That's men for you Padraig O'Morain's guide to men's health
Ever thought your mobile phone was ringing when it wasn't? In that fairly common experience the sound, or the sensation in the case of a vibrating phone, is produced by your own brain.
Or perhaps you thought somebody was calling your name when in fact nobody was doing so. Again, a not uncommon experience we shrug off as a mistake.
Now move to the other end of the spectrum: hearing voices that condemn you, praise you or order you around, voices which feel absolutely real but which are produced by your own brain.
This can be a pretty upsetting experience if people take these voices seriously or if they assume that hearing voices means they are mentally ill.
It is true to say that a significant proportion of people with schizophrenia hear voices. But does this mean that a significant proportion of people who hear voices have schizophrenia?
Dutch research in the 1980s suggests that more people than we might imagine live normal, well-functioning lives despite their voices. Dr Marius Romme, the psychiatrist who conducted the research, suggested that those who lived normal lives were people who accepted their voices, who knew the voices had no control over them and who had developed coping techniques.
He believed that struggling with the voices and trying to suppress them just made them stronger and greatly distressed the person suffering from them.
It appears that the voices people hear in their heads are usually male. Some researchers suggest this is because the female voice is more complex. So if your brain is going to produce a fake voice, it takes the easy option and goes for the male version. Sorry guys.
Some people hear harsh, condemning voices. Others are more fortunate: the voices are affectionate and caring.
There are some reasons to believe that people who were abused as children may be more likely than others to hear voices and that they often sound like the voices of their abusers.
The key thing about the voices is that they are fake. It is when the person imagines that the voices are real that the experience is more likely to be harmful.
If you hear voices, it is vital to understand that they are not real and they have no control over you, whatever they may say. Indeed, rather than running away from the voices, some people advocate observing them in a detached way, distinguishing between good and bad voices, perhaps talking back to them to work out what they mean but always in the knowledge that they are fake.
Talking to other people who hear voices or talking to a counsellor is also helpful - though at the beginning the voices may become more intense for a while. The Mental Health Foundation in Britain suggests that people who have been prescribed medication for hearing voices find it helpful to ask other "voice hearers" what medications work for them.
The key point is that if you hear voices, you need not go around feeling like an outcast. Unknown to you, people you meet every day may have the same experience.
If hearing voices is having a serious effect on your life, then you may need to talk to a doctor or seek counselling.
Should you talk about it to work colleagues? Personally, I would not. There is so much ignorance and prejudice about the subject that to do so would be unwise.
The Dutch research by Dr Romme led to the establishment of self-help groups. One such group is the Hearing Voices Network, which was founded in Manchester in 1988.
Its website is www.hearing-voices.org and it has a confidential helpline, staffed from 10am-4pm, Monday to Friday, at 0044 8451228642.
If you hear voices, I suggest you also look at www.mentalhealth.org.uk, the website of the Mental Health Foundation. Click on "problems and treatments" and follow the alphabetical list to find a helpful page on the subject.
pomorain@irish-times.ie
Padraig O'Morain is a journalist and counsellor accredited by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.