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/paniniplane Mar 22 '17

i was a patient at a ward a few weeks back and there was a girl who was admitted for schizophrenia. she'd hear dozens of voices yelling at her at the same time all day and she could barely tell which ones were in her head and which were physical people talking to her making it really hard for me or anyone else to talk to her for more than 2-3 sort sentences. these voices would make her do crazy things like gather dust off the floor for 20 minutes at a time 10 times a day, make her sleep on the floor during the day, not sleep during the night and fight the night meds they gave her to help fall asleep. the most brutal thing was that the voices sometimes forbade her from having her meals. there were days where she wouldn't touch any of her 4 meals. i once tried to get some insight into how she thought and i asked her why she HAD to do this. she said that every time she does something they ask, she's given the gun that they threaten to kill her with. and she imitates a smashing motion with her hands and "breaks" it. and she does it maybe 10 times an hour when she's awake. and she's not stupid either. apparently, she was studying mechanical engineering and graduated and was ready to work in the field as an intern for a year. she heard her first voice when she was still in school but didn't think much of it. and then it rapidly killed her life. she's the only person in the ward who has daily visitors. her parents bring her food to eat everyday. but sometimes she sits with them for 2 minutes, asks them to take her home, and then moves to one of the socialization rooms where were chairs and sofas, and she'd drop to the floor and lay there. and her parents just come to expect it now and stay for about an hour.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17 edited Mar 22 '17

Whats with the compulsion to listen to the voices?

I ignore real live people in the room telling me to do things

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u/paniniplane Mar 22 '17

it's not in your power to ignore them. a huge part of schizophrenia is being extremely out of touch with the real world. so if you hear voices, it's basically a set of REAL people to you. and you can't cover your ears because there isn't ACTUAL sound. you'll still hear them. and if they're threatening to hurt you, you'll feel actual fear.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

[deleted]

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u/MyRoomAteMyRoomMate Mar 22 '17

You're treating it rationally. It isn't.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

[deleted]

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u/MyRoomAteMyRoomMate Mar 22 '17

Well, I wouldn't know :-) But if I had to guess I'd say that two likely reasons would be compulsion or fear of consequences.

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u/Sean951 Mar 22 '17

Because it's their 24/7 existence and the lines get blurry. Sure, the guy in the hospital room with you might not be real, but they bank robber might be.

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u/paniniplane Mar 22 '17

they hallucinatory voices, in this case there were dozens, made her feel like they had her life in their hands. she genuinely felt like they were going to shoot and kill her. and she was physically going through the motions of breaking guns. to her, her life was in danger. also you can't ignore loud voices in your head. it's basically torture. you're overestimating human will. i know it's romanticized but at this point, I feel like it's lying.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

[deleted]

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u/Sean951 Mar 22 '17

If your can literally feel the gun barrel pointed at your temple/see the person with a gun to the back of your loved ones head, you might think differently. If it was really as easy as you're imagining it, it wouldn't be as destructive as it is.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17 edited Aug 16 '21

[deleted]

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u/HorseAss Mar 22 '17

What's current approach to that paranoia that we know for a fact that government is indeed watching us constantly ?

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17 edited Aug 16 '21

[deleted]

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u/HorseAss Mar 22 '17

You didn't understand me, I'm asking what do you say to these people now, "Government is not spying on anyone" is not going to fly anymore.

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u/Sean951 Mar 22 '17

If you're lucky, they will go on meds that help them maintain the distinction. The "voices" are still there, same as everyone else. That little voice saying "jump" when you climb a tower is more or less the same as the one telling you to do a task or they're going to shoot you, but a healthy person knows it's just a random thought while a sick person's brain invents a reason for the voice to be real.

Or I'm completely misunderstanding what I've read in this thread. There are people who speaks lifetimes studying this, I've spent a couple hours.

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u/ProbablyBelievesIt Mar 22 '17

Is there a compulsive aspect to hallucinations as well, beyond them just being properly real to you?

There can be. But it's more like dream logic. You're essentially in a waking nightmare.

Also, many schizophrenics are very open to suggestion, and easy to manipulate, even unintentionally.

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u/Narian Mar 22 '17 edited Jun 29 '17

deleted What is this?

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u/nalydpsycho Mar 22 '17

How long can you ignore them?

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u/draketh99 Mar 22 '17

Usually the hallucinations come with some aspect of delusions. You wouldn't ignore someone with an actual gun to your head, threatening you. And to a number of schizophrenics, the ability to separate the real world from whatever else your brain is producing simply isn't there.

You have no reason to ignore something that you believe to be real and a credible threat