Very good description of intrusive thoughts, Self sabotaging mental behaviour. I experience it myself. Its a depressive trait, Your brain will fight against any thought of being happy and if you feel happy your brain makes you feel guilty for it. Traits and feelings you would never normally have are pushed on you by the "Voice" you speak of. There is nobody telling you to feel a certain way but there is a mental rope pull every tme to give you a frightful thought.
Yep. Barely even a minute of peace for over a decade now. If I stop and relax and just enjoy, there's a voice not far behind to remind me of my cruelties, my exploitations, my errors in judgment, my what-ifs. No, never far behind at all.
"Everybody's in on it." I've been there mentally a few times, it's very scary. Also listened to the clip where Limmy's talking about his depression, while playing American Truck Driver...that one also meant a lot. Thanks, Limmy.
This is a beautiful valuable discussion. But, also funny with the Cilla show paused during it, as if just watching Cilla has made him remember schizophrenic experiences
The experience is very similar to what you've described...you'll sometimes hear people refer to schizophrenic episodes which kinda gives the impression that it switches on and off, but it's more the case that the severity ebbs and flows... For some people voices are internal, but rather than a stream of consciousness it's more a deluge of consciousness. When at it's most severe the voices can be external/directional, and auditory hallucinations can also be like machinery, beeping, clicking etc (basically every sound imaginable) My meds are major tranquillisers but rather than stop the voices, it's more the case that they effectively turn the volume down. But this comes at a cost as the side effects can be quite difficult to deal with, having a massive impact on clarity of thinking... Thanks man ✌
Are you schizophrenic or do you experience psychosis now and then but no schizophrenia? My mate developed schizophrenia in recent years and whilst thankfully the voices and paranoia have calmed way down it seems to be the depression and side effects of the meds that are really affecting his life a lot. I wish there were more effective meds eg. Ones without such heavy negative side effects for so many people.
Perhaps shouldn't have asked that in the comments bit man personal stuff TBF just thought as you were sharing stuff in your comment and ..well I think the world would be a better place if things like schizophrenia and bipolar were more discussed and more known about. A lot of people get such distorted ideas of what they are from horror films and whatever else and it's a shame. Depression, anxiety, autism ..lots of mental health and developmental issues are talked about nowadays aren't they but not really schizo type conditions. Anyway do hope you are well 🌞 ups and downs in life and things to deal with for all of us aren't there
Appreciate you talking about this. These experiences are actually surprisingly common, but because of the stigma we often hide them from others. Stress usually brings them on, and some of us will be more likely to experience them than others. Ultimately, if we're terrified of them, they'll be worse, which is why it's so valuable that you're talking about it so openly.
Limmy is fucking incredible as a comedian but also a person - his volubility with his mental health is pitch perfect - so honest it’s inciteful but in a tone that’s both reverant but also has levity which makes it both interesting and entertaining - not patronising or cliche or self indulging, which is incredible
Like most people, I came here for some Limmy laughs as usual, but got a lot more this time. Somone very close to me can relate heavily to these kind of episodes Brian has had in the past and I'm sharing this UA-cam video with this friend. I know Limmy won't see this but cheers to LimmyTwitchClips for highlighting the less funny aspects of a true comedic legend. Keep up the awesome work!
My parent has it and is medicated with a support system but still has these thoughts time to time, I have learned how to be there for them and be the voice of reason without making them feel judged or egging on the paranoia. Limmy always makes me crack up but really appreciate this honest conversation about mental health, especially this kind ❤of
4:15 "Everybody's in on it" . I don't have any mental illness but this sent chills in me. It made me realize how awfully distorted the realities of some people gets, when they think everyone including their families are in on a grand scheme, some governmental mind control.
I’m autistic and sometimes I have auditory hallucinations, and when I was younger my thoughts would overpower me, like the intrusive thoughts were so strong and wouldn’t shut up. Now I just don’t entertain those thoughts.
@@smithensss yeah, it’s like when I’m waiting for something like I can’t see, like the post or when I was younger my parents coming home, I thought I could hear the post or parents arrive. And the negative thoughts were often related to my own insecurities or when I’m feeling very low and suicidal the voices would come in strong. But it’s weird as they’re not related to a chemical imbalance, just autism and an active imagination
@@smithensss as an autistic adult - please please remember autism is a HIGHLY individual condition. no two people with autism have the exact same experience. there are things most people on the spectrum experience, such as audio sensitivities, sensory overload, difficulty emoting, etc. but some people don't and some things, such as the mild hallucinations this one person describes, are extremely rare. in fact i don't think i have ever heard of autism being the CAUSE of hallucinations, so it may have been caused by another condition. it's unfortunately extremely common for neurotypical parents to misunderstand and mistreat their autistic children because they've been given bad info about the condition, so i'm sorry for jumping on your back about this, but please please just keep it in mind - the most important thing for you and your son is getting to know him *as an individual* and learn his needs as he grows, and accomodate for them as best as you can. we cannot help what we're sensitive to or struggle with, and it can be a very scary condition to live with, especially when the people around you don't understand or accomodate for your needs. i wish you and him the best of luck.
Thank you for talking about this topic. I’ve said whilst watching your sketches that this guy has a good understanding of paranoia/intrusive thoughts/obsessive thinking, and how those thoughts can manifest. It’s great that you’re able to channel this side of yourself creatively, and especially brilliant that you can make people laugh whilst doing so. I wonder if you perhaps had a relative with full-blown schizophrenia… I say this because my grandmother had it, and I see traits in my father and myself that could be described as something like schizo-lite; I’ve heard the odd voice, seen the odd thing, felt evil presences, and had sleep paralysis episodes that are like something from a horror film. But it’s never been pervasive, nor persistent enough for me to do much about it. I can, luckily, logic my way out of those situations, and I’m even at a place where I can laugh at how absurd our own brains are at times. Anyway, thank you again!
Limmy you are a part of that grand tradition of great Scottish men questioning and plumbing the strange and secret parts of the human mind. David Hume was doing it about 300 years ago. And someone else, I don't know. Maybe it was just David Hume. Either way, there's been a lot of really sharp Scottish mensches.
