"voices" in head (no, I'm not totally mad)

[StefanIsMe (imported)]

So, I'd like to talk about something with you folks that I've almost never mentioned to anyone.

I guess I have two "psychoses", although they've never really interrupted my life.

The first is minor, only mentioned as it may relate to the 2nd, stranger one.

1) OCD, but minor. Note, I hate when folks say they are OCD just because they do something weird; I know the difference. When VERY young, like 11, I was already getting up from bed 10x or more to re-adjust the door opening or turn off/on the lights. I stopped this by just deciding it was stupid when I was about 16. I now use my OCD behavior to force good habits; I 'must' brush my teeth a certain way, rinse 5 times... and lift the corners of the rug a certain way when sweeping. I don't consider this to be a problem, and when I catch myself getting stupid, I can realize it and stop. No problem.

2) Voices in my head.

Again, since I was very young, I get "crowd" voices. It's exactly like being in a crowd of people and overhearing conversations. However, it's always been something I looked forward to, especially when young; it would frequently give me hilarious lines, or just such pure randomness and silliness that I'd laugh out loud. These 'voices' always happen when I'm in bed, almost asleep. However, lately, once in a while, a more clear and loud 'voice' will make a slightly crazy and disturbing statement. No, not "kill your tenant", more like "what are you doing!" sort of stuff. Mostly, though, it's still the babble-burble of crowd noises with some definitely funny/witty lines that I sometimes giggle over. That one 'bad' voice makes me feel a little cold, though, but even then, I can just open my eyes, shake my head, smile at the amazing complexity of the human brain and the un-knowable ways it has of processing information, and drift off to sleep.

So, the above is why I consider myself lucky; I get the feeling I'm probably a person who, if I was weaker-willed, or more seriously afflicted, I could well be in trouble. It makes me wonder if some who seek medication/treatment shouldn't just work harder at self-treatment, but then, I acknowledge that those who truly suffer from textbook schizophrenia or serious OCD really do have a very nasty sickness that nobody could deal with on their own.

That said, I'm most reluctant to bring this up with any health care professional. I do NOT think I'm anywhere near 'sick' enough to warrant using up the resources, and indeed, I question if I'm really sick at all, if I'm entertained and amused by my symptoms.

Any feedback on this is most appreciated.

[Peter47-NL (imported)]

OCD?

Each time when I leave my house I have to check that I have my keys before I close my front door. This goes automatically and I even check my keys when I leave someone's else house. Closing the door is not possible without checking my keys.

Each time when I leave my house for a weekend or longer, I have to switch off the main gas tap of my gas range. I often go back, even when I'm already in the elevator, to check if I had the gas tap switched off.

OCD? I see it as useful habits.

Voice in my head.

When I was 26, I heard a clear and loud voice in my sleep: "Peter, here am I, the one you are looking for." I jumped out of my bed, looked around in the room, under my bed and on the street through the open window. Of course no one to see. Now many years later, I have pleasant dreams about meeting a friend. It is always a different person, who I don't know in reality but in the dreams I know them for a long, long time and we love each other very much, although they are always a different person, he is in the dream always my partner that I don't have in reality. We have, me and my (different) friend(s), have exciting adventures. Last night I met in my dream a guy at the railway station. We knew at first side that we were lovers for a life time. I forgot the adventure we had, but the dream ended up when I entered a room where he showed me two steaming plates, saying: "Look what a nice present we got."

I know that hearing voices is not inevitably seen as 'sick'. It depends a lot if the person suffers from hearing voices or not. It seems to me that you don't suffer from those voices. I don't know if this is an answer to you.

[tugon (imported)]

I am OCD about locking my apartment door. Once it is locked I have to turn the door knob back and forth 6 times. If I am distracted and I realize I did not pay full attention I have to go back and do it again. If I am only running to the store or taking the dog for a walk 2-4 times might be enough. If I am anxious it might take 8 times. I hate when a neighbor is in the hallway because I am unable to leave if I do not check the door. Since I do not want anyone to know I pretend I forgot something and go back in until they have left.

