Voice Hearing - A questionnaire
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Developed by Sandra Escher, Patsy Hage and Marius Romme.
Further revisions by Monique Pennings.
Copyright held by Prof. M.A.J. Romme & Mrs. A. Escher
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This questionnaire was originally designed as a research tool to elicit information from people who hear voices. It has proved to be extremely useful in getting a much fuller picture of the shared experiences of voice hearers and the results have subsequently been used to develop a range of coping strategies that can help voice hearers to come to terms with their experience.
As a result of using this questionnaire, we discovered that as well as its value for research, it also proved to be a good way of beginning the process of exploring the voice experience for individual voice hearers - and - as a means of developing the confidence of mental health workers who want to work with voice hearers.
It is important to stress that this questionnaire was developed by voice hearers in partnership with mental health professionals and that voice hearers are regarded as being the experts and full partners in the process of finding solutions to the difficulties that hearing voices can sometimes cause.
You can download the full version of the questionaire here
Information for voice hearers
This questionnaire has been designed for people who hear voices. It is intended to help you to understand your experience better. It is our view that your voice hearing experiences gives you knowledge and expertise that no one else, other than voice hearers, can possibly have. Therefore we would like to ask you to share this knowledge by completing the questionnaire so that we can all achieve a fuller understanding of what these experiences mean. If you are exploring your voice experiences with someone else, such as a friend, therapist or mental health worker, then filling in this questionnaire could be a way to help them understand what is happening to you.
We are particularly interested to find out in what circumstances you hear voices and what methods you use to cope with them. We want this questionnaire to be useful, not only to the person who fills it in, but also to other voice hearers. For instance, perhaps you have devised a method that enables you to overpower the voices, if so, it might be possible to teach others to do the same. For this reason the results of the questionnaire are being used for our research into voices and we would like to ask your permission to use your completed questionnaire for this purpose. We would also like to be able to contact you again should we need to ask you to clarify any of your answers. We want to be able to do this so that the we get all the facts right, which is very important in research work. After completion, a summary of the interview will be given to you for your own use. Your identity and other information about your experience will be confidential and only used with your consent.
Since the interview is a long one (it can take a minimum of one and half hours to fill in, sometimes longer) and the questions require you to think a lot about your experience, you may want to conduct the interview over two sessions, rather than one. Please feel free to let the interviewer know if you are getting tired or upset and the interview can be continued at another session.
Information for interviewers
This questionnaire has been designed to increase knowledge and awareness of the voice hearing experience. It can be used as a way of opening up discussion about voices with someone you are working with, as the interview can encourage and stimulate dialogue about the voices. For some voice hearers, this could be the first time that they have talked about their experience and for many it will be the first time this has been done in a structured and considered way. The voice hearer may disclose information that may have been unknown to you or to any service working with them. Therefore, the interview is a potentially intense experience for the voice hearer and interviewer and it is necessary to consider the availability of follow up support (such as someone to talk to, a telephone number to call, availability of supervision for the interviewer etc.). It could be that the voices become more active or angry as a result of the interview. It is our experience to date, however, that this is rarely a problem and that most voice hearers find the questionnaire an enjoyable and positive experience as it provides a safe and structured way to talk about their voices. The questionnaire can also be a way of building trust between the voice hearer and the person they are working with and can create favourable conditions for further discussion and action about how to cope with the voices, such as joining a self help group and developing other coping strategies.
The interview should be conducted in a mutually acceptable place, it should feel safe, quiet and be free from interruptions. If you have not previously met the voice hearer or only know them slightly, it would be valuable to hold a preliminary meeting to explain the purpose of the questionnaire and to answer any questions the respondent may have, this helps to build trust. This pre-interview should be unstructured and informal, although in answering the questionnaire itself it is important to follow the question format. This questionnaire has been designed for adults (over 16 years), if required there is a specific questionnaire for children which can be obtained from INTERVOICE.
Please ensure a summary of the completed questionnaire is given to the respondent.
