I Hear Things Sometimes. I See Things as Well.

Reader’s Question

Um… I don’t quite know how to put this… I’ve been a pretty messed up person throughout my life. I’ve been in and out of hospitals and been through more therapists than I can remember. I want to know. I hear things sometimes, when it’s really quiet… I see things as well…and not really just little things. I was wondering what are the symptoms of schizophrenia? I have been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, but I didn’t really divulge enough to the psychiatrist that did my psychological evaluation. I don’t know. I just feel so detatched from this world…and I think about things that I shouldn’t think about.

Our Consulting Clinical Psychologist’s Reply

Schizophrenia is considered to be a problem with the brain’s neurochemistry…often called a “chemical imbalance”. One neurochemical, Dopamine, gradually elevates in the brain in this disorder. At first, you become suspicious and hypersensitive to everything around you. You feel others are talking about you or making fun of you. You begin to see patterns in everyday life, patterns you hadn’t noticed before. This type of paranoia is then followed by hearing mumbling which gradually becomes clear — moving to “hearing voices”. The voices are often heard outside the body and typically talk about sex, religion, or negative/nasty topics. At that point you have other sensory hallucinations — problems with visions, sense of touch, or smelling unusual odors.

What follows is a thought disorder. You begin feeling your thought process is changing. You feel something or someone is purposefully controlling or influencing your thought. You may feel your thoughts are being read or broadcast outside of your head. The brain attempts to make sense out of all this and ends up with a bizarre theory — called a delusion. At that point you are outside of normal reality thinking.

I would recommend reading my article on Chemical Imbalance on my website at www.drjoecarver.com. You may also want to read up on Schizophrenia. This condition can get much worse and I would strongly recommend that you see a psychiatrist. We have medications that can control those symptoms. It would be a mistake to think that you can “outthink” the symptoms. People can’t outthink diabetes or epilepsy. While there are many thought, feeling and perception symptoms, this is a medical condition that requires treatment.

A Clinical Psychologist with 36 years in the field, Dr Carver is currently in practice in southern Ohio in the US. He became Consulting Psychologist with CounsellingResource.com in 2007.