Hearing Voices

It’s been difficult to write lately because my father is in the hospital and I’ve been running around a lot, unrelated to his hospital visits.

I really want to do a post about internal voices and external voices and why the internal ones have been considered “insignificant” to clinical practice for so long.

Most of us think about hearing voices as external, and a lot of people do, but what’s been found in clinical assessments is that the question “are you hearing voices” is quite vague.

Sometimes clinicians will ask “are they inside your head or outside?”. If you answer inside, it’s noted but not questioned further unless the nurse/intake/doctor is doing a thorough job.

So what’s been found in surveys is that quite a few people who answer “yes” to the hearing voices question heard them inside and outside of their head, or mainly inside. This prompted a few observational studies about how internal voices can differ from external and how that reflects a persons behavior.

This subject is interesting to me mostly because my voices have been both, but more heavily internal. Things are very bad when they’re external. There are reports of those who learned to live well with their voices, like Eleanor Longden, who mentioned wellness has prompted their voices to become more internal and less disruptive.

And we don’t talk enough about these heavy experiences. We don’t discuss it in a way we would discuss a topic in class or some juicy gossip with a friend and that’s what I think should change; if we can create a space where talking about these experiences, good and bad equally, in a nonchalant manner, it may just change the way others view mental health.

What do you all think? Is this an interesting topic you’d like to have some discussion on? Let me know on my social media or in the comments below.

Ive had some people contacting me on Instagram recently to learn more about my story and to ask me questions about my experience. We’ve supported each other’s pages and are communicating about advocacy. So if you’d like to do the same thing, you can reach me on Instagram: @written_in_the_photo or Twitter: @Philopsychotic.