Dear Renz Han:

You are welcome. Back in high school, being religious, you worshipped Jesus Christ. You also worshipped a celebrity, Lady Gaga. The rumor that she worshipped the devil led you to the following delusion (an untrue belief/ conviction): that the devil she allegedly worshipped had access to you via “voices of the demon… dark voices” that were pushing you to “worship the dark side and join them”.

In college, you discovered K-pop, which is short for Korean popular music, a genre of music originating in South Korea. K-pop, in your mind, “was an answer to prayer”, an answer “from God” who started to make the voices go away.

You shared that you were very much a loner during high school and college (“a loner… just sitting in the corner… so alone”). There is an interesting article in healthy place. com/ auditory hallucinations, what it’s like hearing voices, which suggests a connection between being a loner (being socially isolated) and hearing voices: “Deprivation of social interaction – namely human conversation-makes the brain more likely to produce hallucinated conversations. Often one of the first signs of schizophrenia- occurring well before manifestations such as hearing voices-is social isolation”.

The article also suggests the following connection: “Heightened emotionality prompts the brain to produce information consonant with that emotional state… Verbal messages expressed by voices often are highly emotional… It could be that these powerful emotional states increase the propensity of the brain to produce corresponding verbal ‘messages.’… The brains of schizophrenia sufferers may be vulnerable to becoming ‘stuck’ in these hallucinatory states”.

You ended your recent post with: “Right now, I’m suffering from restless leg syndrome with dark voices“-

– There is a connection between restless leg syndrome and tactile hallucinations. Wikipedia reads: “Restless legs syndrome (RLS) causes unpleasant or uncomfortable sensations in the legs and an irresistible urge to move them. Tactile hallucinations in RLS include feelings of itching, pulling, crawling or creeping mainly in the legs, with the accompanying overwhelming urge to move them”, and “20% of patients with schizophrenia experience some sort of tactile hallucinations along with visual and auditory hallucinations”- Hopefully, the atypical anti-psychotic medication that you are taking (Olanzapine) will greatly lessen your auditory and tactile hallucinations!

There is a lot of online information about relieving the symptoms of RLS, some of which are to: (1) Do leg stretching exercises, and yoga poses that calm restless legs (there are YouTube videos showing how to do that), (2) Massage legs, (3) Apply heated or cooled pads to the legs, (4) Soak the legs in hot water (take a hot bath), to take a hot shower, (5) Take a mild to moderate walk in the evening, (6) Avoid caffeine, sugar, alcohol and nicotine before bed, and (7) Apply an over the counter cream for RLS, and/ or, if your doctor approves, take an over the counter medication for RLS that your doctor approves of.

“I’m still fighting Anita” – I admire you for fighting, and I hope to read from you again, any time you feel like posting, please do, and I will reply to you.

anita