The following is an at-will presentation.

My secret is that I bought a really expensive handbag, and I'm not telling my husband.

I'm Ben Ham.

And I'm Dahlia Beta.

We're your hosts as we navigate the deep waters of humanity.

And listen to the stories no one ever tells.

You are entering the secret room.

I have schizophrenia and I've been hearing

hallucinations for two years.

That's Zoe, our secret room guest today.

She's a really smart 21-year-old woman who's studying to be a pediatric

neurosurgeon at a Washington, D.C. University. She's carrying a 4.0 average, and she speaks three languages.

When she first submitted her secret, I called her to talk to her about it. I asked you to explain,

as best she could, what it was like to hear voices.

She told me there was a time she thought they were real, but she knows now that they aren't.

I just really like them. Even though I've mostly talked about the bad times, there were a lot of good times.

And I guess that is characteristic of schizophrenia.

There's delusions of grande, and then paranoia.

The National Institute of Mental Health defines schizophrenia as a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves.

Zoe came to the secret room to share her story because she wanted to foster understanding of the condition, at least as she experiences it.

Hey Zoe.

Yeah, hey, nice to meet you in person.

...