Schizophrenia and hearing voices

Hi @ReVolved , welcome to the forums

It sounds like having these voices come on and then leave so suddenly must have been pretty distressing.

There are lots of reasons that one might start experiencing voices suddenly, it can be linked to something that's happening in your life at that time, or it can be a symptom of a medical or mental health concern. I notice that you mentioned Schizophrenia in your thread name, were you diagnosed with Schizophrenia?

To better understand what happened after receiving medication, and how this lead to your voices going, it could be helpful to ask your doctor who would likely be able to explain how it works and interacts with your brain.

We're the voices comforting or bad or both? I hear voices. Some are very distressing. I was diagnosed with a psychotic disorder decades ago, when it began and I had some paranoid too (still do from time to time). I've been on numerous antipsychotic medications and none really got rid of the voices but some made it harder to hear/understand them if I was more doped up.

I wouldn't know what to do to bring them on sorry. Mine are supposedly parts of me that have had trauma. So I guess that's how they supposedly came out about but I wouldn't recommend trying to get voices that way. They are also not the voices you're seeking probably. Maybe if you have a preferred spiritual way or whatever you could look into that.

@ReVolved welcome to the forums. i have had some very similar experiences i too hear voices that i believe are spirits and such and i am also on an injection that is supposed to get rid of them it doesnt completely but it makes them harder to understand and a lot less frequent which feels strange when you are used to them being there. as i understand it the medication is supposed to act on neurotransmitters in the brain to stop the voices but as for how it does that no one really knows there is a lot of unknown stuff about these meds which can be kind of scary. as for getting your gift back it might be difficult to do while on meds but you shouldnt stop the meds without first speaking to your doctor. i hope you are traveling ok in general though as sometimes experiences like this can be distressing.

Hi @ReVolved

I too have started hearing voices in a recent psychotic episode.

The voices were specific people. People I knew from all across my life. Most were alive. There was 2 who were people who had deceased.

I too had a delusion that the voices were from a spirit realm and a delusion related to the afterlife. There was even an idea that those voices of people who were alive existed in both worlds (the real world and the spirit world).

The two people who were deceased seemed very real to me, and I had a delusion they were real and were speaking to me from the afterlife.

I was also prescribed injections and found I was unresponsive to treatments. I actually got worse and kept hearing voices even when they gave me injections.

Can I ask, do you really want to hear the voices again if it led to a police incident? Were they distressing? Were they comforting? Were they voices you know? Or some voice you didn't know? Why do you call it "a gift"? By your own admission some were bad.

I don't want to discredit your experience (many people believe in a spirit realm or afterlife and are not considered mentally ill), but there is also many who would give an opinion (with evidence to credit them) that you had delusional thinking. The voices were a hallucination (and not real), and that you had a delusion they were spirits.

In all the material, I've read they don't know what causes voices and it's generally considered a bad thing.

Schizophrenia is the same. There is no known cause. There is a range of contributing factors - genetics, stress, environmental and lifestyle factors.

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Around the time I started hearing voices, I was trialling the use of medicinal cannabis. [edited by moderator] I had been trying that around the time and just before I started hearing voices but stopped as I deteriorated.

I have read some related experiences of others with Autism Spectrum Disorder who started hearing voices, they were unresponse to antipsychotic medications and they had a feeling and belief the voices were more related to their autism not schizophrenia despite doctor diagnosis saying it was schizophrenia.

Dear @Former-Member ,

Thank you for sharing your story.

We wanted to flag that parts of your post have been edited out to ensure it aligns with Community Guidelines around the discussion of medication etc.

You can read these Guidelines here: https://saneforums.org/t5/help/faqpage/title/community-guidelines

Thank you @tyme noted.

I have now read the community guidelines and will oblige with speaking more generally in relation to medications, dosages and content which could cause offence or harm.

Hi @Former-Member
Thank you for your response. The voices were very real I don't believe they were hallucinations/delusions because they were independent from my own thoughts and I could even hold conversations with them, but I could not escape them and yes some were bad shouting at me.
Earlier this month they returned the bad one's did but I relaxed on the couch and instead of resisting them I silently held onto peace and they disappeared and have not returned. I hadn't heard them since 2019. In the past I would really fight with them but this time I just relaxed and held onto peace.
I was diagnosed A.D.D in 2000 and took medication for three months and I used to smoke cannabis but stopped in 2010. I started hearing voices in 2015. Thanks for the advice I'll listen to music and eat for increasing dopamine. Haven't quit coffee or smoking tobacco. I have tried but found it very challenging.
Thank you for sharing your own story also it's all very interesting but I do believe the voices are very real I don't know if what you heard were real people but wouldn't be so quick to write it off completely as delusions because they are definitely something I also heard voices that I thought were real people pastor's and my girlfriend and people I listen to on the internet I can't prove if it was or not but things they've said were also things the spirits (voices) were saying.

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