I really identify with all of this, I've been diagnosed with depression and generalised anxiety disorder, I still struggle with it whilst often questioning whether it's just that, and/or something else, there's always an overwhelming conscious stream of doubt. I'm still trying to understand it, find solutions to it, or just get to a point where I can genuinely say "I'm ok" instead of constantly managing my mind in a sort of 3rd person perspective, watching it all unfold with the primary aim of actually being "ok" - a balancing act that usually makes things worse in the process. While I try to accept whatever it is there's this overall feeling of it being some kind of cruel joke you can't do anything about, there's just something you generally don't understand. I don't know what to think after watching this clip from his stream but I found myself in full agreement - it felt like a mirror to my own thought cycles. Whatever it means, it's just nice to hear someone talk about it, It's also been interesting and strangely reassuring seeing some of the comments people have posted. "Limmy's Mental Health chat on International Men's Day" on his own channel always holds significance to me.
No joking, Limmy would be a great horror movie director. I would genuinely love to watch a horror movie made by him. Jordan Peele started as a comedian.
There’s a book called Artificial Minds by Stan Franklin from 1997 where he talks about a model of consciousness with multiple “demons” active at the same time. There’s an American Doctor (Michael Gazzaniga) who’s been doing research with patients who had split brain surgery - there’s a “Dual consciousness” article on Wikipedia with references. It’s like you said, it’ll be in everyone but for some people it’s heightened and more present - I’ve noticed in some of the videos how observant and analytical you are with very subtle things that most people don’t pick up on. Same kind of thing but turned inwards like you’re observing yourself.
I've had several 'episodes' over the years. It can happen when I'm stressed for long periods or if im isolated. Its pretty ugly to see, so you hide it but sometimes I didn't have the energy to stay on top of it and that's when it felt dangerous. Our minds can really attack themselves at times. Its important to get some help, talking therapies and a few techniques that can ease the discomfort and eventually things improve. Some of the techniques require nothing from you so you have access to them 24\7. My heart goes out to anyone affected. I would point people in the direction of the charity "Mind'
12:35 I relate. Counting down from 5 to 0 over and over when I'm doing things and distracting me. Seeing disturbing images in my head when things are going good. They are called intrusive thoughts. People who think deeply a lot, over-think or imagine a lot are more prone to it. It is also linked to OCD and a thing called magical thinking. I've also found controlling my diet helps a lot. Weirdly enough things like bread, pasta, sugars, sweets and chillies set off these patterns of thinking (inflammatory food I guess?) I also get migraines too maybe you do. When a bad migraine is coming on, days before it hits that voice you're talking about gets worse for me. It took me years to figure out it was partly diet related as my migraines virtually vanished when I avoided those trigger foods.
This reminds me a lot of what I went through with OCD. Intrusive thoughts that fed into a loop of me believing that I was developing psychosis when I wasn’t.
Yep, finding out I had OCD was such a relief to me because I'd never considered it before. OCD is generally viewed through the cliche of colour coding when in actuality; persistent negative thought cycles are another symptom of it, if not the most common one.
Thanks for that, I don’t have any of what you are saying but glad for the insight so can think of others people better, I do have OCD so probably similar but different.
Be curious to know if you've tried meditating? Learning to quiet the mind has helped me massively over the last 5 yrs. In spirituality, which of course not everyone's into, the type of intrusive thoughts you describe sound very much like the ego, or "little you", and this part of ourselves, if not subjugated, can be a real dick to us! Any unresolved traumas can be played on by the ego. Anyway, recommend meditation. Thank you very much for sharing this👍🏻
Yeah, the ego is a terror, man. When it is wounded it goes to war with the self, the "primordial observer", the consciousness, whatever you want to call it. I don't believe most people can ever really destroy their ego, nor do I know if that would be a good thing, but we all have to learn to make peace with it and vice-versa.
I get the intrusive thoughts and that negative side of the brain that whispers to you.....something Limmy said ages ago helped me, it's really daft though....a puzzle game he was playing, when the character won, he did a wee victory dance, and I mind Limmy saying he was pissed aff, just generally in a bad mood, and he decided to tell himself 'no, fuck you' and did the wee victory dance, just fists up in front of you, moving your hands up and down, (left fist up-right fist down, right fist up-left fist down) and doing a wee smug 'fuck you' face lol, I've did it a couple of times, felt pissed off, looked in a mirror, did the wee victory dance, and just burst out laughing at the absurdity of it 😂 it really does help!
I’ve had a similar issues in my life, it’s very hard to describe to people. Recently I was lying in bed staring at my curtains, and the folds in the middle made it look like a cultist that was looming over me, somehow I knew it represented the underlying evil of my bedroom that had finally been brought to the surface. I was watching an old game show from the 1950s once and I was convinced that I was in the game show, somehow it just made sense for me to be in two places and times at once, both watching the game show and in it at the same time. I once had a conversation with a toilet roll which feels just as real looking back as it did then. It was trying to tell me how to live my life. These things seem to affect me just infrequently enough that I don’t qualify for any specific psychotic conditions, but frankly they don’t bother me anywhere near as much as the depression and anxiety that permeates my life anyway so I doubt I’d benefit from a diagnosis.
half the stuff I type on yt these days just vanishes, irritating as hell, and also makes trying to have a reasonable convo with someone impossible. wonder if this reply will even get through?!
Thanks bud, I'm at that age and stage in life similar to yersel and that pure honesty of sharing they potentially mind fekkin situations.. Now help viewers like me to be now less fearful and aware.. Thank you
2 things I can really relate to here is the one with the nagging voice when you're trying to think about something else. But for me it's not necessarily an actual voice using words, it's more abstract, just "something" pestering me, trying to constantly grab the steering wheel and make me think about awful things. The other thing is how sometimes the mind races so fast, like the story at the beach. How you have such a long discussion/train of thought in barely half a second. I wonder how and why it can be so fast.
Had a belief that the adverts for 'world champion' or 'grand slam' or something was really meaning that me and my friends were to be pitted into the final of the world, which was Truman show esque. Schizophrenia/paranoia is horrible. Glad you're able to talk about it. People need help for these sorts of things, it can ruin people like a disease.
Sounds like you may have a degree of Irlen Syndrome Limmy. Especially as one of your experiences was in a brighter part of the world. The light processing dysfunction can disrupt other sensory processing like sound or feelings of being danger. I’d be interested in the dominant colours in the poster you mentioned that unsettled you.
Before I got medicated properly, I used to have to take pictures of the room I was sitting in to see if the people/objects in there with me were there or not. They never were but it was terrifying and confusing , like your mind is tricking you or out to get you. Brains are scary.