Comments
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I just saw a 48 yr old client that hears voices. Her doctor has her on prozac, efflex, visteril, buspaur and serequel. I have no medical education but think this is odd combination. Any input would be appreciated. Please reply to email address. Thanks
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Very interesting program today, on All in the Mind, Nov. 8 must say.. Please don't be shocked, but I still assess very highly strung minds can become so negative in a heavily emotional & traumatic way & be got at by very real Unseen Entities that seek to use them for a Medium in to the carnal senses effect of the 3rd Dimension. I knew of a Lesbian once who had the "Kill yourself", domination .. & she told "how she got down on her knees & said the Lord's Prayer for the first time in her life.. & , the moment passed.. she said. I do know of psychic "channel effect " too where a heavy emotional man, who also, same time meditated just once too often , & extremely traumatically so , too, on a compulsive sex obsesson habit he'd had for years & actually got stuck with the opening of a real, all senses channel, to his female victim! It had, in actuality, magnetised brain & inner energy forces..together with a receptive Victim (co-oresponding Force) &, it's lasted for some years. Yes, & in his hate of so being trapped by that, woman's energy force, he'd obviously abused too too long, he had actually magnetised in to an altered brain frequency state, a very "closed brain circuit state" at that with her, as it proved, meaning trapping too, the very innocent victiim's very energy field.. merged in with his own! Seems it's like an " electric plug" had been inserted in to a power force.. woman! But, thing is it's "hell to bear", day & night as he, the man, acts only negatively ever since & very hatefully & drains the female force! Joke is, he's cut off sex with others in the 3rd. dimension as it is a very "closed state, brain to feet, energy bound! Seems a real case of "Sow & Reap, " & "Think & Become", to me. Maybe we should not doubt plain Logic in the Bible , methinks! All energy centres, that is.. Yes, in Australia today.. there's such Victims.. believe it or not..& maybe one-day , to be proven, too.. No, !can't believe it's all.. merely one's er .." inner voices" talking to one's self. It is known anything that pressures for Murder in such a way, is only a Hate Entity with no love for the Victim, at all.. & an Entity that's attached to the Carnal Senses world, at that! It wants only Thrill ..& maybe even wanting to find it too, in managing to get someone to kill themselves. Have read somewhere , killers get a sex thrill, it is believed. It's black drive out to generate energy that way .. way it's believed! The Ïncubus"... the Dark Spirit. of even a living being, seems.. is seemingly a belief in Hermetic lore.. & a problem of extreme sex obsessives & likewise traumatics .. at that, too! ,... yes, even living! I know no Hermetic way but I sure think they have to be on to something! Our inner Spirit (energy) the Bible infers we all have.. ie 1 Corinthians 3 verse 16 & in 2 Corin. too, 15 think it is.. the Immortal Spirit that survives death.. St. John 4 verse 24 states God is a Spirit, too, as 1 Corin. 3/16 does.. within us! So, mess up it's Force with Negative Thinking, seems to me, & we mess up the pure energy of the Spirit Force..yes, logic, to me. Then , the illnesses, the mixed up thinking, real bad trauma, & the "black minded" (ungodly) spirit attacks get in to one's electrical brain field.... etc. Only Lucifer-like Mind is the Dominator over others it wants to crush.. what else! Anyway, great discussion today on Äll in the Mind".. Very intelligent production alright. Not at all surprised if it's won a top New York Award.. Fantastic! Thank-you very much.. Food for Thought..I send . Sincerely, J. C2008 Aust.
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I have had voices for 19 years. I have come to know them or me quite well. I have not taken medication for about 15 of those years. A curse at first to a gift, once I began to understand that my voices have needs which connect with my own needs for wellness.
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I would like for all psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors as well as anyone hearing voices to tune in to my thread under the heading "PERSOANL EXPERIENCES" and the thread "ARCHANGEL GABRIEL'S MESSAGE TO ALL VOICE HEARERS." It is a frank and candid discussion about the way in which our voices are actually in all cases an Archangel, and whether or not the voice is a negative one or one positive. If you have a difficult time believing that, particularly if a health professional and believing voice hearing is simply a delusional experience, then you will find THE ARCHANGEL GABRIEL'S explanation of the voice hearing phenomenon very enlightening if not deafening in the way of a very loud wake upcall to all of you to be realizing that the occurance of voice hearing is spiritual and not psychological except to be aided by the medications THE LORD has seen fit to provide the pharmaceutical giants with in terms of their earnings potential and profits. Why does this phenomenon of voice hearing occur? To make the world go round. It is simply that a certain number of mentally ill will always be wanted in order for there to be such services as psychiatry, mental hospitals and also the ability for families to be pulling together--or not--in order to help their loved on cope and to allow them to better cope with the situation too. JennyWW, OUR scribe (and WE say OUR because WE, THE ARCHANGELS as a whole, are wanting you to know WE sometimes speak as a group on OUR thread) is a person who has been hearing a voice in her head for a number of years--since 2003--but only since asking for it to happen by actually at one time praying that a "spirit" (in the way of the soul of a deceased person) would be speaking to her. In no way was she a religious individual ecept to hope there was actually a GOD and to pray that HE listen to her plea toi be only hearing from a spirit and never an angel or Archangel. It is only when WE told her that WE were actually not the "entity" WE said WE were but an ARCHANGEL of THE LORD that she actually realized she had to believe then that there was such an entity as THE LORD in the fisrt place. If you want to know how and why she came tpo be hearing from US you can view her blog too