Thoughts to Speech

[paranoid_cataclysm]

Is there a name for where a person involuntarily repeats thoughts out loud in speech, much like echolalia where a person would involuntarily repeat speech or sounds that they heard?

[Xila31]

I hear you. Here in the states I had my first suicide attempt at 12. You'd think someone would have said, "Hmmmm.... maybe something is wrong with her." Or how about talking about being chased through my neighborhood by 6 wheeled police cars, and how the "evil building" was out to get me. Don't you think one person would have said, "Yeah, that's not normal." But no. People just shrug their shoulders and tell you to "get over it." Let's see, so 30 - 12 = 18 years for me, bipolar and someone making it.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

I too had my mental illness since early childhood and I didn't receive treatment for roughly 20 years, 7 of which I suspected something was wrong but people were all like OHHHHH YOU CANT POSSIBLY HAVE THAT (but let's forget that we said that or just totally refused to believe your doctor now that you've been diagnosed with it by multiple people)

[millysmadness]

i do think there are def. similarities between bp and schizophrenia i have become almost convinced i had schiz. not bp. now on meds ,seroquel which treats both so dont know if i'll ever find out which it is.had to beg my psych. to give me somethin to actually help me lamotrigine on its own didnt work and the rage inside was makin daily life impossible. here in england they want to reduce suicides perhaps if money was put into helping people from early on and getting a correct diagnosis and correct meds would be a step in the right direction. its a disgrace how long it can take to demand the system helps you,i have had bp from early childhood and have fought to get help for the last 15 years only managed to get a psych. appt. because i said i would be dead by the end of the week if i didnt see someone,how are people like us supposed to go for help when usually we're usually so mixed up we cant do anything let alone manage to tell people whats goin on inside

[Xila31]

I have also read that bipolar and schizophrenia are in the same family, and in genetic families people can have one or the other. I think this is what happened in my family. I have bipolar but my cousin has schizophrenia. It makes sense since bipolar can have psychotic features.

[bbgirl011]

I think there are many different theories related to the two. I could be totally wrong. All I know is it's still being investigated today.

Coming from someone who has Bipolar, I was honestly confused. Learning what Schizroprenhia was, and having some symptoms that was irregular from my normal ones, set off an alarm.

However my doctor told me not to worry and eventually they would fade. They did. I rarely have them - but why I have I'm not sure. I was not on a brand new mediciation at the time. Then I learned this new fact. Proven medically no though.

So I guess it's just something that comes and goes. But nothing to worry about, thats for sure.

- bbgirl011

[HoneyNut]

Xila31, I was experiencing disorganized thought and speech, and brain fog today.  I also know that this is a warning sign for me to get help, because it just means things are worsening for me.  I do (and will) talk to myself every once in a while, but like you said, it is usually when I am alone and no one is around.  Though I have been caught doing it numerous times, when I thought no one was there!

Corlenbelspar, you bring up an interesting point in that schizophrenia and bipolar are caused by the same genes.  I have never read/heard that anywhere before; however, I have been diagnosed before as schizoaffective.  Since then I've always wondered if there was a strong correlation or not, in which I would have had to been exposed to different environmental stimulus to cause the different chemical changes.

Thanks for starting this wonderful topic.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

I think it was actually found that bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are caused by the same gene(s) from what I read, unless I misunderstood it.  I also heard that for one, one side of the brain had more activity than the other, and for the other, the other side of the brain had more activity than the other, but I don't know how true that is.

[bbgirl011]

I have recently learned that bipolar and schzioprenhia could possibly be closely related together because of their symptoms. Both Bipolar and Scizoprenia have similar symtoms that connect with each other. This is probably why some patients with Bipolar report having symptoms such as "hallucinations, delusions, voices in the head". Both patients, Schizoprenia and Bipolar, have affects to the same area of the brain which would be the prefrontal cortex. Other regions of the brain maybe affected depending on the patient.

Learned this from my Psychology course - however I do not think it has been a proven 100% medical fact yet. Scientists are still working on this theory. Thought this would be intresting to point out incase anyone was intrested if there was a theory. It explains alot in my case.

Hope it answers some questions.

- bbgirl011

[paranoid_cataclysm]

Interesting, maybe there is also a link with the disorder I have as well somehow since I have a somehow clinically related disorder to bipolar disorder that can share symptoms with it and initially can even mimic it until the emotions just become dulled and blunted, but I've had this disorder ever since I was a kid after I clinically died at a month old and then it was triggered when I banged my head when I was 3 or 4.

