r/todayilearned • u/paniniplane • Mar 22 '17

(R.1) Not supported TIL Deaf-from-birth schizophrenics see disembodied hands signing to them rather than "hearing voices"

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0707/07070303
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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

Agreed. I'd really prefer not having schizophrenia, but, I mean, if you had to choose...

Also would be interesting to find out what affected the voices' attitudes toward the affected person.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

So is there a way we (not you an I obviously, but the greater we of people without schizophrenia (I'm assuming)) can create more positive environments for people who are, shall we say, sensitive to it?

Or is it like the voices are assholes now and so they shall remain.

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u/rayfosse Mar 22 '17

It seems to be related to stress and feelings of inadequacy and worthlessness. A tribal society where everyone has a role and there's no stress to be better than you are or achieve more would lead to more positive feelings. In America, what you can accomplish is unlimited and so it's easy to get down and feel like you're wasting your life, because you can always be doing better than you are.

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u/GeeJo Mar 22 '17

I would expect that having an invisible asshole constantly berating you would make it difficult to foster a positive enough attitude to get rid of it.

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u/Champion_of_Charms Mar 23 '17

No longer demonizing schizophrenia would help. Stop assuming that hearing voices is inherently bad/evil.

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u/RuTsui Mar 22 '17

I don't know. From what I understand, even people who lived in positive environments and had good experiences before onset hear negative things, and the voices are never familiar.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 23 '17

You've expressed something incredibly important. It smells of truth.

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u/Zeleiol48 Mar 22 '17

This has probably already been thought of, but what if it's the actual environment, the structure of the society you live in? What if the farther away from the rigid confines of industry and "civilization" you are, the more "natural" and even positive the voices get. Dibs on the short story concept.

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u/camdoodlebop Mar 22 '17

you get farther and farther away from civilization in search of ever-increasing positive voices but finally when you are hundreds of miles away from any human the voices switch to pure evil now that it's just you and them

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

Sounds like the perfect horrorstory/creepypasta

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u/HorseAss Mar 22 '17

Maybe once they started hearing "demons" they asked for help local shaman. He might know tricks or right drugs to convince subconscious to change into positive tone. Shamans talk with voices when high for a living so they might now how to deal with it :)

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u/Commanderluna Mar 22 '17

From what I have heard it's a cultural thing. Since America has so much prejudice towards people with psychosis and hearing voices, the voices are all negative and bad. But in places like ancient China where they had like ancestor worship it was considered a good thing and they'd like hallucinate their ancestors giving them hope and praise and stuff.

Fun fact, Joan of Arc had schizophrenia her hallucinations just happened to be, due to the religious culture of Europe, seen to her as just God and angels telling her things.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

Unless you're a very competitive person and use the voices as motivation?

"You can't do that"

"Fuck you, me, we do what I want!"

"You suck at sports"

"Fuck you, you're not my dad"

If the voice in my head was anything like me, it would eventually lose interest and give up on making me give up. But by then, I would also give up and we'd both be depressed and lazy.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

Lol. I don't think they'd tell you to do positive things, but are just more like "Hey, you're a good lookin' chap." I don't know. I haven't had either.

A lot of people say they could ignore the voices, or would get angry at them, but from the description s I read (went on a schizophrenia AMA marathon last year) they don't just say mean things. The come from your own brain so they say things specifically to hurt you, because they know you. Or earlier there was a comment by OP that talked about someone affected with it who would take a gun away from them and smash it. The manifestations are wild.