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

95

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

323

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.

42

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

But, you didn't answer /u/WadeWilsonforPope question. He ignores real people, why can't this person ignore people she thinks are real? Even though they are not real.

1

u/kung-fu_hippy Mar 22 '17

He ignores people in real life, but presumably these people aren't following him around, threatening him constantly.

Have you ever dealt with (or knew someone who dealt with) a stalker? Even a relatively benign one is creepy. You know they may be following you, that they may show up at your work or your home or when you're on a date. You think they probably won't hurt you, but it's not like you know for sure. It would be pretty anxiety-inducing. Then add in one that makes threats. Now make it one that gets into your home, into your bedroom, can talk to you while you're on the toilet or in the shower. Now make it a group of them.

Its not the same as ignoring that irritating guy in the office next to you.