Hearing Voices

Hello @avocado0902 and welcome to the forums.

I'm sorry you're going through this, know that you're not alone. I hear voices and experience hallucinations myself so I understand how exhausting and overwhelming it can be, especially when they're there all the time and get louder when you're alone.

A few things that have helped me are keeping some background noise on like listening to music or having a TV show on, keeping busy with activities that require my attention, such as diamond art, colouring, origami, crochet etc. I also find that stress and a lack of sleep tend to make things worse so try to keep a routine to help.

Have you got any supports you can reach out to when things are getting a bit harder to manage alone? You deserve support to help get through this and we're here for you ❤️.

@avocado0902 and @MissGremlin

Hello,

it can be very trying when this occurs, I have experienced both voices and hallucinations and eventually quit my job over it. After this which had been ongoing for about 3 years I finally decided to visit a GP who referred me to a psychiatrist.

My voices got to the point of suicidal urging so needed some serious help.

The psychiatrist diagnosed me and prescribed medication which made me very dosey, it has since been changed with no side effects and no voices. The hallucinations are mostly gone and I still get the odd voice but for the most part live a quiet but reasonable existence which I may not have without the assistance of GP and later psych.

You may not find the effects that serious and the advice of minimizing background music or TV as suggested works, maybe even some mediatization if you can which has helped me in many ways.

PS I was also very paranoid with my events and this can make you quite irrational and tetchy, not sure if you experience that or not.

Anyway, best of luck and you're not alone in this.

Alittleorange

Thankyou for sharing your experience with this @Alittleorange, it's definitely very trying at times.

I've got a GP who is my only support at the moment as I've been unable to access the support I need. Medications also aren't an option for me which makes things a little trickier. For now I just do the best I can to remind myself that they aren't real while using distractions and to seek support if I feel it getting too much to handle alone.

I'm glad you've been able to find the support you needed and that it's much more manageable for you now.

Hope you have a good day ☺️.

Hi @avocado0902

Hearing voices and psychosis 🗯️ is an ongoing thread for voice hearers

I've benefited from The Maastricht Approach

MHFA Run support groups available nationally (via Zoom)

One helpful thing for me was dedicating a time to interact with them. They might be there all day, but I try to only lean into it and interact back during my dawn beach walks. This has limited how grumpy they get at other times

I basically have schizoaffective disorder and experienced heavy bouts of psychosis for about 5-6 years until I summoned the strength to find an alternative drug that worked for me as the drug that was prescribed to me obviously wasn't doing the job. I've been fine for about 8-9 years now and I do recommend getting a notebook and making a note to get you on the right stuff(medication) as soon as you can as this can help with the voices.

In the meantime there is no debate within the medical community that the voices aren't real but hallucinations generated by a failing mind that fails to handle serotonin or dopamine levels in the brain. You start seeing things and patterns people don't see your limbs may move of their own free will it's quite disconcerting.

This has never sat well with me as I've had a conversation with a voice that identified herself as "Samyaza" was incredibly insightful and intellectually beyond me in terms of malicious intent, intellectual capacity, ability to manipulate, lies and undermining. I understood that "Samayaza" asked for my permission to hear voices in the first place during my pre-psychotic phase that I only understood in my emotional space as I hadn't heard voices before. The first time I heard voices it was a complete shock I had been playing a game on the computer, doing my job and doing all of the "normal" stereotypical things a person does. The voices influenced me in ways you couldn't understand and within a few hours I decided to lock myself outside of my apartment without the key and without any means to get back in without shoes on. They effectively reduced me to a jibbering wreck within a few hours.

As someone who suffered this for sometime I recommend music therapy, journaling and not trying to actively to fight the voices as they are tricky things they act as your inner monologue, trick you, lie to you, get you to do abnormal things through knowing how your brain works and often act in an intellectual capacity far exceeding your own capability. Don't do what they tell you to do and don't not do what they tell you not to do just do you in as far as you can do you.

Just imagine that you had a bad friend who sits on your shoulder who could change their voice on you. You'd try to brush them off your shoulder. Try acknowledging that the voice is not your inner monologue which is all your should be hearing in your mind and try owning the space in your mind and your emotional space.

I sincerely wish you the best on your self-rediscovery journey and hope that the takeaways from my story help you.

@MickiArcadeus ,

Thank you for sharing your experience. It sounds like you went through some very difficult years, and its great to hear you have found a treatment approach that works for you and have been doing well for a long time now.

I appreciate you sharing strategies like journaling, music, and focusing on your own choices rather than getting caught up in what the voices are saying. Its always helpful for members to hear what has supported others on their recovery journey.

Take care

Hi @avocado0902 there are more voice hearers than most people realise, and often they don't reach out for support due to fear. So it's wise you have connected with this forum!.

The mainstream medical approach is often to apply a psychosis diagnosis and try to medicate the voices away. This is very necessary for some people. But voices can arise from a number of other causes, especially (childhood) trauma.

There is a large worldwide movement of lived experience voice hearers who push for a different view of voice hearing. https://www.intervoiceonline.org/#content

The strongest Australian group seems to be Voices Vic who have a lot of good information https://www.unitingvictas.org.au/services/mental-health/hearing-voices-support/

Everyone's lived experience is different, but Eleanor Longden's 15 min Ted Talk is inspirational:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syjEN3peCJw