What is this? Anyone know?

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Hi, I'm just worried about myself, I suppose, and how I've been feeling lately and because I don't think it's AS or anything like it I put it in other psychological conditions.

1. I keep thinking that there's recording devices in the walls, like video cameras, sorta like Big Brother (I don't watch it, so forgive me if I'm wrong) where it records my life day to day, everything I'm doing, and if I do something wrong everyone will know and I'll be punished.

2. My thoughts are so confused all the time, unconnected, or my mind's completely blank, then a random word will come into it like, discombobulate (is that how you spell it? )

3. I get my dreams and 'reality' mixed up, for example, I had a dream where I attacked some mean girls at a shopping centre (or mall, if you wish) 'cos they were bullying me, and I saw 2 girls who looked like them on my way to school the next day and I wanted to attack them. Also I thought my boyfriend was staying with us (he was in the dream) and when I woke up I was sure he was lying next to me or in another room, or downstairs in the kitchen getting breakfast, which he wasn't, and I was intensely confused as to why.

4. I keep thinking that everything isn't real, it's all an illusion (or delusion, not sure which applies here) that everything is a figment of my imagination, like a sort of Matrix I suppose. I had to go up and touch a telephone pole to make sure it was there, 'cos it looked weird (as it was wet as opposed to dry) and it looked funny and I was sure it wasn't there before.

5. I keep smelling things that aren't there, this has been happening for years, just occasionally smelling things that weren't there, like strawberry yoghurt or sausages. Like right now I can smell creamed butter and sugar. Normally these scents go almost immediately, but this has been here for like 5 minutes now.

6. Now this one I'm not sure about, I think I can hear muted whispering (like friends whispering far away, where you can't hear what they're saying) in the back of my head, but it might just be me putting it there, I'm not sure.

7. I occasionally hear people coming up the stairs at my house, but when I come out there's no-one in any of the upstairs rooms and I didn't hear the door open (the door at the bottom of the stairs makes a really loud noise when opened) and when I check, it's still shut (I would have heard it shut too, it's honestly REALLY loud when moved at all).

8. I think people are lying to me (even though they're figments of my imagination) when they say that there isn't anything in the walls or that they're not delusions/illusions (although they would say that if they were).

What's wrong with me?

Hello CozPoz - I am not a medical expert of any kind but the symptoms you describe sound like they might be attributable to schizophrenia.

Here's a site describing it:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/schizo ... N=symptoms

Have you seen a doctor about it?

No I haven't, they'll just think I'm insane anyway and want to medicate me.

Also not a doctor here, but all that does sound schizophrenia-ish. You probably ought to tell your parents and/or doctor.

When I was in my teens, I had a few of those symptoms -- a feeling/thought that there were cameras behind every mirror, watching me, hearing whispery voices, and feeling like my thoughts were leaking out of my head so that other people could read them.

I was extremely depressed at the time, though, and I later found out that that can cause psychotic symptoms sometimes. After I got out of high school those symptoms faded dramatically and never came back (they were gone by the time I was 20). I attribute it to the severe depression, but really, I don't know exactly what it was or why it happened or why it went away. I'm 43 now, BTW.

I remember someone posting on this board about the same thing happening in their teen years. IIRC, she was put on anti-psychotics, but was able to come off of them after a few years and then never needed them again.

I am on prozac, because I have depression, so that could be causing it I suppose, but without it I can't cope too well.

Your doctor prescribed only depression medicine
but you are also having so many other symptoms

I feel that there are tear in your aura
as per alternative healing methods

I agree with purchase and Apple that this sounds a lot like schizophrenia. But I would nonetheless get a brain CT scan in addition to psychiatric treatment in order to rule out organic causes, mainly because of the imaginary scents. Brain tumors can cause all kinds of odd sensations and sometimes also irrational thoughts.

Dear Coz,

I have nearly all of the same symptoms you do, except with lesser intensity. I can totally relate to feeling like there are cameras, etc monitoring my every move.

I live in a small coverted basement apartment. My landlord, a retired cop, lives above me with his family. I get intrusive thoughts that he's got my computer monitored and that he has listening devices or even cameras. Every time I go to the bathroom, I hear rushing footsteps and then quiet standing above me when I pee or poo. I never hear people rushing away from the bathroom when I'm there, always rushing to stand above the bathroom.

