A Question

If a person has auditory hallucinations, but perceives it as talking to themselves rather than voices from outside of themselves, would it still be considered a schizophrenic symptom? Or would they have to be unable to make that distinction?

I would think as long as there's an awareness that the person you're talking to is yourself and not anyone else then it's normal. Or not schizophrenic anyway. A hallucination would trick you into thinking it was someone or something else.

But a hallucination is only seeing/hearing something that isn't there. There's no qualification for that definition.

The best way to prevent hearing voices it to pretend that they are not real or are just brain fodder that is best left ignored.

The more person practices not believing in or interacting with those voices the more they will train the brain to restructure itself again to drown out those voices.

I should also add to not even react, acknowledge or respond to the kind pleasant ones because that just keeps exercising that situation.

It would be interesting to see where the nerve signals started, if this voice talked under in controled environment were the electrical signals were monitored it would be helpful ?.

Plus I thought schizoprenia is a chemical imbalance which produces hallucinations, so can't it be both.

I tend to believe that it is damage to brain that results in letting in too much unnecessary information.

I often times walk down the street blushing because I can hear in the background what my subconscious is doing.

oh oh i just googled it so i am not sure about its validity,
link [www.midmichigan.org]

it's both

Schizophrenia a mental illness with a wide array of contributing causes.

And I don't know much about the inner workings of the brain, but I would imagine that the hallucinations would be a problem with the same part of the brain. Wouldn't an auditory hallucination be a problem with the nerve signals in the auditory cortex of the brain no matter what the cause? Where else would we perceive sound?

Well a few crossed neurons and you would be smelling sounds and hearing colours , the signal would orignate somewhere.
Obviously not the ear but the left or right side of the the brain and get processed in the cortex thingy, that fact it is a cohearent voice and not just sound means its not originated in the audio cortex as I assumed it was more a processor of information.

also my sister is doing her masters in nuero science ill ask her if you like

... What?

lol like i said i have no idea im just guessing cause im bored..........did i win?

It would be interesting to know specifically, so yeah that would be cool I guess, but I'm not really asking how hallucinations work here. I'm more wondering about how they're used as part of diagnostic set.

You came in 6th.

It's an interesting question. We all sort of talk to ourselves and have a conscience, don't we? But when I hear the "voice" in my head it doesn't really sound like anything, it's more of my awareness of a thought process.

My guess is that it would be labelled a hallucination, but that it wouldn't really be part of any sort of diagnosis unless it was causing some sort of distress in the person's life. If a person was functioning normally and had no reason to see a mental health professional it would probably be overlooked.

I've never really thought about hallucinations that way though.