# Is believing people can read your mind schizophrenia?



## Moses Chol (Jul 19, 2013)

In the last few years my social phobia has developed soo badly that i have started believing people can LITERALLY read my mind and make noises simultaneously to my actions as a response to my thoughts. For example if I think "you guys are annoying" I feel like someone will know it and slam a door or make any type of aggresive sound as a response.

This fear of people knowing what I think in turn gives me major anxiety & panic attacks for noises they can potentially make if they are angry or nervous with my thoughts. I feel like this mind reading belief is the root cause of the fear of simultaneous noise that's why I want to tackle it however idk if it's schizophrenia or not.

1) Here is my thread explaining my simultanuouse noise fear:
- https://socialphobiaworld.com/are-you-scared-of-your-neighbors-making-sounds-61157/

2) Mind reading fear threads:
- http://www.socialanxietysupport.com...t-people-reading-my-mind-57796/#/topics/57796 
-‎ http://www.socialanxietysupport.com/forum/f33/mind-reading-anxiety-paranoia-2083265/#/topics/2083265

Please try to read all threads so you can have a better understanding of what i meant by "mind reading" and "simultaneous noise fear"

My question: Do you believe my mind reading fear is schizophrenia based? If so should i try antipsychotics?


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## Ms kim (May 15, 2017)

I don't know why you have this fear but,
while people can try to guess what's going on in other people's heads, ultimately no one knows exactly what another person is thinking.


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## Moses Chol (Jul 19, 2013)

Ms kim said:


> I don't know why you have this fear but,
> while people can try to guess what's going on in other people's heads, ultimately no one knows exactly what another person is thinking.


Yes i know that but logic seem not to work. But i didn't make this thread for that. I just want to know is this schizophrenia.


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## Ms kim (May 15, 2017)

You didn't make the thread for logical responses to your question? So you would like a illogical response instead?


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## TheFather (Sep 20, 2012)

As I've told you before, there has been very intense study and conclusions have been drawn that psychotic symptoms can manifest in those with social anxiety disorder (as well as other anxiety/mood disorders).

It's known in the psychiatric world as _anxiety/mood disorder with psychotic effect. _Antipsychotics have *not *been shown to improve symptoms over the course of a normal regiment, and normal treatments for the social anxiety and psychotherapy will usually be able to eliminate the psychotic delusions as well as treat the underlying condition. Schizophrenia is a complex and difficult disease to even understand. I hope to specialize in schizophrenia, but many psychiatrists go their entire professional lives without truly grasping how to even begin diving into the soup of schizophrenia. Until you go to a psychiatrist for a formal diagnosis, you will not know. However I would conclude that you probably do not, considering your anxiety.

I would like for you to Google these terms and read some psychiatric literature around them. They may help you develop a better understanding of your condition as well as schizophrenia:

1) *Idea of Reference
*2) *Delusion of Reference 
*3) *Delusion of Persecution 
*3) *Paranoid Personality 
*4) *Psychosis 
*5) *Poverty of Speech/Neologism
*6) *Mood Disorder w/ Psychotic Effect *


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## DiDiZia (May 18, 2017)

I get anxious about that, too! Haha!
It's just anxiety. It was worse in my mid-teens. I obviously knew that it was baseless, so it wasn't a delusion, but nonetheless, the anxiety over it still persisted.

It's just like all the stuff I'm anxious over holds little to no reality. Being anxious about being in the dark. Being anxious about waking down an empty college hallway. Being anxious about getting into a lift. Being embarrassed when enjoying certain songs. The list goes on and on.

What makes it more annoying, is that you know it's bull****e, but the thoughts of ‘what if we got it wrong?!’ linger. I still know it's baseless, and for me, that separates me from somebody who suffers from delusions – people who genuinely believe it to be true.

