Discussion Auditory Hallucinations/Hearing Voices

[crabclaw]

When I was a young teenager I heard a few voices that would talk to me on occasion, and I talked back to them in my head. They then stopped for a while, but have recently come back. I have a much better understanding of what they are now than I did back then, and am trying to adjust to hearing them again.

I don't personally think I have schizophrenia or a psychotic disorder, as I don't exhibit any of their other symptoms aside from hearing voices. Sometimes they can be harsh or mocking, other times friendly, or just neutral and making comments on things that are happening. I would often negatively talk to myself in my head whenever my mood was extremely low, but when the voices are being negative, they say a lot of the things I would usually say to myself.

I was just wondering what other people's experiences of hearing voices have been like. Now that they have returned, I'm hearing a few of the same voices as I did as a teenager. They had names, distinct personalities/times when they would come out and responded to things I said as though they were people with their own brains. Is this a common experience for people who hear voices? And is it okay to keep talking to them? Should I ignore them, or are there other ways to cope with them that are better?

 

[post_card]

I don't think I ever had any mental voices talk to me. But I remember when I was a kid that I used to see standing black, shadowy figures of people. It was just few times, but it was always really creepy and eerie and my reaction was either run or just start screaming and calling for my mom to come and turn on the light in the room so the figure can vanish in the light. Probably that was just me being afraaid of the dark and imagining things, because since childhood something like this never occured again.