Understanding Hearing Voices

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Schizophrenia Info  Personal Experience of Schizophrenia  Hearing Voices  Post Traumatic Stress 

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Aspergers a tragic story of misunderstanding   It's a Syndrome   Positive Thinking 

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Battle with Depression Self Help Sites Working in mental health Books Medication

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New Guest Book 

NEW Carers Expert- By Experience sister site This site will be where you will find carers stories. It is new at the moment and will be added to shortly

 

Free online CBT therapy http://www.livinglifetothefull.com

If you would like to talk to someone about your experience, there is a "Hearing Voices Confidential Helpline        Tel: 0845 122 8642, 10am - 4pm Monday to Friday, calls are charged at local rate       

                                                This Helpline is run by the Hearing Voices Network

You can contact them at:Enquiries and information: 0845 122 8641 Email: info@hearing-voices.org Website: www.hearing-voices.org

To share stories of hearing voices contact Paul Baker by emailing 965263097@terra. es

There is also a voice hearers discussion forum you can join to get support from other people and compare notes, this is a "voice Hearers" only group, go to http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/voice-hearers/

 

VOICES Public notice board: Website has been recently created to bring more of the experiences of labelled people out into PUBLIC view. www.voice-hearers.com

 
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How I tamed the voices in my head When Eleanor Longden began hearing things, she soon found herself drugged, sectioned and labelled schizophrenic. Then a psychiatrist taught her how to talk back http://news.independent.co.uk:80/uk/health_medical/article2332764.ece

 

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INTERVOICE online community - an international community dedicated to sharing information about hearing voices. "If you hear voices; if you know someone who does; if you work with people who hear voices; if want to know about more about this experience. Then this site is for you." http://www.intervoiceonline.org/ 

 

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Mentoring and mental health We run a mentoring project that supports young men recovering from mental health problems in London  http://www.backtolife.org.uk

 

BOOKS

1. Accepting Voices: A New Approach to Voice-hearing Outside the Illness Model. By M. Romme & S. Escher. Mind, 1993. This is the seminal work that explores the voice experience outside of the illness model. Available form Mind Publications at http://www.mind.org.uk/osb/itemdetails.cfm/ID/138
 
2. Hearing voices - A Common Human Experience by John Watkins. Hill of Content Publishing, Melbourne, Australia, 1998. This is out of print but may be available via a specialist library service, it explores the issues you are interested in. 
  • Publisher: Michelle Anderson Publishing (Sep 1998)
  • ISBN: 0855722886
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    3. Working with Voices - Victim to Victor by Ron Coleman & Mike Smith. This is a workbook that a voice hearer can use (on their own or with trusted other) to explore their voice experience. Go to http://www.roncolemanvoices.co.uk/p&p.htm
     
    Also check out the books from the Hearing Voices Network at http://www.hearing-voices.org/publications.htm

     

    Strategies for Dealing with Distressing Voices ( see at bottom of page for other links )

    1) Distraction - put the radio on, or even better, a walkman with headphones.

    2) Talk back to the voices. Challenge them. Ask them to go away.

    3) Selective Listening - Give your voices an hour or so a day when you will listen to them. Bargain with them and say that if they are quiet now (at work for instance, or in the pub) then you will listen to what they have to say at an agreed time.

    4) Talk to other people (who you can trust and who won't overreact) about your voices. Discuss what they say, how they say it, who the voices may represent. The more you understand your experience of voice hearing the easier it will become to cope with it.

    5) Read about voices. Some good books are: "Recovery An Alien Concept" by Ron Coleman, "Accepting Voices" by Marius Romme and Sandra Escher, and "Hearing Voices a Common Human Experience" by John Watkins

    6) Learn some relaxation techniques. If you become anxious because of your
    voices, use these techniques to get rid of the anxiety.

    7)  Write a letter to your voices. Maybe explain to them how you feel about them, how you would like them to behave, or anything that comes into your mind.

    8) If you are out in public and you want to talk back to your voices without the stigma of supposedly talking to yourself, get a mobile phone, pretend to dial, and talk into that instead. If you don't have a mobile phone, ask around your friends to see if any of them have one which they don't use any more (remember the phone doesn't have to work).

    9) Some people find that yawning or opening their mouths can help to block the sound of the voices.

    10) Earplugs in one or both ears (experiment!) can help to block out disturbing voices.

    11) Focus on one word and one word only. Repeat it, either in your mind or out loud, again and again. This turns the focus away from the voices and onto something else.

    12) Take one day, one hour or one minute at a time during the difficult patches.

    13) Do something fun that you enjoy once in awhile to reward yourself for putting up with the voices. You deserve it!

    http://www.purplepippa.co.uk

    Summaries of the research findings and advice for people hearing voices is available from the Mental Health Foundation site, go to

    http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/page.cfm?pagecode=PMAMHV    Alternatively try: http://snipurl.com/jhht

    Listening cure http://society.guardian.co.uk/mentalhealth/story/0,8150,593910,00

    Making sense of the voices http://society.guardian.co.uk/mentalhealth/story/0,8150,603098,00.html

    Voice Hearers Action  To join the Voice-Hearers-Action group, either send a blank email to voice-hearers-action-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, or visit   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/voice-hearers-action/
    and click on "Join This Group".

    http://www.zyra.org.uk Register with this site and receive a free quarterly magazine and news letters via email