Psychologists have launched a study to find out why some people who hear voices in their head consider it a positive experience while others find it distressing.
The University of Manchester investigation – announced on World Hearing Voices Day (Thursday, 14th September) – comes after Dutch researchers found that many healthy members of the population there regularly hear voices.
Although hearing voices has traditionally been viewed as ‘abnormal’ and a symptom of mental illness, the Dutch findings suggest it is more widespread than previously thought, estimating that about 4% of the population could be affected.
Researcher Aylish Campbell said: “We know that many members of the general population hear voices but have never felt the need to access mental health services; some experts even claim that more people hear voices and don’t seek psychiatric help than those who do.
“In fact, many of those affected describe their voices as being a positive influence in their lives, comforting or inspiring them as they go about their daily business. We’re now keen to investigate why some people respond in this way while others are distressed and seek outside help.”
Although the voices heard by psychiatric patients and members of the general population seem to be of the same volume and frequency, the former group tend to interpret the voices as more distressing and negative.
The team believes that external factors such as a person’s life experiences and beliefs may be the key to these differences: for example, the presence of childhood trauma or negative beliefs about themselves could have an affect.
“If a person is struggling to overcome a trauma or views themselves as worthless or vulnerable, or other people as aggressive, they may be more likely to interpret their voices as harmful, hostile or powerful,” said Aylish.
“Conversely, a person who has had more positive life experiences and formed more healthy beliefs about themselves and other people might develop a more positive view of their voices.
“People being treated for hearing voices are usually given medication in an attempt to eliminate the problem. By investigating the factors influencing how voices are experienced we hope to contribute to the development of psychological therapies to help people better understand and cope with their voices.”
im 13 and i hear voices in my head saying i need to die no one would care or notice. at night they tell me that there going to kill me and then say they are never going away and u know it..so y live and shit like that so i dont sleep all night
my house mate he can here voices
in his head he das now Can hearing voices others stuff he think ppl are evil he thinks i m evil sometimes he thinks if i blev all the evil thinks will lev me i find it distressing. at time s
Im 13 years old and i usedd to hear voices at night trying to wake me up everytime i closed my eyes. After that i stopped trying to sleep until i started passing out in school. After that i told my mother and she sent me to the emergency room where i spent 7 days in the phciatric hospital and was diagnosed with BiPolar disorder. Just today my mom got mad at me for leaving the house and my grama was home. My grama pissed me off and was yelling at me. i screamed and ran upstairs because if i wouldve stayed down there i swear i wouldve killed her and my mom and everyone else in the room. After i got upstairs i am having constant scenes in my head of me beating the shit out of my grama and punching her until she dies. im struggling to stay in my room im readying to kill er right now or do something i cant handle my ager ive allready ripped up 2 pillows and broken about 5 pencils. idgaf about anything anymore. FML
That’s pretty normal 4 me to .you just have to remember to do the right thing.hurting somone won’t help you have to focus on somthing else and no in your head that its wrong try to learn more about the voices. jesse vanchura haarp on youtube
hi my name is jasmine and i hear people calling my name when there no one there .
To Annonymous
You should try to relax and know killing your family is not worth the heart ache. I know the anger is extremely strong at the moment but try the calm down, you did great by going to your room. I know at 13 things can be very hard and stressful but try to find something that interest you and can occupy some of your time, also try to talk to your doctor about the feelings you are having and see if they can help. Also try talking to your mom and grandma about how you feel and that you don’t like the way they treat you, let them know kids need respect to.
We have that in common…even the age.
look honey i know how you feel. and idont want to scare you but ive been told i have a demon. i hear voices that call me a dyke, bitch, a killer, like just a second ago
it said i was like adolf hilter. dont worry your gonna be fine sweetheart. honey you have a demon. you should read your bible every day, god has the power to cast them out. every time i hear or read the gospel of truth they stop.put god befor anything else. if you’d like to talk my email.address is [email protected]
Oh how i feel for everyone on here, i thought i was the only one that has issues but hearing this makes it all a bit more bearing. I am trying to use positive statement to block out these voices…. if i make my statements continuous and loud enough, it seems to push the negatives to the background. After a while silence prevails but if those voices return a do the process again until my mind is conditioned to only hearing positive words it is a battle but with persistence i feel it will work for me.
