The voices were at their height one particular day, right in the middle of a conversation at work! Could this be any more convenient? Why did they have to come right now? Couldn’t they just leave me be at least while I’m engaged in something serious?
I can imagine that if you’re reading this, you’ve been through a similar situation. Or maybe not, maybe you are a “normal” person looking to get some insight into what the deal is with these “schizophrenics”. Either way I think I can speak for all the voice hearers out there when I say that these so-called hallucinations come about at the most inconvenient of times. Maybe like me it happens at work, or maybe when you are with a friend, or maybe even when you’re watching TV or doing something else that’s pretty run of the mill.
Regardless, whatever time these voices come at us, critically or aggressively, it can be an all too overwhelming experience. Suddenly the proverbial swords are out, and the characters in the mind are threatening to cut you to pieces. So why do these things happen to a voice hearer? I have a theory that I would like to briefly touch on.
One possibility is that you have an inner tension about some aspect in your life. Now I know what you’re thinking; “could you be any more vague?” But bear with me for a minute. Do you have an unresolved issue in the mind that you could be pushing to the side in order to simply deal with life? In my experience I’ve found it very comforting to give myself time to assert my ability to introspect and give myself time to process emotions and thoughts about confronting things in life. I’ve observed that often it’s the pain points in our lives that the voices centre their activity around. To give you an example: Let’s say for some reason you’re afraid of dogs. Next time you see a dog , you might experience intrusive thoughts or auditory hallucinations or voice hearing activity which puts you down, or insights fear in your mind. The reason for the voice hearing activity is not the dog, nor are the voices independent in themselves. The cause is centred around the fact that for some reason you are afraid of dogs.
So what I think would be helpful in this example is for the person suffering the “hallucination” to probe into the reason why they are afraid of dogs. Maybe it would be helpful to see a therapist about why these notions are arising, or maybe you recall an incident where you were bitten by a dog, or a dog barked at you and that made you afraid. Whatever the case, I can assure you that if you deal with this repressed pain point, the voices will no longer centre around that aspect of your life.
In this way voices can be powerful indications to help us uncover our deep seeded fears and hang-ups. In my experience, with patience and self compassion, the more we learn to deal with our tensions and mitigate them through therapeutic activities like music, painting, exercise or simply chatting about them to a friend, the less “fuel” the voices will have to pick a fight with you. So as we journey through life we become effective at weeding out the tensions we may have that are lurking around in our psyche, and with our daily outlook improving from bleakness to possibility and the chance of new beginnings, we become stronger and more resilient to voices. Soon even the presence of voices will not scare you so much, as we adopt the role of students in life, always ready to learn from the experience about what it’s revealing about ourselves.
Here’s another helpful pointer I found works well centring around this concept of overcoming inbuilt fears. I’ve found that fears and anxieties exhibit themselves not only on a psychological level, but also in a neurological and physiological way. Thus I strongly advise fellow voice hearers to get some kind of physical exercise. As the tensions in our mind manifest in our body, while you’re on the road to recovery, it definitely helps to disperse this excess energy through some bodily movements. For me it’s my daily morning walks. I never miss them and when I’m doing them, I literally feel myself walking out the tensions that I may have been processing in my life. Get fit & free from voices, not a bad deal hey?
So next time you feel up against it, and the voices are streaming through, threatening to end your world or defeat your mind, ask the question: What am I going through right now that may have led to this particular voice hearing experience? Remember that each of our voice hearing experiences are unique in that they are happening at different times and in different environments. Let’s uncover the fog of voice hearing by noticing what triggered the voices and making the decision that we’ll do what it takes to become completely honest with ourselves in discovering the hidden fears of the mind.
Oh and in case you were wondering, I cleared up the voice hearing experience I had at work while talking to a colleague, it turns out I had my own anxieties around the subject of conversation, and after realising this, I was able to write this blog…
