This is for my crisis plan.
So far I’ve got
Tell them u will only listen at a designated hour per day. Because u need to go about life n stay OK to listen to them. They need to be respectful of that.
Distract yourself with hobbies, IGNORE them when they are talking outside of the designated hour.
I really don’t know what else…
I ignore mine completley - the more mental attention i give them - the more intrusive they get and louder - especially when in bed.
This assumes i have the clarity to actually realise that they are not real, which thankfully 90% of the time i do now.
I have a backup of 25mg Quietiapine now twice a day to take PRN, which has only been prescribed this week. And so far its been bloody marverlous - not a chirp outta “vicky” or her crap.
If im having a big wobble - i will phone the duty cpn and leave a message.
I can’t believe I used to listen to them so much. Well I can believe it I was scared shirtless but still it was sooo much of my Time like whole days and nights… My gosh
Yeah for me personally, the more you listened to them, the more power you gave them. It is hard to learn to ignore them tho. It still catches me out sometimes.
The “trick” is too keep your emotions light-hearted, cos they will feed off your anxiety or anger - and piss you off even more.
Tell them to get hobbies, or jobs, or to generally go live their own lives. Tell them to try and have existences outside of constantly bothering you.
There was one voice in particular that was giving me a hard time. I imagined putting it inside a metal lock box, which I wrapped in duct tape and then buried (in my imagination). That actually worked pretty well. After that, it’s voice was very quiet and muffled and it didn’t bother me very much.
Some clever and creative ideas… Thanks guys this is really helpful
You know I started to think the same thing like it’s a feedback loop the more fearful u get the worse they get…
My voices only garble but it’s still amazing how much time I can waste just sitting and listening to them even when they make no sense. The best thing for me to do is to get up and start doing something else to take my concentration off the voices, then they usually fade away. Or, better yet, call someone up on the phone and get into a conversation. That always shuts up the voices.
Your dead right mate. Take the fear outta them, no matter how distressing they are - and they do fade to whispers in my case. Plus of course you simply cannot beat a low dose of AP’s to take PRN, to take the edge off.
Music, something to concentrate on other than the voices.
I fall asleep with the tv, so I can focus on it other than the voices.
“Don’t wanna” game my therapist taught me to deal with command hallucinations. Think of them as spoiled children you have to say No to.
Company, when I can focus on something or someone to keep me busy, that helps me. It’s worse when I’m alone.
A list I wrote of affirmations about the voices, reminding myself they aren’t real. In my own words.
I listen to music, read books, do breathing exercises. Basically anything that distracts me.
For me, erm… meditate I think? it works for me though.
What kind of meditation?
my kind of meditation is a bit different though, for me, I just sit down and let my thoughts flow, I will not try to stop any nor disrupt any. I realized when I tend to forcefully overthink (overwork my mind by thinking in a certain way that I want it), I will then hear voices. I don’t really know how to describe it so that it can totally let you be able to imagine it. I think in the closest simplest form or layman term, I think, just let your natural thoughts flow through, don’t stop it, don’t obstruct it, don’t need to do anything extra (just be yourself, let your mind be itself).
Michael
I just recently started hearing voices and to be honest I have no idea what they are saying. They sound muffled yet loud at the same time. They still freak me out though and sometimes I have to sleep with the light on if they get too loud.
I need to experience life outside of my head. My head is often a cesspool of depressive intrusive thoughts.
Keeping competing speech going, like having the television or some music on, seems to help. Sometimes if they’re bad at night I get up and do something else until they calm down. Talking to other people helps too sometimes.
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