Schizophrenia voices - my journey

I was diagnosed in 2018, in my early 40's, when I began hearing persecutory religious voices, predominantly Christian in nature and threatening eternal hell beyond the grave, very devastating and potent for a religious believer. I never took recreational drugs. It appears that my psychosis was an unlucky combination of genetics and social factors, as well as perhaps hearing loss.

I've come a long way. I hope this might help others.

For the first couple of years, I took medication. I stopped taking medsb due to perceived side effects, long term risks as well as stigma, after psychologically building resilience to the awful messages. But it's been a very tough and scary journey as the narratives and assertions can be very convincingly supernatural or not originating within my head. Now, I feel I have overcome the messaging such that I no longer care much what is said. I find music helps a lot. In the early days, however, even music was often not enough. It's been a gradual psychological process of letting go, trying to not place importance on the content. In recent days, my voices have almost entirely disappeared. This is as a result of actively seeking out activities or distraction, especially music, at the hint of their re-emergence. However, the triggers are still there and I noticed that when I'm in a quiet room and especially if I start thinking about psychosis or any of the triggers that the slippery slope into the voice hearing mental space begins and I have to then remind myself immediately to "get out of here" primarily by putting on music.