Sometimes I speak to myself. Am I not a bit schizophrenic?

Answer

Dear David,

Just a small correction. When you speak of schizophrenia, I assume you mean multiple personality. Schizophrenia, however, is something else. It is a disease in which you experience a loss of reality (with delusions and hallucinations), your emotional life becomes unbalanced, and you can function less well little by little. Which is very different from a multiple personality. Because then we are talking about a problem involving dissociation.

When you talk to yourself, there is neither schizophrenia nor multiple personality. Because with schizophrenia you should have a reality loss, and that’s not the case here. And with a multiple personality you are often not aware of the fact that you have multiple personalities in one body. And so you wouldn’t be able to talk to such a second personality.

So talking to yourself is no problem at all. It is often just a loud sounding of certain thoughts. No more. And so perfectly normal.

Sincerely,

Peter Vandebriel
Limburg Provincial University