eurotrashcub
05-03-09, 17:11
One of my biggest health fears is becoming psychotic or schizophrenic (and hearing or starting to hear voices) and although I have found many posts in these pages that have been helpful in dealing with my obsessions, I have decided to gather some information about this matter so it can be helpful to people who are going through what I have been going through the last few weeks.
Fearing madness is quite a common complaint by people who suffer anxiety disorders. In fact, most people who suffer from an anxiety disorder suffer from this symptom from time to time, at the very least. The specific fear of developing psychosis and/or schizophrenia or schizophrenia-related disorders (Schizoaffective Disorder, Schizotypal Personality Disorder or simply other non-specified psychoses that have traits of schizophrenias) seems to be a kind of health obsession.
On the same way that some people with anxiety become over concerned about a particular illness (most commonly having a heart attack or cancer), Anxiety patients can also develop a fear of developing psychosis and/or schizophrenia (which some people would describe as madness)
Schizophrenia is a serious disorder that seems to be caused by different factors: genetic, psychological and social. Some of its symptoms are:
- Hallucinations (particularly hearing voices)
- Beliefs about thought insertion, broadcast or that's somebody is stealing or controlling one's thoughts.
- Delusions
- Odd and or magical beliefs
- Paranoia
- A flattened mood
- Social withdrawal
- Inability to express themselves verbally with ease.
- An inability to differentiate between what is real and what is not.
The average onset of schizophrenia for males is late teens to mid twenties and for females, it is late twenties to early thirties.
Many people with anxiety disorder who fear going mad tend to obsess about the possibility that they are hearing voices. People with psychosis and/or schizophrenia-like disorders tend to hear voices that are clear. They sound the same way that the voices that you would hear from another person. The voices are not perceived as thoughts and although sometimes they are identified as a 'voice in my head'. psychotic people tend to have explanations for them that are not rational in their social context (i.e God talks to me, my uncle John speaks to me, the CIA is sending messages to my head, aliens are telling me that I am worthless/I need to kill myself)
Therefore it is important to differentiate between your thoughts and the actual perception of hearing somebody or something talk to you when there is nobody there. The question to ask yourself is the following: Are you hearing voices when there is not anybody or anything around you that has produced that voice? If the answer is no, then you are most probably not having auditory hallucinations.
One of my symptoms will be repeating my own name over and over in my head and working myself up to the point where I start to doubt whether I am hearing my own name or not. Another one will be hearing a noise or a whisper at work or when I am out, and checking that what I heard is really, fearing that I am starting to hear things. To date, I have failed to clearly hear a voice of somebody and therefore, I believe, and so does my doctor, that I am not having auditory hallucinations and that my symptoms are related to my anxiety disorder and that are related to OCD.
I would advise to anyone who is going to a several phobia, to go and speak to their GP/therapist who will be able to establish pretty quickly whether you are going psychotic or not and arrange for appropriate treatment for your anxiety disorder.
One of the first things my GP told me is that people who are going psychotic tend to lack insight and consider that what is happening to them is not abnormal and that the rest of the world are the ones with the problem. The fact you are worried you might be going mad makes it unlikely it is happening to you.
Some advice if you are suffering from this obsession:
- Speak to your doctor/therapist/social worker/nurse...
- Stop googling!!
- Take a step back, relax and try to look at the whole picture in an objective manner.
- Once your doctor has reassured you that you are not going psychotic, accept the diagnosis and concentrate on learning how to move on from the fear instead of dwelling on it.
There is an online test for schizophrenia that might be useful:
http://psychcentral.com/quizzes/schizophrenia.htm (http://psychcentral.com/quizzes/schizophrenia.htm)
It is important to add that having hallucinations while falling asleep or just waking up, when taking certain drugs, due to lack of sleep is not related to psychosis. Also, many people experience hearing their own name being called at some point in their life. This is quite common and it is not a sign of mental illness. Hallucinations are also common and transient during bereavement.
Furthermore, there are some people who use this website who might be really hearing voices and who might have or be developing psychosis:
- Firstly, it is important to say that some people hear voices and they do not have any other mental health problems, nor they lose control with reality. There are several organisations of voice hearers with people who lead perfectly normal and productive lives. It is widely accepted that Sigmund Freud, Winston Churchill and other historical figures were voice hearers, and they did pretty well.
- If you are developing psychosis, the key to a better prognosis is early detection and early treatment. So if you are experiencing symptoms that make you think you are losing touch with reality or (more commonly) of your friends/or family think you are going psychotic, seek treatment at once. There are plenty of therapies (medications. psychotherapy, psychosocial...) that can help people with schizophrenia to lead relatively normal lives.
