# schizophrenia \[deafness and auditory hallucinations\]

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schizophrenia-deafness-and-auditory-hallucinations/758629>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 28, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schizophrenia-deafness-and-auditory-hallucinations/758629 "2016-06-28T14:38:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Vicsage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e68b1a/32.png) [@Vicsage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vicsage)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schizophrenia-deafness-and-auditory-hallucinations/758629/1 "2016-06-28T14:38:11Z")

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Since many, if not most, people with schizophrenia hear voices at some point in their disease, what happens if they become deaf? Do they still insist they’re hearing voices? If they are born deaf, do their delusions manifest in a different way?

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**Author:** ![albino\_manatee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/albino_manatee/32/2_2.png) [@albino\_manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/albino_manatee)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schizophrenia-deafness-and-auditory-hallucinations/758629/2 "2016-06-28T14:51:53Z")

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in terms of “schizophrenia” … deafness, or lack of audible hearing, would have no effect … the “voices” reside within one’s state of mind _(perception)_.

look at it this way … say you are walking and come to the edge of a busy street … cars are whizzing past you. should you cross … or should you wait? an opening appears … is this your chance to cross? you hear something in the back of your mind … telling you to wait.

that voice … was not a _“voice”_ at all … was inside your subconscious. had you been deaf from birth … you’d still hear/perceive that voice.

and, yes … severity of schizophrenia can worsen … and voices become louder and more prevalent … and being able to _“reason/rationalize”_ become less pronounced. there can be environmental or biological factors to blame … as well as genealogical factors.

am sure others will offer differing perspectives as well.

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schizophrenia-deafness-and-auditory-hallucinations/758629/3 "2016-06-28T14:56:17Z")

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Title edited to clarify subject.

Colibri  
General Questions Moderator

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schizophrenia-deafness-and-auditory-hallucinations/758629/4 "2016-06-28T14:59:53Z")

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The auditory hallucinations experienced by schizophrenics are just that: hallucinations. They don’t depend on sensory input, but are generated within the person’s own mind. Therefore deafness shouldn’t have any effect.

While I can’t speak to the experience of someone who was born deaf, I would guess that symptoms would manifest themselves as obsessive thoughts (which schizophrenics have as well).

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**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schizophrenia-deafness-and-auditory-hallucinations/758629/5 "2016-06-28T15:04:21Z")

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> [@](#):
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> Dr Atkinson concluded: “The results support the notion that the perceptual characteristics of voice-hallucinations map closely onto an individual’s real life communication preferences and experience of language and sound. The methodology demonstrates that the diversity of voice hallucination experience reflects the variety of experience with language and hearing loss among deaf individuals. While these findings may appear intuitive and unsurprising, it does represent a significant shift away from the incongruent notion that individuals born profoundly deaf might hear truly auditory voice-hallucinations despite a lack of experience with sound.

From this link - [https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0707/07070303](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0707/07070303) where the study participants were all hearing impaired and diagnosed with schizophrenia.