The Listening Cure

[v01ce5]

The Hearing Voices Network is featured inTime Magazine Not bad for a grassroots organisation!

Extract below:

"HVN seeks to recast the phenomenon as a normal experience, encouraging members to maintain a dialogue with their voices so they can live peacefully with and even appreciate their presence. Studies suggest that these auditory hallucinations emerge following traumas ranging from the death of a loved one to outright abuse, so HVN encourages members to address the phenomenon with these origins in mind. In the past six years, HVN in England has doubled its number of support groups to more than 160 local chapters, and similar groups have cropped up in 17 other countries, from Japan to Finland.

The HVN prescription flies in the face of traditional psychiatry, which prefers that patients take antipsychotic medication and ignore their voices, and warns that acknowledging them intensifies hallucinations. But according to Dr. Marius Romme, a psychiatrist and former professor at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, "Accepting voices is the one precondition to start the process of recovery." He argues that the mind uses this internal chatter to alert people to unresolved trauma: studies by Romme and others estimate that 50% of cases have experienced some form of abuse, and their voices tend to take on characteristics of their tormentors. "The road to recovery," says Romme, "involves getting a better view of that relationship."

 

[John A]

The Hearing Voices Network is featured inTime Magazine Not bad for a grassroots organisation!

Extract below:

"HVN seeks to recast the phenomenon as a normal experience, encouraging members to maintain a dialogue with their voices so they can live peacefully with and even appreciate their presence. Studies suggest that these auditory hallucinations emerge following traumas ranging from the death of a loved one to outright abuse, so HVN encourages members to address the phenomenon with these origins in mind. In the past six years, HVN in England has doubled its number of support groups to more than 160 local chapters, and similar groups have cropped up in 17 other countries, from Japan to Finland.

The HVN prescription flies in the face of traditional psychiatry, which prefers that patients take antipsychotic medication and ignore their voices, and warns that acknowledging them intensifies hallucinations. But according to Dr. Marius Romme, a psychiatrist and former professor at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, "Accepting voices is the one precondition to start the process of recovery." He argues that the mind uses this internal chatter to alert people to unresolved trauma: studies by Romme and others estimate that 50% of cases have experienced some form of abuse, and their voices tend to take on characteristics of their tormentors. "The road to recovery," says Romme, "involves getting a better view of that relationship."

Interesting. I do the exact opposite. I train people NOT to have dialogue with their voices, and THAT seems to help THEM them, although my clientelle is a-typical, it has to be said.

 

[Apotheosis]

"Accepting voices is the one precondition to start the process of recovery." He argues that the mind uses this internal chatter to alert people to unresolved trauma: studies by Romme and others estimate that 50% of cases have experienced some form of abuse, and their voices tend to take on characteristics of their tormentors. "The road to recovery," says Romme, "involves getting a better view of that relationship."

Hello vO1ce5 I agree with you very strongly.

Many people do in fact experience voices in a very positive light, without ever coming into contact with psychiatric services, & view them as a good thing.

We tend to hear the "negative" experiences. But these things I do think are the result, of often past trauma, & are a psychological mechanism with meaning & the potential for healing & growth.

In my own experience, I have found that discussing in depth the nature of my "delusions" & the experiences of psychosis, with people I can trust in an emphatic way; has lead to the most meaningful recovery.

 

[Rorschach]

Hello vO1ce5 I agree with you very strongly.

Many people do in fact experience voices in a very positive light, without ever coming into contact with psychiatric services, & view them as a good thing.

We tend to hear the "negative" experiences. But these things I do think are the result, of often past trauma, & are a psychological mechanism with meaning & the potential for healing & growth.

In my own experience, I have found that discussing in depth the nature of my "delusions" & the experiences of psychosis, with people I can trust in an emphatic way; has lead to the most meaningful recovery.

Have to go with you on this one, tho' perhaps talking rather than just listening, adds the human social interaction element; if I just wanted listening I could talk to my tea cup...

 

[Apotheosis]

.......if I just wanted listening I could talk to my tea cup...

I often find the cat quite therapeutic in this regard, he is never bothered by long discourse on the most controversial of subjects.