ms bojangles]

I've been hearing voices for 52 years now - they started when I was 7 and, yes, mine started like a radio playing - a very off-station radio so that the voices were distorted and indistinct. I mentioned it to my mother and was told not to be so silly, but the voices persisted and have stayed with me since. I've been on every kind of med you can think of (my mother took me to the doctor's for pills when I was 16 or 17 because she believed that pills could turn me into a 'happy', 'normal' person. Lol.) The meds never stopped the voices and I left the system in 2006 after narrowly escaping being sectioned. I was at that time on valium and went on getting the repeat script until the doctor told the chemist to tell me that I'd have to come back for review ...I'd been on it 4 years without review and decided to come off it by myself. So now I don't take meds either, and don't want to. If I can have my space and privacy to myself, and no people (I keep in touch with Mind by phone) I can cope, but I realise other people may not be so fortunate. I suppose I'm used to the voices by now ...

 

[Valarie]

I have gone without my meds before, and i become a trainwreck. People notice that i am acting strangly before i do. So i have to take those. I have a five year old daughter i need to remain stable for.

 

[Passionflower]

I started hearing voices 8 years ago and I am in my mid 40's. Before that I had heard minor murmurings and my name being called. Now I have 'full blown' voices which are less pronounced and frequent on Abilify (aripiprazole)

 

[ffleaderman24]

I started hearing voices almost instantly. I could feel them scratching me. They were demons, i heard them say,"We will grab him by the balls and drag him across the floor". Then i realised my friends were demons telepathically communicating with eachother, i could hear them. They were able to leave their bodies and follow me around. They put an implant into my brain and cameras were everywhere watching me. They were out to get me i would walk different ways home because i saw the car they were going to rape me and kill me. Now i'm on an antipsychotic called Olanzapine, the maximum dose of course 20mg. Now i rarely hear voices and i feel normality again.