So worried about schizophrenia or another really bad mental illness

[elliesun]

Hi everyone. I know I am probably being irrational but the anxiety has taken over and I'm too scared!

My sibling lives at home with us and is a real handful. He's always shouting my mum, and we all do worry about him a lot as he has substance misuse issues. He was downstairs going on about something and I put my earphones in. He left the room and went through to my neighbours. I chose a song to listen to on my earphones, then after about 15 seconds, chose a new song to put on. I heard then, clear as day, in my ears, my brother shouting 'mum'. I said 'mum, brother is shouting you' and she said she never heard it as he's next door. Nobody else in the room heard it. I felt so panicked. I'm not really tired and I wasn't feeling anxious at the time.

I put the songs back on to see if it was a sound in the song I could hear but it wasn't. I'm scared as I've read before on forums of people who have a schizophrenia diagnosis that their first symptom was hearing a loved one say their name etc. Having something like this would be my very worst fear! I'm just so frightened I'm in the stage of developing schizophrenia before it really kicks in and I stop thinking anything is wrong :(

When I told my friend, she said it was definitely weird after hearing he wasn't even in the house and she's never experienced this. Now I can't stop panicking and I am so scared :( my partner also says nothing like this has ever happened to them.

I don't know what to do, I'm terrified I am developing schizophrenia as I am in my mid 20s which is when it happens. I'm also scared to hear any other things or experience any other symptoms :(
I just want to cry.

[NoraB]

Firstly, you're in the grip of HA and have been for quite a while. This means you're highly stressed and the brain can throw wobblers when we're stressed & tired (ask any fibro sufferer what tiredness does to the brain)

You say you're 'not really tired' but I'd question this with your level of anxiety. In June you posted about your struggle with the bladder phobia and this tells me where you are in terms of stress. This alone would cause the brain to blip occasionally, but you also have the stress of your brother. He's clearly on your mind a lot and that's unsurprising given his aggressive behaviour..

Am I surprised that you think that you heard your brother's voice? No. (I've had auditory stuff with anxiety but also visual; I once saw lots of black things scuttling across the floor, and they weren't there either)

Am I surprised that your first thought is schizophrenia? No. Because the nature of HA is to catastrophise and this is no different to what you've been doing with your other issues..

I wouldn't rule out that it was actually your brother's voice (just because your mum didn't hear him doesn't rule this out) but I'd say that this is due to stress..

Or, your blood sugar was low.

Or, you were dehydrated..

Or it's a medication side effect. My MIL once swore blind there was a helicopter hovering over her house (there wasn't) but she was on new meds..

And so on..