Unsure if I'm psychotic

[starlight]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and am just looking for some help.

For the past 8 years, ever since a stressful event in my life, I have sometimes experienced auditory hallucinations. The 'voices' don't actually tell me to do anything or say anything critical about me, etc, they are just random words that jump into my mind -words totally unrelated to what I'm thinking or doing. These often occur when I'm a bit tired or have had a busy day at work. I am fully aware that there is a problem with my brain here and have never once thought that they are real -but I'm very worried that I'm on the edge of developing schizophrenia. I went to see my GP about my symptoms, but he catorgorically said that I'm not psychotic. I then asked to see a psychiatrist who also said that I'm not psychotic. As well as this experience, I also get a lot of mood swings, ranging from being very happy and energetic, to irritable and then to feeling low. I also asked my GP, psychiatrist and also a therapist if I'm bipolar -but they all said that if I was bipolar I'd experience a loss of reality.

I'm not sure if I believe them though, and because I've been diagnosed with various anxiety disorders I feel that the doctors/specialists assume that my experiences are all anxiety/neurosis based.

Anyways, I'm just wondering what others think -is this how psychotic voices are experienced -just as random words every so often (like once or twice a day -sometimes much more when I'm trying to fall asleep)? Also, do people who hear psychotic voices really believe that they are real?

I'm just really worried, that's all.

Thanks for any help and I'm sorry for the long post.

Love Starlight x

 

[intelgal]

When i was severly depressed I had intrusive images.. they would often have words attached to them but not voices. It was usually particuarly when stressed... I did however have bad depersonilsation and the majority of this occured when so.

I still struggle with images when stressed but I deal with them by treating them as thoughts albeit intrussive thoughts but ones that I know are not real and cannot harm me.

This prob sounds a bit confusing but thats my experience

 

[diddypinks]

hi

hello there i am sorry you are going through this you could look up scitzophrenia on wikipedia the diagnostic criteria are on that however the voices dont abuse you which is good obviousley the doctor thinks your fine so thats good trust me you dont want scitzophrenia its a bitch good luck diddy

 

[starfish]

dolores

i also have random thoughts when stressed and have been given no explanation from my mental health team. i find it difficult to deal with. i also experience a voice or sound when falling asleep which also makes me upset. i hope this helps a bit,

 

[mizunderstood]

I don't hear unidentified voices all the time, however I do have intrusive thoughs and answer myself back in my head. I also have a built in Radio that plays radom songs in my head all the time and occasionally hear someone call my name. As well as that I can be delusional, manic, think everything is aimed at or for me and have feelings that I am specal in some way. However, funnily enough I have not been diagnosed as schizophrenic, and in fact have had no diagnosis since my symptoms presented in 2004 after an acute psychotic episode. So I am kind of the one that got away. The key is to identify what is or isn't causing your voices, as it may not necessarily be that you are schizophrenic at all. There are more symptoms than hallucinations and to be misdiagnosed could have major impact on your life. Aparently a large number of adults experience hearing voices and its more common than you would imagine. When you are psychotic the voices do seem real and are hard to ignore. You wouldn't be able to distinguish what is real and unreal. If you have never been psychotic before then you are more likely on the first occasion to believe or listen to the voices. And if you were fully blown psychotic you wouldn't really know you were anyway so therefore and you would probably sub-consciensly adhear to them. If the episode develops again a second time, you tend to be more dismissive as you are aware of what is happening to you and so can and dismiss any thoughts or voices that you may be experiencing and take medication to stop them. So, the moral of the story is...you dont have to be psychotic/schizophrenic to hear voices and if you were schizophrenic (which you are probably not, thank god) you would experience more symptoms I would have thought. Hope this helps.xx