I sometimes I browse the internet and hear people asking questions whether they are hearing voices or is it their own thoughts doing that to them. Mostly these are people who haven’t got a diagnosis of psychosis and are debating whether to see a doctor about the issue. So I thought I’d put my input into the question and maybe help someone who might have that question.
Your own voice – A pretty good indication is it your own voice talking to you in third person or is it someone else? If it’s your own, you are probably not experiencing any voices talking to you but you are a subject of negative thinking. If it’s another persons voice? Well it might be an indication you are having auditory hallucinations. Though I do want to point something that may be an exception of the fact. Thought Broadcasting is an experience some of us people who experience hallucinations may have (myself included), this is when you externally hear your voice ‘in the real world’. Though typically this will be delayed by a couple of seconds or milliseconds; it’s not an instantaneous thought.
The volume of the voice – Try thinking to yourself in your own mind, you do it everyday right? Now try whispering in those thoughts or shouting, pretty hard? Sometimes us voice hearers hear voices shouting at us or even whispering. We aren’t trying to think about it, we can hear that whisper or shout so naturally it isn’t something ‘hard to do’.
Internal External – Ah yes, a good debate. Typically the voices are external as we hear them in the real world as if you are talking to someone. These voices may have a direction, someone talking to us from behind, in front, bellow or in our left or right ear. Internal voices are those that happen in our head and we do not hear them in the external world, ie. our internal monologue. Though this may be debated about internal hallucination or external ones.
This is just somethings I wanted to share with those unsure in the world. But I do want to put forward if you still have question or are still worried about your mental state PLEASE DO GO AND SEE A DOCTOR. They are there to help and in my case they will believe you, as I believed if I told a doctor what I was experiencing they wouldn’t believe me.
I’d also just like to add I am no professional and I have just got plenty of years of experience in having psychosis, but also heard stories from other people and have researched this for a better understanding of my own illness.