Hearing voices in your head, or experiencing auditory hallucinations does not always mean that you have mental illness. Many people have reported hearing voices that do not cause any kind of problem in their life. Some of these voices are generally positive or contain positive messages. According to research, only about 33% of people that experience auditory hallucinations require psychiatric treatment due to mental illness. For the large percentage of individuals that hear voices, they report that these voices offer inspiration and support.
Regardless of whether these voices offer support or pose a threat to someone, people usually start hearing them following some sort of traumatic experience. Roughly 70% of individuals that hear voices notice them after physical or sexual abuse, death of a loved one, and/or a major accident. These voices are seen by some experts as a psychological coping mechanism that the brain created to help deal with major stress.
Some experts suggest that the more negative the trauma, the more likely the voices will consist of negative threats. However, there are plenty of people that have learned to live comfortably with their voices – many people embrace them. Brain scans have been able to show that when people report hearing voices, the same areas that process sound and store memories appear to be active. The exact brain activity during an auditory hallucination can differ among individuals, but in general, areas involving memory and auditory processing seem to be operating simultaneously.
What Causes Auditory Hallucinations? The Reasons You Hear Voices In Your Head.
It is a common misconception to automatically assume that if you are hearing voices in your head, you are experiencing a schizophrenic hallucination. Although voices are among positive symptoms experienced during schizophrenia, there are other reasons that people hear voices besides mental illness. Only when the voices persist as being unpleasant, negative, and destructive are they usually considered a sign of a psychotic break.
- Brain Damage / Injury: If you experienced any brain damage as a result of an accident or medical condition, the damage could cause you to hear voices. Many people report hearing spiritual voices after being involved in serious accidents. Regardless of what type of voices you hear, it is likely a result of damage to the brain.
- Bullying: Often times people that are heavily bullied growing up end up with various mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and feel inadequate. Intense bullying can lead to the individual hearing voices because they have become so traumatized and feel awful about themselves. This is especially common if you are only a child and don’t have the necessary coping skills to deal with bullying. Your brain simply breaks with reality, and voices can be a way in which some people cope.
- Death of a Loved One: If you have lost someone very close to you (e.g. a family member), you may hear voices related to their death and/or may even experience communication with them. Some people report that during the early days of bereavement and grief processing, this is the only way that they can mentally cope with the loss.
- Drugs: There are many drugs that can lead to you hearing voices. Most drugs that affect the brain and levels of various neurotransmitters can result in auditory hallucinations. You may hear voices after taking drugs or during a period of withdrawal from the drug. A relatively common example is for people who experience Adderall-induced psychosis. In most cases, once the drug is out of your system, the voices should subside. However, consistent long term drug use may damage the brain enough to lead to conditions like schizophrenia and/or psychosis.
- Hypnogogic Hallucinations: Many individuals hear voices when they fall asleep and/or are just waking up from a dream. This has to do with your brain activity either entering and/or coming out of a dream state. When you fall asleep, your brain waves change to the slower theta range and random dreams occur. Most people that hear voices following a dream or before sleep may hear sounds or voices call their name. Most people report very brief sounds while experiencing these hallucinations. Some people report visual hallucinations that accompany their auditory hallucinations as well.
- Isolation: Anyone that becomes isolated from social contact for long enough may start to hear voices. This often happens with castaways, sailors, and individuals that cut themselves off from society for extended periods of time. It is thought that hearing voices are in some ways a compensation for lack of interaction as a result of being isolated. This may be more common than we think among individuals in solitary confinement.
- Mental Illness: Individuals with mental illness may experience voices that are threatening and very negative in nature. These voices may be difficult to deal with and may really scare the person hearing them. Common illnesses that result in people hearing voices include: psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, dissociative identity disorder (DID) and major depression with psychotic features.
- Physical Illness: Individuals dealing with a severe physical illness may experience delirium and may become disorientated with their surroundings. If you experience a high fever and are really sick, it is possible that this could lead to experiencing auditory hallucinations. The body is likely in an extreme state of stress and is trying to recover from the sickness – which could lead to hearing voices.
- PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder): Various traumatic experiences such as natural disasters, being victim of a crime, and/or serving as a soldier may result in post-traumatic stress disorder. Some people actually hear voices and/or hallucinate as a result of this disorder. Although not everyone with this condition hears voices, it is not an uncommon experience.
- Sexual Abuse / Physical Abuse: Anyone that has been sexually or physically abused may end up hearing voices. The younger the age of abuse, the more likely voices entered your head as a result of what happened. You may hear the voice of the abuser in your head and you may not know how to cope with it.
- Sleep Deprivation: Going considerable periods of time without proper sleep can result in hallucinations. Anyone with significant lack of sleep could end up hallucinating. This is one of the prominent symptoms of prolonged sleep deprivation. Researchers hypothesize that it could be related to neurons composing the I-function in the brain. This leads to production of a dissimilar reality and the pressure on the neurons from lack of sleep attempt to create something even though they are burnt out. Since the neurons are under significant duress from lack of restoration that would accompany sleep, brain activity becomes sporadic and incoherent – resulting in psychosis-like symptoms.
- Spiritual Experiences: Certain individuals hear voices in their head as a result of spiritual experiences. Some people report hearing spirits / spirit guides, angels, “God,” sages, mystics, and deceased loved ones. This shows that there is a fine line between hearing voices as a result of a spiritual experience and voices as a result of mental illness. Other people hear voices of evil spirits in cases of a haunting.
- Starvation: If you are starving and have not eaten properly for a prolonged period of time, you may hear voices. Once again, your brain is malnourished and burnt out. It has no energy stores and attempts to function to the best of its ability. Some individuals diagnosed with anorexia have been found to hear voices as a result of food deprivation.
- Stress: Some people report hearing voices as a result of significant stress. Anyone under major amounts of mental stress for a prolonged period could potentially experience an auditory hallucination. In regards to stress, we are not talking about your average stress from work, we are talking about a cumulative build up of major stress.
Types of voices that you may hear
- Controlling voices – Voices may attempt to control how you act. They may tell you to engage in negative behavior.
- Multiple voices – You may hear more than one voice in your head and they may be conflicting or fighting with each other.
- Spiteful voices – Negative, cruel, nasty, vindictive voices often accompany mental illness.
- Supportive voices – Many people experience support from the voices that they hear.
