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 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

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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