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Hearing voices?
Hearing voices is not as unusual experience as medical psychiatry would have us believe indeed 4% of the population would appear to hear voices. Most modern religions were started by voice hearers and there are many creative thinkers and artists who hear voices, indeed for some, voices can be inspirational. Amongst people with mental health problems however the incidence of voice hearing is higher , this is thought to be because people who become mentally distressed have different life experiences, 70% of people with schizophrenia say that they hear voices that trouble them because of life events (see elsewhere on this site for the relationship between trauma and psychosis) For research in prevalence of voice hearing contact mike at mikesvoice@aol.com
We at Crazydiamond know that hearing voices is never in itself the problem, rather it is something else which is the problem for people who hear voices and become patients, the good news is we can do something about these things.
What then makes voices a problem?
It is the relationships you have with your voices, its identity, how it fits into your life, the power it may have over you and your ability to defend yourself, your understanding and explanation of it, the context in which it arises and how it disrupts your life or others around you and your way of coping that can cause problems (Smith & Coleman 2005)
What can be done?
There are many things you can do to help with these things either for yourself or to help someone close to you, understanding the relationship with voices, their origins, the influence they have in a persons life, the disruption they cause, the context in which they arise etc. , collectively we call this reforming. Here is a brief list of things you can do
Identify who or what your voice are. Look at your relationship with them and their origins, how they have changed over time, the distress they cause, how you cope, how else you can cope, your understanding and context, your social network, disruption. This is organised in the workbook working with voices II (from victim to victor) ISBN 0-9548103-4-1
Look at how you cope and what you can do to cope using the psychiatric first aid book ISBN 1-903-199-09-3
If you want to know more about your voices use the Maastricht interview written by Professor Marius Romme and Dr Sandra Escher available from mikesvoice@aol.com or buy making sense of voices ISBN 1874690863
For details of how to order the above publications and more mail us at marionaslan@aol.com or in Scandinavia visit www.psykovision.dk
For details of our training for staff in supporting people who hear voices to take control of their experiences and move on contact mike on mikesvoice@aol.com, for practical advice
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