Hearing Voices is Indicative of Several Types of Mental Illness

Voices when heard arbitrarily may be critical, a sort of warning system developed by the body to alarm the individual or they may be complimentary as well. It is difficult to understand the experience of hearing voices unless you have been through one yourself as this experience is not as rare as it is commonly thought to be.

Why do you have such feeling?

Are you wondering ‘why do I hear voices? Hearing voices or auditory hallucinations are a common symptom in severe mental disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and anxiety disorder. Hallucination tends to occur because the affected person has lost all real-time connection with the surrounding environment and seeks several ways of escape. Some people also experience sensations of smell, touch, tastes, vision and abstract thoughts.

What is it like?

Voices listened by the person are akin to normal listening of sounds, though these sounds have no physical source and often tend to enter a person's mind as if they were thoughts. People sometimes claim to hear tone of people who have died long ago. There are various ways in which these voices can be listened. Some people listen them within the head or outside it and even inside the body. The sounds may range from one to many and may either talk to you directly or talk about you. For intensive hearers, these sounds are present all throughout the day and hamper their daily activities. These tones also sometimes threaten to harm them and demand to be obeyed.

Getting Help

Hearing unknown voices every day may be a daunting experience, but there are quite a few ways to nip it in the bud and prevent this symptom from growing into a more severe case of psychotic disorder. One way is to seek the counsel of a medical practitioner who possesses expertise in mental health. Cognitive behavioural therapy, psychotherapy, hypnosis and counselling are common tools that allow effective prognosis and cure. Also sharing experiences with other voice hearers or trusted friends or a family member enhances self-esteem and makes it easier to cope up with the condition. Sometimes counselling of family members is also done to broaden their minds and teach them to render support and acceptance to the sufferer.

Benefits of Open Discussions on Hearing Voices

Talking about hearing voices can help to a great extent. It is but the norms of the society to shun people who seem to suffer from mental disorders like schizophrenia, yet talking about it enhances acceptance of the condition, frees them from isolation and reaffirms their sense of belonging in the society. Even mental health practitioners are of the view that talking about it is the most powerful form of mental counseling and boosts the efficacy of drugs taken to mitigate the disorder.

The following points elaborate the benefits of open discussions on hearing voices and recommends the same.

• Uncovering plausible interpretations: Voices often express deep-seated emotions of the hearer, such as fear regarding a relationship or an event, or a back-off signal. When voices provide this sort of information, the trouble posed by their occurrence becomes less significant the nature of the messages they carry. When hearers express themselves to others regarding this experience, they find it valuable to interpret the nature of these messages and the reason behind their presence.

• Structuring firm contact: Many voice hearers feel threatened by the voices they hear and fear being controlled or overpowered by them. Open discussion about this condition with others enables voice hearers to establish a relationship with those voices and thus minimize feelings of victimization. It can also be valuable in helping them to set safe limits and prevent voices from excess intrusion.

• Realizing positive aspects: Voice hearers when faced with prejudice and lack of sympathy tend to become malicious with time and even driven to hurt themselves at times. This is often because they fear the negative vibes underlying the voices and have no idea that positive voices exist too. Contact with other people can lead to surprising revelations of positive voices and that they can arise once the hearers accept their negative side wholly.

• Effective form of medication: By sharing experiences on voice hearing with similar sufferers or licensed practitioners, people gain better knowledge of the various medicines, their efficacy, availability and side effects, if any. It is essential to understand whether a certain drug reduces the tendency of hearing voices or simply eases associated emotions of anxiety and palpitation.

• Personal Growth: Several voice hearers when interviewed admitted that by talking about this condition, they adjusted to this phenomenon with more ease and that this process itself has contributed to improving their self-confidence and personal growth. Personal growth may be described as understanding one's personal requirements and working gradually to achieve those ends. Indeed, by indulging in open discussions about their experiences, they felt a sense of emancipation.

•  Family support: Sharing incidents and experiences of hearing voices with families and trusted friends can go a long way in hurling the afflicted person to the path of irreversible healing. Family can support them and make life easier for the hearer, by backing them up and improving their self-esteem in social events.

Mutual communication between the voice hearers not only enables sharing of experiences, but also allows them to learn from each other and heal faster. Even when healing is far from possible, communication does help to accept this condition and lead a productive life nonetheless. If you are thinking to yourself, "how do I cope up with lots of voices my head", then don't worry because communication is the key.