Talking to yourself is a diagnosis. What does it mean if a person talks to himself

Why do people talk to themselves? To understand the reasons for this, you must first highlight how people say it:

Silently conduct an internal dialogue with themselves.
Talk to yourself out loud.
They talk with a non-existent interlocutor from outside or inside themselves.

An internal silent dialogue with oneself.

This phenomenon is completely normal for any person, and especially for an introvert that is closed and silent in its psychotype. A self-enclosed introvert is reluctant to contact the outside world and does not allow anyone outside to interfere in their personal lives. Therefore, living in its own inner world, the introvert silently conducts dialogues with himself.

But internal dialogues do not. Conversation with oneself begins in childhood, when the child is already able to pay attention to his internal psychological processes, and continues until the end of his life. According to Z. Freud, internal speech is a conversation between the three components of the human psyche - the Ego (the conscious and conceptualized part), the Id (the forbidden and crowded out part of consciousness) and the Super-Ego (all manifestations of the Super-I). Therefore, the essence of the internal dialogue is the dialogue of our meaningful consciousness with its unconscious part, the censor of which is the Self. In the process of internal dialogue there is an agreement between these three structures of the psyche, contributing to the process of continuous development of the individual.

In difficult moments of life, an internal dialogue helps a person make the right decision to get out of this situation.

Talk to yourself out loud.

You can talk to yourself out loud. Sometimes people do this from a feeling of loneliness, longing and hopelessness. Talking out loud replaces a person real communication with people, so with the appearance of real interlocutors passes and the need to talk with yourself out loud.

As a result of numerous studies by psychologists, it turned out that in other situations, talking to yourself out loud is useful for improving brain activity. Speaking aloud a problem, a person stimulates the brain and more quickly copes with the task set before him. Scientists attribute this to the fact that speech can significantly enhance brain activity, improve the processes of perception and assimilation of information. This is especially true for such types of people as audio, perceiving the surrounding reality by ear.

Thus, talking with yourself in any form - silently or aloud, helps a lot in solving problems of various contents and complexity.

Talk out loud with an invisible interlocutor.

The appearance of such a conversation publicly, as with those around them, causes at least great surprise. It is strange to see a person talking enthusiastically with some invisible interlocutor. Moreover, the words of an imaginary interlocutor can come for him not only from the outside. Listening to an outside voice within himself, a person answers out loud ... listens - and answers again. How to explain such a strange behavior?

Unfortunately, the modern rhythm of life is beyond the power of people with mental problems: daily stresses, life changes that occur at an alarming rate - all this negatively affects the human weak psyche.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the definition of “schizophrenia” appeared - this is the name of the disease when a person talks to himself.

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Reasoning

In principle, almost every person speaks to himself, but he does it quietly, and is invisible to anyone - this is normal and can be related to stress, or it can just be boring to a person, or he does so at the moment when he thinks hard, trying to solve a task or to plan something - at these moments the words of reasoning completely break out aloud.

However, if a person talks to himself out loud, not expecting an answer from an imaginary interlocutor, and if he does it emotionally, not paying attention to others, then this is a very alarming symptom of schizophrenia.

Observation and conclusions

To determine the disease of a person who is talking aloud to himself, you should take a closer look at how he does it:

In the event that a person maintains a dialogue with an invisible interlocutor, then relatives of such a person should seriously think and try to show their relative to a psychiatrist.
You should also carefully study how long such conversations last for a person. If only two or three days, then we can say that this is not a disease, but a small pathology, which, of course, is also better to treat.

Psychosis is accompanied by hallucinations, but schizophrenia is accompanied by persistent hallucinations (when a sick person hears a commanding voice ordering him to do any specific act).

Schizophrenia is generally accompanied by a loss of connection between a sick person and the real world. His behavior becomes strange: the patient's emotional expressiveness decreases, speech and thinking may be impaired. But the patient will not necessarily have all of these symptoms.

Recently, according to statistics, mental illnesses are becoming more common. And this is a tribute to our time. Therefore, if one of your friends began to behave very strangely, or started talking aloud to himself, then you must definitely seek professional help.