[heyjude1]

I also had Tourettes as a kid, t was mild case that lasted about a year or so.  I involuntarily blinked my eyes non stop.  I wasn't even aware it was happening.  I frequent the site on Medhelp for Tourettes and I have read several posts from people with the vocal symptoms.  Tourettes normally effects someone  between 10 to early 20's but I do not know enough about it to say it goes into remission and relapes.  Suppose it would be something to research.
FYI...read that reasearchers are finding a link between Tourettes as a child and Bipolar as an adult.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

That would explain it, then.

[ILADVOCATE]

Actually a person I knew has Tourrette's Syndrome. That of course causes people to repeat things if its verbal (echolalia) and if there are physical tics present if the verbal tics are suppressed it can cause more of those. I know there is a specific forum for that and I know some of the treatments I take for my physical disability which has aspects of Tourrette's such as Clonodine are helpful for Tourrette's Syndrome and actually Tourrette's Syndrome itself does respond to antipsychotics (especially atypicals) so there are treatments for it so I agree it would be worthwhile to ask your psychiatrist about that.

[Xila31]

I would say that you were probably just conversing without the need for responses, even ones in your head. It is not something I have heard of but I would guess it has something to do with schizophrenia or psychosis.

Tourette's actually is involuntary as well. I do believe it is also very hard to treate. If you have this, maybe it is something to bring up at your next appointment to check it out. Maybe that is contributing to some things.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

Xila31 -
I sometimes also do stuff like that but it is not the same thing like you guessed.  When I was younger I used to talk to the side like someone was there and carried on a conversation as if I was getting responses but I didn't have any thoughts or anything that could be considered responses so I don't know how I even carried on the conversations to begin with.  Maybe part of my brain created the other half of the dialogue and I was unaware of it?  I would think this would have to be the case.

Snakenstein -
I sometimes do it in public as well but not around people I don't know at all because I become so withdrawn around people I don't know and/or haven't figured out how to interact with.   Yeah... I have to actually relearn how to interact with each and every new person... otherwise I become mute and dazed and extremely shy around them.  I had a boss who before who wouldn't even let you say anything to him because it "wasted time" and thought it would be faster to write a note to him, even if it was just a five word sentence, and so I never figured out how to interact towards him at all and was so stressed out with him being my boss.

heyjude1 -
I was actually diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome at an earlier age but I thought all the tics involved with it are voluntary (which I also have as well as involuntary ones) which this repeating my thoughts thing feels involuntary.

[heyjude1]

You may want to read about Tourettes Syndrome.

[Snakenstein]

Hmm..Im not so sure. I tried googling it. I do the same thing, its usually when im having obsessive thoughts and it starts to become agonizing i'll involuntarily grimace and mumble to myself, sometimes i'll respond to the thought, or repeat the words being said in my mental projector of sorts.. Its actually really embarrassing because I do this in public. And one of my friends was like "I really dont know what to do when you start talking to yourself" And I was like "Really? I do? In from of you?! When!?"

[Xila31]

I'm glad you're okay. I talk to myself all the time. I talk in little circles, telling myself what I'm thinking like I'm reciting it to a person. As if I was conversing with them. I talk to myself as if I was another person (like if I was a twin of myself, I guess,) or I talk to the inside me? I don't know how to explain it. LOL. I've done this my whole life. It is worse when I am anxious or manic. I also pace around while I talk. I think I've said that before. I know I am not doing well when all I can do is pace around and talk to myself. Except, I only do it when I'm alone. If there are people around, then I don't do it.

I'm guessing it isn't the same thing.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

ILADVOCATE
Yeah I also whisper them too, it varies seemingly at random.

Xila31
I'm doing just fine, I just was curious about what it was called because I do this sometimes when my mind isn't preoccupied with activities.

[Xila31]

I was also doing some reading on disorganized thinking because I have so much trouble with confusion during mania. I was reading that disorganized speech is a big part of disorganized thinking, which in turn is a form a psychosis. Disorganized speech comes in many forms, such as echolalia and "word salad" and so on. It seems there are a lot of types. I do believe the repetitive speech to thought might be among them.

If you're having trouble this is definately something you sould bring up with your psychiatrist, maybe your meds are in need of a tweek or something. This is something they can help you with, I'm sure.

I hope you're doing okay otherwise!

[ILADVOCATE]

Yes I'm sure but I wouldn't know the exact name off hand. I do know that before my current recovery when I had auditory hallucinations I did not speak them but at times might without realizing it whisper them to myself. I do know other people I saw leaving my psychiatrist's office would speak them out loud. What I learned at the time from an article I read that was clinically accurate was that if I put my jaw down so I could not speak I would stop having auditory hallucinations and that did work to temporarily stop  them so its been studied that auditory hallucinations don't just start from the part of the brain that proceses thoughts which would be the frontal cortex but also from the part of the brain that processes sound and somehow both are connected and disrupted in schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.