Posted by xjs7 on January 8, 2005, at 15:03:19
In reply to VOICES, posted by pretty_paints on January 8, 2005, at 12:03:20
Most true auditory hallucinations are characterized by a disorder not only in the form of thought (in that they are thought to be 'voices') but in the content of thought (they are overly religious, suicidal, homicidal, or related to a certain delusion). So if you have thoughts that you truly perceive as voices, generally they are also delusional or severely disturbed. This is why everyone who hears music in their head is not considered severely psychotic, and why people who have internal dialogues with themselves are not all taking antipsychotics. True psychosis presents a constellation of symptoms, everything from disturbed affect, to, like I've said, disturbances of content and form of thought.
Most hallucinations are benign (in the same way that some tumors are benign--benign does not equal 'good' or 'harmless'). Some hallucinations only occur as one is waking or going to sleep. These are usually not related to any psychosis per se. I hope this helps--this is just what I have learned in the past 5 years of reading about this subject.
xjs7
poster:xjs7
thread:439400
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050108/msgs/439452.html