This is not a runny nose and it will not pass - you need to determine the cause and try to determine the treatment of this ailment. And only a qualified specialist can do this. In any case, before making any conclusions, you need to show the person to the doctor, and only then, based on what the doctor says, draw conclusions.

What is the name of the disease when a person talks to himself?

I will divide all “talking with myself” into Three groups:

1. When a person speaks out loud some or most of his own thoughts, while not already noticing what is happening and doing this not intentionally. That is, uncontrollably. At the same time, a person does not turn to anyone except himself. All his words are essentially rhetorical.

2. Conversations in which the patient, as it were, pretends to be some kind of dialogue. At the same time, he can play several roles at once, changing the volume and timbre of his voice. In other words, he voices two or more persons. By doing this, I emphasize again, inadvertently.

3. The patient is hallucinating. And at the same time he sees a scene in front of him, in which other people or creatures participate, except for him. Here he conducts a conversation with them, turning to them, but not voicing them. From the outside, it looks like a conversation with yourself. In fact, it is so, because he is in the pathological world of his visions. He can (as it were) meet and escort guests, be at the doctor’s appointment, talk with spirits and so on. The further, the more pathological.

The first option is almost normal. We will not make any diagnosis. And the second and third options are very reminiscent of one of the symptoms of schizophrenia.

Answered 2014-07-24T00: 33: 36 + 04: 00 1 year, 7 months ago

If a person just talks to himself, reasoning, then this is within the normal range.

If a person is talking to someone else who is in his imagination, but from the outside looks as if he is talking to himself, then this is a disease, schizophrenia.

Answered 2014-07-24T00: 48: 45 + 04: 00 1 year, 7 months ago

Neuropsychic disorders in which a person can talk to himself can take up a whole essay. The causes of this phenomenon are split personality, alcoholism, hallucinations, drug use, head injuries, schizophrenia.

Answered 2014-12-29T22: 29: 32 + 03: 00 1 year, 2 months ago

Here, depending on how a person talks to himself. You can talk with yourself, with an invisible interlocutor with delirium tremens, and with schizophrenia and just if a person is bored. And for some, such a habit is even developed, thoughts in the hearing type.

Answered 2015-01-28T17: 43: 01 + 03: 00 1 year, 1 month ago

This is not necessarily a disease!

Maybe a person suffers from a lack of communication or is lonely - so he needs to talk like that

If the disease is usually Dissociative personality disorder (reproduction of the personality) when the human mind is bifurcated into several other independent personalities. and then a man speaks with his own mind!

Schizophrenics also talk to themselves (or rather, hallucinations)

Answered 2014-07-24T00: 31: 31 + 04: 00 1 year, 7 months ago

I reason like this.

A) This is not a disease. A person reasones, models the arguments and counterarguments of an imaginary opponent in a possible discussion.

B) This is psychosis (schizophrenia, paranoia, etc.), accompanied by a split personality and / or hallucinations.

C) This is a disease of alcohol and / or narcotic genesis.

D) This is not a disease. The actor rehearses the role.

D) This is not a person. From spirits or aliens everything can be expected.

Answered 2015-01-31T03: 50: 12 + 03: 00 1 year, 1 month ago

Wow, with the help of a big question, I found out that I am a schizophrenic, but dear, it’s not quite so, if it were so, I would not sit and write the answer, if the person is talking to himself, or asks himself some questions and answers this normally, he just needs to hear advice from an intelligent person :), but if a person talks to someone else, sees some images and speaks with them, then maybe he has some kind of mental deviations!

Answered 2015-01-14T22: 53: 14 + 03: 00 1 year, 1 month ago

This may be an early symptom of schizophrenia, but it can also be the norm if a person, in all other aspects, behaves normally. If, in addition to talking to himself, he conducts whole conversations aloud, if there are other behavioral disorders and deviations, and there is reason to doubt his adequacy, then here, already, a consultation with a psychiatrist is necessary, since in schizophrenia, a person he hears the voices that sound in his head, it is with them that he can conduct long conversations. “Voices” is one of the most common symptoms of schizophrenia.