The video brought to mind a similar thing I would do when I was at the most extreme end of OCD, went to the doctor for help, and tried a medication that didn't work. Your comment is almost exactly how it went for me. I would have to take photos of every angle in public toilets, empty public rooms, to make sure there was nothing/no-one in there with me. I'm on meds that work nowadays. I also feel like there have been some dramatic shifts in my mind that prevent anything as unreal and terrifying as that from happening again.
@@divindan glad you're on some better meds now. People normally look at me like I'm absolutely crazy when I have tried to speak about it in the past so it's definitely nice to know there are people out there that understand and have experienced the same. Although I wouldn't wish it on my worse enemy!
Everyone's psyche is made up of "parts". Read about IFS (internal family systems). You have to talk to them respectfully and each have different personalities. Sounds nuts I know.. but worth a read. It's evidence-based therapy.
A lot of these types of things can actually be caused just by good ol' anxiety. It triggers disordered/distorted thoughts. Common in people with autism aswell. Usually goes away in adulthood, regarding ASD
I was diagnosed with panic disorder earlier this year and I'm only now beginning to come out of it. It's astounding how fast the brain reacts when you're in a panic state, high adrenaline and cortisol are a hell of a drug. I scratched my hand on my garden gate and my mind instantly went from infection, sepsis, hospital, death, funeral, forgotten in about 3 seconds flat. It's a scary disorder and it really feels like it came from nowhere, after therapy and the right medication you realise it's not from nowhere but many things building up over time.
Borderline psychosis and mild psychosis are very common and can be described as negative paranoid experiences or conversely transcendental / spiritual experiences. They tend to be associated with “rites of passage” in my life and trauma healing. Also, significant periods of chronic stress. It’s scary because public perception of these disturbances makes you feel you are going crazy, but you’re not. There’s a lot more than I can say in this comment, the field of psychology has lots of fascinating studies on these sorts of things. Well worth a read if you’re interested.
I don't have any mental illness (that I know of) but whenever Limmy describes these episodes or other "weird" thoughts my first reaction is I've either already had something exactly like that, close to that, or I can totally imagine having it. But when it does happen, my immediate thought is "I bet everyone gets this" which probably isn't true, but it's a useful reflex, cause it keeps me from pathologizing it. I don't know if I have a point to make, just sharing.
Mental illness protects itself and repeatedly denying it when you question yourself ,maybe it is time for the professionals. Brian your an amazin guy and we would all hate to see you lose yourself. Your mind is a gift dont let mental illnesses ruin it .
@@_Fractaal I've had my first first edibles the other week and they were quite nice, but quite intense. I've had a few breakdowns since and keep sobbing and depression has come back. Do you think it could be the edibles?
I'm no doctor but surely that's a possibility. You need to talk to someone if you haven't already. Psychoactive substances can absolutely trigger psychosis and things like depression. Psychedelics for instance have been known to trigger dormant schizophrenia, like if it runs in the family. But it sounds like what you're dealing with is entirely treatable and can be gotten rid of completely. @michaelberringer8595
@@michaelberringer8595Edibles are generally not recommended as a beginner entry into drug usage. You need someone experienced with them and their effects to be with you and to help guide you otherwise it goes horribly. If other methods of weed intake implant almost paranoid or schizophrenic-like symptoms in you, I'd recommend to just stay clear of them completely forever. Excessive weed usage technically isn't addictive and won't kill you, but it is linked to early manifestations of schizophrenia and can be pretty horrible to those it impacts.
What Limmy is describing about having two conscious voices Julian Jaynes theory of the bicameral mind pretty much right on point. The Julian Jaynes society has done great work in recent years tightening up the theory of this bicameral mind ‘mechanism’
Once a really strange, compelling thing happened to me, i was wending and stumbling home back from the pub minding my own business when I decided to take a short cut through the park, when I woke up I had no trousers on and ectoplasm on my back, bloody alien experiments, it happened again in a public toilet, they get me when l'm drunk. Anyway a serious note I've never experienced hearing strange noises or voices, if you want to experience it and it's spooky, i was working late one night with a Generator running at about 3 am in the morning in the middle of nowhere and when you pay attention you can here things under the guize of the Generator, i think it like, or call it white noise, i was convinced i herd talking and whispering but could not make out what was being said. Spooky i had to walk about a bit to convince my self i was not imagining it. I'm sure i could have Generator running and here the same stuff. Never experienced anything other than that. Some kind of allusion of feeling uneasy maybe. Being vonrable not being able to hear someone creep up on me, i think.
I have various contradictory voices in my head sometimes but I've never recognized them as a separate entity, I'm always aware that it's all coming from me and what I'm feeling. Most of my self-sabotage comes from shame and fear rather than an intrusive and malicious inner voice. What Limmy's talking about reminds me of that elevator scene in Revolver.
There's a lot of antipsychotics and they all come with some shitty side effects. I don't take them anymore. They can make you fat, dull, drool... and they remove you from your full spectrum of emotional experience. They can be somewhat effective for bipolar/schizophrenia, but it isn't always the case. Simple therapy with a godd therapist can far outweigh meds, but that can take time, therefore money, the NHS doesn't want to spend. Also, there's a lot of influence from the pharmaceutical industry to get people on them since they're a for-profit institution. They even created the DSMIV, the diagnostic manual for mental health disorders. Antipsychotics sometimes reduce your lifespan up to an entire decade, too. They make life better for few, but mess up other people.
i’ve had these over the years. growing up in nyc i took the subway to & from school, and many times i ended up convincing myself that a certain other person near me could read my mind. or that the entire subway car i was on was for a specific type of person, or going to a different dimension, and i was the only one who didn’t know
People might joke or mock (and i've been guilty of this in the past as an immature person) but it's fucking GOOD to talk about mental health. Everyone, the richest and poorest, the most popular or the loneliest are all experiencing something. Open up to your friends and family. We live in the 21st century. It'll save lives.
as someone who has similar thought tendencies (at varying levels of intensity through life), i know getting sober definitely calmed down the unpredictability of my mind. not that everything is perfect, but i find myself far less likely to fall into paranoid/unreal thought spirals when they show themselves. i bet sobriety has helped for him, too.
When I came to see Limmys book show at strand, Newcastle, we got really high before arriving. There were no seats left so we stood at the back. I kept feeling the Limster was making eye contact with me which made me feel uneasy.