- Random voices – Some people may hear random, meaningless voices. In other words, the voices heard aren’t necessarily controlling, negative, or supportive – they are completely random.
Notes: Voices typically call out your name. They are common to hear when no one else is around. Some people experience the voices as being inside their head. Others experience voices as coming from an external source in the environment. You may believe that you are hearing other people’s thoughts. Voices may increase in loudness (volume) if you are highly stressed.
How to stop hearing voices in your head OR cope with them
- Learn to live with them – If the voices are positive, people can learn to live with them. Even if they are negative, people can learn psychological coping techniques.
- Medications – Various types of antipsychotic medications are used if the voices are a result of psychosis or schizophrenia. These tend to be pretty darn effective at reducing frequency of and/or eliminating hallucinations.
- Reframing – Some therapists are helping patients learn how to “reframe” the voices that they hear. This is done by bringing the voices to conscious awareness and recognizing that they are merely a symptom and aren’t based in reality. The goal is to help people get comfortable with the voices because usually if the person gets stressed out, the voices increase in intensity.
- Trans-magnetic stimulation (TMS) – Researchers have found that TMS helps quiet voices by suppressing auditory and acoustic hallucinations for a 90 day (3 month) period. This type of therapy involves decreasing brain activity in specific regions using magnetic fields. Areas of the brain that are typically targeted are usually those involved in speech processing.
Should the voices be eliminated? Only if bothersome.
If the voices are not negative in nature, there’s not usually a need to silence them. However, if they are swearing, pressuring, and/or attempting to control a person, psychological help is highly recommended. Usually there are a couple different types of individuals when it comes to hearing voices. There are those people who hear voices and they do not interrupt a person’s social life and experiences and there are individuals who hear voices that evoke a negative, fearful response. These are the voices that need to be reduced and/or eradicated.
Have you ever heard voices in your head?
What was the experience like? Was the voice supportive or mean? When did you first hear a voice? Was it a single voice or multiple voices? Just know that you are not alone in your experience and you are not necessarily going crazy either. Many people hear voices on a daily basis – some can be positive, some could be highly vindictive, while others can be completely random. Feel free to share your personal experience in the comments section below.
Sometimes, usually (but not always) in the evening or night, I’ll hear one specific voice. It’s very gravelly and harsh, and sometimes it will tell me to do things, but the majority of the time, it’s just menacing noises that sound vaguely like words. Hearing it comes with a bout of anxiety, as it’s so intense that it makes me feel like everything is going too fast, and like every word I speak is over-enunciated.
It’s a very uncomfortable feeling, and I think it’s at least partially stress-related, but it can also happen after I think about it. I first heard it when I was very young, and I was lying on the couch, sick with strep throat or something similar.
The voice told me to count the number of panes in the window, and at the time, I was so scared of it that I just obeyed. At the time, I passed it off as delirium, but since it’s been happening more frequently (maybe 3-4 times in the last month), I’ve been a bit more worried.
BTW, I’ve always (except for maybe that first time) been aware that it’s in my head, but unfortunately, the anxiety persists.
I hear a woman and a man having a conversation like it’s in the other room but I can’t make out what they are saying. It’s very annoying and sometimes random thought will pop in my head and sometimes I speak on it like it was my own thought which it wasn’t. I’ll start thinking “I didn’t think that, where did that come from” and if I’m drinking it makes it worse cuz I’ll have a conversation sometimes arguments with what I think is a person but no one is there.
I’m pregnant right now and they are getting worse (I never drink when I’m preg j/s) but it’s getting more frequent and I used to smoke spice when I was 18 and I’m 23 now but it damaged my brain and now I can’t take anything affecting my serotonin levels BC it will make me have seizures. I don’t know what to do cuz the only antidepressants or schizophrenic medicines affect your serotonin levels.
I’ve also been diagnosed depressed when I was 17, and was treated for psychosis but they didn’t know what kind of crazy I was and they wanted to put me in a mental institute to try out different drugs on me like a guinea pig but my mom wouldn’t let them. So I have no idea what I am so I don’t know what kinda medicine I should take… I also get angry a lot and have suicidal thoughts most days.
I am considered an emotionally and mentally “normal” person. I have heard voices a handful of times in my life and I’m here because I listen to them.
1. I was waiting to make a left hand turn off of a highway and I heard a woman’s voice tell me ” she’s not going to stop” and it was as if someone had taken over my body, pulled my foot off the brake, and slammed my foot on the gas pedal while holding on tight to the steering wheel a fraction of a second before an SUV slammed into my stationary vehicle dead on at 60 miles per hour. I was injured but that voice guided me and controlling the impact of the accident and saved my life keeping me from being pushed into the oncoming traffic.
2. I kept hearing a voice telling me that I had breast cancer and it was “the size of a lemon pip”. I went and had a mammogram and they said I was fine there was no cancer. The lemon pip sized breast cancer was embedded in my pectoral muscle and they missed it. No medical personnel would listen to me and said I was wrong but they listen to me when it finally got big enough to feel because you still couldn’t find it in the mammogram.
Their arrogance and dismissal made the difference between me finding it at stage 0 and having to endure two years of treatment at stage 3. I found it myself because the voice kept telling me it was there. I’m now a 10 years breast cancer Survivor :)
3. 25 years ago, during my divorce, I was terrorized by my drug addict soon-to-be ex-husband’s friends who were told I was an informant which was something I NEVER DID who were terrorizing me and my children in our isolated wood land home. The police laughed in my face when I begged for help, saying I was smashing in my own door and vandalizing my home myself and said I was “just a vindictive ex-wife.”
I woke up one night with the feeling of a hand on my shoulder and there was a white light over the bed with me and my children and a voice told me there would be an explosion but I would be alright. I gathered up my children and clothes and left the house. The next day C-4 explosives we’re planted under my house by a drug dealer. I stood there and watched them being removed from the structure. My two daughters and I are still here because I listened to that voice. They are now adults and one of them has children of her own…
4. I was walking out to my car one day and heard a young woman say “bring me across, you are running out of time, I am the light that shines in the Darkness.” 6 weeks later I was pregnant and I gave birth, parked in my driveway, after an hour and 20-minute labor in the EXACT spot where I heard the voice. When that daughter was a little girl and was able to read and write she made me a Valentine’s Day card and said “Happy Valentine’s Day from your Light that shines in the Darkness”…
EVERY time I hear an audible voice that is not mine clearly speaking to me it saves my life, warns me of a health issue, tells me when someone I care about is in trouble or has died, or tells me something that is going to happen which then does actually happen! I’m not even close to being schizophrenic. Period.
