# Why don't the voices... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 15, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-the-voices/621948 "2012-05-15T01:37:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-the-voices/621948/1 "2012-05-15T01:37:27Z")
… ever tell people to be nice to people? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-the-voices/621948/2 "2012-05-15T02:05:25Z")
I don’t have auditory voices, but I have thoughts that seem to be inserted from outside. (Yes, I am very glad that I know they only _seem_ to be this way.) Sometimes the thoughts say “I love you”. Sometimes they say “She loves you.” (I suspect “she” refers to me, based on what I’ve gathered from other communiques.) It doesn’t matter how distracting they are, I always feel good when the thoughts play this particular message. They give me such a pleasant feeling that I once testified about them at Quaker meeting. When they come around, I often find myself wanting to tell someone. I feel a bit lonely when I realize I will never be able to share the experience. I am not psychotic. I know there’s nothing shameful about mental illness, but I still feel compelled to say this, lest anyone think I’m crazier than I actually am. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-the-voices/621948/3 "2012-05-15T02:08:06Z")
A few years ago, I remember reading a research article that talked about how, yes, there ARE people out there who have auditory hallucinations that say positive things. We just don’t hear much about it because those kinds of voices don’t disturb people/cause them to get into trouble and therefore they don’t come to medical attention. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2012, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-the-voices/621948/4 "2012-05-15T02:09:03Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > … ever tell people to be nice to people? Maybe they do. People with voices that tell them to be nice tend not to make the headlines. Edit: What **lavender** said. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2012, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-the-voices/621948/5 "2012-05-15T02:58:32Z")
I hear voices telling me to be nice to people. But I ignore them. It would be insane to do what the voices tell me. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2012, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-the-voices/621948/6 "2012-05-15T03:04:03Z")
Well my voice frequently says “don’t leave them like that, put them out of their misery” and I obey. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2012, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-the-voices/621948/7 "2012-05-15T13:54:56Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > … ever tell people to be nice to people? There _was_ this guy a couple thousand years ago with a God complex who got himself nailed to a tree… ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2012, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-the-voices/621948/8 "2012-05-15T18:40:20Z")
I don’t understand why paranoid schizophrenics, such as [**Vince Li**](http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/05/30/vince-li-greyhound_n_868810.html), the decapitator cannibal on a Greyhound Bus, obey the voice(s). There’s as much to be said about the seeming compulsion to obey as there is about the voices. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2012, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-the-voices/621948/9 "2012-05-15T19:12:47Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > There’s as much to be said about the seeming compulsion to obey as there is about the voices. Perhaps the voices are relentless, insistant, and threatening and the deeds get done just to quiet them or to address the dangers of disobeying? Or maybe the voices feel trustworthy. The TV show _Wilfred_ is actually a pretty neat illustration of a guy dealing with a deeply psychotic delusion/hallucination. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2012, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-the-voices/621948/10 "2012-05-15T22:48:19Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > I don’t understand why paranoid schizophrenics, such as [**Vince Li**](http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/05/30/vince-li-greyhound_n_868810.html), the decapitator cannibal on a Greyhound Bus, obey the voice(s). > > There’s as much to be said about the seeming compulsion to obey as there is about the voices. It’s not just voices that make a person crazy. You can be non-psychotic and have hallucinations. As long as you recognize that they are not _real_, you’re kinda-sorta okay. The moment your mind steps into the psychotic state, you become a victim to the voices plus your own delusions. The voices tell you to kill someone because you already believe they are evil. Your voices tell you a person is evil, and you start believing the only way to stop them is to kill them. Non-psychotic people do not have this problem. There are nice crazy people, by the way. They do nice things that go unnoticed because the craziness scares people away. And because people ignore them, they become very lonely and sad and vulnerable to negative thoughts. I don’t think the average person would be that more comfortable with a crazy person mumbling “I love you, I love you, I love you” than one mumbling “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.”