I hope this helps and I would love to hear from any people who has been obsessing about hearing voices, who are actually hearing voices or who are petrified and concerned they are going mental.
Fearing madness is quite a common complaint by people who suffer anxiety disorders. In fact, most people who suffer from an anxiety disorder suffer from this symptom from time to time, at the very least. The specific fear of developing psychosis and/or schizophrenia or schizophrenia-related disorders (Schizoaffective Disorder, Schizotypal Personality Disorder or simply other non-specified psychoses that have traits of schizophrenias) seems to be a kind of health obsession.
On the same way that some people with anxiety become over concerned about a particular illness (most commonly having a heart attack or cancer), Anxiety patients can also develop a fear of developing psychosis and/or schizophrenia (which some people would describe as madness)
Schizophrenia is a serious disorder that seems to be caused by different factors: genetic, psychological and social. Some of its symptoms are:
- Hallucinations (particularly hearing voices)
- Beliefs about thought insertion, broadcast or that's somebody is stealing or controlling one's thoughts.
- Delusions
- Odd and or magical beliefs
- Paranoia
- A flattened mood
- Social withdrawal
- Inability to express themselves verbally with ease.
- An inability to differentiate between what is real and what is not.
The average onset of schizophrenia for males is late teens to mid twenties and for females, it is late twenties to early thirties.
Many people with anxiety disorder who fear going mad tend to obsess about the possibility that they are hearing voices. People with psychosis and/or schizophrenia-like disorders tend to hear voices that are clear. They sound the same way that the voices that you would hear from another person. The voices are not perceived as thoughts and although sometimes they are identified as a 'voice in my head'. psychotic people tend to have explanations for them that are not rational in their social context (i.e God talks to me, my uncle John speaks to me, the CIA is sending messages to my head, aliens are telling me that I am worthless/I need to kill myself)
Therefore it is important to differentiate between your thoughts and the actual perception of hearing somebody or something talk to you when there is nobody there. The question to ask yourself is the following: Are you hearing voices when there is not anybody or anything around you that has produced that voice? If the answer is no, then you are most probably not having auditory hallucinations.
One of my symptoms will be repeating my own name over and over in my head and working myself up to the point where I start to doubt whether I am hearing my own name or not. Another one will be hearing a noise or a whisper at work or when I am out, and checking that what I heard is really, fearing that I am starting to hear things. To date, I have failed to clearly hear a voice of somebody and therefore, I believe, and so does my doctor, that I am not having auditory hallucinations and that my symptoms are related to my anxiety disorder and that are related to OCD.
I would advise to anyone who is going to a several phobia, to go and speak to their GP/therapist who will be able to establish pretty quickly whether you are going psychotic or not and arrange for appropriate treatment for your anxiety disorder.
One of the first things my GP told me is that people who are going psychotic tend to lack insight and consider that what is happening to them is not abnormal and that the rest of the world are the ones with the problem. The fact you are worried you might be going mad makes it unlikely it is happening to you.
Some advice if you are suffering from this obsession:
- Speak to your doctor/therapist/social worker/nurse...
- Stop googling!!
- Take a step back, relax and try to look at the whole picture in an objective manner.
- Once your doctor has reassured you that you are not going psychotic, accept the diagnosis and concentrate on learning how to move on from the fear instead of dwelling on it.
There is an online test for schizophrenia that might be useful:
http://psychcentral.com/quizzes/schizophrenia.htm (http://psychcentral.com/quizzes/schizophrenia.htm)
It is important to add that having hallucinations while falling asleep or just waking up, when taking certain drugs, due to lack of sleep is not related to psychosis. Also, many people experience hearing their own name being called at some point in their life. This is quite common and it is not a sign of mental illness. Hallucinations are also common and transient during bereavement.
Furthermore, there are some people who use this website who might be really hearing voices and who might have or be developing psychosis:
- Firstly, it is important to say that some people hear voices and they do not have any other mental health problems, nor they lose control with reality. There are several organisations of voice hearers with people who lead perfectly normal and productive lives. It is widely accepted that Sigmund Freud, Winston Churchill and other historical figures were voice hearers, and they did pretty well.
- If you are developing psychosis, the key to a better prognosis is early detection and early treatment. So if you are experiencing symptoms that make you think you are losing touch with reality or (more commonly) of your friends/or family think you are going psychotic, seek treatment at once. There are plenty of therapies (medications. psychotherapy, psychosocial...) that can help people with schizophrenia to lead relatively normal lives.
I hope this helps and I would love to hear from any people who has been obsessing about hearing voices, who are actually hearing voices or who are petrified and concerned they are going mental.