Did You Know
- Studies have found that between four and 10 per cent of people across the world hear voices.
- Between 70 and 90 cent of people who hear voices do so following traumatic events.
- Voices can be male, female, without gender, child, adult, human or non-human.
- People may hear one voice or many. Some people report hearing hundreds, although in almost all reported cases, one dominates above the others.
- Voices can be experienced in the head, in the ears, outside the head, in some other part of the body, or in the environment.
- Voices often reflect important aspects of the hearer’s emotional state – emotions that are often unexpressed by the hearer.
Twelve More Essential Facts
- Voice hearing is often seen as a prime symptom of psychosis (American Psychiatric Association 1994). Hearing voices (auditory hallucinations) is considered a first rank symptom of the specific psychosis of schizophrenia (Schneider, 1959). There are three main psychiatric categories of patients that hear voices; schizophrenia (around 50%); affective psychosis (around 25%) and dissociative disorders (around 80%) (Honig et al., 1998).
- However, hearing voices in itself is not a symptom of an illness, but is apparent in 2 – 4 % of the population, some research gives higher estimates and even more people (about 8%) have so called “peculiar personal convictions”, that are sometimes called “delusions”, and do so without being ill. Many people who hear voices find them helpful or benevolent (Romme & Escher, 1993).
In a large study of 15,000 people it was found that there was a prevalence of 2.3% who had heard voices frequently and this contrasts with the 1% prevalence of schizophrenia (Tien, 1991).
Bentall and Slade (1985) found that as many as 15.4% of a population of 150 male students were prepared to endorse the statement ‘In the past I have had the experience of hearing a person’s voice and then found that no one was there’. They add: ‘…no less that 17.5% of the [subjects] were prepared to score the item “I often hear a voice speaking my thoughts aloud” as “Certainly Applies”. This latter item is usually regarded as a first-rank symptom of schizophrenia …’
- Whilst one in three people who hear voices become a psychiatric patient – two in three people can cope well and are in no need of psychiatric care. No diagnosis can be given because these 2 out of 3 people who hear voices are quite healthy and function well. It is very significant that in our society there are more people who hear voices who have never been psychiatric patients than there are people who hear voices and become psychiatric patients. (Romme & Escher, 2001).
Green and McCreery (1975) found that 14% of their 1800 self-selected subjects reported a purely auditory hallucination, and of these nearly half involved the hearing of articulate or inarticulate human speech sounds. An example of the former would be the case of an engineer facing a difficult professional decision, who, while sitting in a cinema, heard a voice saying, ‘loudly and distinctly’: ‘You can’t do it you know’. He adds: ‘It was so clear and resonant that I turned and looked at my companion who was gazing placidly at the screen[…] I was amazed and somewhat relieved when it became apparent that I was the only person who had heard anything.’
This case would be an example of what Posey and Losch (1983) call ‘hearing a comforting or advising voice that is not perceived as being one’s own thoughts’. They estimated that approximately 10% of their population of 375 American college students had had this type of experience.
- Brain imaging has confirmed that voice hearers do experience a sound as if there were a real person talking to them (Shergill, Brammer, Williams, Murray, & McGuire, 2000).
- In a study by Honig and others (1998), of the differences between non-patient and patients hearing voices, it was not in form but content. In other words the non-patients heard voices both inside and outside their head as did the patients but either the content was positive or the hearer had a positive view of the voice and felt in control of it. By contrast the patient group were more frightened of the voices and the voices were more critical (malevolent) and they felt less control over them (Honig et al, 1998).
- Psychiatry in our western culture unjustly identifies hearing voices with schizophrenia. Going to a psychiatrist with hearing voices gives you an 80% chance of getting a diagnosis of schizophrenia (Romme & Escher 2001).
- Conventional approaches in psychiatry to the problem of voice hearing have been to ignore the meaning of the experience for the voice hearer and concentrate on removing the symptoms (audio hallucinations) by the use of physical means such as medication (Romme & Escher, 1989). Although antipsychotic medication is helpful to some sufferers of psychosis (Fleischhaker, 2002), there is a significant proportion (30 per cent) that still experience the ‘symptoms’ such as hearing voices despite very high doses of injected antipsychotic (Curson, Barnes, Bamber, & Weral, 1985).
- Further anti-psychotic medication prevents the emotional processing and therefore healing, of the meaning of the voices (Romme & Escher, 2000).
- Traditional practice in behavioural psychology concentrated on either distracting the patient or ignoring references by the patient to the voice hearing experience, with the hope that the patient would concentrate on ‘real’ experiences, which would then be positively reinforced (the assumption being that the voice hearing was a delusional belief). The effect of this approach is to discourage the discussion about the voice hearing experience but without eradicating it (P.D.J. Chadwick, Birchwood, & Trower, 1996).