Oddly, white Christian dominated society people that I have known have been frightened by this. In stark contrast, Indigenous native people HONORED me for my ability to “hear.” I am not religious in any way shape or form. Some “voices” are just meant to be heard!
Last night after a long week of partying and hardly sleeping I was laying in bed and when my furnace kicked on I started to hear music, really nasty comments like (HEART ATTACK, YOU’RE GOING TO DIE, A**HOLE AND MULTIPLE VOICES, mango music with nasty song after nasty song with a voice breaking in like an infomercial talking straight to me. It freaked me out enough to wake my wife to ask if she heard them. Of course not. I’m still hearing them 24 hours later but at a lower volume. Weird and hate it. Hope it goes away.
Thank you for this article! The voices I hear are usually always accompanied with extreme, and sometimes even paralyzing anxiety / hypervigilance / fear. Sometimes one voice, other times two but always negative in nature and hard to distinguish from reality even while I try to remind myself that they are not based in reality.
I’d say almost every time they will be the perceived ridicule and judgement of others – narrating and criticizing my every step and movement. I’ve not found a consistent remedy to them – I’m hoping with continued therapy/medication I can be released of this unfortunate circumstance. :(
I also hear voices in the same way. I have some fears and they play on them the most. Have found no relief. Just try to remind myself that they aren’t really there.
I started hearing “whispers” when I was in the NAVY. They are more like laughing at my pain. They are not command voices. Just negative feelings. I have been dealing with it by learning coping skills. I’ve even started working in the psych field as a way of hiding in plain sight. Didn’t always work. The effect they’ve had on my life has become more severe over the past ten years. Any advice on how to deal with them better? They create extreme anxiety and depression.
I know this is an older thread, and I might not get a response, but this has been happening to me lately and I would really like to see if anyone has any useful advice to me. I have been a frequent weed smoker for about a couple months now. (I smoke maybe once or twice a day). I am 20 years old and I live at home with my parents.
They have not been in the best terms lately, and every night when I come home high, I feel like they are arguing from their room. It happens extremely frequently, and last night I heard them arguing about me. I’ve heard them argue about me before, but I’ve never said anything to them. Last night, I thought I heard my mom call me a whore, and I decided I would go to her room to confront her.
When I walked into the room, both of my parents were sound asleep on their beds. I went back into my room and, again, I heard them continue to argue about how I could hear everything they say. Today, I spoke to my mother and she told me that my parents did not argue at all last night, or any night prior to that one. Is it the weed that has me going crazy, or is there something else wrong with me?
I acknowledge know that the voices I’ve been hearing are in my head, but it scares me to think that there might be something wrong with me. If anyone has experienced anything like this before, or can tell me how I could try to combat this, it would be nice to hear advice.
I’m sorry but it has nothing to do with cannabis. And I mean nothing. That is not something that cannabis does to you. I’m not a doctor but that’s the bottom line truth of it as far as thinking it comes from the use of the drug.
I’m not a doctor but I am empathic and to me I feel that what you’re hearing is guilt that you feel within yourself. Whether or not you’re schizophrenic is not for me to say but I do feel that your low self-esteem and your relationship with your parents and your feeling that they are judgmental of who you are isn’t serving you in any way. Best of luck.
Well today was the first time I experienced it. I do take meds which are antipsychotics for my racing thoughts. I was on the city bus on my way to school and I was dozing off when a lady in my head was just talking to me telling me to wake up.
She said, “Do you know you’re asleep? Wake up you’re at your stop.” When I woke sure I was at my stop. It was a little weird I thought but I wasn’t scared.
She sounded as she was in her mid-30s. But then on my way back on the bus I dozed and heard the same lady and this time she talking randomly to me in a joking matter and I woke up laughing. It was real cool to me. But I wasn’t scared because I never felt it was a bad thing when I heard it.
I just believe it’s parts of the brain that’s unlocked. And our dimension just don’t understand it B/C we only use 3% of our brain. Sorry so long.
Whatever other issues you’re dealing with, when you’re dozing or asleep, of course you’re going to hear things. Anyone who remembers their dreams hears people talking in them the majority of the time… that’s just part of dreaming! If it’s positive or informative or helping you or entertaining you and your asleep there’s no reason to be concerned about, it in my opinion. The society that we live in does not honor our dreams.
Either that or they try to over analyze them or interpret them for others. We are all Unique Individuals and our dreams are as unique as we are no one can truly interpret them if they need interpreting except the person who dreams them. Often the American psychiatric community tends to try to make EVERYONE feel like there’s something “wrong” with them, which is not the truth.
Much of what we experience is simply part of the process of Being Human. Sometimes dreams have significance, but most of the time they’re just there. I invite you to keep a “dream book” by your bed. It can help you find some insight into what you’re hearing and seeing.
So I have been hearing frequent random voices since 13. It was sudden and disorganized. Like I would hear footsteps, banging of doors, cupboards and women and men voices getting louder, closer almost a constant whisper to my ears.
I thought it was the demons for almost two years. But now I really don’t know anymore. I can’t study late at night. The auditory hallucination (I guess) is accompanied with severe panic attacks most of the times.
But my panic attacks are very frequent and happens unexpectedly like I would be doing nothing at all just sitting and all of a sudden I would get a panic attack. I have been brushing them off for almost two years now, but I want to really seek help now. This has got to stop.
Couldn’t really find something similar to what I have. It hasn’t caused any problems in my everyday life but I’m still a bit curious. I’ll try to describe what I have as best I can. You know how sometimes, if you’re in a really quiet area you might hear ringing? I’ve found that whenever I hear that ringing, I sometimes hear this sort-of whisper.
It’s definitely a whisper, but it sounds nearly deafening. I can’t understand what he (I’m fairly certain it’s a male voice) is saying, but it sounds more like random syllables clumped together. I have a bit of control over whether I hear him or not, if I don’t want to hear him, I listen to music or something.
If it’s quiet enough I can sometimes listen to him (this works occasionally, like 1/3 times). This all happens very rarely, but I’m curious what you think.
