Can auditory hallucinations be internal? I have these commands in a different deeper voice that tell me to harm myself and put visuals in my head how to do it. I sometimes see dark shadowy figures but mostly things in the corner of my eyes. I’m basically asking if these are considered hallucinations.
Hello anon,
Auditory hallucinations can, in fact, be internal. I found a study that talks about these type of hallucinations, here’s the conclusion (the study is rather long but if you want to check it out here’s the link:)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4372463/
Patients with internal hallucinations did not differ from those with external-only hallucinations in severity of positive, negative, general, or overall symptoms, but they were more depressed, and reported that their hallucinations were more emotionally negative, distressing, and disruptive. They also reported that their hallucinations lasted longer and were less controllable. They were more likely to experience voices commenting and voices conversing, as well as persecutory voices and commands to harm or kill others, and their hallucinations were less likely to have remitted over time. However, they also were more likely to have insight into the self-generated nature of their voices. Furthermore, contrary to expectations, internal hallucinators were not at a more advanced stage of illness, at least chronologically speaking. They were not significantly older, nor was the duration of their illness longer; in fact, their illness onset was at a significantly later age.