- In research concerning people who hear voices it was found that 77% of the people diagnosed with schizophrenia the hearing of voices was related to traumatic experiences. These traumatic experiences varied from being sexually abused, physically abused, being extremely belittled over long periods from young age, being neglected during long periods as a youngster, being very aggressively treated in marriage, not being able to accept ones sexual identity, etc (Romme & Escher 2006)
- Hearing voices in itself is not related to the illness of schizophrenia. In population research only 16% of the whole group of voice hearers can be diagnosed with schizophrenia. (Romme & Escher 2001)
- The prognosis of hearing voices is more positive than generally is perceived. In Sandra Escher’s research with children hearing voices she followed 82 children over a period of four years. In that period 64% of the children’s voices disappeared congruently with learning to cope with emotions and becoming less stressed. In children with whom the voices were psychiatrised and made a part of an illness and not given proper attention, voices did not vanish, but became worse, the development of those children was delayed. (Romme & Escher 2006)
Very interesting read, it’s common sense that if a problem is left and ignored (even worse, tabooed) that in time it will get worse, it doesn’t take a genius to work that one out… It should be compulsory for every mental health care professional to know these facts word by word, hopefully opening their minds to new possibilities and understandings rather than choosing to overlook and hope the problem fizzles out, nice to know there are caring people out there doing real research.
My son suffers with hearing voices. He unfortunatlely will not/cannot tell us about them or indeed what they say.
The Psychiatrist just tells me that it is a part of his illness/schitzophrenia. I would dearly love to understand this more and try to help him when they are bad and overtaking his life. I am not sure if they are nasty. He does laugh at non appropriate times, but not sure if it is the voices. Thank you for your time. Coudl somebody please advise me?
Hi,
I am a 35 year old woman who, about four months ago, had a chronic mental breakdown involving visions and a severe and unbalancing episode of hearing voices that lasted five days, after this I continued to experience voices for a few months. I have been on a low dosage of anti-psychotic drugs since and have not experienced any more voices. I felt to get in touch as I empathise with you and your son (- my mother had to look after me during this period) and wanted to share my experience with you.
As to what coping strategies I discovered, I did find it impossible to ignore the voices as they were too overpowering – to the extent that I had no peace of mind at all, even on waking. Often times, it was horrendous and very upsetting. At one point, one voice was so aggravating and unkind that I ended up at the train tracks with a view to jumping but fortunately was unable to make my legs jump.
After the severe episode, it was as if I had had my whole being abused.
Without going into any more negative experiences, what I did find was that the best thing to practice was ‘being with myself’ as much as possible. That meant not always engaging with the voices, as this could sometimes be very debilitating.
So there is a place I feel which is in between ignoring them and not always engaging with them – like some sort of centre point which is me. That way the voices couldn’t unbalance me so much.
It’s like finding a peaceful, contented place of self-respect where no matter what a voice says, I can be me. (I certainly didn’t always manage this).
Sometimes voices were benevolent, so that was at times helpful, as if they were teaching me something, but at other times, it felt like ‘too much’ – an intrusion. So again, that’s where the practice of trying to stay in a kind centre point that has a choice as to whether to engage or not is helpful.
I’m not sure if this is helpful at all. I can only speak from my experience. More than anything, I wanted to get in touch to say I know how tough it can be (- especially as non-voice hearers can’t understand the experience) and to wish you and your son well.
I really hope that you have some good professional help – although I found the health services mental health care support I received was totally out of touch with my experience and had too much emphasis on drug prescription.
I know for me that love and kindness were fundamental healers and I am sure that you, like my mother, are doing all you can on that level.
With warmest wishes
Kate
Hi Kate
Can I checked with you what medicine you used to cure the voices ?
James
In late August of 2000 my twin brother came to me complaining of hearing voices. This was shortly after our 30th birthday. Since I had no experience with this I suggested that he visit a doctor. He wound up spending a few days at the hospital and came back with a prescription for an anti-psychotic. This did not help and from what I could find out the doctors solution would have done nothing but create a dependent. I continued living with him for another year, but his constant catatonia and the sudden financial burden had become too much. I moved him back to our parents (the destruction of the Twin Towers happened in this same month) The health department told my parents to throw him in the street. “That’s the only way these people learn” I remember the words. I didn’t know how I was going to recover.