Answered 2014-07-24T00: 25: 37 + 04: 00 1 year, 7 months ago

The human mind creates a separate mental area with which the main personality of a person can communicate.

Answered 2014-07-24T00: 20: 10 + 04: 00 1 year, 7 months ago

It is difficult to find a person who would never speak to himself in any situation. Many people like to talk when they are doing some kind of work, as if consulting with themselves, some speak on their own so as not to fall asleep when you can’t do this, others just emit emotions in this way. In most cases, these are not symptoms of a disease, but normal, adequate behavior. But it happens when a person really constantly speaks with an invisible interlocutor and this is no longer good. This can be a symptom of schizophrenia, which manifests itself in a split personality. And some consider such people to be possessed by demons.

Answered 2015-04-02T01: 48: 11 + 03: 00 11 months, 2 weeks ago

The mother has a friend who is in public, a wonderful and pleasant conversationalist. She finds a common language with everyone, but one day I saw how she walks around the room and says something under her breath. I don’t even know how long it lasted for her, but I could not stand it and asked who they were talking to. In fact, everything turns out to be very simple. This man is lonely, there is no husband, and the children have already grown up and parted. And so it went.

And my friend got into a clinic where the neuropsychic ones are. He says that most of them have the same symptoms, plus glitches and anxieties for the slightest reason. Such people are not in order with the psyche. They do not know what they are doing and therefore they are forcibly treated with injections and pills. The diagnosis is made by the doctor.

Answered 2015-01-20T10: 51: 14 + 03: 00 1 year, 1 month ago

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A man speaks to himself schizophrenia

Loneliness, rehearsal, dissatisfaction, a habit from childhood or psychological disorders, imaginary conversations can occur for any of these reasons. Let's discuss in detail the meaning of these conversations.

Society does not consider imaginary conversations with itself to be normal. Since this is not accepted by society, people tend to feel uncomfortable with this habit. However, not every person who talks to himself suffers from an upset. Generally speaking, there are several situations in which people feel the need to discuss several issues, only with themselves.

In such situations, they probably feel the need for their own advice. They can talk to themselves to avoid others interfering in their personal affairs. And then the question arises: are these people different from others? What can this behavior mean? Are they mentally ill? Imaginary conversations can indeed prove helpful in maintaining one's mental health. Let’s discuss in more detail “talking to oneself” - this is a habit, a necessity or a mental disorder.

Possible reasons for talking with yourself

A person can have an imaginary conversation with four completely different entities. These entities may include an imaginary friend, a true friend, God, or soma. Such people share their feelings, thoughts and experiences, saying them out loud when they are alone. They can also rehearse an upcoming situation or mentally try to change a situation that happened in the past by changing what has been said or done in their head. Such people also tend to speak out loud in private. Some mental health conditions can also lead to imaginary conversation. The following are the causes and significance of imaginary conversations with oneself.

Repetition

❑ Situations - In this situation, absolutely anyone can be if he is nervous or not sure about the upcoming meeting. This may include an interview, a conversation with some celebrity / very influential person, preparation for an argument, discussion or discussion, a romantic proposal, etc.

❑ Imaginary conversation - Given the situation, the person will rehearse, talking to himself. He will say what he wants to say in the upcoming situation. He will also say (on behalf of the interlocutor) what he would like or expected to hear from his interlocutor. However, the real situation, in almost all cases, will never be the same as it was scrolled through the head.

❑ Value. This conversation only indicates that the person lacks self-confidence. He is nervous, and not sure about the upcoming situation. Therefore, he wants to prepare in advance. Thus, this imaginary conversation does not mean any mental disorder. It is perfectly normal to be a little nervous in certain situations.

Dissatisfaction with the past

❑ Situation - Almost every person has encountered a situation in the past that he is not happy with. Most people agree with the fact that nothing can be done in the present to change the past. However, a person who does not accept this fact will scroll through this situation in the mind.

