When you talk about a crowd of voices - is it as though they are talking to you specifically, or is it as though you are standing in a busy crowd? (Sorry about my abundance of questions, I'm just rather interested )
Imagine being in a busy pub. It's like that. Just chatter all around you.
I don't understand why anyone would use something like this as a fashion statement.
Completely agree - whether it's for attention or "trendiness" then I am completely baffled as to why you would pretend to have a mental health disorder.
What's schizophrenia like compared to representations on TV and films?
Everyone experiences their illness in their own way. Some are a good representation and some are exaggerated. A Beautiful Mind is a good film I think which is based on John Nash's journey through his illness but not everyone gets like that. Some people like myself are sometimes aware that they are not well because you can feel that something has changed (a little hard to explain). the media that makes people with this illness out to be violent is wrong because a majority are mainly a danger to themselves due to their distorted perception of reality. There are exceptions but personally I would say that is due to to the nature of the person e.g. they have a tendancy to become violent and go on to develop schizophrenia which can exacerbate their violent tendancies, not that they develop schizophrenia and suddenly become violent. I have never had it in me to physically hurt anyone and i'm sure a lot of other people with this illness could say the same
I hear voices sometimes whilst fading off to sleep, I've never been conscious enough to analyse how much they are affected by will or how easy it is to manipulate them into saying certain words/phrases, have you tried at all?
When i'm hearing voices, I find it hard to keep track with conversations. I also struggle to watch TV or listen to the radio because I get messages from them telling me to do things. I'm a lot quieter and less confident than I used to be because I struggle to tell what's real and what's not. It can keep me from going out and socialising because I can act oddly sometimes.
my old best mate had paranoid schizophrenia. he'd have a better convo with himself then he would me! oonce he told me the voices were telling him to kill me :/ didnt phase me though as i could trust him
why do you think the voices you hear always tell u negative things? and not 'oh you look nice today'?
Sometimes they say positive things, sometimes neutral, sometimes bad. It can sometimes depend on my mood. I've i'm getting manic they'll say stuff like 'you are god' 'you can fly' or 'you have magical powers'.