The simple idea
Your brain builds every perception from senses + memory + expectation. A hallucination is a perception that arrives with no matching thing in the outside world.
"Hearing voices" is only the beginning. A good doctor asks:
- One voice or many? Familiar?
- What does it say?
- From outside your head, or inside?
- Were you fully awake? (voices as you drift off to sleep can be normal)
The senses involved (and the clue they give)
- Auditory (hearing) — the most common in psychiatric illness.
- Visual (seeing) — raises the chance of a medical/brain or substance cause.
- Tactile (touch) — e.g., a feeling of insects crawling on the skin (classic with certain stimulant drugs).
- Olfactory / gustatory (smell / taste) — always worth a careful medical look.
A safety must‑ask 🚨
If someone hears voices, always ask about command hallucinations: "Does the voice tell you to do things? Has it ever told you to hurt yourself or someone else?" This turns a symptom into a safety check.
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Quick check ✅
- Hallucination vs illusion — what's the difference?
- A person feels insects crawling on their skin with none present. Which sense — and what kind of cause should you consider?
Remember this 🌟
Where we're going next → Now we combine everything to understand how schizophrenia is actually recognised (Concept 12).