I have had several instances of voices, but there have been distinctions among them. Often I hear my children calling me, in their voice, or someone else calling me, when I ask my children, they tell me they didn’t call me. I woke up one morning and just as I was raising my head I heard the name, “Heidi” very loud in my head, in an unrecognizable voice.
I don’t know any Heidi’s and not even an hour later, I checked an e-mail from my husband who was giving me information on his work EAP. I was looking to get some counseling for childhood emotional issues, and the human resources employee who had contacted him – Heidi. Oftentimes I hear dialogue, I have a very busy mind as it is, which I primarily attribute to my voice and my personal focus, and then I’ll come up with some very interesting and philosophical angle to them or my situation, and I experience this discourse as having a slightly different feel than my regular thinking voice.
I feel like I am the most judgmental in my thoughts—making sure I am responsible—and it’s the other voice that calms me, gives me phenomenal insight and guidance. Makes me look at things in my environment that either help me to remain safe, or validates me in some way, or endorses the direction I want to take but don’t have enough self confidence to attempt. Often, when I am on my way to the car, a song will be playing in my head, I will turn on the car, and the radio will be on, playing the same song which picks right up to where my mind left off in it.
I can’t even tell you how many times this happens, too many to count. Or I expect a certain song, and it’s the one playing. At least two times, I have known, had the thought, “I’m going to see so and so” at the place I am en route to. I was right both times, ran into them in the parking lot. They were people I had never met out of the context in which I knew them, and also people who were barely acquaintances.
For instance, one was my son’s reading teacher, and the other was a grandmother of a child in my daughter’s preschool class. It was mind boggling. It just validated all of those times when I thought, I knew that was going to happen!! But didn’t really give it much more credence than a hunch. It is definitely something more than a hunch based on evidence or previous knowledge.
My son, as a preschooler began saying this a lot, and I believed him, “I knew it Mommy, I knew it!” I know you did, son. Finally, and the best experience having to do with voices, although I can only assume it involved one, because I only remember what I was doing. I once woke up laughing and feeling so content and right and loved.
It was the first time I had felt that level of acceptance, ever. I swear, even today (almost ten years later), I can bring myself back to that feeling and never want to leave it. It was love.
I’m an addict, and have been for the last 3 months. About once a week, I’ll remain awake from 3-5 days at a time. For the last month, I’ll start to hear a woman having sex on day 2, and gets louder when a car drives by or if the heater kicks on.
This has been happening at the apartment complex, inside the office and it’s always coming from upstairs. The moaning of the woman is usually followed my the floor boards creaking, as if someone’s walking around up there. I work at night, and nobody is allowed in the office but me.
I’ve built the courage to investigate a few times, and found nothing, as predicted. But recently the moaning has gotten louder, and I’m actually hearing footsteps followed by the floorboards creaking again. I don’t understand what this moaning means, and tonight I just started hearing a music box type of melody.
Every story I’ve read on here, someone hears voices taking to them or can make out what they’re saying. Obviously I need to quit the drugs and staying up for days at a time, but I’m interested to know what this could be a manifestation of. Any ideas?
Here is my experience. First off, I’m a functioning alcoholic. I listen to sports radio, humorous talk radio, and games on the radio. Many times in headphones at work or exercising. Some examples are Armstrong and Getty, Adam Carolla, local sports radio.
When I stop cold turkey and try to sleep, I hear some of those shows. I hear sports broadcasts… the actual voices of the hosts, some telling jokes I feel I wrote that made me laugh, some making calls of touchdowns.
Either I remembered these calls and shows verbatim and accessed that section of my brain, or I was able to write a complete radio show on the fly. Either way, it freaked me out but was comforting and didn’t scare me. However, it kept me tossing and turning as I couldn’t shut it off.
I’m 17 and realized earlier this year that I’d been listening to a voice in my head for two years. As soon as I recognized that this voice wasn’t just my own normal thoughts, I simply told it “you aren’t me,” and since then I’ve been able to effectively ignore it. Sometimes, however, the voice returns for short times when I am trying to fall asleep or under extreme stress.
It will say extremely negative things, sometimes causing me to cover my ears but to no avail, and eventually it will go away. I think the voice arose from a period two years ago of depression, poor sleep, stress, and isolation. It seems like a defensive mechanism, which allowed me to cope with isolation. It encouraged self-hatred and antisocial behavior but also narcissism.
Later it moved on to encouraging suicide and even consistently suggesting that I kill various people. It was extremely controlling and dominating despite the fact that I was totally unaware of it, but I never acted on it because I’m highly inhibited against risky behaviors. Now I find myself with a problem because this voice has been mostly repressed, but I recognize that it will never permanently go away, and I need to better understand it and come to terms with it.
At no point was I fully aware of the voice enough to have mistaken it for someone else speaking — I always thought it was my own thoughts.
Can’t really say I fit into any of these categories listed, or at least, I’m not aware I do. I’m in my 20s now but since a teenager I have always had voices in my head when I get stressed, that resemble a cluster of people all talking at once – like constant chatter. It’s not scary and it’s unintelligible but I always feel kind of in a trance like I need a sound from reality to break me out of it. It’s just such a weird experience, glad I’m not the only one now.
I always hear my mom call my name every single day when I’m walking away from my house. It’s a yelling voice but not negative… the sort of tone where someone is far away from you and you want their attention. I hallucinate a lot and I don’t know what’s going on.
Hi my 7 year old son just told me he heard a voice whisper the word “hey” into his ear sometimes. He said he’s only heard it a few times and sometimes it says random one words. He also says it happens on the weekends and in the morning before anyone else in the family is up. What could it be and should I be worried?
I was falling asleep when I heard a voice singing then the voice turned high-pitched and started screaming “Hey what are you doing stop that, the evil one”… then I heard the voice being strangled then I heard a bunch of random noises like dogs barking, sirens, and people talking. I went back to sleep and then I heard the sirens, dogs, and people again except no voice, but one thing stayed the same when I tried to get up… it was extremely hard like something was holding me down. It was terrifying. I don’t want it to happen again.
“Only those of pure love and light may talk to me. Only those of pure love and light may contact me. Only those of pure love and light may surround me. Only those of pure love and light may come close to me. I only hear those of pure love and light. Only those of pure love and light may influence me. (And so it is. And it is done).” Saying this some years ago stopped the negative voices for me. Sometimes I might hear something negative for a moment, but saying this always works for me.
