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Title: Sounding out those voices that nobody else can hear [Hope for AKA Stone!]
Source:
NZ Herald
URL Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/ ... cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10399938
Published: Sep 6, 2006
Author: Martin Johnston
Post Date: 2006-09-06 00:03:13 by Morgana le Fay
Keywords: None
Views: 190
Comments: 13
Hearing voices when no one is there can be a symptom of mental illness, yet a study of the phenomenon found nearly half the people who heard voices said their hallucinations were mostly friendly or helpful. Furthermore, some participants in the Auckland University study considered their voices a blessing - although others thought them a curse. Hearing voices tends to be more accepted in some indigenous cultures than in modern Western society - but it still finds a place, even at top levels. Retired Australian athlete Herb Elliott, winner of the 1500m gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics, has written of the voice in his head that told him halfway through that race: "Herb, you're buggered." He ignored the negative comment, won and became an adviser on the psychology of winning to a new generation of Australian Olympic athletes. For the study, psychologist intern and post-graduate student Vanessa Beavan gathered answers from 154 voice-hearers by questionnaire and interviewed 50 of them for her PhD thesis. Her findings provide an insight into a phenomenon estimated to be experienced by 5 per cent to 10 per cent of people. She is using her research to help promote World Hearing Voices Day on September 14. "Hearing voices is more complex than suggested by the psychiatric model of voices as a symptom of severe mental illness," Ms Beavan said. "Voice-hearers ... reported a diverse range of experiences and explanatory models and most had never been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder." While 54 per cent had been in contact with mental health services, only 22 per cent said it was for reasons "at least somewhat related to their voice experiences". Positive voice content included hearing advice, encouraging and comforting words, and giggling. On the darker side, negative content could be crying, criticism or commands to hurt themselves or others. More than half identified a single event, mostly negative, happening shortly before they first heard a voice, yet, over time, participants' emotional reactions to their voices became more commonly positive than negative. Voices of deceased people were the most common; others included parts of the self, gods and aliens. People attributed their voices to causes like brain dysfunction, drugs, trauma and spiritual entities. Ms Beavan said people needed to develop their own coping strategies, but techniques like "selective listening" could be effective. Many participants wanted voice-hearing to be considered normal, to reduce the stigma they experienced. Waitemata District Health Board psychiatrist Dr Wayne Miles said not all hallucinations were associated with mental illness. Many experienced them when waking or falling asleep, or if someone close had recently died. About a fifth of people suffering from schizophrenia heard voices. "We are more likely to see people in a distressed state because the voices are in some ways negative," he said. "The worst are the ones that constantly tell you you're terrible, you should kill yourself. It's likely they aren't that common." VOICE-OVER * 154 people who hear voices took part in the Auckland University study. * The voices were mostly friendly or helpful for 48 per cent, mostly negative or unhelpful for 25 per cent, neutral for 15 per cent and varied greatly for the rest. * 54 per cent had been in contact with mental health services. * Around 25 per cent heard voices talking or arguing with each other.
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#1. To: Morgana le Fay (#0)
The funny part about this, is that all the people polled were probably mentally ill. I can tell you definitively I have never heard voices I could ascribe a person to, or some electronic appliance. I did however have an Ionic Breeze that picked up my neighbor's telephone conversation, and that scared the crap out of me, because I could hear this buzzing voice. It was the freakiest thing that I have ever seen, but funny at the same time because all of my friends that heard it thought they were hearing a bug talking. Hilarious.
 | What's that Mr. Nipples? You want me to ask the nice lady about her rack?. |
#2. To: Morgana le Fay (#0)
the voices in his head along with the crickets in his forum keep him company. :P
#3. To: TommyTheMadArtist (#1)
i read about people who could hear music by not necessarily voices. sometimes they hear music they have heard before and some hear completely new music. mozart was one of these people. i can't remember what this is called. the people are usually otherwise normal.
#4. To: christine (#2)
Crickets? Funny looking for crickets I'd say. "the voices in his head along with the crickets in his forum keep him company." :P
#5. To: christine (#2)
it seems dull over there to us but we arn't privy to what is going on in his head. it is actually very lively. it's a shame he couldn't appear on the masturbation thread. i was wondering if his voices talked dirty to him while he was in the process.
#6. To: Morgana le Fay (#3)
I had an out of body experience when I was hurt that was very haunting. I remember bing shocked at seeing myself with two black eye and tubes and bandages and that it wasn't like looking in the mirror. Some people think of out of body experiences as a hallucination, but I'm not so sure about that. They are too real. I did have a head injury and lesions in line with the impact through the brain but got no voices in my head. It's almost like being bummed because one never gets the promised LSD flashbacks they warned us about that made us do more LSD at Grateful Dead shows then we should have as youths. /kidding
#7. To: Morgana le Fay (#5)
Ugh, that reminded me of that movie where the girlfriend with the rubber glove looks up at her boyfriend as they are parked in lovers lane and asks, "Is it supposed to stay this soft?" To me that's a Stone moment.
"it's a shame he couldn't appear on the masturbation thread. i was wondering if his voices talked dirty to him while he was in the process."
#8. To: christine (#2)
Hey I don't have my own forum.
| What's that Mr. Nipples? You want me to ask the nice lady about her rack?. |
#9. To: Ferret Mike (#7)
To me that's a Stone moment. maybe stone's voices talk about all the household chores that need to be done while stone is trying to do it. and that is why he is so tweaky and weird.
Ugh, that reminded me of that movie where the girlfriend with the rubber glove looks up at her boyfriend as they are parked in lovers lane and asks, "Is it supposed to stay this soft?"
#10. To: Ferret Mike (#7)
stone gets all poised and ready and one of his voices says: 'Not tonight, i have a headache'.
#11. To: Morgana le Fay (#10)
Or his left hand has spied on him and knows all about that affair with the five fingered Jezebel of a right hand and Stone lives in real fear that it will launch an attack on his throat any time now. Heck, that would make me edgy and tweaked to. Especially if you are like him and suspect the right hand of selling information to the left one anyway.
"stone gets all poised and ready and one of his voices says: 'Not tonight, i have a headache'."
#12. To: Ferret Mike (#11)
For many years Stone believed he had a talking penis. He would consult with it and it would advise him and guide him through life. (This explains why he comes off as a dick.) But when Stone reads the article above he will realize that there is no talking penis, he is just schizophrenic. A little magic will then go out of his life.
#13. To: Minerva (#12)
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