I feel like everybody nears me could hear my thoughts clearly!

Hello Adrian,

I am so sorry to read of your distress .

Please get urgent help. You deserve it and need it just as you would with high fever of infection say. 

I feel very sure that if you need to see your psych doc urgently  and they will be able to adjust/ change your meds quickly to suit you and give you relief.  Fine tuning the meds may take a bit longer to get the best prescription for you. After 5 years this is not at all uncommon. They should also give you a general  medical check up.

The doctor will recognise and understand what you are saying.

You describe that symptom group very clearly and it is not at all uncommon, especially in younger men but very frightening and isolating.

It seems entirely real to you but it is due to a distortion of the interpretation of your inner world just now.

Others cannot hear you but the belief that they can of course causes  you huge stress and fear. 

Hope you get help very soon,

good luck

Chris

UK

Hello adrian,

I feel for what you're going through, as I, too, feel others know what I'm thinking,

Though I do realize that in no way can they mind read, it still grips me that they know what I'm thinking.

This is a common thing that happens when someone has schizophrenia.

Rest assured that as Chris responded to you earlier, your pdoc should be able to work with you to either adjust the meds, or change them, if he or she feels that would alleviate your distress.

Lastly, otherwise you seem to be doing fine [though of course you haven't told us about anything else that may be happening] so give yourself credit for living with this illness and dealing with it the best you can.

My philosophy is, if you don't have to live with a symptom, why should you live with it?  So work with your doctor to find the best, most effective drug to counteract the what's going on.

Best regards,

Christina

Adrian, Welcome to this site. I joined about three months ago and I am so grateful I did.  Much of my paranoia is more comfortable with the knowledge that it is a disease that tries to convince me that I am "less than."  Dis-ease explains it all for me.  I am never "at-ease."  Diagnosis was a long time coming for me, and I am much better knowing the problem is not a defect of character but a chemical and/or physical malfunction of my brain.  I had a Dr. in North Carolina who said it best.

He Said,

I am a Brain Dr.  The brain is a muscle that works with certain chemicals to transmit thoughts and physical actions.  For instance, if the brain is physically damaged in a certain way it can cause paralysis.  That is physical.  So we can see that certain damage or birth defect often caused by genetics, causes the brain to malfunction with thought as well.  What is the difference?  Only that certain parts of the brain control thought and others control physical action.  So, there is nothing for you to be ashamed of.  Would you be ashamed if your brain couldn't make your left arm work? No.

You are very fortunate that there are now effective medications to beef up the chemicals in your brain so that it can work more efficiently.  Why do you choose not to try the medications?

Your disease can also be compared to epilepsy.  Epilepsy centered in the brain causes siezures.  When an Epileptic takes the appropriate medications and strength of them many if not all epileptic siezures can be avoided.

At that time I still was under the illusion that my simple diagnosis was depression.  When Dr. K told me these facts I cried with relief of 38 years of misery.  From the age of 16 until now I have tried to commit suicide approximately 7 times, and twice I was rescusitated.  Two of those attempts were after my "talk" with Dr. K.  My diagnosis was incorrect and in the year 2000 I was finally informed that my diagnosis was paranoid schizophrenic...just like my Dad.  He died in 1977 from a self inflicted gunshot wound.  Dr. K told me a very important FACT.  My dad did NOT die because he was weak.  He fought this disease for 62 years and even chose to undergo shock treatments because there were no effective medications or treatments he could turn to for relief.  That is not the history of a weak man.  HE DIED OF THIS DISEASE.

Today there is relief.  The knowledge of what the problem IS has given me the tool of knowledge and reality.  I know that paranoia is a fantasy I can fight with medications, therapy, and reason.  Especially when I communicate with people who have the same experience, and have the tools to reason with me.  Today I take medications that quiet the voices that cause the paranoia.  Sometimes they stop working and I have to turn to my Dr. and say "help."  There are new medications on the market every time I say "help."  Every time it works I have more FAITH that the next time I will have better medications to feed my brain the nutrients that it needs to function properly.

I am going on too much.  I remember the fear that the diagnosis caused.  I remember the tears as if my heart was broken.  I remember the depression and anxiety I experienced for weeks.  I didn't have the tools you have to gain understanding and control by knowledge of the problem.  I do now.  Talk, write, listen, read..learn all you can.  Knowledge, support, medications, good physicians, adaptation, and most of all self kindness, compassion, and honesty are essencial for me to heal.

I wish you the best.  Don't be afraid.  It's not a prison sentence any more.

with fondness

dellea/tinker

Yea, I too belive strongly that people can hear my thought, around me, or from long distant telepathy, i have been strugeling with this disorder for neatly 3 years now and am being treated with clozapin, amilsulpride and depakot, but i cant help thinking that mayby i am not sckiztophrenic and i really am a psycic and people really can heat my thought, i can even hear voices coming from America, even tho i live in the UK, is it even possible, i find this very distressing and hard to cope with, i feel no matter were i go, people can hear what is going on in my head! What do i do, i feel the nightmare is never goiing to end, any feed back would, be nice.. thanks

Hi AdrianZ,

I couldn't say it any better than Chris / UK said it.

Sometimes we feel that people can read our thoughts or hear what we're thinking.  Objective evidence to the contrary or having someone else tell us this isn't possible is not always enough to change our belief that it is happening.  Even telling ourselves it's not happening doesn't always relieve our fear.

I might recommend cognitive therapy as well, especially if you are avoiding situations where you're afraid people would know what you're thinking.  As my therapist at the cognitive practice suggested to me, "Less avoidance equals less fear."

Cognitive therapy in combination with a medication adjustment might be something you could consider.  All of us living with schizophrenia, throughout our lives, will have different levels or degrees of symptoms that need to be addressed proactively and sometimes with a new approach as opposed to the old approach.

So definitely consult with your doctor and be honest with him or her about this residual fear.  You deserve to have relief.  Please, it would be a mistake to feel you are weak or that you should've been able to control this by now.  Accept that it has happened, and seek help so that you can change things. 

I recommend cognitive therapy not because its goal is to halt or alleviate symptoms.  The goal of cognitive therapy is to help us better cope with what goes and change how we think about it so that we can move forward in our lives.  In combination with a medication adjustment, this could result in a breakthrough or two.  I know CBT has done this for me.  As well, after a number of years, my medication was changed and things worked out well.

Regards,

Christina

Hi,Adrian!You DON'T have schizophrenia but you have social anxiety.I know that because i had same thing.These thoughts are called ANTs(automatic negative thinking)those thoughts are iracional and not true.Look here http://www.socialanxietyinstitute.org/audioseries.html

Dang dude, me too. I thought for a while I was paranoid, but to some degree or another I assumed I was hearing thoughts and putting out thoughts to be heard, (someone would say something word for word verbatom what I had just thought about a movie; I would consider having a bowl of cerial at an odd time of day and then someone would go get a bowl of cereal themselves) another thing is I see "42" everywhere (I think I may  be paranoid about that). Don't trust anyone who is making money off of putting CHEMICALS in your BRAIN.

Telepathy is scary at first, if you have a lot of secrets, so just put everything out on the table, have no secrets, you may find that people actually can read your thoughts, and vice versa. Use it to better yourself when you begin to understand it.