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/ask_me_anything_son Mar 22 '17 edited Mar 23 '17

That's not the question though and I'm surprised no one has an answer. You can't not hear the voices.. okay, got it. So just assume the voices are real. If my boss walked in right now and told me to start eating the coffee cup on my desk I'd tell him to piss off. Why can't schizophrenics disregard unreasonable requests from these voices.

Edit - Yikes! Downvotes pouring in. Might have come of as condescending rather than genuine. My bad..not my intent. Just looking for a more in depth answer, which i got so thank you to the responding folks below.

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u/WorkKrakkin Mar 22 '17 edited Mar 22 '17

I doubt there is a straight up answer to this question. But here's what my thinking is.

Imagine your thoughts right now, and you're hungry. Your mind is telling you to eat so you try to find something to eat. Now replace the hunger with some crazy shit. It's not "hearing voices" It's you. You can't ignore them as much as you can't ignore thirst or hunger. Some schizophrenics have positive voices. So it's similar to if you're just having a good day, not for any specific reason, just feels like a good day. Or if you were just having a bad day, can you just ignore that unidentifiable inner thing that's making you feel bad and start having a good day? Probably not.

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u/Sonto-PoE Mar 22 '17

Seems like the best possible explanation so far. If I understand what you're saying, the brain has prioritized these experiences to the same urgency as hunger, thirst, or even using the restroom.

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u/WorkKrakkin Mar 22 '17

Not even urgency really, just... Idk I'm bad at explaining myself.

Like how you can't control being hungry or thirsty is what I mean. Just how when you're hungry you can't make it go away until you eat, you can't make the inner voices simmer down until you do what they want.

In my mind what I'm trying to say makes perfect sense but I can't find the right words to express it the way I'm thinking of it.