I started hearing singing and chanting in May 2014. At that time, I was prescribed AVELOX, Nexium and Tetracycline to treat a H Pylori infection that I did not have. Before having the prescription filled, the pharmacist asked Dr. D. C. to change Nexium to Prevacid, but the doctor refused even though this doctor changed another doctor’s prescription from Nexium to Prevacid several months earlier for me.
This same doctor also told me that when she was treat for H Pylori infection, she ended up in Emergency. I cannot understand how the College of Physicians and Surgeons cannot find any fault with this horrible doctor. I was very disappointed. I continue to hear the singing and chanting to this day as so far none of the medications have helped.
My condition seems to be getting worse. The chanting always happens in the middle of the night. The singing is continuous, 24/7, but the volume fluctuates. I am so scared. My sleep is so broken and it has been ages since I had a good sleep. Any suggestions on how to eradicate the singing and chanting would be most appreciated. Thank you!
I was injured severely after a fall of 30 foot, nobody saw and I was out of earshot or sight of anyone. Broke my foot in 12 places back in 3 places and almost lost my foot but have made a full recovery even though right after the accident when I came to awareness I was praying to anybody who would listen for death because the pain was absolutely horrid. It’s funny because I’ve been accused of being pretty blunt but the voice I heard was pretty blunt and said “If you want to live then you must fight and I will be there to support you, or you can be reclaimed to the Earth ashes to ashes dust to dust,” then it was gone and I realized ants were already trying to reclaim my moral vessel/body.
I chose life and dragged myself through thorns ripping up my forearms sweating and shaking and then going into shock and passing out, only to awake again and drag myself further and 48 hours later I was found. I attribute my survival to God frankly because it was the only clear voice I heard that entire time everything else was me doubting myself or feeling pain or me waking up from shock. I know deep in my soul what I heard and don’t give a s*** what people think because life is all about personal perception in my experience, psychiatric sickness ‘they’ want want to hypothesize, as my brain trying to cope is bullsh-t.
I attribute my survival and recovery completely to a higher power or more specifically Christ for me as surviving what happened to me was nothing short of a miracle, and before this incident I had negative views of any established religion as man has touched it and every single man or woman on this earth pretends not to have flaws but has them so all religion has to be tainted. This entire experience makes me see clearly how to separate churches and religion from spirituality and address negative elements/abolishing, them because I feel alive and loved more than I ever have in life. Before I didn’t care if I died or not, through trauma I saw the light mired in darkness, deep darkness my friends. You believe what you like.
I haven’t heard voices in my head in so long, It felt like a memory when I heard them. I am 21 years old and after not hearing the voices for a whole year, they finally came back today, so I decided to look it up. There was something different about today, it took me back to childhood, as if to tell me where the voices are coming from, as if I am carrying a memory in my mind.
I do not understand what the voices are saying, they are arguing but over each other, I can’t grasp the meaning and once I try to quiet down everything I do to understand them, it just stops, they pop up randomly. It sounds like they are having a huge argument that no one should know about but I overheard it. The memory took me back to my parents when I was from 4-6 years old.
Maybe I am just sleep deprived but for some reason it feels like I am losing touch with myself when the voices show up.
I hear hallucinations on a daily basis. Most of the time the hallucinations are negative. Then the negative hallucinations got positive to pick up my hope just to break it down again. I even know the hallucination are there in my sleep. there is no way out. I hear the only way out of it is to die, and I agree. I just don’t have the guts to kill my self. It’s the hallucinations plan to force you to do their commands. For the hallucination I have does not care how you feel, health, or what you think. They want full control. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH MY LIFE!?!?!
Forgot to add to the list of reasons people hear random voices and symptoms, the interference of technology! I was watching a vid not long ago where they had a new advertising ‘gimmick’. There was a large billboard put up and they had the technology (and have done for a long time now) where they could reach you thoughts with some kind of EMP type tech.
I didn’t really look into that side of it as I was dumbfounded just listening to how far ‘they’ have seeped into the public arena than just behind the scenes. It was used to randomly pick people walking past and it would send music to only certain people. These people reacted and it was obvious that they could hear the music but others were just walking on by.
There was one lady targeted in particular and they sent the word ‘hello’ and she reacted by spinning around looking for whoever was speaking to her. There are many sites now where there are people being targeted. Check: Targeted Individuals.
I had a near death experience when I was 10 and I’ve had weird predictive dreams and heard voices on and off ever since. The voices are never mine and warn me about things like “Watch out for red trucks.” and then later I’ll almost get in an accident with someone driving a red truck. The voice told me to warn my husband not to drive a black car that day and he worked at a car lot and often drove the cars to lunch instead of driving his own.
He was going to drive a black Honda Accord that day but then remembered what I had said and the brakes failed on the person who was driving it and they got in an accident. The voices used to really freak me out as a child, but I’ve learned to deal with them and use them positively.
My brother has been telling me that he is hearing voices and asking me if I can hear it. I don’t know what to tell him or how to get him to listen I’m trying to be understanding and want to help. I’ve been trying to get him to sleep and eat regularly he won’t listen he has been under a lot of stress his dog that’s been his best friend for the past 16 years and it’s puppy that was 7 died two months apart and his ex wife has stopped letting him see his daughter that means the world to him.
Our mom called the cops on him and made him go to the hospital and just treats him like he’s crazy for saying he’s hearing voices, he says it’s multiple voices criticizing him and is convince it’s someone using some kind of technology to that is projecting these things on a frequency that is the same as what his brain is working on. If anyone can tell me where to start I would highly appropriate it. I just want to help him I’m trying to cope and understand as everyone has just turned on him and treats him like he’s crazy and gets mad at him and I know that isn’t helping the situation any.
Did you ever figure out what was going on with your brother? My BF recently dabbled in meth, in a three month span he used three times. It’s now been two weeks since his last use and for the past 7 days he’s been hearing voices. There are two of them, one more vocal than the other. He says they make threats, curse him, say ugly things about me and full on plants seeds about our relationship.