Three years later I was living in New York because of my job and I too started hearing voices. I knew right away that my brother was right and that I was experiencing some kind of telepathic communication. I remembered when I was in high school physics thinking that if starlight was entangled like physics says we, because of constant sun exposure,we should be entangled too making us telepaths. At the time of my recollection I was working as an analyst at a bank which has confidentiality concerns.
During the next six months I considered what my options might be. I thought about everything I had seen in my life and the lives of the people in it, about what real telepathy would mean for our society. We are not designed to be telepaths. The internet is a convenient model to conceptualize this, imagine an internet with absolutely no security. This lack of security translated into a lot of stress for me. I didn’t know if I could keep my personal information safe let alone that of my employers. People were going to jail, hospitals, to war. All this while my workplace seemed to be deteriorating. It became a big production to get someones attention for even the littlest of things. my politicking boss only seemed slimier than I could believe someone would hire. I sounded exactly like my brother. Eventually I had to quit the bank job and I returned to my parents place to regroup.
It didn’t take much research at all to confirm the patterns in my story. Not only are these details available from anecdotal accounts on websites all over the internet, but they match stories ranging from classic literature, TV, the movies and even history. In the Bible Jesus speaks of a kingdom not of this world. The people I could hear often times sounded like Lord of the Flies. The stories are just too consistent to disregard.
My brother was working again by this point and summer was dragging on. We were home one night after a golf tournament and got into an argument. We scared our parents pretty good and wanting to help my brother I agreed to go to the hospital so that we could both tell our story. He called an ambulance which they put me into forcibly. My brother signed me into the hospital before going home! I got a good look at how the mental health practitioners are approaching the patients. They are deaf to any of the patients interpretation of the diagnosis, they quickly resorted to drugs, I doubt they even would remember the particulars of what I said. Ultimately they seemed heartless and intimidating. Totally useless.
As years passed my jobs were some of the best I ever had, but like clockwork as soon as I began to get comfortable the assignment was coming to a close. I was in my mid thirties by this point and the feast or famine nature of consulting seemed to coincide with antagonistic intellectual property thieves apparent exploitation of me. The list of plagiary accusations and obvious malfeasance I have would curl your hair! They seem to enjoy human suffering.
Feeling the need to address the situation once and for all I created a scene telepathically. If there wasn’t anybody there no one would know, otherwise… I went on with this for a few years. I told them I was warlord because they seemed to be playing some sordid game which I figured must’ve been quickly put away in the face of invading warlords throughout history. Presumably social change and cultural growth would follow.
Slowly a dialogue developed. very tricky and only one question and one answer at best at first. Almost two years later and its kind of like a chatroom here in Chicagoland. Different towns have different people, I can feel a wave of change as I drive from one neighborhood to the next. Everyday I see improvement in sanity levels to the point that I wonder what kind of big oil or pharmaceutical company or nation state is going to be left holding the bag. So much of this research got hidden or laughed at, the conflict of interest has risen to the surface.
I can only hope that the cavalry is ready to go soon on this. There is so much more to say than I could write here, but at least know you’re really communicating with people. Some of them are straight out of a horror movie, but its not everybody.
Ed, I’m from the midwest. I’m 20, and have lived in 7+ different cities, in 3 different countries, and 4 different states. I’ve struggled with my own concept of sanity, as only my cousin understands the “voices” as i do- or as we prefer to understand it more as the “conscious dialect or communication.” SO EXCITED to hear the last few paragraphs. Gives me a warm piece of mind. Thank you.
The voices are, in nature, only waking dreams. We all, no mater schizophrenics or not, hear the voices every night in our dreams.
My brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia almost 8 years ago… during this time he has been in and out of hospital and has had his medication changed and does not seem to be getting better.. rather he is worse…
Just like hopeful my parents wanted to help and they have done everything for him but he has not grasped this concept and instead verbally abuses them and has physically been violent towards not only them but also myself.
My parents have lost all hope and now they fear being at home with him and he seems to just run the house, they even went to the extreme of obtaining a restraining order against him….as advised by his psychiatrist…what a horrible experience this was…I had him at my front door and felt horrible for him so took him in however found him so hard to handle.. so ended up finding him a new unit for him to rent and secretly with the financial help of my parents i help him set up home… my parents felt bad and so took the restraining order off.. in no time he was constantly at their house… then he managed to move back in as the rent was more than his pension…its so hard for him to find anywhere to live so my poor parents ended up with him again…. now they are at wits end and their only resort is to kick him out…. but where will he go??
He is misunderstood yes, however he is 29 yrs old now and i have little hope left that our family will ever be a “family” again… i notice the worn out faces my parents have and i wear the scars on my heart for everyone… yet I wonder what more can there be done to help him when he is not willing to help himself??
