Really...love your column

I don't think I agree with the whole "crazy people don't know they're crazy" thing. But I do think that if you're scared of whatever is going on in your mind you should seek at least one professional opinion. Maybe you have reason to be scared. Maybe not. Maybe you're just one of those people that spends a lot of time in their own head.

I suspect we all have other "people" in our heads, to some extent. I know I have a few. There's the really introverted shy chick. There's the brave, passionate, creative chick (she doesn't get out nearly enough and she spends a lot of time encouraging the first chick). Lately there's the angry chick. And there's the cautious common-sense one who calms the angry one down as required. I don't think a lot about what they look like, but they probably look more or less like me. The brave, creative chick is probably thinner and has better hair, and maybe has better dress sense. And we all talk to each other, occasionally out loud. I think that last one might be a function of living alone.

What I'm wondering is if these "people" are just aspects of you - the person you were when you were younger; the depressed you; the you you'd like to be? That might not be a negative thing. In fact it might be normal, whatever that word means.

Either way you should look into it. Can't hurt. Could help.

I despise labels in the popular sense. I think they are used to judge even by the mental health field rather than as simply a lumping of common characteristics for the sake of learning and understanding. I think the different personalities in your head each clearly serve their purpose and aren't causing you harm, so why worry? For some reason, perhaps at one point in your life as a method of coping, you compartmentalized different parts of yourself in "seperate beings" inside you; in my (self) educated opinion this is simply an extreme version of coping mechanisms that lots of people use. (For example, I've been diagnosed with borderline. I often feel that I have no identity, and that when I'm with people I am whoever they expect me to be. This results in me sometimes feeling like I am many different people in one, and I even dislike mixing circles of my friends for this reason - I don't know who to be.) I don't know about you, but I see similarities in our emotional coping methods and figure that yours is possibly simply a more extreme version than mine. And what is normal, anyway?! Just because we are different than most people doesn't make us bad or wrong... just targets for being "fixed", in our society. As long as your personalities aren't huring you or others or causing you distress, I don't see why you need to tell anyone or do anything about it except learn to accept and love yourself.

That said, though it is antiquated at this point (right down to the terminology), you should definitely read The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality by Joan Frances Casey. This woman was in crisis and her story is not like yours, but it's fascinating. I read it for a class in college and made a deep impression.

Good luck.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Mind

My understanding is that a lot of his original suppositions / theories have been borne out in research since then. (And Minsky is a well-respected cognitive scientist -- which is not an inoculation against foolishness by any means, but there you are.) Basically, our consciousness is composed of lots of different "voices" that represent different aspects / drives in ourselves.

You may just have the kind of brain where these voices become much stronger and more distinct; you may have the kind of brain where turning these agents into distinct personalities makes the most sense to you. It may work a little differently from others, but as long as you're still connected to reality (sharp things still sharp, hot things still hot, and no you cannot fly) it may not be something to worry about too much.

Certainly, it doesn't entail that you're sick or that anything's wrong with you. If you're really worried, you may want to talk to someone who's more like a neuroscientist instead of a psychiatrist. We're finding that there is a biological basis to all sorts of things -- belief in god, "seeing ghosts", deja vu, and the like; a lot of traits (like hearing voices) that were in prior times the hallmark of insanity were really just people whose brains worked differently and in extreme cases may have been harmed by strokes or other illnesses / accidents.

Good luck!

I have a friend who, after she started watching True Blood, told me (and presumably other people) that she could hear people's thoughts, a la Sookie Stackhouse.

"Danger to self or others," is only the criteria for locking someone up against their will. I think curiosity alone would drive me to a therapist, but I think you should assume that there will come a day when things will get out of hand. Everyone's life gets out of hand, sometimes, and you have fractured system upstairs. It would be good to at least explore your resources before there is a crisis.

Perhaps not as well-defined, but I know that when I have a decision or a situation, there all sorts of sounds and opinions flying around in my head. What I've learned to do is sit myself down-sometimes physically, sometimes metaphorically-and ask "What do I want? What do I need? What works for me?" Sometimes I have to ask several times until the swirl dies down, and I can hear myself. For me, anyway, the voices are a way to hear different sides of things. And, sometimes, they're a way for me not to have to decide.

Check your area to see if there are state/non-profit psychiatric clinics that offer a sliding scale. As well, see if the local hospitals have a low-income psychiatric program you might qualify for. Good luck!