I have crippling vertigo in dreams to the point where I feel physically sick and can't move, but in waking life, it has never happened to me. It makes me afraid to go to sleep every night. I have no idea how to tell anyone about it or how much it affects my mental health because I've never found a way to properly articulate it. I think this is the first time I've even gotten close so, if you read this, thanks.
We all get one of these on rare occations. When your head starts putting together things that has nothing to do with each other but because our brains are pattern seeking supermachines with a hint of evolutionary baked in paranoia and anxiety about what can be hiding in the bushes and jump out and eat us. Sometimes our brain does a whopsie and we're standing there wondering what the hell just happened or if the coffee you had was laced with acid or something.
I'm having cognitive hypnotherapy at the moment. There are many parts to each of us. They can be spoken to and re integrated and kept in check. I'm finding it really helpful
I've had times where I've wondered if everyone else can hear my thoughts, they're that loud. Autism, tourette's, and regular bouts of intense insomnia, brain goes wacky sometimes.
It's mad how you can sometimes forget this stuff and then Limmy talking about it, Im reminded, yeah Ive had these mad fucking thoughts. One time I had my eyes closed, opened them for a second and closed them. Was convinced Id just seen demonic faces leering, totally warped reality, a vision of hell. When I opened my eyes again everything was normal. Id been totally sober, no drugs, nothing for a long time. But I was convinced what I had just seen was real and 'reality' was just an illusion and I was actually in some kind of hell surrounded by demonic entities. It took me a long time to totally shake the feeling and then I forgot about it until now.
Never had the paranoid Schizophrenia thing you had on the beach, but that voice in your head telling you you can't do something and you start panicking that you won't be able to concentrate, that happens to me a lot. I had mad panic attacks for years, intrusive thoughts, mind racing, feels like you're going insane. Fucking awful. It helped me to think to myself "Fuck it, if I end up fucking this up, I fuck it up, but I refuse to be held captive by the thoughts".
Great advice at the end . I need to stop myself being held captive by negative thoughts and worry etc . My mind is like a fuckin battlefield at times, after reading your post, I don't feel so alone. Thankyou.
Meditation has helped me a lot with this, and in exactly the way you suggest: you accept that this voice is there, quietly listen to what it has to say, and it usually turns out that it has very little to say, it's just looking for attention and, ultimately, something to do. Look up monkey mind and meditation on here, it's eye opening.
The internal monologue part makes me think of the split brain experiment, left and right brain. Worth a look if you haven't heard of it. CGP Grey has a decent video on it called "You are two".
What Limmy is describing here definitely sounds like schizophrenia. A lot of people are confused between schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder. A lot of stand up comedians have made jokes over the years where it's obvious they think schizophrenia is where you have multiple personalities (and mostly the audiences don't know any different).
Schizophrenia is a chronic condition, psychosis is a momentary symptom. Psychosis can be a symptom of lots of different things, bad sleep, high stress, other mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, bipolar, can be an element of neurodivergence, etc. Hallucinations/delusions are not exclusive to schizophrenia.
As a schizophrenic we tend to believe all this stuff is totally real it's very confusing but for me it's not always dark and scary after many years ive not been as tormented recently and darker themes tend to only creep in ocassionally I recently learnt about the concept of the demiurge and that mirrors my experience so much
It's just another side of his mind looking for work. That's why it tries to fuck things up, or create a panic, the monkey part of his mind wants there to be trouble, so it'll have something to do.
We are all the conscious output of a collaborative system of conscious cells - you are literally the master of your own universe of internal entities, cells, microbes, organs, systems etc. you can't control them individually, but you can control the universe they inhabit, by taking control of your breathing. Breathe slowly through your nose and use a positive thought about something you love to connect with your heart - It will respond by calming the system. Heart contractility will increase at the same time as heart rate decreases, bringing balance to the system. As long as you do it Consciously - You as the output consciousness become the beneficiary of a calm system.
Limmy should check out Carl Gustav Jung. I think he would find him very helpful in understanding the psyche. @13:42 that is basically "Active imagination" 🙂
![Limmy analyses the Bee Gees on Clive Anderson (again) [2024-06-19]](/img/n.gif)
its hard to talk about this kind of stuff i really appreciate when Limmy does
Very good description of intrusive thoughts, Self sabotaging mental behaviour. I experience it myself. Its a depressive trait, Your brain will fight against any thought of being happy and if you feel happy your brain makes you feel guilty for it. Traits and feelings you would never normally have are pushed on you by the "Voice" you speak of. There is nobody telling you to feel a certain way but there is a mental rope pull every tme to give you a frightful thought.
Eloquently put. 😊
Yeah it's an exaggerated internal critic. I wonder if he meditates. Microdosing psychedelics can help too.
Yep. Barely even a minute of peace for over a decade now. If I stop and relax and just enjoy, there's a voice not far behind to remind me of my cruelties, my exploitations, my errors in judgment, my what-ifs. No, never far behind at all.
Genuine good being done by talking about this
Cilla's about to say "You know that voice in your head you've always heard? Well surprise surprise its here to meet you tonight."
All the way from Australia
@@stuartjambo8541 but first let's have a recap from _your_ Graham.
That can happen. When tv newsmen start insulting u u know it’s starting again
"Everybody's in on it." I've been there mentally a few times, it's very scary. Also listened to the clip where Limmy's talking about his depression, while playing American Truck Driver...that one also meant a lot. Thanks, Limmy.
This is a beautiful valuable discussion. But, also funny with the Cilla show paused during it, as if just watching Cilla has made him remember schizophrenic experiences
This was very interesting to hear, thank you for sharing it and thank you Limmy for speaking about these experiences openly.
The experience is very similar to what you've described...you'll sometimes hear people refer to schizophrenic episodes which kinda gives the impression that it switches on and off, but it's more the case that the severity ebbs and flows...
For some people voices are internal, but rather than a stream of consciousness it's more a deluge of consciousness.
When at it's most severe the voices can be external/directional, and auditory hallucinations can also be like machinery, beeping, clicking etc (basically every sound imaginable)
My meds are major tranquillisers but rather than stop the voices, it's more the case that they effectively turn the volume down. But this comes at a cost as the side effects can be quite difficult to deal with, having a massive impact on clarity of thinking...
