- About 1 in 6 people hear voices or sounds without anyone being around.
- More than 1 in 10 people feels constantly bothered by others, and about one in 30 feels threatened by others.
- A lot of people feel shame and isolation around these experiences due to stigma.
Of individuals with CHR
- A small number, without treatment, develop a psychotic disorder later in life (10-20%).
- About 50% find their unusual experiences improve partially or completely.
- About 30 – 50% find these unusual experiences continue to bother them.
- Most have other mental health concerns like depression or anxiety, which are very treatable.
We don’t know the causes of these experiences for any one person, but contributors could include genetics or early stressors/ trauma.
One theory for unusual experiences is a disruption of dopamine systems in the brain
- Dopamine can serve as a “highlighter” for the brain; to tell us what to pay attention to and what is important in the environment.
- If too much dopamine is present or firing in the brain for no apparent reason, brains try to make sense of these experiences (why do I feel this way?).
- Explanations could include something coincidental feeling unusually meaningful to a person, feeling suspicious, or other strange experiences.
- That can lead to feelings of excitement, dread, or fear.
- More stress can lead to more dopamine firing, and more unusual experiences.
People often start to have more unusual experiences during their teens, likely because of changes to stressors, social relationships, and brain development.