How do I cope with voices that will not go away?

While there are medications that help reduce voices or what doctors call auditory hallucinations, these medicines don’t always take voices away. Many people continue to hear voices even though they are on appropriate medication. There are many famous people who heard or hear voices, some of them are famous actors, some are politicians, and some are Christian saints.

What can people do about distressing voices? There are many approaches to dealing with persistent voices. These ideas come from the experts “voice-hearers” themselves and have been used successfully to help those with distressing voices. These approaches fall into several general categories.

Focusing

Focusing techniques involve focusing specifically on the voices. Focusing techniques include learning information about the voices such as ages or gender, listening hard for positive voices, or telling negative voices that you will not speak to them unless they are respectful.

Distraction

Distraction techniques pull your attention away from the voices onto some other activity. Distraction techniques can include playing cards, gardening, watching a movie, exercise, or calling a friend.

Richmond Fellowship Resources

The Richmond Fellowship of Western Australia actually has a poster containing more than 100 things to do about voices that do not go away with medication and therapy. You can find that poster here.

Other Resources

Finally, there is a group of voice-hearers who interact on-line that share information to help one another. You can find them here.

Contact Amber Lantern

If you or a loved one are hearing voices and would like assistance to cope with them please contact the team at Amber Lantern for information on additional resources.