I hear voices.

Factual Questions
21

DarrenS say’s;

I totally agree. And this is a very important point.
It’s like if you see a juicy cheeseburger on the tube, and drool for a piece of fried chicken. Something like that, anyway. :wink:
I thought of tourette’s too. I don’t know much about this affliction, yet, but I’ve been around a couple of sufferers. I can’t tell what’s in their minds when they’re not acting-out. I’ll have to do a little research.
Not OCD, I’m sure. My niece has OCD and I do know a little about that. These thoughts are too random and undirected to be compulsive.
It doesn’t really bother me. There’s no outward manifestation, and the thoughts are very fleeting. The incidents are pretty rare, and are more surprsing than distressing to me.
I did grow up in a very intolerant invironment, and always have been deeply bothered by such talk. I’m sure that has a lot to do with it.
Thanks to all for not being judgemental. :slight_smile:
Peace,
mangeorge

22

The whole point is that they’re intrusive thoughts. They aren’t connected to actual opinions or feelings, and they can be highly unpleasant (“Why the hell did I just think that? What a terrible person I am!”). Somebody can see a black person and have the word “nigger” flash across his brain even though he’s not a racist and the word “nigger” is highly offensive to him. It’s almost as if a mean-spirited little demon living inside his head (completely separate from the rest of his brain) is trying to taunt him and make his life miserable.

23

Also a diagnosed OCD sufferer here. I haven’t had exactly that sort of experience, but there are a variety of them. I have had thoughts come through about doing something inappropriate, although I’ve never done those things. It’s hard though, because it’s uncomfortable and worrying. Luckily I take medication which helps me control things. It doesn’t cure me, and I still have obsessive thoughts, but now I can deal with them without feeling the anxiety I used to.
I think it was worst for me when I was an adolescent. Whether that was because of hormonal changes or what I’m not sure.
If it worries you see a doctor. There’s no shame in it, and getting help can make things a lot easier.

24

Nah, photopat, it doesn’t bother me a bit. I know it doesn’t reflect the way I feel, and there’s really no anger or animosity involved. I just attribute it to some of that screwy shit that goes on in the human mind, and I let it be.
No harm, no foul. Right?
But I do agree. If something bothers you, and you can’t resolve it, get help.
Peace,
mangeorge

25

Yes.

My friend was talking to me yesterday about this very subject: “Watching the footage of 9/11, it was terrible and everything, but wasn’t it totally awesome? Don’t you ever in a way wish a 747 taking off from the airport here in Sydney would crash into a suburb?”

He took pains to say he hoped and prayed that it wouldn’t happen, and that he didn’t want to belittle the terror of last September in the USA, but I knew where he was coming from, and had to admit that I have those thoughts. A 747 crash would simply be the greatest show in town. Well, the idea of one is. I’m sure to those who actually witness it, it’s anything but.

At work, we sit out on the steps of the loading dock to have a cigarette or a coffee. I was sitting on the top of the bannister, swinging my foot. A workmate was sitting on one of the steps so that my swinging foot was in line with the side of his head. Bearing in mind that this is a guy I like, I found myself thinking, “I wonder how much force I would need to crack his skull with my steel-capped boots. His nice…round…skull…” That kinda thing.

But I think nearly everyone has these thoughts. Like mangeorge, I don’t think they reflect my personality, I have no impulse to act upon them, and I’m not particularly concerned by them. I’d probably be more concerned if I didn’t have them, and slowly bottled up all that deep-seated animal stuff. I guess we’re all sending ourselves simple fuck-hunt-kill-eat-drink-sleep signals. That we have them is probably to be expected. That we’ve evolved to not have them 24/7 is something we should cherish, rather than worrying when we do have them.

26

I suppose I experience what you’re describing, I’ll form an opinion of someone at first glance, but then I tell myself, you don’t know him/her, s/he could be a beautiful person if you get to know him/her.
Despite these thoughts, I give everyone the benefit of the doubt. But don’t alot of people form opinions based on appearance?

But then again, I’m 17 and I have much more to learn about people and life don’t I ?

27
      • I hear voices too, but I hear them from the central AC unit when it’s running. They sound like a TV sound, men’s conversational language faintly, as if a television is turned on with the volume down low in another room. I can’t hear it well enough to understand what it’s saying, but that’s what it sounds like: muffled conversation. I thought of recording it with the PC and putting it through some audio filtering software, but haven’t gotten around to it. …I am imagining some NSA wiretap shorted out by a mouse chewing on the wires; if you don’t hear from me again, feel free to theorize what happened.
28

/Slight hijack

DougC I have the same thing with the Cambridge Soundworks speakerset on my computer. I pick up some Spanish radiostation (I live in the Netherlands !!) and sometimes some airline controllers (I do live near Schiphol Airport). The cables connecting the speakers are really thin, so I assume their acting as antennae.

/End slight hijack

29

Yeah I get this too. Not always nasty thoughts either. For example, I can be reading something whilst somehow another part of me is thinking what I want for dinner tonight, and another is thinking about a film I watched a few weeks back, and another is just going ‘La la la la la la la’.
Sometimes really twisted things will appear and I’ll feel disgusted with myself but it’s like it’s not really me thinking it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I actually have multiple personalities or anything but it can be very strange.

30

I’ve had something similar along these lines after I became a parent. My mind would picture something UNSPEAKABLE happening to my baby (or my child, when the kid grew older). The awfulness of the picture would freeze my brain and my thoughts would shut down.

I learned to use these flashes of terror to double- and triple-check everything around me, so the UNSPEAKABLE would not happen.

We ALL get careless. But our veneer of civility permits us from DOING these terrible things which pop into our heads.

Perhaps it’s an “early warning system” of some kind?