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## TheFather (Sep 20, 2012)

DeFyYing said:


> I would be careful and try to see a doctor about this when you can before worrying yourself. It is a symptom of schizophrenia called "thought broadcasting". But my cousin also has social anxiety and experiences it without any diagnosed psychotic disorder. He's similar in that the reactions of people seem to align with what he thinks coincidentally. It's a byproduct of his anxiety, in his case.
> 
> In my experience, though, it is one of my psychotic symptoms. I just got diagnosed with schizoaffective yesterday, which is like schizophrenia + mood disorder (bipolar I in my case), if that counts.
> Sometimes when I'm around my dad (who for some reason gives the impression that he can read my mind the most with the way he speaks, just something weird about him), I start getting really angry and I curse out my dad in my head and insult him mentally so he'll leave me alone. Not the healthiest thing to do, admittedly, and otherwise I get along well with my dad most of the time. And I can relate where it's like everyone's reactions sometimes perfectly align with your thoughts, but most of the time it's just coincidence. Especially with therapists/psychiatrists. It's like the sequence of their questions are so perfectly in response to my thoughts that I feel like screaming "Why the **** are you even asking me?". Our thoughts can definitely manifest in our body language and facial expressions, I guess.
> ...


I agree with this absolutely. I'm studying to be a psychiatrist, and in the future I will always tell patients/patient families to research and read up on symptoms and conditions because it can only help to know as much as possible. My textbooks give detailed clinical profiles of the different mental disorders, as well as case studies. It's very important to understand as much as possible about certain conditions.

I hope you find a good treatment and regiment for your schizoaffective. It's a tough illness to combat for sure. I'm sure your psychiatrist will set you up on a good treatment program. Wish the best for you and your steps toward resolution!


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## TheFather (Sep 20, 2012)

DeFyYing said:


> Thank you so much, I appreciate the kind words! PHP is going great so far, this new one blows my old one out of the water on how seriously everyone takes it. Good luck on your journey to be a psychiatrist, I'm sure your patients will appreciate that kind of transparency that is often absent nowadays in psychiatrist-client relationships. I understand that lack of insight and anxiety levels causing hypochondria can be a barrier and can make things worse at times with certain people or at certain times, but man if my old PHP was transparent about their concern about me being bipolar, which they kept in their records, then I would've immediately related with "not sleeping for days" or "spending way too much money" right off the bat. Then maybe I wouldn't have had to go through a second antidepressant and almost take my life to REALLY find out, yknow? It's a complicated thing, some people pigeonhole themselves into false diagnoses and identify with symptoms they don't have because they're scared and want an answer immediately to what's going wrong, I guess. But I feel like as long as they talk about it and cooperate with their psychiatrist and therapist, it would most likely be a positive thing.
> 
> I actually wanted to be a psychiatrist initially, but the 12+ years of school seems daunting to me, props for doing all that hard work. Plus I just don't feel as functional as I once was and my symptoms are worse now, I can only take one class in community college atm when before I took the hardest classes I could in high school, it sucks how dumb I feel now. I wonder how long it'd take if I took the longest amount of time possible, and that's not even counting breaks if I ever have to withdraw. And I can never guarantee long-term stability, it'd feel disingenuous of me to be responsible for patients' lives when I can just lose control at any moment and be unable to see them. So just taking gen ed classes atm hoping to find inspiration for a new career :rofl


Thank you very much for your kind words as well! Psychiatry is a tough career to pursue for sure. Medical school, residency, fellowship. On top of that there are so many therapies and medicines to commit to memory it's a huge challenge at times. So many conditions have overlapping symptoms and signs that sometimes it can be very difficult to tell some apart. Patient input is very important and insightful as to how to treat the condition as well as how to approach individual therapies.

I'm glad you're pursuing some form of education and trying your best to work towards a future. I'm sure you can make it, and as long as your treatments help you, you should have every ability to succeed!

I notice that you've been prescribed with gabapentin, is this because other medications did not work for you? I've only read a handful of cases where it was necessary to prescribe gabapentin.