As far as voices in your head are you sure they are not voices in the room? You may be more open to spirits. I took care of a gentleman and I experienced more psychic experiences in his home than anywhere else. I often heard two women talking in the house. At first I would look out the windows to see if two neighbors were talking. I finally accepted that they were spirits that had not moved on and were rather chatty. Later I did see one of the ladies walk down the hallway and through the door.

A question I have is do the voices change and do they vary by location? I am more open before sleep and in some homes more than others. In my mother's house built in the mid to late 1800's I had numerous experiences. In my current apartment I have had no psychic experiences. I miss the occasional strange event.

It does sound like in your crowd of spirits someone angry has joined the group. I would react very little to the anger. Sounds like they want attention.

[Paolo]

As far as OCD goes, I had a bit of that as a child. I outgrew it quickly. It mainly consisted of everything having to be in its place, and an ensuing meltdown, usually violent, if it wasn't. In winter, it would perplex my guardians to see one set of footprints in the snow all winter long leading to the rabbit pens or the doghouse. I would carefully retrace my steps each time, foot in the same footprint. Oddly enough, dirt didn't bother me. In fact, I was one of those little boys who was never clean. To this day, there are the same paths that I used to use as a kid, having reacquired the property, all around the place. You can't tell it now, from the mess everywhere, but I know where everything is and what it does and I still upset if something gets moved.

It was an epic disaster the other day at work when a shelf collapsed in my lab, scattering stuff all over the room. I still haven't recovered from that one.

My belief in other dimensions, or alternate states of being (although I didn't know what that was) was always there, it seems, because I would see things that no one else could. A prime example was snakes. I once found a medium sized garter snake in the house and picked it up. It coiled around my arm. I proudly showed it off to Grandma. She couldn't see it. So were three of my five senses lying to me? Keep in mind, this woman flipped out over my gigantic box tortoise that I hauled home at age five. Took me an hour lug that sucker home. No reaction to a snake in the house? Then, two weeks later, she flipped out when she found a large black snake behind the bed. I was all like, "I told you so." I'd seen it a few times, but never mentioned it. It didn't take long to realize that these animals (never people) I was seeing weren't there. I tried this with an imaginary friend for several weeks once; he failed to materialize, although I had a small wolverine following me around one summer that no one else could see. Thank God it wasn't an elephant.

I also used to see rainbow-colored, swirling vapor trails of 'things' moving around. If it was outside, these had to be in shady areas, never sunny. However, these trails would move the tall grass or weeds. But I was the only one who saw these things. At about this time, I saw a rerun of the Star Trek episode "The Tholian Web" where Kirk was caught in a spatial interphase. I was very excited about this possibility of an overlapping dimension. At that age, this explained a lot. At the age of six, I was convinced that there dimensional rifts floating about, everywhere I went.

As for voices, I used to hear things all the time. Sometimes at night, I can still hear music playing that isn't familiar, when nothing is running. In fact, I have gotten up to shut down the PC, unplugged the stereo, and still hear it. I've heard voices, but never any of them telling me what to do. It's like eavesdropping on a conversation. I have had enough odd experiences to believe in certain psychic phenomenon, so I chalk this up to mental overspill of some type.

Thing is, it sounds as if we're all rational enough to be able to deal with these foibles, so I'd not worry about it.

[Uncle Flo (imported)]

There is a phenomenon known to ship's engineers that seems to be the sound of voices or even groups of people talking. In actuality it is the barely audible sound of air moving through heating or ventilation ducts. Some people are more aware of it than others are and some even claim to be able to make out words or phrases. --FLO--

[Dave (imported)]

I don't consider myself OCD but I do check for my car keys when I get out of the car. I do check the doors to my house are locked before I go to sleep. And I do walk through the house before I go to bed turning off the lights I tend to leave on during the day. It's not compulsive, just necessary,

As for voices in my head -- well I write them into stories. More than once the next sentence popped into my head like a voice. More than once the first line of a story just suddenly existed in my mind. I talk to my characters and they talk back to me. We have whole conversations and then they do strange things that I publish as short stories.

[Wolf-Pup (imported)]

As long as the voices don't start telling you to do evil things.....