What exactly is it like to "hear voices in your head"?

for anyone who has experienced this, is it similar to actually hearing voices like over a telephone?

how so or how different?

who are these "voices" usually and what kinds of things do they say?

Which mental conditions are these that hear voices?

Thanks for your answers!

It's called your CONSCIENCE.

Have you ever seen a cartoon where there's a little red devil on one side of the shoulder and an angel on the other side?

It can range from being extremely frustrating and very interesting - I find its always challenging - - It is different for different people they don't seem to actually be in the head more like just behind or coming fro m a definite source - but yes clear like on the telephone - they definitely feel outside the known self.

look up hearing voices network

www.hearing-voices.org

They have done the most work on cataloguing and dealing with voices.

I had a new voice recently that told me it was god - but I was in such a tearing hurry and busy I told it where to go - later I laughed at the idea that it really might have been god. I am atheist anyway and it didn't seem to know me very well.

I also see things that others don't and smell and feel touch that isn't 'real' The smells are the worst - pure torture.

Schizophrenia but that diagnosis is being used less and less because of possible lawsuits.

www.hearing-voices.org

I am informed that it's like having someone behind you saying things, but, of course, you can't use the directional capacities of your ears to establish the source, because it's originating in your own mind. A disembodied voice, so to speak, which, in ancient times, may have been construed as the voice of god, telling them to do something such as, for example, to sacrifice ones son (does this ring any bells?: a biblical reference, possibly?). People in those days new nothing of nutrition, or mental disorders, and their poor diet would have contributed significantly to the expression of such disorders. Those suffering from disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder type 1, and clinical depression can be affected. The voices can say anything, such as: "There is no hope:- kill yourself!" And some do just that.