Hearing voices, anyone?

http://scienceblog.com/11488/can-hearing-voices-in-your-head-be-a-good-thing/

I just came upon this article, and found it interesting. It always interested me whether I was not like other people in my mind (oh, but what if everyone else can read my thoughts???), and recently have been proving that this is true. I have had Visual Snow since I was 5 years of age, but have considered it common until recently. Seems pretty rare now

Anyhow, back to the voices. I have always heard a vice, which I took as my own (probably is), making remarks and comments + thinking about random stuff, but this always corresponded to what I felt I wanted to be thinking about. i occasionally challenged that voice, marking it as foolish (marking my thoughts as foolish), and retaining the full belief that all have something similar, a voice that is part of themselves which simply broods over things during short intervals of time. It probably is common, but IS IT?

But as to the other type of voice... Ever hear a voice which seems like it belongs to someone else, and not part of your mind? I am very curious...

I only hear my own voice, but I guess hearing voices doesn't have to be bad. Actually, I find it hard to judge this. The only stories and facts we hear are about is people either hurting themselves or others because of certain voices they hear (that obviously don't belong to themselves).

I find myself comparing it to multiple personalities, even if there is hardly a connection. Some people who have it claim to be capable of communicating with their 'other' personalities (kind of like hearing voices). It's an interesting thing, not saying it's a good thing per se, but we only seem to look at it as something incredibly disturbing while there are so many reasons and causes for these things.

And, a little off-topic, but I also have visual snow. I've been aware of it since I was 11 or 12. I just wanted to say this, since it is indeed very rare. I haven't even told anyone about this, because it's simply inexplainable.

The thing about hearing voices is that it is a very common symptom of severe mental illness, and typically accompanied by hallucinations, dissociations, paranoia, etc. As such, it's been enforced in our society with rather negative connotations. People generally associate hearing voices with insanity or poor mental health.

As for "the voice in the back of your head" most commonly referred to as your inner critic, I think when handled maturely it can be very helpful. It allows us to acknowledge mistakes and skills we need to improve upon. It's not a bad thing, but humans are a very sensitive and emotional race and it can damage our self-esteem and well-being if we take it too seriously. It doesn't exist to hurt us; it serves as a reminder that we are always learning and becoming better people.