Investigating the Lived Experience of Recovery in People Who Hear Voices.

Although there is evidence of both clinical and personal recovery from distressing voices, the process of recovery over time is unclear. Narrative inquiry was used to investigate 11 voice-hearers' lived experience of recovery. After a period of despair/exhaustion, two recovery typologies emerged: (a) turning toward/empowerment, which involved developing a normalized account of voices, building voice-specific skills, integration of voices into daily life, and a transformation of identity, and (b) turning away/protective hibernation, which involved harnessing all available resources to survive the experience, with the importance of medication in recovery being emphasized. Results indicated the importance of services being sensitive and responsive to a person's recovery style at any given time and their readiness for change. Coming to hold a normalized account of voice-hearing and the self and witnessing of preferred narratives by others were essential in the more robust turning toward recovery typology.

The prevalence of voice-hearers in the general population: a literature review.

BACKGROUND: It is increasingly understood that voice-hearing is neither a rare phenomenon experienced only by 'psychiatric patients' nor a meaningless symptom of a 'mental illness'. AIMS: To estimate the prevalence of voice-hearing in the adult general population. METHODS: PsycINFO and relevant literature reviews were searched for studies of the prevalence of verbal auditory hallucinations among adults. RESULTS: Seventeen surveys, from nine countries, were identified. Comparisons across studies were problematic due to differences in definitions, methodologies, and cultural factors. Prevalence ranged from 0.6% to 84%, with an interquartile range (excluding the highest and lowest quartiles) of 3.1%-19.5%, and a median of 13.2%. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in prevalence can be attributed in part to differences in definitions and methodologies, but also to true variations based on gender, ethnicity and environmental context. The findings support the current movement away from pathological models of unusual experiences and towards understanding voice-hearing as occurring on a continuum in the general population, and having meaning in relation to the voice-hearer's life experiences.

Hearing voices and listening to what they say: the importance of voice content in understanding and working with distressing voices.

The content of auditory hallucinations is sometimes dismissed as having little diagnostic/therapeutic importance. There is growing evidence that voice content may be crucial to understanding and working therapeutically with this experience. The aim of the present study is to explore, in a general population sample, the content and impact of voice-hearers' auditory hallucinations. A self-selected sample of 154 participants completed questionnaires about voice-hearing. A subsample of 50 participants completed semi-structured interviews. Participants experienced a range of voice content of high personal relevance, with most experiencing both positive and negative content. Voice content was the only significant predictor of emotional distress and the strongest predictor of contact with mental health services. These findings suggest that content is an important characteristic of auditory hallucinations and should be explored with voice-hearers who find themselves in clinical settings.