~VOW

31

“The Imp of the Perverse” by Edgar Allen Poe

Quote:
There is no passion in nature so demoniacally impatient, as that of him who, shuddering upon the edge of a precipice, thus meditates a Plunge. To indulge, for a moment, in any attempt at thought, is to be inevitably lost; for reflection but urges us to forbear, and therefore it is, I say, that we cannot. If there be no friendly arm to check us, or if we fail in a sudden effort to prostrate ourselves backward from the abyss, we plunge, and are destroyed.

Examine these similar actions as we will, we shall find them resulting solely from the spirit of the Perverse. We perpetrate them because we feel that we should not. Beyond or behind this there is no intelligible principle; and we might, indeed, deem this perverseness a direct instigation of the Arch-Fiend, were it not occasionally known to operate in furtherance of good.

32

Hm. It’s probably way off-base, but the first thing to pop into my head when I read the OP was: schizophrenia.

33

My former therapist said it was completely normal.
What isn’t normal is STRESSING over it, which is what I was doing.
I felt horrible for having these thoughts and even worse because I had no control over my naughty inner voice. I had to learn to just accept it because it is normal.
The trick is to start talking back. Every time I thought something evil, I’d laugh at myself and say, “Don’t be silly you little oaf!”
It helped if I used a British accent.

34

I reckon i’m pretty well adjusted, and tolerant of everybody, regardless of age, weight, race, gender etc, and I get these nasty little flashes of involuntary thought too.

I’m pretty certain its not OCD, Schizophrenia, Tourette’s or anything. I reckon its normal. I never let it influence my conscious opinion of anyone.

Vinryk - I believe its also pretty normal and very common for little boys to “torture” insects. I used to, occasionally, but would never dream of it now.

35

This same thing happened to me one evening. Since I couldn’t hear anything when the AC was off, I assumed that it was just some temporary oddity of my brain’s sound processing and I tried to ignore it.

Since then, I once read something to the effect of “adding noise to a weak signal can make the signal more discernable.” In other words, it’s possible that those sounds are actually present, but they’re just below your threshold of perception and the noise raised it above that level. But I don’t remember if this referred to a physical effect that could be detected by electronic or mathematical processing, or some function of the brain or nervous system that shows up only in our perceptions.

36

I’d like to address the “torturing insects” thing.
I had a brief spell of doing this myself. When I got older, the memory kinda bothered me. So I did a little research. It was a long time ago, but what I remember is that while one might hesitate to call the behavior ‘normal’, it is very common among young, especially pre-adolescent, boys.
As long as it’s short-lived, and not compulsive, there’s probably no problem. Most kids quit pretty quickly, and feel at least a little remorse for hurting the bugs. Chalk it up to “experimentation”. Akin to playing with matches.
Some people worry entirely too much. :stuck_out_tongue:
Like I said above, if there’s no harm being done, or real potential for harm, don’t sweat it. And as Rushgeekgirl said, learn to enjoy your eccentricities. Share them with a loved one. Well, maybe not. :wink:
Peace,
mangeorge

37

I sometimes feel thoughts like that creeping in, and I think they’re normal. You can’t always control what your brain does any more than you can control what a man’s penis does (ha ha). Occasionally I think VERY similar thoughts about people I’ve never seen before like
“She’s a bitch”
“He’s a womanizer”
“They’re fucking”
I say, if you’re not acting on the thoughts and screaming hateful things at people, they’re not harmful. They’re just one of those weird mind quirks.

38

I too have similar thoughts and feelings come into my head at different times when I see random people in different circumstances.

As agreed with the OP I do not feel any malice or hate towards these people, and if I did interact with them I would treat them with the respect I treat any stranger I meet with (unless they act in a way that isn’t deserving of respect, even in this situation though I wouldn’t be rude).

I have discussed this my girlfriend on a few occasions and she claims to have the same feelings at different times. We are both extremely similar in our interactions with different people, both of us trying to be as polite and well mannered as possible, to respect and to hopefully leave a positive impression with the person we are dealing with. To me this is trying to be a good person, something I try to do whether I’m feeling happy, sad, annoyed, angry, tired, whatever. If I’m feeling uptight I don’t think its right to be rude to people that have done nothing wrong to me. If this means putting a fake smile on my face and pretending to be happy so the person has a positive experience with myself I will do it, even if its the last thing in the world I want to do.

And this I think, at least for myself, is where the problem described in the OP stems from. As I’ve said I try to be as positive as possible when interacting with any person. and I suppose it annoys the hell out of me when I try to be nice and don’t receive the same treatment back. Situations such as someone scowling when they serve me in a shop, people rudely staring at me (I happen to have quite a few visible piercings (I’m sure my septum ring is the one that bothers most people) and working in a suit and tie office environment I often receive some of the rudest stares off people, sometimes people will not even take the same lift as I do!!), or little things like telling someone to have nice day to have them look at you blankly and say nothing really annoy the F@#K out of me.

All this leads to a predicament in my head. I begin to dislike people because of all the negative experiences I have had with them, yet still love people because I know how good, honest and caring people can be. I think the way my mind deals with this is to indiscriminately put people down in my head, vent if you will at the annoyance I feel towards rude people, yet still continue to be polite and well mannered in all situations I can be.

Do I feel bad for doing this??? NO not at all. My thoughts are my thoughts, my brain is everywhere and often some strange thoughts come up. Some of these would be considered bad, yet I feel that if I don’t act on these thoughts then I have nothing to worry about them.

Therefore I will keep venting at random people in my mind (not that I can really stop it). To me it’s a positive thing. If it keeps me still being able to be happy, friendly and polite to perfect strangers, even ones that don’t deserve it, then it can’t be a bad thing.

39

I do the EXACT same thing. I’m not alone!