My heart goes out to all….. i would love to chat live with someone about anything concerning this, if you are on MSN please let me know.
Yeah, they told me to do original positive true statements. its just a trick. Try slowing them down to the point you can’t understand them. That will really piss them off, your in control now.
This really does works…read or google psalm 91, WHENEVER you feel fear or threatened. Just know and have confidence that you are not alone in your suffering…MANY dont even admit they have this ear, for fear of alienation…
Stay strong! You WILL come through if you are brave and refuse to stay in the situation…
Be blessed x
…sorry spelling error..
Many do not admit that they have this fear…
some people accept it, others dont, thus insanity
I have recently been hearing voices aswell and yes it is only at night time I am a 16 year old male I dont have problems at home or at school i am a funny guy that everyone just gets along with and I am not depressed. Sometimes I feel like i am constantly being watched by someone and when I close my eyes I just feel like someone is there standing right next to me. So I have to open my eyes and look even though i know nothing is there. I have been looking into this and i believe i have Shizoprhenia. These voices have been getting worse and worse and I dont know what to do i dont know who to tell or even if i should tell anyone. Sometimes the voices are negative and sometimes the voices are positive. I block them out most of the time because what the voices tell me i know is not true, like when the voices are telling me to shut up, quit talking, or they just continuosly talk shit to me. Obviously i say something back to these voices and than other voices come and they start ganging up on me. The wierdest thing is everytime i hear the voices there is a face to them of someone i know. I even sometimes hear the voices of loved ones saying harsh things to me. I’m glad that i know i’m not the only one that goes through with this but i just want these voices to stop. And also another thing some of the sympstons from Shizoprhenia are
1. losing sense of reality
i sometimes do not know what is real or not i cannot determine wether or not a dream was real or reality was a dream. And
2. Thinking you are someone famous.
I dont know how this happened but i believe i am sometimes famous and what makes it worse is that many people i have never met at school know my name and who i am and i have no idea who they are so this jsut makes it worse on me and in my mind i still believe i am famous. I mean i know im not but its all in my head and everyone knowing my name is just making this harder to believe that it is all in my head.
To be honest with you guys i am scared of this. Please help.
You should really tell your parents and seek psychiatric help. My aunt has the same problem and I’ve been witnessing it for years. It’s horrible to watch someone go through this. Please get help. There is help out there. Just ask.
David, these are classic symptoms of Schizophrenia. You need to make an appointment to either see a psychiatrist or a family practice doc can make a referral. I am an RN on a locked psychiatric unit. These symptoms are treatable, sometimes to the point where the voices are taken away all together. The symptoms will not get better on their own. The new medications for schizophrenia are much better than their predecessors. Hope your able to ask for help.
Justin
yeah dude didnt see ur comment till after my post. but doesnt it feel like someone put cameras and a microphone in your head, room , car ya no and just rags on you for everything i never had the famous part thats my dad hes dilisional tho when u start thinking you met famous people when you didnt then u should get help for that but ive taken meds for my problem and nothing helps doesnt mean u shouldnt try it tho
J i hear voicesi n my head that say die and it sometimes plays music while the voices in my head are there at the same time you should try to talk to them sometimes the voices can respons back to you if you respond back to them the conversations can get intresting but dont be mean to the voices they will only be worse to you you will also have better dreams if you try this coping strategie
im 14 and iv been hearing them for years i do see them as a “other me” and im ok because the voices hatted me and called me worthless and showed me picture of “thing and of my childhood” but now because i told them that they couldn’t hurt me or kill me they became positive OVER NIGHT no joke and now i see them as someone i could talk to and tell the truth to without judging me or lieing to me yes it gets harsh with the truth but i do want them to stay even if i lose a few nights sleep and cry because im so different i still can have a normal life as other teenage girl but with people guiding me
Hey Tyler,
I had some rough experiences in my childhood too and reading your email reminded me so much of myself at 14. I’m in my 20s now and I don’t feel alone anymore like I did as a teenager. It took me until my 20s to get the negative “voices” in my head to stop putting me down, and everything began to fall into place for me shortly thereafter.
