Hearing voices? You’re not alone
It is estimated that 13.2% of the adult general population are subject to it, yet this experience still carries much stigma.
- It is estimated that 13.2% of the adult general population are subject to it, yet this experience still carries much stigma.
- For several decades now, the international Hearing Voices Movement (HVM) has been campaigning to improve the way this condition is perceived.
Changing textbooks
- Our entire culture teaches us that the ego must remain master of its own house.
- In psychiatry, hearing voices in the absence of external inputs is equated with hallucination, a clear expression of psychosis.
- But even psychiatric textbooks are changing.
Less lonely together
- Since the 1980s, a growing number of people have confessed to “hearing voices”.
- All have managed to tap into a range of resources to deal with their experiences, without necessarily turning to psychiatry.
Inclusive change
- Its members prefer to consider that voices are real, carry meaning and links to trauma – even if opinions differ as to their explanations.
- It’s all part of the trend toward health care patient and provider empowerment, which has been recommended by the World Health Organisation.
The groups’ effectiveness
- A questionnaire designed jointly with English voice hearers has been adapted into French.
- The study compared the effects of VHGs with those of ordinary therapeutic groups.
- As the study took place during the Covid-19 pandemic, the groups ran slowly and only 20 of the 50 in France completed the study.
Different methods, similar results
- In parallel, a 14-person control group underwent metacognitive training, a method aimed at helping people with psychosis become more aware of thinking patterns contributing to their symptoms.
- VHGs hold the advantage of attracting people who do not have a psychiatric diagnosis or who do not fully accept it.
- Ultimately, VHGs’ value lies not so much in their ability to replace existing treatments as to complement them.
In the minds of carers
- Surveying 79 staff from French mental health institutions, the second study confirmed the medical and caring personnel largely views them positively.
- The more professionals familiarise ourselves with these structures, the more they stand to free themselves from such stereotypes.