Tag: hearing voices
Not Everyone Wants to Silence the Voices in Their Heads
From Science of Us: There seems to be a growing interest in the concept of healthy voice-hearing. The idea that hearing voices may not be...
Do Voice Hearers Have the Right to Refuse Psychiatric Drugs?
In this piece for STAT, Shirley S. Wang discusses the Hearing Voices Network and its non-pathologizing, rights-affirming approach to hearing voices and alternative realities.
"Many recovered...
Hearing Voices in the USA
The World Hearing Voices Congress will be landing in Boston, Massachusetts in August. The Hearing Voices movement is up against a lot in this culture where there's so little tolerance for uncertainty and exploration. This movement, this event, and so many people's lives depend on all of us to carry this perspective forward.
Lisa Forestell: Hearing Voices Movement and the Western Massachusetts Learning Community
What is it like to hear voices â and are all voices harmful or can they also be helpers? What does voice hearing say about the human mind â and the society we live in?
Psychics Who Hear Voices Could Be on to Something
In this piece for The Atlantic, Joseph Frankel compares and contrasts the voice-hearing experiences of self-described psychics and mediums with the experiences of people diagnosed with...
Yes, I Hear Voices, But No, I Don’t Want You to...
In this piece for The Independent, Rachel Waddingham describes her experience with hearing voices as well as learning to live with and understand her voices.
"When...
The Moment the Narrative Changed?
From The British Psychological Society: BBC Horizon's recent documentary "Why Did I Go Mad?" has been monumental in changing the biomedical paradigm of mental illness....
The People with Psychosis Embracing the Voices They Hear
In this piece for Vice, Laetitia Laubscher discusses the Hearing Voices Network, a non-medical approach to hearing voices and experiencing extreme states.
"...a key goal...
More Experience Hallucinations Than Previously Thought
From RTĂ: A recent study found that over 4 percent of all people have experienced hallucinations, which is far more than had previously been thought. Contrary...
Transformations to Liberation
My goal was to change my relationship with my voices from one that was adversarial to one in which I experienced them as allies. I was successful in that I now look at my voices, visions and other experiences as teachers, as gifts. It has not been an easy journey.
“How I Cope With the Three Unwanted Voices That Live Inside...
What now? Iâm frightened of being labelled mentally ill.
Troubled by Individual and Collective Psychosis? Maybe Compassion and Dialogue...
We need to learn to listen and respond in a caring way to the disturbed and disturbing voices within the populationâto really engage with them, while also not believing any lies or distortions or letting destructive forces take over.
âHearing Voices is More Common Than You Might Thinkâ
MIA contributor John Read writes for The Conversation: âPsychiatryâs diagnostic bibles, the American DSM-5 and the World Health Organisationâs ICD-10, portray auditory hallucinations as...
Centering Lived Experience
Lately, after a number of discussions, we have been changing our practices around the issue of labels. No longer do we give a diagnosis at presentations. We place the young personâs story, as told to us, front and center. People listening rarely ask, âWhat is their diagnosis?â now that lived experiences are central. We are providing a sense of their struggles. We are trying.
Hearing Voices, Living Fully: Living with the Voices in My Head
My memoir, Hearing Voices, Living Fully: Living with the Voices in My Head, chronicles my journey through depression, psychosis, and an unmedicated recovery, and describes how I learned to challenge my demons and negotiate the conditions that allowed me to regain control over my mind and my life. Although I thought my story was very unusual, I thought it possible that many who have manifested the symptoms associated with schizophrenia could achieve a greater degree of recovery than is currently the norm. When I became involved with the Hearing Voices Network, I learned that my experience is not uncommon and that there are literally millions of people in the world who are living full lives, even while hearing voices.
âLearning to Live with the Voices Inside Your Headâ
For ABCâs All in the Mind, Lynne Malcolm and Olivia Willis report on the latest research showing that hearing voices may be far more...
Group Mindfulness Shows Promise Reducing Depression Associated with Hearing Voices
A new study out of Kings College London found that twelve sessions of a group mindfulness-based therapy relieved distress associated with hearing voices while reducing depression over the long-term. The person-based cognitive therapy (PBCT) intervention had significant effects on depression, voice distress, voice controllability and overall recovery.
Mental Health Documentary “Healing Voices” Premiers Across 130 Communities in 8...
The producers of âHealing Voicesâ Ââ a new social action documentary about mental health Ââ are releasing the film via community screening partners in...
Finding Clarity Through Clutter
For the last three years, I have been working with people, labeled "hoarders," who have become overwhelmed by their possessions in their homes. This has been some of the most interesting, challenging and thought-provoking work I have ever done. It is also an area that, I think, highlights all of the issues that challenge us in helping people who feel overwhelmed, for whatever reason.
Advice on Coping With Voices
What are some tactics used by voices, and what can you do about it? I hope the suggestions in this piece can help desperate voice-hearers become more understanding of the forces behind their agony, and perhaps bring a more enlightened perspective to the chemically-lobotomizing tendencies of their psychiatrists who treat voices with more medication.
âPeople with Schizophrenia Hear Voices- Their Ownâ
For Slate, Eliezer Sternberg outlines research suggesting that auditory hallucinations are actually âsubvocal speechâ produced by the patient themselves. When a schizophrenic patient hears...
Testifying in Vermont: Forced Drugs
Vermont Governor Shumlin recently suggested a change to state law that would accelerate the process under which a person could be forced to take antipsychotic drugs against her will. The House Human Services Committee reviewed this proposal and I was asked to testify. What follows are my comments.
Watch: âI Hear Voices in My Head, But Iâm Fineâ
"Eleanor Longden started hearing voices when she was 18. She was drugged and hospitalised, then told she was schizophrenic. A psychiatrist even told her...
False Arguments, Part 3: Why Do People Hear Voices? (And Why...
The question âwhy do people hear voices?â tends to rise up after weâve offered challenges to medicalized perspectives. Most often, this question does not come from people who hear voices themselves, but from people in provider roles, and â with the greatest frequency â from parents. As a parent myself, I understand the desperation to make things âokayâ for one's child. I can empathize deeply with the sense of fight and the search for answers. But what if itâs the wrong question entirely? What if focusing in on âwhyâ actually pulls us further and further away from the âhelpingâ that we most aim to find?
Why Mainstream Psychiatry Fears a Balanced Understanding of Psychosis
Many people are now familiar with the BPS report, Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia, and they have appreciated how it integrates both science and a humanistic understanding to convey a fresh and progressive approach to difficult and extreme experiences. But it has come under attack by psychiatrists, using arguments that are often quite slick, and sound reasonable to the uninformed. But they are wrong, and the better we can articulate how and why they are wrong, the better we can advocate for a more humane and skillful response to people having the experiences that are called âpsychosis.â