I really relate to feeling like there’s another “me” in your head. That’s exactly what it felt like. For me, I’m still overcoming it but my career and what not fell into place after a few months of seeing a good therapist and also meeting other women who had overcome the same type of child abuse I had, because I had hope.
I look back on my teenage years and childhood as literal hell. There are a handful of good times I treasure, and my life now is amazing in every way. I’ve even begun to have faith in a God and an afterlife I had given up on as a child.
Hang in there. It’s worth it.
Cecilia
^^ i am, thanks a lot!! the only think that i regret is that i didn’t listen to the voices when whey said my mother was evil but back then i made my self think that what my mother did was her way of love but now i know that the voices where trying to tell me and they where protecting me they where gust telling me the truth no matter how much it hurt i gust denied it and they got angry and started yelling at me.but when i started living with my father i listed to what they said and now i look back at the past at what not to do when i have kids. i don’t blame anyone anymore for my mistakes and that make a big different. I’m also starting to fell love, happiness, and hope
last night was one of those nights where i didnt get a second of sleep and the voices told me my spouse is cheating on me so that pissed me off so now im having a hard time with this cause they are almost always right so its hard to look at her thinking and maybe knowing that she might be messing around …… GOD I HATE THE VOICES IN MY HEAD
i have the same i hear voices in my head saying all these bad things to me and i dont get a minutes peace i think i,m going insane i hate living like this i even get them when i go to bed at nite and i get terrible dreams all the time.
i’ve been hearing voices in my head since i was a child and it seems like they only come out at night and they tell me things that i dont want to hear and the more i try to egnore them the more aggresive they get so i dont know if i should just try to block em out or just let them say what they want and the sad part is they are right on the thing they tell me bit sometime i radther no know about em
I get those. I had it last night after months of nothing. It’s loud, strong, powerful and scary.
I use Ambien to put me to sleep. The voices may still be there but I zonk out and ignore them till I wake.
i see a normal moving picture of groups of people together at the inside of a school and hear their voices in my head but i never remember the words but its like seeing popural people just talking and laughing and making jokes with other people. i never see the images on purpose and it never bothered me. its like seeing a moving screen of just people talking and laughing and i hear the things they say. but this only happens when i close my eyes when im trying to sleep. im never asleep when i see the normal flashing images of people. it drifts off in my head a few times and im curious what it is
if you have information on this than thanks for the info
I can help!
Voices are demons bugging you because their uninvited and bored as hell.
Here are the steps required to stop the nonsense:
1) Ask God/Jesus to help you, ask for forgiveness and guidance
2) Check your PH and if its high alkaline bring it down a notch as demons have a tougher time communicating
3) Dont be startled and dont give them attention, they feed from this.
4) Go to a church and ask for a priest to pray for you, tends to speed up the messaging process sometimes.
They are real dont fool yourself…
This fella think hes calling God out…demons light up like a light in the sky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MBEygrZAAw
They also go in your head and speak to YOU and this little girls that believes is talking to some other god. look exactly at 1:12 just under her right ear you will see it fly out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nVPgi2MOj4&feature=PlayList&p=AECEAD2C735ACCB6&index=0&playnext=1
There’s some proof now deal with the reality! Cheers and God bless
PS dont do drugs/Pharmaceuticals!