❑ Imaginary conversation - a person will always think about ways that could improve the situation, which may include better understanding, smart things that should have been said, things that were not worth saying, and other things. He scrolls the situation by changing the actual dialogs. In this conversation, he will speak the changed dialogs and respond to them, playing the role of the other person as well.

❑ Significance is discontent. If a person is extremely dissatisfied with the past, he tries to find satisfaction by changing irreversible situations in his mind. However, this temporary satisfaction further leads to complete disappointment when reality “hits” him. This conversation does not mean a mental disorder, it only means discontent and a desire to correct a situation that cannot be changed.

Motivation

❑ Situation - A lot of people are looking for self-motivation in front of any competitive situation. It can be an exam, a match, an interview or a presentation; they like to reassure themselves that they can do it.

❑ Imaginary conversation - in such situations, a person seeks to maintain his spirit. For example, before the exam, you can hear him say: “Come on ____ (like him there), you will pass this test. You know that you are well prepared, relax and remember everything, and so on. Having said that, a person will feel more comfortable to pass the upcoming exam.

❑ Value. This conversation means the need for self-motivation. Some people have a habit of motivating themselves, because they believe that they need motivation to go through the upcoming situation with better results. Talking with yourself for this purpose is not something abnormal, and in any case, it is not a disorder or illness.

Wishful thinking

❑ Situations - this situation includes some unfulfilled dreams, or what a person wanted, but failed. Wishful thinking may also include situations from the past that a person wants to change, or a future where a person wants to fall into place.

❑ Imaginary conversation - in such situations, you can hear how a person speaks about things unrealistic for himself. It can play various scenarios that did not occur in the past, and have no framework in the future. He can also talk about an imaginary person, framing the character of a person whom he would like to meet in reality.

❑ Value. This conversation means that either the person is not satisfied with reality and wants the best, or that he simply loves to dream of unreal things, although his reality is not so bad. Such conversations may also flow from the global media. Films with a happy ending, unrealistic heroism and bizarre characters also play an important role in shaping such behavior. However, this imaginary conversation also means a naive, easily-inspired person. This is not part of a psychological disorder or illness.

Loneliness

❑ Situations - usually people have a habit of sharing what is happening in everyday life with friends, brothers and sisters, parents or spouse. However, when a person is lonely and has no one to talk to, he is inclined to speak to himself. In most cases, they solve the problems themselves. But they also feel socially unadapted.

❑ Imaginary conversation - a conversation with oneself as a result of loneliness is more realistic. Having such conversations, a person seeks to pour his feelings into words, perhaps aloud or in his head. He may also play actions that are not accepted by society. He will discuss real situations and analyze his feelings. However, fleeing from loneliness, a person can also wishful thinking and talk about what his life should have been like.

Anxiety and panic

❑ Situations - in case of panic and anxiety, people mostly feel negative in everything. They experience intense fear and panic in any situation that seems dangerous or unpleasant to them. An individual participates in his own conversation if he experiences a panic attack because he is so focused on his problems that he becomes divorced from the people around him (the outside world).

❑ Imaginary conversation - in this case, the person has an imaginary conversation with himself in order to improve his situation. Since his mind is already filled with negative thoughts, a person will try to conduct a convincing conversation with himself. A conversation calms his fear and lowers his level of anxiety and panic. For example, if a person has claustrophobia in a closed place, he will most likely say to himself, “this is normal. This place is not so overloaded. You still have enough oxygen to breathe. No, you won’t suffocate here. ”

❑ Value. Having such a conversation means a desire to overcome fear. A man is trying to make himself more comfortable in an uncomfortable situation. Therefore, this conversation proves usefulness for a person and helps him to overcome a difficult situation.

Depression

❑ Situations - depressed, the person feels lost, useless, excluded from the world, he is visited by thoughts of suicide, and gradually he goes crazy. He has lost interest in life and he wants to cry for no reason. He may also spend sleepless nights and suffer from insomnia. Depression is usually associated with anxiety.

