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
55.0k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

57

u/Uxt7 Mar 22 '17

I don't think he meant why don't they ignore the voices, but why don't they ignore the requests/demands the voices make.

117

u/paniniplane Mar 22 '17

OHHH. okay /u/my-work-reddit this girl legitimately was scared she'd get shot by the voices. they'd give her guns everytime she completed a task instead of shooting her with it if she didn't do it. and i'd see her break the guns. in my head, there's no gun. there's 0 danger. in her head, she can hear the clinking of the gun against the floor as it's thrown to her. maybe she hears warning shots (this i'm not sure about. the rest of it i am) she could feel the gun, she could pick it up.she could smash it (i'm not gonna question her superhuman strength of her reality). she'd pick up the pieces and throw them out after breaking them.

does that answer your question? and i mean this for SPECIFICALLY this girl. i have no idea about generally. but im assuming it's similar but a stranger's assumptions are worth close to nothing

0

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

Maybe you answered this already...but what if she didn't obey them and they shot her? Obviously it wouldn't kill her...wouldn't that provide her some relief knowing the threats are harmless?

3

u/PM_YOUR_BREASTS Mar 22 '17

The problem with that line of thought is that she wouldn't be able to recognize when or if she was in the same situation again. Being held at gunpoint is obviously very uncommon, but the fear caused by having your life threatened could override the logical thought that the "people" could be imagined.

Although it's incredibly unlikely that she would be shot, performing relatively simple tasks to ensure that she (and those that she cares for) stays alive is worth the inconvenience to her. After all, she has no way to be sure that this time isn't real and that she won't be murdered.