Scared of Going Crazy

[Dreamer029]

Ok. First I do know this is common among anxiety sufferers. But ever since I did my psychiatric rotation for school I am so fearful of hearing voices. The fear is on and off. I convince myself some nights that I am really hearing voices, but I don't think I am because otherwise I would hear them even when I don't try and think about them. I think I convince myself that my internal dialogue/thoughts in my head is the "voices". If I go through a busy day I often forget anxiety and/or this craziness fear. When I am concentrating on something or in the middle of a task it almost never happens. But when I sit alone in my room, or am about to go to sleep. BAM, racing thoughts and fears. They are often just nonsensical. I get thoughts that are like fragments of things that don't make sense, kind of like pre-dream state. If I get up do something etc, watch TV, write a post lol...it isn't there because I can't focus on it. Right when I stop doing an activity and start thinking about it, it comes into play. Also, a lot of times in addition to the thoughts going on there are songs stuck in my head. Weird, I know. It is quite annoying.

Can someone please reassure me and/or help me to get rid of this. I mean jeez, if I were gonna go crazy shouldn't it have just happened already? It seems like I will be stuck with some intrusive thoughts for awhile. I need to learn how to cope with it.

thanks :)
Lauren

[PITITA]

Hi Lauren,

I have had this fear so intense for about a year that I can truly sympathize with you and understand how distressing/annoying it can get. Let me tell you that you are in a very good place already, because you KNOW they are just intrusive thoughts, which means you have full INSIGHT, but that you already know. For me that was the biggest first step in overcoming this fear. The more I played down the fear and took fear out of the thought the less it bothered me and eventually the end result was desensitization. I do know however all the hard work that went into this process so by no means do I claim it was easy, but with persistent effort you will get there as well I promise! Please fell free to pm me any time if you need to talk to someone who truly understands.

Hope you are feeling better soon!!! xx

P.s: I also had the songs being stuck in my head for aaaages and fractions of phrases and jumbled up thoughts where I thought they are the voices I am hearing, but they were just loud thoughts as a result of my fear. It was very annoying and I was so frightened, but I overcame this and so will you :-)

Good Luck!! :hugs:

[Liverbird67]

Hiya

I get this when I first wake up in the morning very early and when I am trying to get back to sleep. I think that it is quite commonn in anxiety but it is one of the symptoms that people don't really talk about for some reason.

It used to really really frighten me but I am trying to distract myself from it.

Debbie
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[flegger1]

that is exactly what i have!
someone once told me that yor not mad unles you have certain symptoms ie hearing voices in your head- so what do i do? start imaging them!
its crazy isnt it, because they never actually are there but you kind of imagine imagining them if that makes any sense.
its starting to really grind me down now!!!
any tips?

[Dreamer029]

Thanks for the reassurance!! My tip is shrugging your shoulders and going oh well!! I can still function...so even if this is what crazy is...at least it's not THAT bad. :) If you become comfortable with it, it won't bother you and cause you to get all panicky, because that's what the cycle is.

[lilleesa]

Hi there,
What you are all talking about i can relate to deeply. It is frustrating but there is a name for this condition, that alot of people do suffer from, especially those with heightened senses and anxiety - HYNOGAGIA!
google away and you may find some relief in this!

[melody]

Crazy people don't think that they are crazy!

[Rom]

Google makes it worse believe me ive stopped googling and my exact same fear has dropped a lot since.

[NoPoet]

Hello all, hearing voices is a symptom of some types of mental illness. It does not indicate that you are "crazy". It means you have got a problem which must be dealt with.

If you listen hard enough, you will hear voices -- it's called your imagination. I have found that if you look hard enough you will always find what you're seeking, unless it's a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow of course.

If you were going mad, the process would seem perfectly natural and the voices would not seem out of place. As far as I know it is impossible for someone to simply "go mad" and you cannot summon "voices".