2 hours ago
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.
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.