Years ago, before I knew I was schizoaffective, I told a friend I was hearing voices. I’m lucky that my hallucinations are rarely mean or rude to me but it would’ve been super cool if that friend had followed up and asked more questions because maybe I would have realized sooner that I was unwell.

A common misunderstanding about schizophrenia symptoms is that voices are inherently negative. Truthfully, most of my experience with my voices has been good. They are usually friendly and helpful and at my worst they’d instruct me to eat or shower or do necessary human things for survival.