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## DiDiZia (May 18, 2017)

DeFyYing said:


> In my experience, there's often some attempt during one of my delusions. Often it's multiple attempts of me saying "wtf are you doing" or "this is dumb" but it's almost like my delusions create a fence around themselves when I try to call out its bull****. Usually this presents itself into another delusion, such as "it only looks obvious and stupid because they are deceiving you" or I get this feeling I'm about to die in a horribly painful way by something, and sometimes I can ride it out in discomfort saying "I've felt this way a million times before, can't be different" but there's that thing in the back in my mind where it's like "THIS IS IT" and it feels so much more real than anything. I'd say it's hard because in both a normal and psychotic state, we all have a that's bull****-to-it's real meter but the difference is that the meter is "shifted" towards the real side. So while I can say something is still bull****, all it means is that it's really really bull****. And it's like this shift happens in an instant, you kinda lose control of deciding what is realistic.
> 
> It's kind of like my bipolar with impulsivity, what I would consider normal when I'm manic would be really weird when I'm stable, but what I consider weird when I'm manic is utterly insane when I'm normal, if that makes sense


Oh, dear. That sounds terrible. Has this ever led you to doing something that made others notice?

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## TheFather (Sep 20, 2012)

DeFyYing said:


> Thank you, and yeah if it's this hard learning the intricacies of my own disorders and the meds I'm on, I can't imagine having to know everything about every mental health condition and all of the meds and all of the therapy styles, and then applying them to people with various comorbidities and personal backgrounds, personalities, and trauma it sounds exhausting and there's a lot of pressure on you guys. I probably wouldn't be alive without my psychiatrist, so thanks again for what you guys do.
> 
> I'm on gabapentin because I'm in a weird position where I need something for my social anxiety, but my doc doesn't want me on benzos because of tolerance (I'd probably need it everyday) and antidepressants because I've gone manic on the ones I've tried so far. So for anxiolytics my doc wanted me to try gabapentin 3 times a day, but the dose is so low it's not really doing anything. I've heard some docs give it as a mood stabilizer, but I've read it's not very good at that, it's mostly just for pain and off-label anxiety. I think the Zyprexa is helping the social anxiety, which is good. The new doc at partial said he wants to stabilize me and deal with psychosis first, then social anxiety after.


Thank you for you very kind words to the psychiatric field. Psychiatry is probably the most disrespected field of medicine next to chiropractors. It's frustrating because we go through all this medical training and schooling, the same as every other MD, and yet we can't always see how to heal our patients. It's still a while yet before I reach that part. but it will be extremely taxing when it comes. The reward though when a patient who suffers finds a regiment that makes them feel better, that's what it's all about. I'm specializing in schizophrenia and personality disorders, so the conditions many strip-mall psychs don't really like to treat. Learning how to approach schizophrenia and its related disorders is akin to learning deep philosophy: barely anyone truly understands it, but we can put the pieces together best we can and roll with it.

I see now, yeah I've really only ever seen gabapentin prescribed for people with MS or pain in their back or extremities. He was right to avoid benzodiazapines and probably antidepressants as well. I agree that the worse symptom should be dealt with first. Some mood stabilizers are good for schizoaffective, and ECT has shown to possibly reduce psychotic symptoms while also allowing antidepressants to work better and resolve depressive symptoms. I do truly hope you find a way to overcome your psychosis though, and it's fantastic that you've developed such a great patient relationship with your doctor.


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## fireballs13 (Feb 28, 2018)

Probably not helpful, but I felt this for months after I had tried Acid. Months later I finally went to see a therapist and what is worse is that I stopped going to see her. I moved states and don't have health care or money to go see anyone about it. The good thing is that I guess i had to much "crap" going on in my life I slowly just forgot about it all.

-remembering how I let go of this feeling like "you can talk through your head"

OHHH I use to smoke marijuana and then one day I tired acid (please no one judge, I know it could be frowned upon but that is not the point for this post) So I tried it, had an awful trip. I'd go into detail but its long and sounds outrageous. Anyway went back to smoking.. at the time that was just what I was going in my life. (Hey and I had everything together; job, school, hobbies, fit. everything was/is in order it was just something I did after my day was done, similar to having a few beers.) Anyways went back to smoking but now while high I felt "heighten". Relationship took a few big blows that I ended packing up and leaving for another state to start my life over, new atmosphere, new lifestyle, etc. That is when I saw the therapist. I ended up coming back but the thing is that by the time I was back I had been clean from everything for about a month and some. Therapist said something along the lines about how the acid might have emotionally derail me, Because not everyone is the same, it just might be that for Me, I became unstable. I haven't thought about that time in my life for a while now and so much other stuff has happened since then that i forgot until i got intrigued by this thread. 
None might been as helpful as the rest. Which I really enjoyed reading. But don't be discouraged. I believe in what you feel and it may be harder to do but slowly start to find things to help you forget/realize its not real. I was never diagnosed for bipolar but I don't feel like it far from me. You can overcome this. The brain is a powerful tool.

