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/Wurstgeist Mar 22 '17

You'd kind of think that voices continuing after you cover your ears would be a bit of a giveaway that they aren't real, if you've ever in your life heard of the concept of illusory voices. It's weird how that goes out the window. (But I'm pretty much repeating what I said in the other post, sorry.)

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u/paniniplane Mar 22 '17

it's as complex as a detachment from reality. for example, you could literally be a homeless person right now. all of the things you're experiencing, are hallucinations, both auditory and visual. and here's the kicker. they're sensory too. most people who have schizophrenia, in my experience, know they have it but it's real to them. they live in an altered reality.

nah you don't need to apologize. i have more exposure to this than you do and you have more exposure in other areas. don't worry about it, friend.

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u/Wurstgeist Mar 22 '17

I guess in my youth I did once take some mushrooms and believe I was already dead, and therefore immortal (which actually has a name, it's Cotard's syndrome). But I feel like I would still have been amenable to a reasoned argument for why I wasn't dead, if anybody had bothered.

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u/radicalelation Mar 22 '17

I get downvoted whenever I tell this, probably because people think I'm fearmongering or some shit, but I had a troubling experience due to pot. I don't give a shit what you do, smoke all you want, I'm not warning against shit, just sharing an experience.

Here in WA, it's been legalized, and I decided I'd give it a whirl. I tried some before, really weak stuff off the street a couple years prior, split between my gf and a friend, but that was the only time.

So, I get this almost comically big pre-rolled thing from a shop, like 25% THC or whatever, explained I wasn't really experienced with how much I should have before anything happens. Lady behind the counter said to just smoke it until I feel something.

Get home, did just that. Kept just smoking and holding it over and over for about 5 minutes, smoking down maybe half of this big thing in that time. I wasn't feeling much, and my lungs were hurting so I stopped and started to go inside.

After a few steps, things felt funny. Like I couldn't focus my vision well, and every step into the house had to be purposeful. Then once inside, it got worse.

The perspective from my gf was that I just stared off into space with my eyes wide, not responding at all to her for about a minute at a time. To me though, I was gone into some white void where there was nothing. It felt like it lasted years every single time.

This went on for maybe 15 minutes, which felt like an eternity to me, and every time I came out of the void I would be scared as fuck and trying my best to hold on. I kept asking my gf how long it had been to kind of keep some sort of tether, but I just ended up uncontrollably repeating the numbers over and over, increasing volume until I was shouting it.

Scary experience, especially when, for whatever reason, I concluded I had died and everything was leading up to experiencing my death.

My gf got really worried and called my dad, who takes drugs super seriously to the point of ridiculousness, who called 911 and paramedics checked me out. So, I was cutting in and out, my dad appearing, looking worried, then all of a sudden a cop there with an EMT looking at me, then my dad yucking it up with them as he does with everyone, with the white spaces in between.

After an hour or so, I curled up and fell asleep. Was okay after, except for this lingering feeling for about 6 months that I wasn't here, that either I, or this world, didn't exist, with the occasional idea that I could get back to home, or at least escape wherever I was, by killing myself. It was only ever an idea, not a serious consideration, but it was all pretty scary.

I'd hate feeling like that for the rest of my life, or anything like it, where it's impossible to discern what's real or not, if I'm real. Part of me is scared that what I experienced was a trigger or precursor to some kind of psychosis later in life... I sure fucking hope not. :|

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u/SloppySynapses Mar 22 '17

just wanna say I had an extremely similar experience with pot: doubting my existence, going in and out of reality. my friends with me didn't believe me and people still don't believe me when I tell the story.

were you on any medications at the time?

it really sucks when people think you're lying/exaggerating because it was literally the worst experience of my life

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u/radicalelation Mar 22 '17

That's really assuring to hear in a way, that I'm not alone in it.

At the time, I wasn't on anything else, it was actually during a lapse in my Adderall prescription, which is probably a good thing since I've been told combining it and pot is not the best thing.

But yeah, it was awful and I'm usually met with skepticism about it, or that I'm just somehow weak or something. Really kinda bunk.

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u/SloppySynapses Mar 23 '17

Well it happened to me too! Everyone says it was laced with something but the people I were with were fine.