Is it truly time to give up?
Let him pursue some sort of religious training to handle his mental life; if he is intellectually inclined, I suggest meditation, while retaining, if he so desires, his religion; let him read this book( Zen training : methods and philosophy) while on the move, on bus, it is cheap to be in the bus, for 3 hours, less than $ 2 dollars; I have noticed, movement is generally favorable to understanding. Best wishes. Let him also find a reason ( meaning purpose or what have you) to exist and thrive; find a hobby and turn it, for instance, into income generating source, to help himself and help wider society, or even the universe.
This is a very loaded situation, one which I can’t fully understand myself.
I am unsure of how many people “hearing voices” feel scared or shameful of what might happen if they were to be open and honest about what they hear/ see.
I can only speak from personal experience, but I recently had a “psychotic episode”, but I remember each event quite clearly (to myself, anyway, although I am open to corrections). I am a 30 year-old female with family support, but not nearby (we don’t live in the same city). I keep in touch, but I don’t feel we would see eye-to-eye on health issues.
My episode was frightening and embarassing to say the least. I keep looking for a way to “make sense” of the entire situation, but I can’t remember crucial parts clearly enough to differentiate between truth and fantasy. I would like to feel safe enough to speak openly about my experience with an intelligent and somewhat spiritual expert …who would perhaps offer some insights and help me make sense of that experience.
The “clipboard army” and I will not jive. They irritate me and ask the same questions hoping for a different answer, or perhaps a reason to medicate me even further. I refer to clinicians without any intuition (recording information, not actually listening) as “the clipboard army). Are there any free-thinking, intelligent, open-to-anything kinds of researchers/ doctors/ people who might meet me halfway here?
Peace & Love,
LC
My 12 year old son is struggling, really struggling with this and I am sitting on the fence between two camps…helping the voices go away as quickly as possible OR is that just covering up the symptom and not treating the real issue that is creating the symptom.
I don’t know. As a Mom, I would take this from him if I could, but I can’t so what is the best course of action to take for a child suffering from this…ease the symptoms immediately OR work on the underlying issues.
I am scared that he will be on medication and the STIGMA of this for the rest of his life, even if the voices go away with medication.
He is in counseling and has an appointment with a Catholic Psychiatrist.
Just wish I could take away his pain.
I heard voices of everyone I’ve ever known in my life and tons of celebrities and politicians. I asked friends who I’ve heard if we communicating telepathy, they said no. I later just started saying comments in my head that were incredibly annoying. After a while one voice snapped and said I can’t take this anymore I’m telling him everything. Then I was told a story that ever since man walked the earth Satan walked the earth. He was the first cave man to draw images in caves so others would worship dieties, he was all the pharoahs of ancient Egypt, all the ceasers if ancient Rome, Ganghes Khan, Budda, the prophet Muhammad mentioned in the Koran, Nostradamas, Napoleon, Leonardo Di Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Adolf Hitler, Ronald Wilson Regean and right now he’s former American vice president Dick Cheney. Basically I was told that he created all religions, every monument on earth was made in his honor (the pyramids, the sphinx, stonehenge, the pyramids in the Americas, the Taj Mahal, the great wall of China, etc… ). When he was king Tut he came up with the secret society freemasons. Also I was told tons of conspiracy theories were correct before I’ve ever heard any of them. This includes the bilderbergers (name for masonic members to meet once a year) plan to depopulate the planet, the HAARP project, project bluebeam, all prescription drugs are posionious, vaccines are really posion, that the group known as the illuminati really exist, 9/11 terror attacks were an inside job by the American government, the plans to create a world government etc… Anyways I was told the apocalypse is about to happen soon and they’ve appointed a real life anti-christ (though they know Jesus was just a fictional character created by Satan). Ever since I’ve heard this story the voices stopped but everywhere I go I see people wearing shirts with freemason written on it or masonic signs.
Counseling & medication help…but it will be something eventually that can be coped with without either. Medications are not the answer and will not make it totally go away…the voices are there for a reason. It’s very scary at first, but will get easier over time to deal with and be more comfortable internally within ones self.