Thank you all


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## SwtSurrender (Nov 24, 2014)

Those thoughts sound more like paranoia which is very common with social anxiety disorder. I was extremely paranoid this one semester, they were like talking about me and my cat. His name was pickle and they were talking about him, like how did they know his name and they even mentioned cat! Okay maybe it is a small world and someone else has a cat named pickle, but really? C'mon paranoia! Those students were very extroverted, when the teacher says, "work in groups", what the students actually do is chit chat about their personal lives. 

You shouldn't ruminate much over random sounds that are actually made as a response to your thoughts, sometimes they're just random. That's how other people are, loud and they enjoy bullying other people with sounds or familiar names. Life must be all inside our heads after all, just like when you have a dream.


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## DannyW1 (Mar 1, 2018)

Never gave up. Remeber that people can't read your mind. Most of people are bus***rd so don't worry and you are right to avoid them, but there are lots of people who wants to help you they are nice , care about you. I can't say I have this problem, but similar. I was really jealous about my wife and when I went to work I was thinking that someone was coming to visit my wife and you know. My wife is really good person and that was my imagination. It was hard to remove this image from my head.
Good luck to you hope you will realise that just your imagination.


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## MightBeDeadSoon (Mar 2, 2018)

I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder also. I think people can read my mind even respond from far off distances by revving their car. I hate going out, facing people, facing traffic. I also "found my friends, they're inside my head." They talk to me. I also think TV sends me messages through the words and actions of the people onscreen. I also would hear someone tell me to tell someone something, then I thought it and he started this laughter. It got to me.


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## MightBeDeadSoon (Mar 2, 2018)

There are numerous other examples that I won't go into, but I don't think I'm wrong. Maybe the world is my imagination. It seems just as real as my dreams. As above, so below.


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## komorikun (Jan 11, 2009)

I read an article that said that only half of people with schizophrenia are aware that the things they are perceiving are not real.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/health/07lives.html?pagewanted=all

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-awareness#Disorders



> And that is what he got at lunch - a promotion. "We were having a great time, laughing and celebrating, and at the end my boss says she's going to the ladies' room," he said. "But just before she leaves, I hear her say something awful, just terrible - she insults me. Loudly."
> 
> He stood there by the door, stung and confused, until she returned. The jab made no sense, given the spirit of the occasion, but it was still ringing in his ears.
> 
> ...


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## Darkblock9 (Dec 31, 2017)

TheFather said:


> As I've told you before, there has been very intense study and conclusions have been drawn that psychotic symptoms can manifest in those with social anxiety disorder (as well as other anxiety/mood disorders).
> 
> It's known in the psychiatric world as _anxiety/mood disorder with psychotic effect. _Antipsychotics have *not *been shown to improve symptoms over the course of a normal regiment, and normal treatments for the social anxiety and psychotherapy will usually be able to eliminate the psychotic delusions as well as treat the underlying condition. Schizophrenia is a complex and difficult disease to even understand. I hope to specialize in schizophrenia, but many psychiatrists go their entire professional lives without truly grasping how to even begin diving into the soup of schizophrenia. Until you go to a psychiatrist for a formal diagnosis, you will not know. However I would conclude that you probably do not, considering your anxiety.
> 
> ...


Yeah, I developed persecution delusions and became paranoid due to social anxiety. Are you sure that antipsychotics don't work in that case? I'm asking you because my psychiatrist has treated me with an antipsychotic because of that, and I wanted to know if therapy is enough.


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## TheFather (Sep 20, 2012)

Darkblock9 said:


> Yeah, I developed persecution delusions and became paranoid due to social anxiety. Are you sure that antipsychotics don't work in that case? I'm asking you because my psychiatrist has treated me with an antipsychotic because of that, and I wanted to know if therapy is enough.


