Coping Strategies
What can you do to try to make your life easier when you’re hearing voices?
These are stolen from an NHS leaflet -
- Headphones and music may help with voices.
- You could talk into a mobile phone if you need to respond to voices.
- Pick and choose a voice to deal with at any point in time (be selective about time and situation).
- Send the voices away on a mission.
- If voices are oppressive coach them to tone them down.
- Fall back onto your basic beliefs – don’t let the voices detract from your basic personality.
- Sometimes you can ignore the voices – sometimes you can take notice of them.
The Hearing Voices Network (Dundee) has compiled a list of things which do and don’t help when you’re hearing voices.
WHAT DOES NOT HELP
* Being over-medicated
* Being under- medicated
* Professionals thinking they know more about your voices than you do
* Dreams and trying to get to sleep
* Lack of sleep
* Side effects of the medication
* Not having information
* Other people denying the existence of voices
* Being told not to talk about voices
* Other people denying your explanation of your voices
* Labelling
* Thinking negatively
* Professionals asking too many questions
* Meditation
* Listening to music
* Keeping physically active and healthy
* Keeping occupied e.g. cooking, house chores
* Distraction e.g. reading, and computer games
* Religion/Deliverance and Healing
* Sex
* Chanting or singing
* Holidays
* Money
* Massage
* Acupuncture
* Taking medication dampens them and can make them go (not if bad side effects)
* Some medication is better that others.
* Avoiding street drugs
* Smoking cigarettes
* Isolating self
* Humour
* Sleeping
* Shouting at the voices
* Ignoring voices
* Having good support around you
* Good CPN, psychiatrist, psychologist, counsellor
* Positive attitudes
* Talking
* Staff listening to you
* Praying /speaking to God
* Keeping a diary about them
* Identifying when you are most likely to hear the voices
* Going to voices groups
* Focusing on the voices
via hearingvoicesnetwork.com – Coping Strategies.
Some of these work for me. They don’t work all of the time or the situation you are in can make it impossible to do any of them. As a student I can find lectures hell as I can do none of them yet I can have someone screaming in my ear throughout.
The Mind leaflet The Voice Inside asks
What do you do about voices that are not on your side, which denigrate you and insult you, or interrupt your thoughts, or pander detrimental advice and tell you to do stupid things? The first thing to realise is that although the voice may be intruding on your consciousness, that does not mean that you should blindly do what it says. Would you rush off and commit murder if someone told you to? Absolutely not. People who hear voices have the same right to self-determination as anyone else and you can tell the voices exactly that. If some of the voices are pleasant and friendly, then clearly you chat to them, and not to the ones who are not. You can tell the unpleasant voices that you find them neither pleasant nor useful, and that you have no reason to tolerate them unless they are both.
What about malevolent voices who can cause acute mental pain and can order you to do things (like staying in and avoiding people)? One solution is to remove as much stress from your life as possible. Not only does stress increase the voices, but it makes them say more unpleasant things. Secondly, do not ignore the voices as they tend to get more aggressive, however at the same time do not let them get away with running your life without your permission.
via Mind > Information > Booklets by series > Other > The voice inside.
Useful advice. I certainly find things are worse at times of stress. Maybe relaxation exercises would help me in some way, stop the voices getting so aggressive and causing so much distress.
Personal additional coping strategies
- Physical activity can sometimes distract my attention for a while
- Writing down what the voices say or writing down what I want to say can help sometimes. This usually works only if the voices are simply repeating one word as it’s too much work otherwise.
- Writing things down seems to help me sort out my feelings if I’m depressed. Currently I’m writing this blog to try to convince myself that I exist.
