The following is a culmination of discussions of different strategies which can help you to cope with distressing voices from the yahoo group "Voice Supporters" for people who hear voices, and those who support them either as friends, family members or professionals.
1) Distraction - put the radio on, or even better, an ipod with headphones.
2) Talk back to the voices. Challenge them. Ask them to go away.
3) Selective Listening - Give your voices an hour or so a day when you will listen to them. Bargain with them and say that if they are quiet now (at work for instance, or in the pub) then you will listen to what they have to say at an agreed time.
4) Talk to other people (who you can trust and who won't overreact) about your voices. Discuss what they say, how they say it, who the voices may represent. The more you understand your experience of voice hearing the easier it will become to cope with it.
5) Read about voices. Some good books are: "Recovery An Alien Concept" by Ron Coleman, "Accepting Voices" by Marius Romme and Sandra Escher, and "Hearing Voices a Common Human Experience" by John Watkins
6) Learn some relaxation techniques. If you become anxious because of your voices, use these techniques to get rid of the anxiety.
7) Write a letter to your voices. Maybe explain to them how you feel about them, how you would like them to behave, or anything that comes into your mind.
8) If you are out in public and you want to talk back to your voices without the stigma of supposedly talking to yourself, get a mobile phone, pretend to dial, and talk into that instead. If you don't have a mobile phone, ask around your friends to see if any of them have one which they don't use any more (remember the phone doesn't have to work).
9) Some people find that yawning or opening their mouths can help to block the sound of the voices.
10) Earplugs in one or both ears (experiment!) can help to block out disturbing voices.
11) Focus on one word and one word only. Repeat it, either in your mind or out loud, again and again. This turns the focus away from the voices and onto something else.
12) Take one day, one hour or one minute at a time during the difficult patches.
13) Do something fun that you enjoy once in awhile to reward yourself for putting up with the voices. You deserve it!
The VoiceSupporters Yahoo Group is open to anyone interested in the subject of hearing voices.
