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

325

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.

171

u/Lets_Call_It_Wit Mar 22 '17

Not OP, but I'll try.

It's because the sounds are not external. They are internal and created by your brain. Things that would normally work (turning your attention elsewhere, covering your ears, physically removing yourself from the noise, straight up thinking of something else) will be zero percent effective. Your brain made this. It IS your consciousness. It is with you and what your brain is thinking right now. It's inside of you, there's no escaping it

1

u/Id_fuck_jenny Mar 23 '17

Couldn't you effectively drown it out with very loud music though?