This is interesting. The voices I hear are both comforting and distressing at the same time, so I don’t know what to make of that. Sadly the shrinks are about as much help as a broken teacup and the medication doesn’t help the voices. Hell, the medication seems to make everything worse! God, I wish I wasn’t alive sometimes.
dont take it the hard way :P
I ve experianced some voice hearing in the past but it wasnt discomforting or the opposite at all, i was saved by a car when i heard a voice in my head towards a direction and i jumped over that direction evading the car , wierd think is , i had my headphones on and couldnt hear a think and i also have a hearing problem but i heard that voice soooo loud and clear even though i couldnt make sence what it was saying . What are you going through?
i know the felling but gust remember that the voices are there for a reason, not bad but mabe if you talk to them it would be easier on life to know why they are there and tell them that your the one how runs your life not them
i have trouble with them all day and im in hairschool…….i just want it to stop….
She layed her head on the pillow curling under the crinkled sheet. She was fearful to close her eyes as the images would no doubt be there waiting in that black world.
“you can’t fall asleep so why even try? No one likes you and you are wasting your time waking up every morning. You should just get up and walk to the kitchen. There is a knife there, you know the one you sharpened to cut your tomato. Take that knife and plunge it in your chest and then you will feel better. I will be quite if you do that, I will never bother you again.”
She tried to think of all the things that were good in her life and of all the reasons why she had to live but the voice just wouldn’t allow her to think very long.
“Look at you, you are so pathetic. You can’t even think of a good reason to stay alive now can you. Oh what, you think he actually cares about you? Ha! He will leave you just like all the others and then all you will be left with is me. You know it and I know it, why not just give in and take that short walk to the kitchen?”
She closed her eyes and the clawed hand of a beast was reaching at her from the depths of the darkness. SHe tried hard to think of things that were pleasant to combat the evil but all the flowers she imagined wilted and dried up turning to fire then ash. All of the laughs of children on playgrounds morphed into screams. Her breathing started to race along with her thoughts. Panic set in. The back of her neck was leaking sweat and she rolled over in bed opening her eyes to stare out the window and up at the moon.
“I’m not going away, you know that.” The voice echoed to the back of her head. She slowly stood up adjusting her night gown and stretching her legs then silently walked down the hall way toward the kitchen.
if she trys hard anof and not lets him contrul her she can contrul him when he yells, yell back dont take no for a answer and remember there are people how love you no matter what your going throw
Hearing voices I think is just a normal thing. Because sometimes it happens to me. Especially if I am in a situation that I have to make a decision. There’s like a tiny voice inside my head telling me what to do. They said it’s my conscience. I don’t know if it’s right. Do you think I have to see a psychiatrist?
If you’re just thinking about a situation, this I think is normal. It happens to me when I’m thinking hard about something, and it’s definitely different from the actual voices I hear. I would only recommend for you to see a psychiatrist if you are feeling depressed for a long period of time.
i also heard a voice in my head once , when i didnt had any sleep for more than 24 hours , so i guess there are more
kinds of voices :P
well not necessarily. i say if the voice is positive, it’s gotta be a good thing. that is, if it’s say, congratulating you or giving you advice on how to keep out of trouble or harm. but if you’re like me and one day another voice comes out of nowhere and starts turning down everything the first voice says and they get into an argument and that starts to happen quite often, then i’d say yes haha
yea i get that but i always everynight hear my name getting called by this girl.. she’s quiet at one point of time and loud at others.. but it almost seems like she’s calling my name for help.. i get the thoughts that i need to save this girl but i don’t know how to reach her cause i know i can’t see her like i know she’s either in my head or she’s a spirit.. i jus need an answer to what this could be…
i have negative voices in my head saying i hate you and its creeping me out it only affects me at night.. i belive because of my life. family problems.. problems at school
any ideas though about sleep? I can’t silence the voices. So it’s so hard to fall asleep.
Start with your primary care doctor and get a sleeping pill like Ambien or lunesta ordered. Sometimes when you are able to have a good night’s sleep, the voices will go away during the day. If that does not work have a mental health eval by a psychiatrist. You may need a different med to control stress etc. to stop the taunting of the voices. Also if you focus on saying your prayers every night , this is very helpful too,