He too thinks his vehicle is bugged and his phone tapped and that electronics, magnets etc. are the sources for these people to track him and control him. I’ve begged him to seek psych help but he just says “why would I? I’m not crazy!” He doesn’t understand why they are bothering him and why they won’t leave him alone (“Hey man” ) is how one always talks..I tried to convince him today that it was BC of the drug use two weeks ago but now I’m worried that there’s an underlying issue?? Any advice would be great.
That’s basically what happened to my girlfriend/best friend/ soul mate. Now she’s gone and I’m lost all alone . I don’t know if she was a T.I. or just brain damage from us doing drugs. But she had gone through a lot of emotional pain and stress too. Basically she was last of her bloodline on her mom’s side.
She lost her mom to breast cancer her brother 4 months later. Took her own life. Then her nana (mom’s mom) that’s when it started. The voices. That was 3 years ago. She dealt with it until 5 days ago. But it got so intense those last 3 weeks it was a constant.
5 different voices saying stuff I’m not gonna repeat on here. But I’m at a loss at what was happening to her. She didn’t want to try to get help because she didn’t want to be called crazy and get that diagnosis. I don’t know. I hope she’s at peace now.
I’ve had a few auditory hallucinations, at work, at home or shopping… it’s usually someone calling my name a distance away when I’m the only one in the house or room, or I’d jump at sudden loud banging noise that only I’d heard (and can’t believe no one else did for the bang was so loud!). I remember once though the voice did try to put me down, I challenged what the voice said, keeping my thoughts on more positive things. But to know auditory hallucinations are generally normal makes me feel better and less worried that I’m becoming schizophrenic. :)
At the relevant time I was a 37 year male with no history of psychiatric or psychological illness, apart from a bit of depression ten years before. I was driving to new city to take up a new job, and I was staying overnight in a motel in the middle of nowhere. I’d been driving most of the day, so I was pretty tired. I was pretty stressed as well. I only had four days to pack up and move, and most of that time was spent at work tidying up numerous loose ends.
I was also anxious about my new job. It was my dream job, the goal that I had been working towards for the last ten years. So, there I was, sitting alone in the motel room. I was tired, stressed and anxious. Unfortunately, I was also doing a good job of psyching myself out. I kept telling myself that I was going to fail, that I wasn’t good enough, that I didn’t have enough experience yet to succeed in the new job, yada yada yada.
Classic negative thinking, and it was working a treat. I felt close to despair. And then I heard a voice say to me, “Stop this rubbish. You’ll do fine.” Six words only, but they had a profound impact on me. I immediately felt a wave of calm wash over me. It was as though all the stress and anxiety I was feeling had drained out of my body, replaced by a feeling of peace and well being. It was a truly wonderful experience.
The voice I heard was a male voice, older, not a voice that I recognized. It was a deep voice, kind and intelligent, but it did sound rather exasperated with me. I don’t think the voice was audible, I’m pretty sure I only heard it in my head, but there’s no real difference in terms of perception. I heard a voice, clear a bell and it was talking directly to me. I was pretty taken aback, but wouldn’t say that I was shocked.
I had never heard a voice in my head before, and I haven’t since. However, not for a second did I doubt that it was real i.e. I wasn’t dreaming or hallucinating. By the words that were said, and the tone in which they were said, the voice clearly knew what I was thinking, and perhaps more importantly, it knew me. That, combined with the immediate physical reaction, left me in no doubt that I was experiencing something real.
I hadn’t been drinking or taking drugs, and I wasn’t I wasn’t in bed in the verge of sleep. I was wide awake, sitting on chair, drinking tea and smoking a cigarette. I keep wondering where the voice came from. Was it a psychological defense mechanism to relieve my acute stress and anxiety? Maybe. Was it a guardian spirit, an angel or even an aspect of God? I have no idea. I wish I did.
All I know is that I have never felt such wonder and peace as I did in the seconds after the voice spoke to me. Sometimes I wish that I could summon up those feelings again at will, but that thought always seems disrespectful somehow. I was granted relief at a particularly challenging point in my life, and for that I was profoundly grateful. And I continue to be grateful.
When I find myself giving myself a hard time, I just say to myself “Stop this rubbish. You’ll do fine.” And I do.
I can see small little creatures… hiding in the shadows. Always watching me never touching me, I can hear them talking to me but no one else can. They haunt my dreams and I can do nothing about it. And the voices I hear do not help with it, they hate me and leave thoughts of suicide, murder, and things I can see. I have not told my parents because I do not want them to fear me. What should I do?
My mom is 84. She is in good health expect for a few things for her age including tinnitus. She lives in a townhouse and insists the younger neighbors beside her fight all night, screaming and hitting. I have been there and they are very noisy but I have never heard their voices. She doesn’t want to move or report them for fear of retaliation. Then she will lay a guilt trip saying we don’t believe her. I feel helpless and do not want her to live like this. Any suggestions or similar experiences are appreciated. Thank you.
After debating on whether or not I should comment about my experience I decided I should just for the hell of it. I’ve been hearing voices since I was little, not sure about what exact age but maybe around 5 or younger. Back when I was this young they were as mild as they are now (in the sense of the rate at which they happened) but were accompanied by visual hallucinations as well, such as seeing shadowy figures walking around the house (which at that age I played off and went along with) and an ominous dark figure standing across on the opposite side of the hall as my room when I am laying in bed.
Eventually the visual hallucinations went away, but as of late I’ve been experiencing very vivid auditory hallucinations. As stated before they aren’t all the time. Furthermore they aren’t ever negative as far as I know. Here are a couple of accounts of recent hallucinations:
One day in my engineering class, which was very open place where if you needed help you could get out of your seat and ask a classmate about a certain subject or advice etc., I was sitting at my computer working on a model for a project when I heard someone behind me and slightly to my right say “hey, nick.” I could tell the direction that it was and it felt as if there was a person where it sounded like it came from. I turned to face the person and said “yeah, whats up?” to realize there was no where in the vicinity of this voice.
Another account took place at work. It was the morning shift at Taco Bell/KFC so it was relatively slow and low staffed. I was working on the line at this moment helping my manager wrap and bag some burritos while she rambled on about something. I wasn’t focusing on what she was saying but on the “elegant” art of burrito bagging. When we were finished I apologized for not listening and asked her what she said. She replied that she wasn’t talking at all.