Thanks man ✌
Are you schizophrenic or do you experience psychosis now and then but no schizophrenia? My mate developed schizophrenia in recent years and whilst thankfully the voices and paranoia have calmed way down it seems to be the depression and side effects of the meds that are really affecting his life a lot. I wish there were more effective meds eg. Ones without such heavy negative side effects for so many people.
Perhaps shouldn't have asked that in the comments bit man personal stuff TBF just thought as you were sharing stuff in your comment and ..well I think the world would be a better place if things like schizophrenia and bipolar were more discussed and more known about. A lot of people get such distorted ideas of what they are from horror films and whatever else and it's a shame. Depression, anxiety, autism ..lots of mental health and developmental issues are talked about nowadays aren't they but not really schizo type conditions. Anyway do hope you are well 🌞 ups and downs in life and things to deal with for all of us aren't there
@@dominicaaaaa5547
It's absolutely fine...
Will get back to you later 👍
Appreciate you talking about this. These experiences are actually surprisingly common, but because of the stigma we often hide them from others. Stress usually brings them on, and some of us will be more likely to experience them than others. Ultimately, if we're terrified of them, they'll be worse, which is why it's so valuable that you're talking about it so openly.
Lynn definitely turned to the camera like Michael Jackson at the end of thriller when he looked away
💀
Limmy is fucking incredible as a comedian but also a person - his volubility with his mental health is pitch perfect - so honest it’s inciteful but in a tone that’s both reverant but also has levity which makes it both interesting and entertaining - not patronising or cliche or self indulging, which is incredible
Like most people, I came here for some Limmy laughs as usual, but got a lot more this time. Somone very close to me can relate heavily to these kind of episodes Brian has had in the past and I'm sharing this UA-cam video with this friend. I know Limmy won't see this but cheers to LimmyTwitchClips for highlighting the less funny aspects of a true comedic legend. Keep up the awesome work!
My parent has it and is medicated with a support system but still has these thoughts time to time, I have learned how to be there for them and be the voice of reason without making them feel judged or egging on the paranoia. Limmy always makes me crack up but really appreciate this honest conversation about mental health, especially this kind ❤of
Thanks for posting this. Important that we can feel free to talk about this stuff and Limmy is great for doing so.
4:15 "Everybody's in on it" . I don't have any mental illness but this sent chills in me. It made me realize how awfully distorted the realities of some people gets, when they think everyone including their families are in on a grand scheme, some governmental mind control.
I’m autistic and sometimes I have auditory hallucinations, and when I was younger my thoughts would overpower me, like the intrusive thoughts were so strong and wouldn’t shut up. Now I just don’t entertain those thoughts.
Fascinating to me as my little boy has autism would love to hear more about this tbf
@@smithensss yeah, it’s like when I’m waiting for something like I can’t see, like the post or when I was younger my parents coming home, I thought I could hear the post or parents arrive. And the negative thoughts were often related to my own insecurities or when I’m feeling very low and suicidal the voices would come in strong. But it’s weird as they’re not related to a chemical imbalance, just autism and an active imagination
@@smithensss as an autistic adult - please please remember autism is a HIGHLY individual condition. no two people with autism have the exact same experience. there are things most people on the spectrum experience, such as audio sensitivities, sensory overload, difficulty emoting, etc. but some people don't and some things, such as the mild hallucinations this one person describes, are extremely rare. in fact i don't think i have ever heard of autism being the CAUSE of hallucinations, so it may have been caused by another condition.
it's unfortunately extremely common for neurotypical parents to misunderstand and mistreat their autistic children because they've been given bad info about the condition, so i'm sorry for jumping on your back about this, but please please just keep it in mind - the most important thing for you and your son is getting to know him *as an individual* and learn his needs as he grows, and accomodate for them as best as you can. we cannot help what we're sensitive to or struggle with, and it can be a very scary condition to live with, especially when the people around you don't understand or accomodate for your needs.
i wish you and him the best of luck.
@@kaninekodiak good reply thanks 👑
Did you ever go on antipsychotics?
He’s onto us
😂
Thank you for talking about this topic. I’ve said whilst watching your sketches that this guy has a good understanding of paranoia/intrusive thoughts/obsessive thinking, and how those thoughts can manifest. It’s great that you’re able to channel this side of yourself creatively, and especially brilliant that you can make people laugh whilst doing so. I wonder if you perhaps had a relative with full-blown schizophrenia… I say this because my grandmother had it, and I see traits in my father and myself that could be described as something like schizo-lite; I’ve heard the odd voice, seen the odd thing, felt evil presences, and had sleep paralysis episodes that are like something from a horror film. But it’s never been pervasive, nor persistent enough for me to do much about it. I can, luckily, logic my way out of those situations, and I’m even at a place where I can laugh at how absurd our own brains are at times. Anyway, thank you again!
Limmy you are a part of that grand tradition of great Scottish men questioning and plumbing the strange and secret parts of the human mind. David Hume was doing it about 300 years ago. And someone else, I don't know. Maybe it was just David Hume. Either way, there's been a lot of really sharp Scottish mensches.
I really identify with all of this, I've been diagnosed with depression and generalised anxiety disorder, I still struggle with it whilst often questioning whether it's just that, and/or something else, there's always an overwhelming conscious stream of doubt. I'm still trying to understand it, find solutions to it, or just get to a point where I can genuinely say "I'm ok" instead of constantly managing my mind in a sort of 3rd person perspective, watching it all unfold with the primary aim of actually being "ok" - a balancing act that usually makes things worse in the process. While I try to accept whatever it is there's this overall feeling of it being some kind of cruel joke you can't do anything about, there's just something you generally don't understand.
I don't know what to think after watching this clip from his stream but I found myself in full agreement - it felt like a mirror to my own thought cycles. Whatever it means, it's just nice to hear someone talk about it, It's also been interesting and strangely reassuring seeing some of the comments people have posted. "Limmy's Mental Health chat on International Men's Day" on his own channel always holds significance to me.
fair play to you for discussing these topics very important subject so many suffer in silence
No joking, Limmy would be a great horror movie director. I would genuinely love to watch a horror movie made by him. Jordan Peele started as a comedian.
I think the thought of having to write and direct an entire actual professional horror film is his idea of a horror story in itself
There’s a book called Artificial Minds by Stan Franklin from 1997 where he talks about a model of consciousness with multiple “demons” active at the same time.
There’s an American Doctor (Michael Gazzaniga) who’s been doing research with patients who had split brain surgery - there’s a “Dual consciousness” article on Wikipedia with references.
