Voices

[SegaDragon]

Reposted from The Answer Guys, 'cause it fits under both categories and will likely get different perspectives.

What I want to know about are the "voices in the head." Not your conscious or your brain, but the ones where people are classified as crazy for having.
Thing is, I had them once for about a month or two. I don't know how many different types of voices there are, but I do know that I was describing them to someone who had them. What interested me so much is that this person to whom I was describing them also had them and could further describe them exactly as I had experienced them, so I know he wasn't making any of it up.

So what I know is that there are two voices. One's good, one's bad. That's a pretty basic estimate of them. One tells you to do good things and tells you the most "holy" path in life. The other tells you to harm yourself and that your life is completely worthless. Even though it's unbelievably easy to distinguish the two (at times, anyway), the bad voice's advice is so undeniably logical that you have to take it into deep consideration, along with the good voice's advice, even though you know it's the "bad" choice. Kinda like a Christian vs. Atheist stance to a Christian. To a Christian, "Atheism" is wrong, but when presented with the facts, one must think them over well. Just like to a Christian, while you know the good voice is good, the truthfulness of the bad voice nags you. While one wouldn't advise someone to harm themselves, one would (depending on their religion) advise someone to convert to atheism. That's how it feels. You're thinking, "But what if what I believe to be right is wrong? What if this bad voice is right?" And you just don't know which to believe. As I was telling this to someone, they practically completed my sentences, because they had gone through the exact same thing, except they were and probably still are convinced that the voices were "Divine Intervention" - God and Satan. He was prescribed medication to stop the voices, and the medication worked. I listened to music so loud to the point my ears ached, or my hearing would worsen, in order to drown them out. They go on and on, arguing over who's right. It seems so much like a force other than your own, because their arguments are things you'd never thought of, and seem smarter than anything you could come up with yourself. On top of that, the arguments are being quickly shot out, so if your subconscious is really what's coming up with these, then it's doing an amount of work that would be considered extreme for your conscious, and it's doing it in a rapid period of time - only further convincing you that you're not crazy, and there is some sort of "Divine Intervention" going on. While I've never heard the voices state where they came from or why they were there, after hearing of said person's remarkably similar experience, I've been constantly thinking about them and more wondering what caused them. At first, I'd simply thought, "I'm crazy," but for someone to have gone through such a similar situation, I don't know what to think of it anymore. The thoughts were so strong that I'd think it perfectly fine to branch this off into a new religion, where whatever these voices are, they're above mankind and know more about the universe than mankind combined.

So does anyone know anything more about them?

[Duh'venger]

I've worked in a facility that hosts a number of people who hear voices.

Many of these folks have taken to wearing headphones and listening to loud music for much of their waking lives in order to drown out these voices.

Most of the time the voices bear bad news and negative messages.

Sometimes the messages are mixed. More than one voice with mixed good and bad messages.

Once in a while we'd get a person who only heard good things from positive voices. Still, they took to wearing headphones a lot because not many people enjoy hearing voices in their heads, regardless of what they're saying.

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Personally, I've only heard a voice in my head (other than my own) on one occasion, and that was a long, long, time ago.

A voice SHOUTED one word. I don't remember what the word was, but it was loud and startled me pretty good. It never happened again.

[Schteve]

Eh, if you ever get too concerned about it you could see like a psychologist or something. Those things could be a mental disorder type dealy. But hey, if you think it's something entirely else and want to go with it, feel free.

[Isis]

I'm a nurse with a lot of medical reference books and textbooks in my library. If you want me to, I can spout a lot of quotes, links, opinions, and windy explanations. Though, to summarize, there is so much we don't know about the brain and how it works. Hearing voices in your head is not a usual phenomenon. Some reasons have been documented for why people hear voices in their heads, and there are medications to stop the voices.
If I were you I would be cautious. Maybe the voices are benign. Maybe they talk you into doing something horrific. But either way, you should learn to and seek help in controlling them.

In nursing school, its not uncommon to be studying so many different diseases and worry that you have one of them. Same with my mental health studies. You read things and go "wow, I do that". But I'll never forget what my psychiatric nursing professor told us "Crazy people don't know they are crazy".

[SegaDragon]

I don't have them anymore, Isis, but if your books and whatnot have specific examples of two voices, good and bad, I'd like to know as much about them as I can.

[DarthLlama226]

This sounds rather like the Freudian line of thought. Superego, Ego, and Id. I'm under the impression that this line of thought is still shown to budding psychiatrists in class. To people unfamiliar with Freud's theories, everyones mind has two main parts: the concious and the subconcious. The subconcious is dominated by three personalities: Superego, Ego, and Id. Superego is the lawabiding, cultured side of the mind. He always tries to encourage you to do what is considered right, as you have been taught by your parents and society. Id is the primeval side of the subconcious. All things impulsive come from him. Sexual desires, anger, fear, all that stuff. Ego tries to moderate between the two.

While these aren't precisely voices that you can hear, I personally believe they are the driving influences behind such things. These seem to match up for the most part with your experience, Sega, save one part. Id would not tell you to harm yourself, Rather, he would influence you to do something that would give you the greatest pleasure at that moment of time, despite what might happen later.