Question:
i have these things too, except all throughout the day at any time really, and sometimes they can go on for a really long time. they're like hallucinations, but in your mind and you can't confuse them with the real world, and they're like intrusive thoughts but just..not. gah, its so confusing. i would be interested to know if anyone finds out more about it.
ps. i should mention that i have been diagnosed with ocd before but do not believe this to be my major problem, and am now thought to have "obsessive compulsive tendencies". furthermore, i do have some of the symptoms of schizophrenia but have never been diagnosed with it officially. so i don't know
Answer:
i have these things too, except all throughout the day at any time really, and sometimes they can go on for a really long time. they're like hallucinations, but in your mind and you can't confuse them with the real world, and they're like intrusive thoughts but just..not. gah, its so confusing. i would be interested to know if anyone finds out more about it.
That sums it up really well^_^
yeah, I know they're not indtrusive thoughts. I'd get those too sometimes, and they're not similar...
I talked to psyc student the other week, but he didn't really give me a straight answer as to what they are.
He said they were probably related to either severe depression, a phychotic break, or some kind of developping psychotic disorder. But they're gone now. They started out as just hearing the voices in my mind, then as time when I'd see or hear things for real, but they were almost always animals. A bird singing, a mouse squeaking, a spider web, newts crawling around on the sidewalk... But none of these things happen anymore. Strange... Not that i miss them or anything -_-
Answer:
I experience these too... I never knew they were called "flash thoughts", but that name seems very appropriate.
I talked to my therapist about it, and she said its not really anything for me to worry about. I'm not schizophrenic. However, I am OCD, and racing thoughts (which are usually coherent, or form some sort of "chain" of thought). Sometimes, these racing thoughts are similar to what you call flash thoughts. It will be like random movie lines being thought by me, but without my actively thinking them!
Have you ever studied for a test for so long that you dreamt about the material at night?? I think if your brain is getting tired, and is little your unconcious mind sort of "peek through" so to speak, then that is when you usually have these thoughts. At least thats how I think of it for me. I notice sometimes these flash thoughts being influenced by books I had just read, even though I wasn't actively thinking them.
Want to know something weird? I get these after I've been playing solitaire on the computer for a long time!! I'm only half-focused on the game, really just worried about playing the game the "right way" (thats the *game* for me - I'm even ocd about solitaire!), so it doesn't take a lot of thought. I guess the rest of my mind has time to wander.
I have a bad headache right now, so I hope this makes sense.
Answer:
I get these sometimes right before I fall asleep too. Mostly auditory rather than visual. It's really cool that you were able to remember them and write them down. A few that I can remember: I've heard a woman's voice talking conversationally in another language in my right ear, a truck commercial that kept looping and getting louder and louder, visions of freaky things like black shrouded mannequins and strange looking people. Usually when I get them and they're very quick flowing I'll go right into sleep paralysis which can be pretty interesting too if you can stay lucid through it. If not, it can be pretty darn terrifying because they're difficult to wake up from since you think you're already wide awake. Do you ever get sleep paralysis? I used to get this more when I was a teen and I honestly didn't know what to think it was. My friend used to tease me that it was actually voices of real people and I was tuning into the cosmos or it was caused by aliens. LOL. Later I asked my parents about it and they both said they had the exact same thing and so did a lot of people I have talked to, so I guess it's just a freaky sleep/brain thing...
Answer:
I don't hear voices during the day, and I'm not schizophrenic, but the other night I was lying there almost asleep, and I hear, "Richard!" really loudly! It woke me up! (I don't know a Richard.) It was strange.