Very rarely does this happen, but sometimes I’ll get with arguments with myself. Not sure if it’s hallucinations but it still happens. Alternatively something that does happen almost every night unless I’m listening to music or something other than the white noise of my fan and suburban traffic, I will hear tens if not hundreds of voices talking mostly calling out my name and attempting to engage in conversation with me. This has happened enough to where it doesn’t faze me, but when I was littler it would make sleep difficult.
What bothers me about all this isn’t the hallucinations themselves, but the fact that, knowing I do have auditory hallucinations, I might not be able to distinguish a hallucination from real life. I am currently 17.
I have recently, in the last two months, started hearing voices and other things. The voices… It’s like being in a restaurant and hearing pieces of the conversations around you, a few words sometimes, but never actually comprehendible. I have been hearing the buzz of cicadas, and telephones ringing, music, as if in the next room, or a radio on low, and booming noises, like someone a few rooms away pounding on the walls. I have been under a huge amount of stress, and several health issues as well, so am wondering if that might be the cause.
There’s a book I’m reading that a friend recommended called ‘The Untethered Soul’ that starts out speaking of that ‘voice’ in your head that never shuts up and how to control it. It’s been a huge help. I ordered mine used off Amazon, very reasonable.
I hear sounds/voices as I’m trying to go to sleep. They come like a rush through my head, startling me almost nightly. I can’t make out what’s said or what sort of noise it is, only that it’s almost every night when I try to relax. That’s the only time I hear it.
For some time now I have been hearing voice from my head as if somebody is talking to me. But now it affects the way am thinking. I can’t be constructive any longer my brain is not working well. I don’t know what to do!
I often get bad migraines, and when I fall asleep with one I’m often woken by a voice. Most times it sounds like my father calling my name (a daily occurrence in my real life, I still live at home.) Once it was him saying something like “really, you’re going to sleep now?”. The only other one I can remember is my sisters voice, she spoke right into my ear and just said “hey”. I wouldn’t have a problem with these voices except they wake me up EVERY TIME.
This probably isn’t anything too out of the ordinary, but sometimes I’ll hear a huge crowd of voices in my head. I’ll be doing anything at all, when suddenly I’ll hear voices that seem to be fading in and out, and I feel very anxious whenever it happens. Usually I’ll stop whatever I’m doing until it goes away, which sometimes takes a while. I haven’t found anything that could explain it.
I am a writer at heart. Love reading, and getting ideas out. I hear music in my head a lot, and I’ve known for some time that I hear voices at times. I also talk to myself. In my head and to myself most of the time. I’m usually talking to conscious, but now I realize that their are more voices than I thought there were. My conscious has talked to me multiple times before. Now I’m hearing voices often, and it helps me. I do talk to them. I’m 15. I’ve always been a writer and a reader. But I want to become a vet, and a writer.
Fascinating to read these experiences. A new perspective on my experiences for the past 10 years. Mine are pleasant, dream-like states. They started occurring while I was happily working in my garden. I would begin to be aware of a familiar “story” being spoken/played in my thoughts. I never felt alarmed or threatened. After the “story” faded and I was once again completely back in my garden, I would try to remember the story but I never could.
I really wanted to know the story but could never get to it–until the next time I “heard” it while in a relaxed state. My primary doctor diagnosed it as a “silent migraine” and was unconcerned. After several years of the experience some family members pressed me to see a neurologist; first one leapt at the “recurring story” bit and diagnosed a mild form of epilepsy and prescribed a medicine.
A subsequent neurologist said they were silent migraine’s and said the medication would work for either condition. I have lost my “pleasant story” experience and now experience only occasional auditory disconnects, particularly with television programs. I intend to ask the neurologist to wean me off the med–I’d prefer my pleasant story experience to the auditory disconnect.
I have randomly heard voices since as early as I can remember of age 3. When I was younger it was in my dreams and it was a single mans voice showing me visuals of my family saying that he was going to take my family away from me. Didn’t hear the voice for a few years. As I got a little bit older around 8 the voice would wake me up from sleep randomly.
Then it became multiple voices throughout time. Now when they happens my ears start to ring and the voices happen. The voices overlap almost yelling the same words over and over. Everything around me drowns out. I have noticed it seems like a consistent sound triggers it. Construction sounds, fan noise, etc. The only way I can drown it out is with loud music. I don’t know what category this would fall under but it can get really annoying.
So the last time I was (attacked) by this voice was when my ex had broken up with me. It went on for approximately 6 hours and it kept telling me the same thing. When it spoke my body went cold and the more I heard it the more pain full it was. It kept telling me I was worthless and I would never be loved no one likes me all your friends hate you and are to nice to say anything.
The worst part of the ordeal was I had to keep smiling the entire time because I was with family and I didn’t want to bother them with it plus it’s hard to talk about. Any time I see her that voice try’s to start up again usually I can make it go away though.
I’m moving and work is highly challenging right now. So I think stress has been bringing on my voices in my head. My psychiatrist said it’s normal anxiety. It is, however, annoying. The voices are usually my mother or anyone for that matter talking about how bad I am and all the horrible things about me.
Right now I’m hearing my aunt talk to mother in the other room – BUT I know for a fact they are both asleep 10 states apart. They are talking about me. About how pathetic I am. Sometimes I think I’m psychic or something? But I’m the theme of the voices are always about people in other rooms or across the room criticizing me.
Ugh!!! Trying to sleep. Sticking my fingers in my ears doesn’t work because the damn voices are in my head and my head only. Anyone have a great coping mechanism? Please share!!!
I was at summer camp. I was going to register for my merit badge session. I was a bit exited and could not sleep. Then sometime during the night I could hear a voice saying Armstrong register over and over. It seemed as if it was coming from outside the tent. So I looked but could not find a source. It freaked me out and I did not get any sleep that night.
In fifth grade I started hearing these voices, all overlapping yelling at each other kind of, and whispering but also yelling. It didn’t sound like it was coming from anywhere external. They would get so loud I couldn’t focus on anything. Whenever they happened, sounds outside my head got muffled and slowed down, like I was experiencing all external sounds in slow motion. It would drive me insane. It would happen anywhere from once a day to 5 times a day to just once a week. After maybe 6 months, they stopped.
I had only heard them about once a year up to now. I’m 19 now and I just started hearing them again. I can push them away if I push my own thoughts forward into my head. And the voices are the same each time, saying the same things (that I cant understand) up to about 90% accuracy. I’m starting to worry about it again.