It’s like you said, it’ll be in everyone but for some people it’s heightened and more present - I’ve noticed in some of the videos how observant and analytical you are with very subtle things that most people don’t pick up on. Same kind of thing but turned inwards like you’re observing yourself.
i genuinely think he understands the human brain in a way most psychologists never will
I've had several 'episodes' over the years. It can happen when I'm stressed for long periods or if im isolated. Its pretty ugly to see, so you hide it but sometimes I didn't have the energy to stay on top of it and that's when it felt dangerous. Our minds can really attack themselves at times. Its important to get some help, talking therapies and a few techniques that can ease the discomfort and eventually things improve. Some of the techniques require nothing from you so you have access to them 24\7. My heart goes out to anyone affected. I would point people in the direction of the charity "Mind'
receiving excessive criticism on a continual basis can trigger psychosis.
Doing a fuck load of drugs when yoire young doesn't help either
12:35 I relate. Counting down from 5 to 0 over and over when I'm doing things and distracting me. Seeing disturbing images in my head when things are going good. They are called intrusive thoughts. People who think deeply a lot, over-think or imagine a lot are more prone to it. It is also linked to OCD and a thing called magical thinking. I've also found controlling my diet helps a lot. Weirdly enough things like bread, pasta, sugars, sweets and chillies set off these patterns of thinking (inflammatory food I guess?) I also get migraines too maybe you do. When a bad migraine is coming on, days before it hits that voice you're talking about gets worse for me. It took me years to figure out it was partly diet related as my migraines virtually vanished when I avoided those trigger foods.
Limmy on his deathbed: Cilla is that you?
😂 I can picture her in my mind going "surprise surprise ".
This reminds me a lot of what I went through with OCD. Intrusive thoughts that fed into a loop of me believing that I was developing psychosis when I wasn’t.
Yep. Thought I was losing my mind and everyone but me knew. Doubted everything in my reality
Yep, finding out I had OCD was such a relief to me because I'd never considered it before. OCD is generally viewed through the cliche of colour coding when in actuality; persistent negative thought cycles are another symptom of it, if not the most common one.
That’s why I love nature, it keeps life real
Thanks for that, I don’t have any of what you are saying but glad for the insight so can think of others people better, I do have OCD so probably similar but different.
Be curious to know if you've tried meditating? Learning to quiet the mind has helped me massively over the last 5 yrs. In spirituality, which of course not everyone's into, the type of intrusive thoughts you describe sound very much like the ego, or "little you", and this part of ourselves, if not subjugated, can be a real dick to us! Any unresolved traumas can be played on by the ego. Anyway, recommend meditation. Thank you very much for sharing this👍🏻
This right here ☝️
Every single one of us should meditate daily, it's like a shower for your mind
Yeah, the ego is a terror, man. When it is wounded it goes to war with the self, the "primordial observer", the consciousness, whatever you want to call it. I don't believe most people can ever really destroy their ego, nor do I know if that would be a good thing, but we all have to learn to make peace with it and vice-versa.
I get the intrusive thoughts and that negative side of the brain that whispers to you.....something Limmy said ages ago helped me, it's really daft though....a puzzle game he was playing, when the character won, he did a wee victory dance, and I mind Limmy saying he was pissed aff, just generally in a bad mood, and he decided to tell himself 'no, fuck you' and did the wee victory dance, just fists up in front of you, moving your hands up and down, (left fist up-right fist down, right fist up-left fist down) and doing a wee smug 'fuck you' face lol, I've did it a couple of times, felt pissed off, looked in a mirror, did the wee victory dance, and just burst out laughing at the absurdity of it 😂 it really does help!
The revelation will come when Limmy realises he is neither of the voices but the one listening to them.
I’ve had a similar issues in my life, it’s very hard to describe to people. Recently I was lying in bed staring at my curtains, and the folds in the middle made it look like a cultist that was looming over me, somehow I knew it represented the underlying evil of my bedroom that had finally been brought to the surface. I was watching an old game show from the 1950s once and I was convinced that I was in the game show, somehow it just made sense for me to be in two places and times at once, both watching the game show and in it at the same time. I once had a conversation with a toilet roll which feels just as real looking back as it did then. It was trying to tell me how to live my life.
These things seem to affect me just infrequently enough that I don’t qualify for any specific psychotic conditions, but frankly they don’t bother me anywhere near as much as the depression and anxiety that permeates my life anyway so I doubt I’d benefit from a diagnosis.
Well that was really insightful. That video could have done with being longer, to be honest.
I've got some good news for ya....
He rambles on like this for 4 hours a day, LIVE!
@@jamesphillips5896 Yeah, I know lol. Just never heard him talk about this before.
Typed my heart out opening up about similar experiences and I think UA-cam's just deleted the whole thing. Awful.
half the stuff I type on yt these days just vanishes, irritating as hell, and also makes trying to have a reasonable convo with someone impossible.
wonder if this reply will even get through?!
If you want to try find it you can go into Google activity and try find it
Just Google my activity and go through the list
Big respect for talking about this 🙏
We all like to take the piss but it’s nice that Limmy’s fans can take this stuff seriously when needs be.
Thanks bud, I'm at that age and stage in life similar to yersel and that pure honesty of sharing they potentially mind fekkin situations.. Now help viewers like me to be now less fearful and aware.. Thank you
2 things I can really relate to here is the one with the nagging voice when you're trying to think about something else. But for me it's not necessarily an actual voice using words, it's more abstract, just "something" pestering me, trying to constantly grab the steering wheel and make me think about awful things.
The other thing is how sometimes the mind races so fast, like the story at the beach. How you have such a long discussion/train of thought in barely half a second. I wonder how and why it can be so fast.
Had a belief that the adverts for 'world champion' or 'grand slam' or something was really meaning that me and my friends were to be pitted into the final of the world, which was Truman show esque. Schizophrenia/paranoia is horrible. Glad you're able to talk about it. People need help for these sorts of things, it can ruin people like a disease.
Sounds like you may have a degree of Irlen Syndrome Limmy. Especially as one of your experiences was in a brighter part of the world. The light processing dysfunction can disrupt other sensory processing like sound or feelings of being danger.
I’d be interested in the dominant colours in the poster you mentioned that unsettled you.
