Are voices a symptom of illness or a variety of human experience?
Last updated 11/06/2007
Hearing voices can be a very disturbing experience, both for the person who hears voices and family and friends. Until recently voices were regarded as a symptom of a mental illness and not talked about because they are regarded as a socially stigmatising experience.
Hearing voices are still considered by clinical psychiatry as an auditory hallucination and as a symptom of conditions such as schizophrenic disorders, manic depression and psychosis. The usual treatment - major tranquillisers - are administered in order to reduce the delusions and hallucinations.
However, not everyone responds to this type of treatment. Psychiatrists, nurses and other professionals have been taught that there is not a lot an individual can do for themselves to cope with the voices. Indeed, in the past professionals were taught not to engage voice hearers about the content of their voice experience as this was thought to be "buying in" to the patients' delusions and not helpful. Most often professionals sought to distract the voice hearer from their voices.
Research has shown that there are many people who hear voices, some of whom cope with their voices well without psychiatric intervention, it has also been found that there are many people who hear voices who can cope with their voices and regard them as a positive part of their lives. Neither is it the case that voices have always been regarded as a negative experience. T
Throughout history and even today there are people who hear voices who find their voices inspirational and comforting. These are facts that on the face of it are hard to square with the extremely negative way that the experience is regarded by psychiatry. The researchers, practitioners and involved voice hearers believe it is mistaken to regard voice hearing as part of a psychopathic disease syndrome. Rather, they consider it to be more akin to a variation in human experience - if you like, a faculty or differentiation - something like homosexuality, that it is definitely not open to cure.
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Comments
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My son told my sister that he was hearing voices and sometimes they tell him to do good things such as focus on what he is doing and pay attention, and other times tell him to do bad things such as jump off of something high. Two weeks ago, he plugged in the toaster, placed my coffee filters on top of it, and turned it on, thin left to go play outside. Thank god I smelled it and figured out what happened or our house could have burned down. He is on Straterra the ADHD medicine. I thought it was that making him do tthose things. He is 8 years old and I am worried. I need to know as much information as I can. I have a 17 year old son who has PDD and I am concerned. The toaster thnig is not a typical thing that he would do, but he also talks to himself alot. I am going to take him to a therapist as soon as I can, but I need to get some information. Thank you
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Firstly, the kid seems confused about making breakfast and is maybe trying to communicate something non-verbally. If he really wanted to burn down the house, he probably wouldn't have done that. Second, there was once a story about how a very talented mathematician left weird things in his friend's kitchen, like a fork stuck into a carton of milk. Third, sometimes young people do things without thinking them through, and when asked for explanations they give what people are ready to understand instead of what is true--excuses. I went 34 years without ever hallucinating, but for the last 10 years of that people were frequently asking me if I were. Then finally it started happening. I was sitting in a final exam in graduate school, and I heard a voice say "sorry we took your life away". At that moment I had been hearing voices for a few months. I managed to pass the class, but the voices had made it near impossible to study. After the semester, I took a quick trip to quebec even just to see if the voices would start speaking french, but they didn't even though I can. I left school for a few months and just tried to live in an easy way, like taking walks in the forest and looking for quiet places, even caves just to prove to myself that the voices weren't from real people around me. Even the trickle of a stream seemed to modulate into an english voice. After a few months of this, however, they have quieted down and I rarely hear them at all. My environment has changed dramatically from the onset, though, as I feel much less stressed intellectually. Actually I am starting to miss hearing them.