How do people hear voices?

Question

I work with people with mental health illnesses, and I just wondered, when someone says they are hearing voices, are they hearing them like i hear someone talk to me, or is different, i knwo the question is vague, but i cant explain it properly..the same goes for seeing things, do tey see them like how i can see my friend sitting next to me? or is it different.

its a sensitive subject i know, but before you begin to cuss at me get to know the story, i work as a housing officer for a london borough, so I am not trained in mental health illness, but a lot of tenants i come across have mental health problems, and the whole point of my asking the question was to gain a little knowledge

Answer 1

Hi if you type into your browser "hearing voices mental health" You will get a whole range of sites to choose from which maybe of some help to you.

I work as a Senior within a care home for the elderly and they all have mental health issues.

The term "hearing voices"....... they dont actually hear someone talking to them like you would hear me talking to you if i was stood infront of you. They hear these voices in their inner ear. The voice can be from someone they know (who maybe still alive) and from someone they have lost. It can also be a voice of a complete stranger. This is abit like when our consious self tells us within that something is wrong or that we need to do something, but for these people they hear it NOT as their own but as someone else telling them what to do or just talking in general.

Some of my service users will spend hours holding a conversation with someone who isnt there. They will even pause as if stopping to let the inner voice reply. Then continue as if answering them.

I have recently completed a course on mental heath and I learned that even for something as simple as spotted flecks in a carpet can look competly different to someone suffering from mental health issues. A few of our service users would bend over and reach for the floor trying to pick things up that werent there. Even talking to the floor as if a small animal was there. This I learned was because the flecks in the carpet didnt appear as flecks to them. They saw it as something else and this all depended on the indiviual. Weve recently had a new carpet laid now.

If your in thissort of work and not had previous experience your company should really be sending you on courses to help give you this knowledge. People with mental health issues may see and there things but they are still very bright. They will see themselves as being normal, and its YOU with the problem.

Speak to your emplyer about courses hun. It must be very scarey for you at times. Ive worked with mental health now for 4 years and im still learning new things everyday.

As abit of advice......dont turn it into a joke with someone if they start talking funny or telling you someones there its not likly to turn out very well. You can try ASKING them who they see or hear. You can sometimes understand them more if they feel you want to understand and can be trusted. If you feel a moment is getting abit heated try and dirvert there attention somewhere else. If your in their home on your own ALWAYS make sure you keep the exit door behind you. NEVER let the client be between you and the door. If a moment becomes above what you can handle or you feel you need some air then you can exit quietly and easily.

Anything your worried about email me [e-mail]. I will be happy to help you ok

Answer 2

I imagine you haven't long worked in this field as you don't have this knowledge already. You should ask your employer for some information / training on these topic's. There are also many sites on line where you can get this from. (Try: www.mind.co.uk) It would not only benefit you to have information but also the service users you work with. I too work in mental health and peoples experience's are different. People do in fact hear voices like you can hear the person next to you talking, voices can sound like they are coming from inside or outside the head. They can also appear to be coming from objects. Hallucinations can infact be seeing / hearing or smelling something that is not really there.. it doesn't have to be as clear as seeing your friend sitting in-front of you but it could be. Hearing or seeing things are really quiet self explanatory. Hope this helped. Good luck in your work!

Answer 3

I think it depends a lot on each person as far as auditory and visual hallucinations are concerned.

When people hear voices, they may hear very disjointed phrases or may hear someone talking to them as if the person was standing next to them. The same goes with visual hallucinations, it may be very clear or it may be very quick and fragmented. If you work with people who have mental illness I would think you'd know this but anyway, I'll share a little more info.

Auditory hallucinations are not like the inner voice/dialog that everyone has going on inside their head at times, it actually sounds as if the voice is coming from outside the person's head. These types of hallucinations can become worse with stress, improper medication or dosage of medication.

Hallucinations, whether auditory or visual, aren't always menacing. A person may hear reassuring phrases or someone calling their name, while with visual hallucinations they may see a friend who isn't really there or some type of "guardian".

People who experience auditory hallucinations may hear other things besides voices, such as animal sounds and unidentifiable noises.
Also, as far as hearing voices are concerned, there are different ways in which a person may hear them.