About two months ago I started hearing a teen’s crying non-stop outside my window, which faces a busy street. I ignored the situation as it seemed random and also to avoid getting involved in what it seemed the mourning of a loved one at my next door’s neighbor. Two people visiting denied there was such girl outside. Unfortunately, I ignored the whole situation, didn’t give it any importance, not even peaked, and it even became normal.
I was doing drugs on a daily basis, hibernating inside my apartment, and had little interest in doing anything at all. A week before that, I lost my job and have zero social life due to working long hours and completing my masters. I also isolated myself from the few friends I have and limited contact with family, that lives overseas, to one or two texts a day.
Voices starting about the second week after the first time I heard the girl crying. They would speak in my native language. They identify themselves as a family. Claim to be spirits, “good” spirits. They constantly talk to me, demand my attention, ask me to do things, insist in involving myself in arguments with them, insult me, mock me, pressure me, make me feel inferior, sad, even disgusted with myself. I relate all the voices to people who were present in my childhood. People who evoked certain negative feelings in me; my angry aunt, my scary 4th grade teacher and my obnoxious classmate.
I hear them from the moment my brain wakes up in the morning till I go to sleep. Is constant. Tiring. Stressful. I can’t concentrate. I can’t be myself. I hear in my voice too every single word I think or say is repeated in this space where they can hear it too. They will comment and judge every single thing my brain thinks. They sometimes change to positive and insist on keep myself away from drugs (I’ve been off drugs for the last two weeks), to eat well, etc. However, that’s unusual and otherwise they don’t leave me alone but when I am engaged into conversations. They are louder when white noise is present.
I’ve also learned that my brain turns simply sounds, like my nose blowing air when breathing or the fridge working, to words. There are mental illnesses running in my family; schizophrenia, depression and anxiety. A psychiatrist friend of mine discarded the first one as I am 30yo.
I just can’t cope with it anymore. They insist they won’t ever leave me. They enjoy putting pressure on me and infuse fear. I’m either distracted, scared or terribly irritated, all the time. They don’t ask me to harm myself or others. I went to ER two weeks ago and they provided a baby dose of Lozapine and gave me an app with a psychiatrist for next week. I am just tired. Tired of them. Letting this out of my chest helps in someway. Any advice for coping?
I hear random conversations usually between 2 people at a time in my head. Sometimes I can’t hear them well enough to make out what they are saying. Other times, I hear every word clear and loud. Usually not like they talk about me, but sometimes, they are not random, and speak deliberately about me. It gets scary. My psych doctor said no worries, unless they call me by name, tell me derogatory things about myself, usually not true, and try to control me. He says it’s part of Schizo-Affective disorder.
I experienced musical hallucination after Dr. D.C. prescribed Avelox, Nexium and Tetracycline to treat a H. Pylori infection at the end of April/May 2014. Before treatment, I had a urea breath test ordered by Dr. D.C. The result came back negative which means I was unnecessarily treated for a H. Pylori infection that I did not have.
Another doctor, Dr. JDJ ordered blood serology test for H. Pylori and the result was also negative. Based on the tests, I felt that Dr. D.C. was extremely negligent in her treatment. I felt that Dr. D.C. did not pay attention to the results and also owe me a duty of care which she did not exercised. I have endured the musical hallucination to this day.
I contacted Bayer who made Avelox, and they told me that in some patients, just one tablet can cause a psychotic reaction. Dr. D.C. also told me that when she was treated for H.Pylori infection, she ended up in Emergency. I complained to the college and the review board, but they did not rule for me. I am now taking the matter to the Supreme Court for a judicial review.
I have some voices that are not around all the time which my psychiatrist says is related to bipolar disorder. Some of them talk to me but some of them talk to each other. There is one that has been there a long time and is very mean. He calls me names and attacks me. My therapist says to ignore him or talk back to him. He is hard to ignore for some reason. It is like he takes over.
I am still there but I can’t necessarily talk back to him…it is like he is in control and my predominant feeling is that I am trying to get away from him. He is very frightening. It’s like he has more strength and intelligence and is a lot bigger and older and more real than I am. He is technicolor, 3D, imax and I am black and white 8 millimeter. I feel small and powerless in his presence. He hates me.
So when I was around 8-9, I had man’s voice in my head, don’t remember when he arrived, “It” just… was. It seemed ok at first till it started being mean, cruel… just a very evil voice. I got so tired of it then one day It told me to hurry myself and it will leave… Out of desperation I did, then I heard It laugh, I will never forget that laugh, and it said “I am never leaving you.”
I cried so hard when he said that. Then one day a song my mom would always sing to me when I was little came to my mind and I started singing it out loud. Then after a few times of doing so I paused… listened… heard nothing. For once, finally, Its voice was gone, I could think clearly and hear my own thoughts. It had become so loud over time I couldn’t hear myself.
I of course started crying when I realized It had left me. Fast-forward to about 8 months ago, I decided it was time to tell my mother about my experience. When I finished my story, she cried and said that when she was 13 a man’s voice stayed in her head, negative as well. It made her do all kinds of things, very controlling. One night she woke up with cuts all over her arms and couldn’t figure out how, obviously, she was asleep and she wasn’t one for sleep walking… her mom (my grandma) found all the knives in the kitchen laid out on the counter.
It continued to haunt her till apparently one day in church. I can’t remember exactly how she said it came about, but she wanted it gone from her and maybe “willed” it… Idk, but she collapsed to the floor and she said she literally felt it leaving her. But before it did, it told her he would never leave her. Which makes me think It just went into me perhaps, always remaining “with” her. Idk but that’s my experience.. sorry for the long story.
About 4 years ago I was alone in my bedroom sitting in the side of my bed facing my night stand. I heard a deep male voice, as if he was right in my ear, behind me, angrily yell “I’m going to kill you!” Instinctively, I assumed it was my husband playing a dirty prank, so I swing around incredulously yelling his name, ready to hit him. But noone was there! And the bedroom door was closed!
My husband soon entered the room, worried, saying he heard my yell at him. I was in complete shock! Haven’t heard the voice since, except just last night my husband was awoken up at 3:00 A.M. to the same thing!… 4 years later!? So weird. That is what caused me too Google this auditory hallucinations, leading me to this website. What on earth could it be?