The experience of hearing unexpected voices that you do not recognise as your own, or you cannot identify a physical source, can be an unsettling experience, especially if it continues for a period of time.
It can also be very alienating and cause people to self isolate and withdraw from social contact with others. It can be difficult for them to figure out exactly what is happening and why?
Often they may seek help and search for an explanation. Many times they do not.
They struggle to feel ease in describing their experiences to themselves or to others. They may not be able to provide a self explanation that others can understand.
Also, there is a lot of stigma and prejudice in the "normal" population around voice hearing experiences and this inhibits and limits comfortable discussion.
Many people in the general population also hear helpful voices. Voices they do not wish to be rid of. Consoling voices. Advisory voices. Creative voices. Voices of departed partners and loved ones and more beesides
Doctors rarely get to meet these individuals as they do not seek out support. They simply learn to live with these experiences.
And there are people in the community who hear challenging or negative voices but have figured out tactics and developed their own coping strategies.
I n general, these individuals do not seek assistance or support as it is not needed and so they do not get to meet health professionals and health workers rarely get to meet with them!
It´s not the hearing of unwelcome voices that´s the problem, though it can become one when it impacts in a negative way on functioning and coping with everyday life.
It´s how we respond to this experience of hearing critical and negative voices, the effects of it upon us and our lives, which leads us on to consequences and determines our long term outcomes.
I built and developed this website in order to assist, enlighten and inform, and I am very pleased that it is visited so often, over 5,000 people in the last ten years. Please take your time to explore more fully.
There are lectures, blogs and documentaries, as well as tips on coping with and managing critical voices. There are useful links to other helpful health related websites too.
Hearing voices is a very subjective experience and individuals often struggle to make much sense of this phenomena.
Others may determine some meaning in the content of the voices that they hear. But sometimes, if we know how to listen, we might understand the reasons or the circumstances behind the appearance of a voice or voices in a persons life.
Some individuals hear voices only briefly, often connected to stresses and struggles in coping with temporary challenging experiences. There is a lot of research connected to this particular theme.
In some cases, if we listen to and translate the message within the critical voices people often hear, this can be very useful, as voices we hear may speak , directly or obliquely, to an unhealed area of life, possibly connected to past traumas.
Sometimes hearing a voice may prompt a person to take positive actions in order to improve their current life situation, for example.
Or a voice might speak to a hidden desire to increase their satisfaction and happiness with their lived experience, their relationships with others and even with themselves.
A despairing voice may be a disguised cry for help and change!
Of course, for many, hearing critical voices , real or "imagined", can be a disconcerting experience, causing anxiety and stress and disturbing to the individuals 'quality of life.
This is especially true if the comments that voices make are hurtful, demeaning, critical and make focusing on everyday tasks difficult.
And one reason that so many people seek medical attention and help, is to try and limit or even eliminate negative voices.
In most cases they will hope that medication will provide full relief but, we have learned that medication alone does not help enough people towards higher levels of recovery.
For too many, voices do not simply disappear, and the published recovery rates for diagnosis 'of schizophrenia are still far too low at around 30%, a figure they have been at now for decades.
No wonder medical health professionals have such a despairing prognosis for people given this particular label.
Medication may be a helpful tool for many in seeking a remedy and some relief, but there is always more that individual voice hearers, health professionals and their family and friend supporters can do.
Rather than accept a prognosis filled with limitations and low expectations, to try to make improvements, to foster ideas of what may still be possible and to flourish.
We may need to apply other skills and strategies to enhance the possibility of fuller levels of personal recovery and these exist.
You need an open mind and a willingness to try out some ideas that have worked for other voice hearers.
These may prove to be useful in mitigating and managing the negative effects of voices. What is there to lose?
I have access to free guides to better understanding and coping for voice hearers, for families and health professionals.
I have guides for young people, written by young people, parents, health workers etc and ready to send on request via email.
If you would like more detailed guides, in part written by voice hearers who cope well with critical voices, please email me : ivanjbarry@gmail.com and I will happily send these directly to your inbox.