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+--- Thread: If You Know You Have a Condition, Can't You Tell Yourself the Symptoms aren't Real (/thread-58.html)
If You Know You Have a Condition, Can't You Tell Yourself the Symptoms aren't Real - ArmandCNP - 08-09-2026
This question has been known to be asked to schizophrenics by normal people. It makes it out to be such an obvious cure to your condition. Simply ignore every bizarre thought and experience because you know you have a condition. The question displays ignorance of how the psychotic mind works.
First of all, it's rare to slip deep into an episode in the blink of an eye. It often starts small and begins to slowly chip away at the foundations of your reality little by little.
You may be able to ignore a singular voice. It is nearly impossible to block out sentient-sounding voices eroding away at the walls of your reality for what could be days or even weeks. Before long, you're left wondering which version of reality being presented to you is the one you should focus on as being real.
People may try to tell you that the voices aren't real, but the voices tell you that the people aren't real. In extreme cases, the voices have more access to your mind than people do such that it makes it easier to side with the voices.
"You know the voices aren't real, right"? No, actually I don't.
RE: If You Know You Have a Condition, Can't You Tell Yourself the Symptoms aren't Real - uncouth_capybara - 08-10-2026
I mean...the whole thing with the voices to me is that they literally sound real. I've experienced them when I was in public, which is worst-case scenario, because they get muddied up with the real, actual voices I can hear around me. That instance was especially terrifying....
I would like neurotypical people (as they are called these days) to imagine hearing a real sound. That is what the voices sound like to me, maybe half of the time. The other half of the time, I can tell the voices are "fake" because I can reality check, or the voices have a certain airiness or an internal quality to them which is hard to describe.
But the "real" or "fake" metric goes out the window because of the psychosis. Hence the diagnosis itself. If I believed all of the voices were "real" then I would be very apparently, outwardly psychotic to others if I communicated to them that the voices were there. If I believed (as I more often than not do) that all the voices were "fake," this would still cause me psychological distress because I am still experiencing them!
Thank you Armand for a thought-provoking post. Hoping others will chime in and that any neurotypical onlookers will invite the possibility that reality is not so firm for some of us folks out here in the great big neurodivergent world.