❑ Imaginary conversation - since depression makes a person feel empty and lost from the inside, it becomes very difficult for a person to interact with people around him. Therefore, talking with his parents and / or friends is something impossible for him. A person can talk to himself because of a sense of isolation. However, this is a very severe case of depression. A person should consult a psychiatrist if he is faced with such symptoms.

❑ Value. The meaning of this conversation is depression. The feeling of emptiness and isolation makes a person so bad that he begins fictitious conversations with himself. This may be a sign of mental illness. Consulting a psychiatrist is very important in this case.

Diseases

❑ Schizophrenia

A person suffering from schizophrenia, as a rule, sees hallucinations. He can have visual and sound hallucinations, as well as respond to them. A person can only visually imagine some other person (possibly a relative, friend or just any person) in the room. Then the person tries to start a conversation with an imaginary interlocutor. To the viewer, it may seem that a person has an imaginary conversation with himself. In an audio case, a person may feel as if someone is talking to him. He can speak in response to what he hears, even if he is in the room alone. Again, someone watching this person may think that he is talking to himself. However, these symptoms are part of schizophrenia. A person suffering from Alzheimer's disease may face a similar situation.

❑ Down Syndrome

Most people with Down syndrome have self-talk. These conversations are not related to hallucinations or delusions. These conversations can be about yourself, your toys, or about some third person (imaginary or real). They can also connect with their toy or some object present in the hall. This behavior is considered normal. However, if a person’s tone suddenly changes during this conversation with himself, this may be a sign of psychological problems. These problems may include anxiety, depression, physical malaise, or pain.

Other possible causes

There are several other reasons why people may have fictional conversations with themselves.

❑ Habits childhood - Children often have the habit of putting life in each of their toys. Then they talk with their toys and take care of them (more like raising a toy). Some growing children go through this stage, and some do not. These habits change as they grow older, but do not die completely. Such children have imaginary friends or have developed the habit of talking to themselves.

❑ Natural causes. Last but not least. Each person leads an endless conversation with himself. He constantly analyzes, perceiving, and organizing situations through these conversations. Often, thinking, people tend to talk to themselves. In addition, they may not even realize that they have these conversations.

Imaginary conversations basically mean the relationships that a person is trying to create with himself. They also display a level of comfort with themselves. Tearing up past problems and trying to fix them can mean recognition of mistakes. However, they can also mean a more serious problem that needs medical attention.

Why are we talking to ourselves?

Have you ever noticed that you are talking aloud to yourself? This happens when a person is very tense, focused or his emotions "hit the edge."

Surely, having caught yourself on this, you will think: “Horror, I’m talking to myself! Am I really sick? All ... schizophrenia is on the verge! ” Is this really so? Let's see if talking with yourself always means a mental disorder and if you need to see a doctor.

I'm talking to myself, so I'm crazy?

Any disease related to the object of psychiatry has not one, but several symptoms. If, in addition to the rare cases when you notice that you are communicating with yourself, nothing more suspicious has happened to you, there is nothing to worry about. But nevertheless, knowledge of these signs will not be superfluous:

hallucinations (auditory and visual);
often recurring deja vu feeling;
obsessions, as if someone is chasing you, wishes you harm, spies on you, constantly taunts;
a sense of unreality of what is happening;
complete apathy, unwillingness and / or inability to do anything;
strong causeless fear, it is not clear where the extreme anxiety and similar feelings came from.

In sick people, they are greatly exaggerated, are of the nature of obsessive delirium, annoying and painful. Often these symptoms can be combined with purely physiological reactions. For example, during a panic attack (intense fear), a person begins to suffocate, his hands sweat, other intense sensations arise. If something like this happens to you, you need to contact a therapist. There is nothing scary or shameful in this. Perhaps you have experienced some kind of tragedy and you cannot deal with it on your own.

In addition, it is necessary to distinguish between actual mental illness and neurosis. The latter are temporary and are usually caused by some kind of strong shock. Mental illness often accompanies the patient throughout his life (for example, schizophrenia). It is accompanied by a whole "bouquet" of extremely severe symptoms.