Before I got medicated properly, I used to have to take pictures of the room I was sitting in to see if the people/objects in there with me were there or not. They never were but it was terrifying and confusing , like your mind is tricking you or out to get you. Brains are scary.
Bless you for talking about it, it can feel embarrassing or even shameful.
The video brought to mind a similar thing I would do when I was at the most extreme end of OCD, went to the doctor for help, and tried a medication that didn't work.
Your comment is almost exactly how it went for me. I would have to take photos of every angle in public toilets, empty public rooms, to make sure there was nothing/no-one in there with me.
I'm on meds that work nowadays. I also feel like there have been some dramatic shifts in my mind that prevent anything as unreal and terrifying as that from happening again.
@@divindan glad you're on some better meds now. People normally look at me like I'm absolutely crazy when I have tried to speak about it in the past so it's definitely nice to know there are people out there that understand and have experienced the same. Although I wouldn't wish it on my worse enemy!
@@Christine-kc5oi it's good that you spoke about it though. I would hide it. That led to the people around me having no context.
This would make a good horror movie or story
He talked about this stuff a little on the Blindboy podcast. Great conversation, would love to hear another one.
Everyone's psyche is made up of "parts". Read about IFS (internal family systems). You have to talk to them respectfully and each have different personalities.
Sounds nuts I know.. but worth a read. It's evidence-based therapy.
I nearly spat my drink out when he pulled up that reptile face
A lot of these types of things can actually be caused just by good ol' anxiety. It triggers disordered/distorted thoughts. Common in people with autism aswell. Usually goes away in adulthood, regarding ASD
I was diagnosed with panic disorder earlier this year and I'm only now beginning to come out of it. It's astounding how fast the brain reacts when you're in a panic state, high adrenaline and cortisol are a hell of a drug. I scratched my hand on my garden gate and my mind instantly went from infection, sepsis, hospital, death, funeral, forgotten in about 3 seconds flat. It's a scary disorder and it really feels like it came from nowhere, after therapy and the right medication you realise it's not from nowhere but many things building up over time.
Thank you for sharing, it puts a lot of perspective on life led.
The brain is like a hive, many parts working together. They don't always get on.
Genuinely interesting to listen to. Cheers.
Borderline psychosis and mild psychosis are very common and can be described as negative paranoid experiences or conversely transcendental / spiritual experiences. They tend to be associated with “rites of passage” in my life and trauma healing. Also, significant periods of chronic stress. It’s scary because public perception of these disturbances makes you feel you are going crazy, but you’re not. There’s a lot more than I can say in this comment, the field of psychology has lots of fascinating studies on these sorts of things. Well worth a read if you’re interested.
I don't have any mental illness (that I know of) but whenever Limmy describes these episodes or other "weird" thoughts my first reaction is I've either already had something exactly like that, close to that, or I can totally imagine having it. But when it does happen, my immediate thought is "I bet everyone gets this" which probably isn't true, but it's a useful reflex, cause it keeps me from pathologizing it. I don't know if I have a point to make, just sharing.
It’s real enough but you don’t understand till u go through it. It’s hell
Thankyou for talking about this.
I think Glasgow and belfast have a high number of people that have to deal with this.
Mental illness protects itself and repeatedly denying it when you question yourself ,maybe it is time for the professionals. Brian your an amazin guy and we would all hate to see you lose yourself. Your mind is a gift dont let mental illnesses ruin it .
This is what smoking weed is like for me
Edibles used to have this effect on me. Generally thought I was loosing my mind and was super aware at how tight my skin felt all over.
Only while high or when sober aswell?
@@_Fractaal I've had my first first edibles the other week and they were quite nice, but quite intense. I've had a few breakdowns since and keep sobbing and depression has come back. Do you think it could be the edibles?
I'm no doctor but surely that's a possibility. You need to talk to someone if you haven't already. Psychoactive substances can absolutely trigger psychosis and things like depression. Psychedelics for instance have been known to trigger dormant schizophrenia, like if it runs in the family. But it sounds like what you're dealing with is entirely treatable and can be gotten rid of completely. @michaelberringer8595
@@michaelberringer8595Edibles are generally not recommended as a beginner entry into drug usage. You need someone experienced with them and their effects to be with you and to help guide you otherwise it goes horribly.
If other methods of weed intake implant almost paranoid or schizophrenic-like symptoms in you, I'd recommend to just stay clear of them completely forever. Excessive weed usage technically isn't addictive and won't kill you, but it is linked to early manifestations of schizophrenia and can be pretty horrible to those it impacts.
What Limmy is describing about having two conscious voices Julian Jaynes theory of the bicameral mind pretty much right on point. The Julian Jaynes society has done great work in recent years tightening up the theory of this bicameral mind ‘mechanism’
His job is a schizophrenic experience
Once a really strange, compelling thing happened to me, i was wending and stumbling home back from the pub minding my own business when I decided to take a short cut through the park, when I woke up I had no trousers on and ectoplasm on my back, bloody alien experiments, it happened again in a public toilet, they get me when l'm drunk. Anyway a serious note I've never experienced hearing strange noises or voices, if you want to experience it and it's spooky, i was working late one night with a Generator running at about 3 am in the morning in the middle of nowhere and when you pay attention you can here things under the guize of the Generator, i think it like, or call it white noise, i was convinced i herd talking and whispering but could not make out what was being said. Spooky i had to walk about a bit to convince my self i was not imagining it. I'm sure i could have Generator running and here the same stuff. Never experienced anything other than that. Some kind of allusion of feeling uneasy maybe. Being vonrable not being able to hear someone creep up on me, i think.
I have various contradictory voices in my head sometimes but I've never recognized them as a separate entity, I'm always aware that it's all coming from me and what I'm feeling. Most of my self-sabotage comes from shame and fear rather than an intrusive and malicious inner voice. What Limmy's talking about reminds me of that elevator scene in Revolver.
There's a lot of antipsychotics and they all come with some shitty side effects. I don't take them anymore. They can make you fat, dull, drool... and they remove you from your full spectrum of emotional experience. They can be somewhat effective for bipolar/schizophrenia, but it isn't always the case. Simple therapy with a godd therapist can far outweigh meds, but that can take time, therefore money, the NHS doesn't want to spend. Also, there's a lot of influence from the pharmaceutical industry to get people on them since they're a for-profit institution. They even created the DSMIV, the diagnostic manual for mental health disorders.
Antipsychotics sometimes reduce your lifespan up to an entire decade, too.