I'd like to ask you some questions. Mind you, I'm not a doctor and not qualified to tell you what you have or don't have.

1. Do the 'paranoid' episodes, belief in being monitored, happen when you are under more than usual stress?

2. The sense of surreality: Do you sleep too much or too little? Or vascillate between too much or too little sleep? I sometimes have difficulty discerning between something that actually happened or I only dreamed. I once looked all over the house for an item and got frustrated only to realize later that I had only dreamed I had the item. Same with discussions I have with people in dreams.

I have an extremely sensitive olfactory system and smell things other people can't smell. Often it turns out that I really smelled something when others confirm that they also smell it.

Even though I have tinnitis I often hear things others don't, or think I do. I have auditory hallucinations often. If I hear a tone that exactly matches my phone ring tone, every time I hear that same tone, I will think I hear the phone ring. It often has a flat sound like a radio on in another room type of quality.

I'm also sensitive to strong flavors and find some food textures unbearable, like mushrooms. i can't stand their texture.

I'm diagnosed with schizoeffective disorder-bipolar type. I've never been Dx'd with Autism or Asperger's although I know that sensitivity to noises can be a problem.

Those do sound like symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia, but a doctor may also decide you have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Paranoia as you describe can happen with that disorder depending on the trauma. You didn't mention trauma, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

I've come to cope with my symptoms by laughing at them. Or I dismiss them as irrelevant. I tell myself that life itself is too unreal to be believed to begin with, so why not just accept what I hear and see and shrug it off. It doesn't matter to me whether it's real or not.

I hope you have insurance and can see a doctor and get this looked into. Having a sympathetic professional look after you can do a lot to alliviate your anxieties.

Hi there!

I'd be very interested in having a discussion with you about the more spiritual aspects of mental health disorders, but maybe in private message? I think aura problems explain a great deal of 'hallucinations' and 'things that aren't there'.

Did all this start before or after you started taking prozac? I ended up getting really anxious and paranoid on prozac within three and a half weeks and it got to the point I thought I heard people whispering about me when they weren't, and that's when I threw them out and decided to hell with trying to medicate my depression with SSRIs.

I don't want to say for sure its the prozac but it certainly could be a factor so I would look into that. Maybe talk to the doctor who prescribed it about getting off of it.......I just threw the rest of mine away but you're supposed to quit taking them gradually especially if you've taken it longer then that.

I have trained as a pranic and reiki healer
sometimes due to excessive abuse or fear the aura tears
and it leads to outside elementals entering our aura stream and creating problems
I face facing lot of such problems and even experienced 2 episodes of sleep paralysis
but after that i started meditating and working on my aura and negative intrusion stopped

The thinking that I was being monitored started before I started taking prozac, and before I even needed it.

It doesn't just happen when I'm stressed, as I don't get stressed too often, but it can make it worse.

It does sound like schizophrenia. Unfortunately, medication is the only treatment for that. I don't see a problem with taking medication if it helps you. If it doesn't help, or you dislike any side effects more than the actual illness, then it's perfectly within your right to discontinue it. Just because a doctor wants to medicate you doesn't mean you have to allow it. The doctor is your employee. The final call is up to you.

There is a slight chance that a tumor in certain parts of the brain could cause those symptoms as well.

I would get checked by your regular MD and also a psychiatrist/psychologist group.

Thanks for all your help/advice people...what about having 'imaginary' friends that I talk to (not too loudly) even when other 'real' people are there?

Well, I imagine it would depend. Do you see and hear them? If not, do you believe that they are actually there, or do you just have true imaginary friends?

I would say that seeing or hearing anything that isn't there is a sign of a problem. I would also say that if you believe they are really there, that is a sign of a problem too.

I both see and hear them, have done for years (although I suppose at 6-9 this isn't that far off 'normal') I don't just see them though, I see all sorts, zombies, demons as well as generally scary things, indistinct shadow things and cars when I'm out and about.

To me, they are truly there, I get confused when people sit where they're sitting, as it proves they aren't actually there, which I don't like.