Talking to yourself as a child’s teaching method

Have you noticed that children often talk to themselves during games? So they lose some situations, play roles (matter or its daughter, a terrible bear, etc.). For kids, talking to yourself out loud is completely normal and even helpful. So they study. This is a very good way to focus. As soon as a person grows up, he tries to avoid talking to himself out loud, just so as not to seem strange to others.

Why do people talk to themselves in adulthood?

Have you ever wondered why people talk to themselves in adulthood? We are talking about mentally healthy citizens. Our thinking is organized as follows: millions of nerve cells constantly interact and send nerve impulses to each other. We literally find ourselves “attacked” by various thoughts, ideas, memories, questions and suspicions.

It’s like a kind of “infernal brew” seething in a human head. Moreover, this process does not stop for a minute. It is especially pronounced in women whose thinking is not linear in nature. It looks like a lot of tabs open in the browser that are activated simultaneously.

Often people talk to themselves in order to concentrate on one thing, how to highlight this thought and completely direct their thought stream to it. Especially if the question is about something very important and urgent. Often, emotional people use this method in a tense atmosphere. In this case, talking with oneself is normal and has nothing to do with deviations in the psyche.

Talking to yourself is normal and sometimes even useful.

At different times, studies have been conducted on why people talk to themselves. It was found that in some situations, this method of self-organization helps to better cope with the task. When people talk to themselves, they kind of program themselves verbally for a certain result. In other words, they govern themselves.

For example, if you lost a key in an apartment, then commenting on your actions will help you quickly build a logical chain and find the loss. After all, why does a person talk to himself? Using this simple method, it makes the brain concentrate as much as possible on one thing, collect all the resources to solve the problem. And it works well. In addition, talking with yourself, you can throw out emotions, for example, from the same lost key.

The bitter feeling of loneliness

But it also happens that a person starts a dialogue with himself solely from a lack of communication. Every person has a need for communication, and if he does not find interlocutors, it does not disappear anywhere. This is the saddest reason why a person is talking to himself. In such a situation, we can recommend that you begin to correct the situation as soon as possible: sign up for some club, take master classes, start going to the gym or any other public place. Do not get involved in this state of loneliness, otherwise the habit of communicating with yourself will develop into a painful strangeness.

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Conversations with yourself - the norm or deviation?

It's no secret that many people have the habit of talking to themselves. Sometimes this happens in the form of an internal monologue, but there are cases when a person talks to himself out loud. Having noticed such inclinations, you should not be scared and suspect yourself of any mental deviations. Scientists who have devoted a great amount of time to studying this issue have agreed that conversations with oneself in most cases are not a deviation from the norm and are in many ways even useful.

Positive sides

The undeniable benefit of such monologues is that they help a person to organize their thoughts, coordinate actions, and analyze the existing problem in detail. Of undoubted benefit, talking with oneself also brings the emotional state of a person. The ability to express aloud, even if alone with you, all the accumulated emotions, feelings, anxiety, anger and other negatives contribute to significant relief. In addition, having thrown out most of the negative during a monologue with himself, a person talking to other people can more deliberately and calmly discuss this problem.

During a conversation with oneself, the work of the human brain improves, since the perception and processing of information is accelerated, attention and observation are increased, as a result of which the person quickly and easily comes to the correct solutions to his tasks. Moreover, the effectiveness, speed and fruitfulness of his activities is several times higher than the results of those people who are not peculiar to talk with themselves. As can be seen from the results of research by scientists, most people who have conversations with themselves are absolutely normal and even more successful in solving some problems.

When to worry

However, in some cases, such conversations along with other symptoms can still serve as an indicator of mental abnormalities. Defining this is quite simple. Most of us, talking to ourselves, conduct a kind of monologue, pondering a serious issue, splashing out negative emotions, and searching for a solution to the problem. In the event of a deviation from the norm, a person does not just talk to himself, he seems to be talking to an invisible interlocutor, answering his questions, arguing, cursing. At the same time, active gestures and facial expressions are often present.