They make life better for few, but mess up other people.
i’ve had these over the years. growing up in nyc i took the subway to & from school, and many times i ended up convincing myself that a certain other person near me could read my mind. or that the entire subway car i was on was for a specific type of person, or going to a different dimension, and i was the only one who didn’t know
People might joke or mock (and i've been guilty of this in the past as an immature person) but it's fucking GOOD to talk about mental health. Everyone, the richest and poorest, the most popular or the loneliest are all experiencing something. Open up to your friends and family. We live in the 21st century. It'll save lives.
A friend of mine literally had this psychosis and constant delusions, it’s very difficult stuff and proper distressing
as someone who has similar thought tendencies (at varying levels of intensity through life), i know getting sober definitely calmed down the unpredictability of my mind. not that everything is perfect, but i find myself far less likely to fall into paranoid/unreal thought spirals when they show themselves. i bet sobriety has helped for him, too.
When I came to see Limmys book show at strand, Newcastle, we got really high before arriving. There were no seats left so we stood at the back. I kept feeling the Limster was making eye contact with me which made me feel uneasy.
Brilliantly explained
I have crippling vertigo in dreams to the point where I feel physically sick and can't move, but in waking life, it has never happened to me. It makes me afraid to go to sleep every night. I have no idea how to tell anyone about it or how much it affects my mental health because I've never found a way to properly articulate it. I think this is the first time I've even gotten close so, if you read this, thanks.
Thanks for talking about this. I thought it was just me.
It's your "shadow". Carl Jung talks about it
We all get one of these on rare occations.
When your head starts putting together things that has nothing to do with each other but because our brains are pattern seeking supermachines with a hint of evolutionary baked in paranoia and anxiety about what can be hiding in the bushes and jump out and eat us. Sometimes our brain does a whopsie and we're standing there wondering what the hell just happened or if the coffee you had was laced with acid or something.
Could be an amazing Limmy show sketch
the magazine sketch
the reptile delusion hits hard
I'm having cognitive hypnotherapy at the moment. There are many parts to each of us. They can be spoken to and re integrated and kept in check. I'm finding it really helpful
You’re talking about temporary pyschosis.
I've had times where I've wondered if everyone else can hear my thoughts, they're that loud. Autism, tourette's, and regular bouts of intense insomnia, brain goes wacky sometimes.
It's mad how you can sometimes forget this stuff and then Limmy talking about it, Im reminded, yeah Ive had these mad fucking thoughts.
One time I had my eyes closed, opened them for a second and closed them. Was convinced Id just seen demonic faces leering, totally warped reality, a vision of hell. When I opened my eyes again everything was normal. Id been totally sober, no drugs, nothing for a long time. But I was convinced what I had just seen was real and 'reality' was just an illusion and I was actually in some kind of hell surrounded by demonic entities. It took me a long time to totally shake the feeling and then I forgot about it until now.
Never had the paranoid Schizophrenia thing you had on the beach, but that voice in your head telling you you can't do something and you start panicking that you won't be able to concentrate, that happens to me a lot. I had mad panic attacks for years, intrusive thoughts, mind racing, feels like you're going insane. Fucking awful. It helped me to think to myself "Fuck it, if I end up fucking this up, I fuck it up, but I refuse to be held captive by the thoughts".
That bit at the end is mad helpful lovely stuff mate 🙏
Great advice at the end . I need to stop myself being held captive by negative thoughts and worry etc . My mind is like a fuckin battlefield at times, after reading your post, I don't feel so alone. Thankyou.
Meditation has helped me a lot with this, and in exactly the way you suggest: you accept that this voice is there, quietly listen to what it has to say, and it usually turns out that it has very little to say, it's just looking for attention and, ultimately, something to do. Look up monkey mind and meditation on here, it's eye opening.
The internal monologue part makes me think of the split brain experiment, left and right brain. Worth a look if you haven't heard of it. CGP Grey has a decent video on it called "You are two".
What Limmy is describing here definitely sounds like schizophrenia. A lot of people are confused between schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder. A lot of stand up comedians have made jokes over the years where it's obvious they think schizophrenia is where you have multiple personalities (and mostly the audiences don't know any different).
Schizophrenia is a chronic condition, psychosis is a momentary symptom. Psychosis can be a symptom of lots of different things, bad sleep, high stress, other mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, bipolar, can be an element of neurodivergence, etc. Hallucinations/delusions are not exclusive to schizophrenia.
You've always been the truck driver, I should know... I've always been here
As a schizophrenic we tend to believe all this stuff is totally real it's very confusing but for me it's not always dark and scary after many years ive not been as tormented recently and darker themes tend to only creep in ocassionally I recently learnt about the concept of the demiurge and that mirrors my experience so much
Great you can talk about this stuff. I cannae.
I was in history reading about Terrence O'Neill and I genuinely had a episode like this with the "O".
I have similar thoughts myself but have never spoken about it to anyone. Makes me feel better to know it’s not just me.
I thought a lot of this described anxiety/panic disorder with dissociation. Not sure about the voices though…
It's just another side of his mind looking for work. That's why it tries to fuck things up, or create a panic, the monkey part of his mind wants there to be trouble, so it'll have something to do.
Good share and good on you, Limmy! 🎉🙏🏻👍
I've not got schizophrenia but I've got dissociation. And this sounds way similar to my experience.
Your living in the Truman show , I went through nurses of this back in the 90s
i remember this about the aliens coming to get him
Must be very unsettling. Shame, you’re brave to talk openly about it ❤
We are all the conscious output of a collaborative system of conscious cells - you are literally the master of your own universe of internal entities, cells, microbes, organs, systems etc. you can't control them individually, but you can control the universe they inhabit, by taking control of your breathing. Breathe slowly through your nose and use a positive thought about something you love to connect with your heart - It will respond by calming the system. Heart contractility will increase at the same time as heart rate decreases, bringing balance to the system. As long as you do it Consciously - You as the output consciousness become the beneficiary of a calm system.
4:20 ah yes, the muffit of tea inspiration
I have bipolar and I’ve had episodes of mania whereby “everybody’s in on it” too, very scary and nothing makes sense.
Am still trippin bud
This is how a Dee Dee sketch gets written
Limmy should check out Carl Gustav Jung. I think he would find him very helpful in understanding the psyche.
@13:42 that is basically "Active imagination" 🙂