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“If people believe their voices are omnipotent and can harm and control them, then they are less likely to cope and more likely to end up as psychiatric patients, says Eugenie Georgaca, a senior lecturer at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the organiser of this year’s conference. “If they have explanations of voices that allow them to deal with them better, that is a first step toward learning to live with them.

The enemy within: People who hear voices in their heads are being encouraged to talk back - Health News - Health & Families - The Independent

Is this worth a try?

We certainly need to re-address our mental health care in this country, it's failing badly at the moment and seems to have been for a few years. Drugs evidently don't seem to be the answer in all cases.

i agree

I think that the drug companies will do their damnedest to keep everyone on something, be it physical or mental health related.

Thank you Betty, I sent this on to my best friend, in Florida, whose son was diagnosed as schizophrenic, won't take meds, hears voices & does seem to communicate with them. He also hears music, & dances in public to it. He's not a bad person, just can't adjust & self-medicates. I'll let you know of my friend's reaction, if she has one.

I try to talk back, but then my wife interrupts the conversation.

Who's to say the voices aren't really there? Perhaps they are just telepathic. Just because we don't hear them doesn't mean they don't exist.

FourPart;1472930 wrote: Who's to say the voices aren't really there? Perhaps they are just telepathic. Just because we don't hear them doesn't mean they don't exist.


Good points

My little voice in my head just asked: Doesn't everyone have a little voice in their head?

I hallucinate on every channel going, including sound. I do understand how scary it would be to anyone thinking it's from outside, from something other than their own brain behaving oddly. I can recognize the voices. I've only rarely treated it as a two-way conversation though I do sometimes see the point of a comment. If I actively listen I can tune into a crowd of voices and focus on just one, but it's still only an internal set of thoughts - there's nobody in here except me.

spot;1473112 wrote: I hallucinate on every channel going, including sound. I do understand how scary it would be to anyone thinking it's from outside, from something other than their own brain behaving oddly. I can recognize the voices. I've only rarely treated it as a two-way conversation though I do sometimes see the point of a comment. If I actively listen I can tune into a crowd of voices and focus on just one, but it's still only an internal set of thoughts - there's nobody in here except me.


That has to be scary enough.

AnneBoleyn;1472887 wrote: Thank you Betty, I sent this on to my best friend, in Florida, whose son was diagnosed as schizophrenic, won't take meds, hears voices & does seem to communicate with them. He also hears music, & dances in public to it. He's not a bad person, just can't adjust & self-medicates. I'll let you know of my friend's reaction, if she has one.


That would be interesting Anne. I have a friend with a daughter who quite late in life had a diagnosis of Autism (she was a teenager when diagnosed). Then there was a major trauma in her life. It was when she struggled to deal with the trauma that occurred she was given psychosis medication to help with the autism side of things, in her Mum's opinion this has led to her having psychotic spells that she never had prior to the medication and she was later diagnosed with psychosis.

Since then she has spent a lot of time sectioned. None of the medication is any good for her, it all just seems to make her worse. She is sectioned at the moment and her Mother recently started fighting for them to stop all medication for the psychosis.

The really sad thing here is that the Doctors cannot keep the girl sectioned if she is not taking medication! So going cold turkey and trying to get her body back to a pre-medicated state is now impossible. It's all so frustrating and a terribly sad waste of this young woman's life who just spends her time locked up and having her medication constantly changed because its not working. It leaves us wondering if she is just severely autistic and has been completely mis-managed because doctors are too quick to dish out medication for those with autism.

On the voices topic, this girl had voices all through her childhood, her mum never made anything of it, my son has voices too, once the doctors heard she was hearing voices that was it, they put her on heavy duty anti-psychosis medication. The shocking part is that they did this without looking at any other type of therapy or support first. The day my son was diagnosed with high achieving aspergers I left that appointment with a prescription for Ritalin, that was the specialists answer to his diagnosis. I never got the medication, totally refused to! In hindsight, I don't think this girl's mother would have let her have that first prescription either.