Do people with schizophrenia really see demons or hear voices?

[Anonymous]

I've seen a lot of documentaries recently that someone suffering from schizophrenia says he sees people, hear voices that tells them to do awful things...

How Is this really possible? I'm not trying to be rude or say they're lying (understand me)

I'm just saying... this must be the scariest thing on earth

[MrChinaski]

Schizophrenia is an impairment in inferring signal from noise.

Everyone's brain has random electrical noise all the time. When you are awake, when you are asleep, even after you die. The work of the mind is to focus on the noise that is useful, build meaning from it and block out the noise that is not adaptive.

In some sense, schizophrenics infer the wrong signal from the noise. In manifests in different ways.

@msc545 will be able to put it more elegantly, or possibly tell me I'm completely wrong. I have to confess I've only spent a few hours in my life talking to people with schizophrenia and am far from being an expert.

[msc545]

This is an interesting formulation, but it is a bit at odds with how I conceptualize schizophrenia. It's not just a problem with the electrical activity. It's a problem with a lot of other things as well, but perception and conceptualization are two of the big ones. It's also important to remember that we have essentially no idea what causes schizophrenia, and we have no idea how to really fix it (that is, to cure it or even treat it effectively). Most of the drugs that we use to treat schizophrenia have very unfortunate side effects. Very few of them work even a little bit. You might think that people who take the medications that stop the hallucinations to some extent would be relieved, but that is rarely the case. They usually want to get rid of the medications due to the side effects. The delusions, which are the really disturbing part of schizophrenia, are essentially refractory to almost everything.

[MrChinaski]

@msc545 To be fair, I wasn't suggesting a cause, merely a description. There is a large step between observing that things fall down when there is nothing underneath them to hold them up, on the one hand, and that mass-energy curves space-time.

[msc545]

Initially, it seemed to me that you were suggesting a cause, but now that you have said you were not, I can see that you were, in fact, not.

[Simslover92]

I have it and the voices don't make you do harmful things to others but they can make you want to do harmful things to oneself because they usually drive you up a wall and go insane. That's why medication is so helpful and I haven't heard them since I have been on abilify.

[msc545]

I have had people with schizophrenia tell me they heard voices telling them to kill themselves right after they made a suicide attempt. I'm sorry to hear that you have this disorder as well and I hope you are taking your medication and living a reasonably normal life.

[Simslover92]

Thank you. I am now. When it first happened I didn't know what was going on. It was quite scary and it caused me to do abnormal things and made me suicidal at one point but I'm glad I sought help and have been on medication since 2021 and seeing a psychiatrist since then. So I am quite normal now.

[msc545]

I'm very happy to hear that you're your difficulties are in remission. At this point you're able to take medicine that helps you. I imagine the onset of schizophrenia must be terrifying for people. Stay well.

[Simslover92]

Thanks! I will! And it is indeed.

[Nikki1989]

Yes, they do hear voices. I knew someone who was convinced the people on the TV were talking to him.

[Anonymous]

It’s all in their head, but they really do hear voices. They are not possessed by demons and some people who suffer from it are very good and kind people.

[Anonymous]

They might think they do but really don’t.

[FrodoVader007]

That's a sad reality

[Danny_dan92]

Maybe

[Paige2006]

Yes they do

[Pterodon]

Yes some do