Second Person
Second order hallucinations are auditory hallucinations in which a voice appears to address the person in the second person. For example the voice may be talking directly to the person - "You are going to die" - or the voice may be telling the person to do some action.

Third Person
Are hallucinations in which the person hears voices talking about themselves, referring to them in the third person, for example "he is an evil person".

Echo de la pensee is the phenomenon where a person hears voices which echo thoughts just after they have occurred to the person. This is fairly common in people with schizophrenia.

Gedankenlautwerden is an hallucination where a person hears voices which anticipate what he or she is about to think, or which state what the person is thinking as he thinks it. There is no convenient word in English to describe this phenomenon but it literally translates into "thoughts becoming loud".

It's also important to note here that not everyone who experiences visual or auditory hallucinations are psychotic. They can be brought on by exteme fatigue, underlying medical conditions such as seizure disorders and drug use.
Also people with PTSD may hear or see things during a flashback that aren't visible to anyone else, but these are not hallucinations. They are brought on by triggers from a past trauma and strongly tie in with the events of the trauma. In other words, they are re-living the trauma.

Answer 4

I once knew a person who experimented with a drug that caused them to become delirious while on the drug. He began talking to himself for hours and he thought he was really talking to someone. He was dead serious and this was no joke. He was sitting at a table having a conversation with a group of people. When I asked him the next day about it, he didn't really remember much of it. Slowly, parts come back to him and he gets some of his memory back from that night. While on the drug, he saw people and heard them talking to him as if they were really there. At the time that it was happening, he didn't think twice that he was on a drug. He thought it was real and he thought it was normal. This drug is a deliriant, not a hallucinogen. My point is.... these people with mental illnessess are delirious. What they have is an illness and they probably see what this guy was seeing while on drugs except they are not on drugs and this is normal for them. It's an illness.

Answer 5

mmm i would say this is normal, forget what people are saying you are not trained etc. Its a question that alot of people wonder when they see it happening. Sometimes it could be they are just very old and lonely. Sometimes they are mentally ill in the head but what they see and hear is real, never believe it isnt. We no people that see soilders at war and people talking to them but there is no one there, sometimes its actually spirits. If i was in your shoes dont freak out. if they have a friend they talk to and you cant see them go along with it, make them feel like they are not going mad, dont sit there and say well there isnt anyone here, that is what will freak them out. You will find that you will begin to get a relationship with that patient if you are on the same level. Trust me on this 99.9% they are actually talking to real people but in spirit world. Never assume that its imagination. Hope this helps

Answer 6

I have schizophrenia, and I hear voices, and this is the easiest way for me to explain it. Take your headphones with music playing. Put it on your head, not your ears. You can hear it, but it's different then when you have it on your ears. Like you have a tape player in your head. I think it might be different for different schizophrenics. Some might here it like someone on the outside is talking to them. I don't know. But that's how I hear it. Hope that helped a little.

Jessie~

Answer 7

I suffer from hearing voices. For me, it's as real as anyone else having a conversation with someone, only when I look to where the voice is coming from there is no-one there. I also see people that no-one else can see. I once saw someone running away from my front door, but when the CCTV was checked, there was no-one there. I often see spiders in my bath that no-one else can see. When I see people I see them as much as I see other people who are there, I just can't see their faces. It is very frightening when it happens and at the moment it is happening too much.

Answer 8

It depends, some will describe the voices as "in the head", others swear they hear them as if they were being talked to by a person. Thats one of the reasons they get so confused by it all. Visual disturances are usually described as being actually seen. I had a neighbour who had problems and she would often sit on the stairs complaining of all the flies in her flat. There were none there, but she could see, hear and actually feel them crawling on her skin...;

Answer 9

they see them just as if it were real. the voices sound like someone talking in their ear and seeing things is just like looking at your computer right now. they cant control it. they might see things from a traumatizing past or just because they feel that imaginary person sitting next to them is the only one in this world who cares. it can scare them at times but that's why they are getting help

Answer 10

People with mental illnesses can really see and hear things that are not there. This is not uncommon at all. They see and hear like they are real, they cannot tell the difference.