HI I’m Joe and I “own” 3 voices. As a clairvoyant I can tell you it can be a mess. The key is to level with them, believe me things like “Honey, let’s not be enemies, let’s love each other and be great friends” are essential because you guessed it, they are often malignant until you intervene. Voices are also called familiar spirits and black magick can be a great resource (although scary)for people hearing voices. Particularly if the presence is infernal (ownership). They can be from other planets (I swear) so sometimes actual contact can’t be made, this can be a source of great stress for some. It’s poor, I think that people have such a tone for us because I’m clinically harrassed because people I guess have made a bad name for it or whatevr I guess it’s hard for little a-hole headshrinkers to think some of us know what’s going on with it, and in fact made it happen. Imagine my surprise when I let an officer know I heard voices and was committed for two weeks. A drama voodoo hex on all of those who persecute us because they don’t think black magic has any place. But anyway their role is as a prophet or advisor not tormentor. And playing “acid” rap makes a good punishment (somtimes needed) for them. Blah blah blah, Joe
For those who have children or loved ones who hear voices or for those who just started hearing voices and can no longer deny that they are really hearing them, I have to say that from my experience, the voices are usually helpful and sound to me like they are deceased relatives who are watching over me; however, that is most of the time. There are other times that the voices are unfamiliar and have cryptic or frightening messages. The phenomenon is almost always outside of head. However, in times of great , great stress. I hear a screaming in my brain (that seems internal but audible) or a screaming in my ear canal that is semi-internal and semi-external in relation to the environment. So the experiences while usually similar are not identical or always of the same kind of general experience. From what I can tell this seems to be true for many voice hearers. I would like to offer some kind of helpful advice if you or the person who hears voices is afraid, but I have nothing truly significant to add to the discussion. I can say, while the experience grows to be a part of everyday life in most places where the hearer can tune it out to live a normal life, the voices are still there in the background or the foreground and can often make the hearer weary or fatigued (as in my case and some others I have read about). So as long as the fear subsides for the most part and the person learns to tune them out as much as possible when possible, the chance for being productive in life is pretty good. I was diagnosed with a schizo-affective disorder when I was 17, and I have never done well on medication, so I do not take any and have not for 20 years. I have accepted the hearing voices as part of my life even though I do not know what causes the phenomenon or what reason it occurs. I simply just keep going on with life. If the hearer in question mostly hears external voices as I do for the most part, I would suggest wearing ear plugs at night, seeing as how they have made the difference in my sleeping and not sleeping. If the voices are affecting him/her/you at work or in social situations or while driving as they do me at times, you might simply tell the person/yourself to recognize the phenomenon, but try to ignore it for the time being. I know this is not easy as I am a professor and must work with others and remain professional and credible intellectually. But I am a voice hearer and I cannot change that to my knowledge, so I am trying the best I can to live with it. I hope the person you are concerned about (or you) will be comforted by my advice.
Hi , I hear voices and I have hallucinations ( vision, different smell, another word all five senses are active at different time). Sometimes the voices could be scary or at other time observer or nice (help me). When they are scary they say ” I will take control of your mind” or they test all my fears. Sometimes I think they are spirits. How I cope with them by accepting them and when they are too intence, I distract myself by listening music or watching TV or internet. Somtimes I have paranoia (people talking about my life everything that are not perfect “like God”. I been diagnosed with schizophrenia for the last 14 years. I have negative symptoms and positives symptoms. Unfortunatly the medication does not work according to me but according to the psychiatrist it is control to a certain degrees. Unfortunatly I cannot work for the moment but I keep hope that one day weither a miracle or right medication or the voices leave by themselse.
I was ordained a Cathlolic deacon in 1984 on the way to priesthood but had to leave. I tried to be a good deacon and do everything God wanted of me. I thought if I kept praying and didn’t sin I would do what he wanted. Yet I split off from my feelings and body. I started hearing voices connected with people who I left. I’ve been hearing them since then.
It stems from shame issues growing up. I was embarrassed by my sexual feelings which included fetishism and some gay feelings. My dad was an alcoholic and verbally critical and perfectionistic. So when I went to the seminary and couldn’t date or plan on getting married the rest of my life it divided me from my feelings and body.
My voices are not disembodied from non real people or things. I go to work each day and hear my neighbors voices in my head as I work. They interelate to me as I work. It has a very real component to it. It’s very distracting at times. Medication helps. I’m on anafranil and risperdal. I went off it last year just to see how I had improved and had the hardest time coping with the interference. Anyway, now back on meds it is managable.
Please write to me if you know of anyone who hears voices that are connected to people such as neighbors.
I believe it is a lack of acceptance of my body and feelings. If I stayed in myself and was able to self sooth i wouldn’t bond with the neighbors so much. At home we talk all the time nonverbally or in our heads from the two houses.
No list of the most important facts about voice-hearing is complete, without a mention of the feasibility of imposing this experience non-consensually, using modern technology that uses the Frey Effect to deliver to victims sounds that others nearby do not also hear.
How voices sound (clicks and pitches inuating sylables)?