Such behavior can indicate the presence of serious diseases such as schizophrenia, split personality, and more. If, in addition to dialogues with an imaginary interlocutor, a person has hallucinations, inappropriate behavior, isolation, obsessions, emotional disorders, then a visit to the appropriate specialist should not be postponed.

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Many probably have a colleague who gets up and says as if to himself: “I’m going to eat” or “It's time to go home”. For others, this information does not carry any value, so why are absolutely normal people commenting out loud on their actions? The Village asked about this psychiatrist and city dweller, who sometimes talks to himself.

Timur Enaliev

psychiatrist, psychotherapist, narcologist

The human mind is constantly in a stream of thoughts. Information - for the most part completely useless - is becoming more and more, our mind is overloaded. A significant part of live verbal communication is stolen by social networks - this is perhaps why there are more and more people who speak to themselves. This is a kind of obsessive amulet, so as not to forget how to speak. Joke.

Seriously, the spoken word has a special power. It is a vibration. It is a pity, many people treat words superficially. The way a person speaks is to some extent more important than what he says. People are very focused on form, everyone has to choose the right, “right” words to be understood. However, to make you feel, it is enough to be in a relatively relaxed and friendly mood, voice your thoughts, and not use templates and blanks, which makes our communication fresh and formal.

No matter how strange a person looks from the side, commenting aloud on his actions, voicing intentions - this is, rather, a defensive one. This is a protection from feelings of loneliness, self-doubt, a kind of self-reinforcement and reinforcement. More often than not, this is not realized, and therefore does not hide.

And a little about the other side of the phenomenon - a condition well known in psychiatry. With obsessive-compulsive disorder, quite diverse in manifestations, a person, figuratively speaking, becomes a hostage to his thoughts. He is painfully worried, and not in his power to resist the utterance of aloud certain words or phrases. Fear and fears are so strong that they provoke the performance of various protective rituals, including verbal ones.

With personality disharmony (psychopathy), there are cases of uncontrolled negative speech. And finally, the deepest and most inaccessible is the psychotic level. A person in such states may be in dialogue with hallucinations.

Julia Kalinina

talking to herself

This is called egocentric speech - that is, speech addressed to oneself. I have it at times. When a mess begins in the head from a large number of simultaneous activities, or fatigue has accumulated, or you need to concentrate very much on the details, I pronounce my actions out loud so that I sort of control myself. She drew attention to her several years ago when she began to live alone - that is, in a situation where, apart from me, no one makes sounds in the apartment. Personally, egocentric speech helps me a lot: the feeling that you are not the only one doing something. As if two people control each other: me and me. For example, today I filled out a tax return, there are a bunch of numbers in which I do not understand anything. I spoke out every number aloud so as not to get confused.

Illustration: Nastya Yarovaya

We all conduct internal dialogues with ourselves, as in the famous song: "Quietly with myself, quietly with myself I am talking." And such “conversations” are not surprising at all of the people around us, because no one hears them. But sometimes you have to deal with someone who is very enthusiastically talking with an invisible interlocutor aloud. It is clearly seen that such a person does not even understand that he is not just pondering some serious question, how do we all "talk" with ourselves in our minds, but we are conducting a dialogue, answering the words that, it seems to him, come from the outside. Why do people talk to themselves and why they don’t notice that in fact they don’t have any interlocutor?

Talking to yourself is a sign of psychosis.

When a person speaks to himself without waiting for an answer, this may be an early symptom of schizophrenia. Of course, if he mumbles something under his breath just a day or two, then this is not necessarily a sign of pathology. But if someone laughs for no reason, or if he has been talking aloud for a rather long period, and all this along with other behavioral abnormalities - such as hallucinations, social isolation, emotional disorders, strange behavior - then this person no doubt needs urgent consultation with a psychiatrist.