Based on several of my psychiatry textbooks and my research, antipsychotics have not typically been shown to improve psychotic symptoms in social anxiety. Your doctor may have placed you on them for certain reasons, I do not know. You would have to talk about this with your doctor and discuss whether your medication helps you or not.


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## Darkblock9 (Dec 31, 2017)

TheFather said:


> Based on several of my psychiatry textbooks and my research, antipsychotics have not typically been shown to improve psychotic symptoms in social anxiety. Your doctor may have placed you on them for certain reasons, I do not know. You would have to talk about this with your doctor and discuss whether your medication helps you or not.


I'll do that. Thanks.


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## DannyW1 (Mar 1, 2018)

I know its really hard, but if you think that people can read your mind, maybe you should try to think that they can't. Brain is very acctive. I hope you will manage. REMEBER no one can read your mind. There is only one person who can know what you think - God. Rest of us we don't have that kind of power  Be strong


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## Daxi004 (Apr 16, 2018)

I just wanted to say When I've had psychotic symptoms, compulsive thoughts and several psychosis I struggled allot with telepathic paranoia and sound paranoia in different ways... 


I've been medicated with anti-psychotics for this and it worked for me.


Now I also need to talk about this in therapy because otherwise I can't really move on


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## Moses Chol (Jul 19, 2013)

anhelou said:


> I just wanted to say When I've had psychotic symptoms, compulsive thoughts and several psychosis I struggled allot with telepathic paranoia and sound paranoia in different ways...
> 
> I've been medicated with anti-psychotics for this and it worked for me.
> 
> Now I also need to talk about this in therapy because otherwise I can't really move on


Wow thats great to hear...Can you explain more about your telepathy paranoia and what went through your mind...


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## RMS (May 29, 2010)

OP the most important thing is you have insight which to me shows you are not psychotic. People who are acutely psychotic don't second-guess themselves, they have firm and fixed false beliefs


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## Daxi004 (Apr 16, 2018)

RMS said:


> OP the most important thing is you have insight which to me shows you are not psychotic. People who are acutely psychotic don't second-guess themselves, they have firm and fixed false beliefs


I have always been able to doubt my psychotic experiences.

I've met people with schizophrenia that are able to separate reality vs psychotic symptoms, and I saw a very popular video where a person with schizophrenia talked about what was going on in her head and how she tried to manage a normal life with the symptoms.

Yes, there are also people with psychotic symptoms where unfortunately no medicin works who is psychotic = have schizophrenia in the way you described.

I'm not saying OP has psychotic symptoms.
But being paranoid and obsessed with unrealistic things is often a big part of psychosis.

Anti-psychotics can help with compulsive thoughts or severe paranoia and depression.

If Moses Chol is suffering from compulsive thoughts or severe paranoia I'd recommend anti-psychotics/talking to a psychologist about this.

I have trouble thinking about the memories. My body pains and I have trouble breathing. Sometimes I get panic attacks. It is like I have PTSD... I think? I hope it get better if I try to process it with the help of other people/therapy and also Tetris.

If you are only interested and the subject excites you. I'll be happy to try to share something =) Maybe it's not much I can give you because it's hard to put together...

(sorry if grammars not on point)


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## Daxi004 (Apr 16, 2018)

Moses Chol said:


> In the last few years my social phobia has developed soo badly that i have started believing people can LITERALLY read my mind and make noises simultaneously to my actions as a response to my thoughts. For example if I think "you guys are annoying" I feel like someone will know it and slam a door or make any type of aggresive sound as a response.
> 
> This fear of people knowing what I think in turn gives me major anxiety & panic attacks for noises they can potentially make if they are angry or nervous with my thoughts. I feel like this mind reading belief is the root cause of the fear of simultaneous noise that's why I want to tackle it however idk if it's schizophrenia or not.
> 
> ...


I am really not good at reading all the info at once, many times...

I see it is troubling you. Talk to psychologist. They will help you 

Try to talk to them. Try many times if you have to. I did not dare to speak about it first. If anyone near you can help you go there with you that can be good to <3


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

If it is, believing in God also is.


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