Tag Archives: voice hearing

Psychosis 1: Hallucinations and society

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This is the first of a mini series on psychosis. Here we introduce psychosis in general before talking about hallucinations (the 1st of the ‘big 3’ psychotic symptoms) and how society’s conventions shape the inconsistent way we respond to voice-hearers.
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What’s it like to hear voices?

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What’s it like to hear voices?
Early on when I first started trying to make videos I made a very poor version of this. That video is no longer available but I liked the concept so I’ve had another crack at it. I think this one’s a lot more satisfactory in getting the point across to non voice-hearers.
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Voices can be single or multiple, internal or external and complimentary or abusive. Often they’re mood-congruent and they always take some time to get used to.
Some people never get used to the voices they hear. That’s when mental health services step in. It’s OK to talk about voice-hearing as a fairly common part of the human experience. About 15% of people hear voices. The vast majority of those people never need any help at all to deal with them. But for some – for the 1 or 2 percent who do have problems with their voices the assistance of mental health services can be a life-saver.
So the next time you see someone in the street shouting at nobody, cut them slack., They’re dealing with something you’d probably find pretty hard to handle yourself.
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I just love this stuff

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Today I was in Halifax in beautiful W. Yorkshire. It was great.
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I arrived last night and met up with a former colleague for a catch up over a curry (& beer of course).

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Then today was spent with around 20 of Calderdale’s finest mental health & social care workers talking about psychosis and interventions for people who hear voices. It’s amazing what a really enthusiastic group can get through in a single day. We covered basic principles of psychosis, a little philosophy of mental health care, models of understanding and normalisation in the morning. This afternoon was devoted to meaningful activity and validation, socratic dialogue, delusions and perceptions and principles of risk. These people really got their money’s worth today!

The group was great fun to work with and they really seemed to enjoy the day. Hopefully they’ve got some useful new skills to take away too.

All in all it’s been a really successful day. And now it really must be ‘beer O’Clock’!

What a cracking day!