The most characteristic manifestation of psychosis is the presence of hallucinations. Hallucination is a false perception of reality in any of the five sensory modalities, when an external stimulus does not really exist, but people who are hallucinated see, hear or sense a non-existent object. Hallucinations can occur in the twilight state between sleep and waking, in delirium, delirium tremens or during exhaustion; they can also be called under hypnosis. Most often, hallucinations are just visual.

Persistent hallucinations are characteristic of schizophrenia. In one type of this disease, sick people believe that they hear a blaming command voice, to which they react in complete panic, with the manifestation of complete obedience or with an attempt to defend themselves or even suicide. They are somewhat different from hallucinations of illusion - if hallucinations occur without any stimulus from the outside, then illusions are characterized by a false perception of the actual stimulus.

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness characterized by a variety of symptoms. Among them are the loss of contact with reality, the strange behavior already mentioned above, disorganized thinking and speech, a decrease in emotional expressiveness and social isolation. Usually, one patient does not have all, but only some of the symptoms, and each person has a combination of these symptoms.

The term "schizophrenia" itself comes from the Greek words "schizo" (which means "split") and "freno" ("mind, soul"), and it can be translated as "separation of the soul." However, contrary to popular belief, schizophrenia cannot be attributed to a person with a split personality or multiple personality syndrome.

What is the difference between schizophrenia and a split personality?

Schizophrenia and a split personality are often confused, and some people think this is one and the same. In fact, these are two completely different diseases. Schizophrenia is a disorder in the functioning of the brain; some people are already born with this disorder, because it can be inherited. But the symptoms of the disease usually do not develop for many years. In men, symptoms begin to manifest in late adolescence or at the age of twenty; for women, a manifestation of symptoms between twenty and thirty years is characteristic. Of course, it happens that the symptoms of schizophrenia appear in childhood, but this happens extremely rarely.

When a person suffers from schizophrenia, he experiences hallucinations and delusions, sees things that do not exist, talks to someone whom he sees quite clearly, believes in things that in no way correspond to reality. For example, he can see demons who sit down with him at the table during dinner; or can quite sincerely believe that he is the son of God. People with such disabilities also suffer from disordered thinking, decreased attention span, and focus problems. They also lose their ability to take the initiative and draw up and implement some kind of plans. As a rule, such people cannot be socially adapted.

Often a person suffering from schizophrenia believes that the voices that he hears exist in order to control him or cause harm. He probably becomes very scared when he hears them. He can sit for hours without movement and speak, speak ... A sane person, observing a patient with schizophrenia, will not catch a single drop of meaning in his speech. Some people with a similar disorder look quite adequate; but that’s only until they start talking, and more often than not, talking to themselves. Schizophrenia is also marked by clumsy, uncoordinated movements and an inability to take care of oneself sufficiently.

The main difference between schizophrenia and a split personality is that the latter disorder is not congenital. This mental state is caused by certain events that occur in a person’s life, and they are usually associated with some psychological injuries received in childhood. This may be, for example, physical or sexual abuse. People with this disease, as it were, develop additional personalities, as a way to cope with a traumatic event. In order to be diagnosed with a split personality, a person must have at least one alternative personality that significantly controls his behavior.

Only one patient can develop up to a hundred personalities, but on average their number is ten. These can be “additional” personalities of the same sex, the other sex, or both sexes at the same time. Sometimes different personalities of the same person even take on different physical characteristics, such as a particular way of moving or a different level of health and stamina. But depression and self-harming attempts can become common to all facets of the personality of the same person.

There are several signs that are the same for schizophrenia, and for a split personality. Patients with schizophrenia may have hallucinations; while people with a split personality do not always experience them, yet about a third of patients also have hallucinations. A split personality can cause behavioral problems and difficulty concentrating while studying at a young age; this can confuse specialists who sometimes confuse such a disorder with schizophrenia, since it develops and manifests itself most often in adolescence.

As you can see, if a person talks aloud with an invisible interlocutor, this can be a sign of a very serious condition. Therefore, you must do everything possible so that the person close to you receives the necessary help as soon as possible - otherwise he can do irreparable harm to himself!