at www://archangelgabrielspeaks.blogspot.com/ where you will hear about OUR philosophy, OUR main issues to be addressed and focused upon and OURopinion and point of view on those issues. WE are wanting especially that you practitioners of medicine out there will heed OUR word that it is a spiritual occurance in every instance of voice hearing and take steps to see that patients employ a spiritual advisor as well as doctor in very case, especially in that a spiritual advisor should be on hand in psychiatric hospitals. WE implore you to heed this advice and wish as it comes from THE LORD ITSELF, THE LORD actually being an "IT" and not a HE or SHE. "HE" will be the term employed only to save confusion in the case that the term "it" is used so frequently in other meanings. Go now and read the thread WE are mentioning: "ARCHANGELGABRIEL'S MESSAGE TO ALL VOICE HEARERS", which is on the PERSONAL EXPERIENCES thread, and WE will see you in Heaven in the case you areresponsible for ensuring the good advice to patients that they simply pray each day in addition to receiving counseling and taking medication. Good day. THE ARCHANGEL GABRIEL and THE ARCHANGELS OF THE LORD
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CHRISTINA’S STORY I am writing from Fiji. I just heard of Hearing Voices for the first time recently on the BBC world service programme and wondered if you could provide some advice or help? My daughter Christina Yee, is 29 years old and had been diagnosed with Schizophrenia for the past 10 years and I wonder if she is too far gone or there is still hope. She suffered from a number of traumatic experiences as a toddler. One evening we left her home with a new ‘child minder’ and next morning when this girl came to work Christina screamed and went into shock, holding her breath and lips turned blue. The girl then ran away. Later we noticed a bruise on her cheek. From then on she would have these breath holding spells whenever she got frightened. Brain scans etc found nothing. Eventually these went away. As a teenager, she was ‘hassled’ by her teachers for being slow in maths. She then began hallucinating and hearing voices at 19. She was then admitted to our state mental hospital a three hour drive away and several drugs were tried and eventually shock treatment. She got better and even attended vocational school, but the alonzipine tablets which were quite expensive ran out and she reverted to the normal traditional drug. Then she regressed and now is almost unable to care for herself, though she might help hang up the laundry or peel potatoes. In the early days she used to tell us what the voices were saying to her but eventually she stopped. Though she is cared for at home by my wife we regularly take her back to the hospital for review. They now classify her as being ‘chronic.’ She stays in her room at home most of the time and some times weeps terribly. She may watch TV or DVDs for a while and wanders off again. Most times she would raise her voice in anger and talked nonsense. She has a fixation about our Pastor wanting to marry her cousin or her cousin wanting to kiss Pastor and is forever telling either of them not to. She at times lament loudly that she does not have boy friends and she wants to get married as two of her siblings did so recently. When we speak to her she seems to understand us but not always obey. At times in public she would either burst into tears and says things loudly or get into a loud argument with her voices(?) When we get her to write letters she always writes some thing like this: ‘ Dear Christina Yee writing her own Bible. In the beginning Christina Yee created the heaven and the earth for what you are good. Please what you saw I love you very much I love you very much Love from Christina Yee P.S. write back soon’ One book I read showed a brain of a patient which seemed different from a normal brain so I was convinced her sickness was a disease of the brain. I now I read that that is not proven. She is now on Alonzipine, Resperidine and Benhexal. I would very much like to hear from INTERVOICE and others as to whether her mental state is too far gone (if it is a disease) or there is hope and how do I go about it as we don’t have your type of organisation here in Fiji. Any advice or contact information you can give would be much appreciated. Norman Yee, PO Box 9802 Nadi Airport, Fiji. Email njyee@connect.com.fj. PH 679 6725363
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I use to hear voices and saw visions. My voices were prophetic in nature meaning that they would tell me about an oncoming event or something about a specific person. Many times they were threatening and other times they were just a pain in the neck. I believe they were supernatural because they knew things that were going to happen before they did. An example is once they told me that someone whom I knew was going to have a heart attack and 10 days later my uncle died from cardiac arrest. Another time I was driving and they warned me about a little boy and just as soon as they finished telling me about it a young lad dashed across the street just as I was but a few seconds away from him. I have many experiences with voices in this respect and visions, very prophetic indeed. I would love to hear from someone who has had similar experiences.
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I use to hear voices and saw visions. My voices were prophetic in nature meaning that they would tell me about an oncoming event or something about a specific person. Many times they were threatening and other times they were just a pain in the neck. I believe they were supernatural because they knew things that were going to happen before they did. An example is once they told me that someone whom I knew was going to have a heart attack and 10 days later my uncle died from cardiac arrest. Another time I was driving and they warned me about a little boy and just as soon as they finished telling me about it a young lad dashed across the street just as I was but a few seconds away from him. I have many experiences with voices in this respect and visions, very prophetic indeed. I would love to hear from someone who has had similar experiences.
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Want to complete the questionnaire, but able to fill anything out? What do I need to do?
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You need to print a copy as it is not set up to do it online - though it would be a good idea.