In this third and final part of a three part series of posts on strategies for coping with hearing voices I share a final four strategies that I employ to keep functioning at a high level.
7. Keeping occupied. While I am a strong proponent of having down time to think and reflect or pursue pleasing hobbies, I am a firm believer that a person needs meaningful occupation to be well balanced. I know I do. Consequently, I have chosen to remain employed instead of going on disability when it was offered and having nothing purposeful to apply myself too. It is my belief that without something purposeful to apply oneself to on a regular basis one goes into decline and the condition that caused the disability worsens. This has been true for me. And for me, much of my sense of self-worth comes from the fact that I work full time and am financially independent, especially of the state. My experience has taught me that I do better with my condition when I am working than when I am unemployed and left with nothing but time on my hands. While I do believe that there are times when it is necessary to take a step back from employment when one is in crisis because of a condition, it is essential to return to steady employment, or, as an alternative, possibly volunteer work, on a full time basis as soon as possible. In my last episode 2.5 years ago I was back to work in 6 weeks after persuading my doctor(a general practitioner) that I was ready even though she prescribed at least a four month recovery period. The mind that is occupied with a worthy undertaking has no time to occupy itself with lesser things, particularly the unending chatter of idle voices in my head.
8 Journaling. I have kept a journal regularly since my return to London from my walk-a-bout 13 years ago in 2001. Prior to that it was sporadic depending on my situation. Among other benefits, I find the process of taking the confused thoughts and voices in my head and making sense of them enough to write them down on paper in a sensible fashion illuminating. Writing things down takes my thinking to a higher level and engages capabilities I never knew I had. There is something cathartic in making sense of something enough to put it down in words in a fashion that another person could make sense of it. I receive a great deal of clarity in the act of writing. In a mind that has been buffeted by delusions, emotional upheaval, voices, hallucinations, neglect, and abuse clarity of thought is gold. Its like a life-jacket to a drowning man. I have found that through journaling I have been able to make sense of my suffering. And I have found meaning, which is very important to me. Journaling also lets me pour out my heart in complete honesty when it may not be possible to do so with another person, which would be the ideal could I trust at that level. I have found that ‘keeping it all inside’ is unhealthy and journaling provides me a release that may not otherwise be available to me. As I have come to greater clarity in the understanding of my own mind and experience through journaling I find that I have greater immunity to the voices in my head.
9. Drugs. It is a love hate relationship that I have with drugs, though I take them to manage my condition and keep the voices from predominating. I speak, of course, of prescribed medication from a psychiatrist, the state sanctioned drug pusher of our modern times, the lackey bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical companies that arguably plague our society. There is nothing more useless than being given drugs as the prescription to every complaint, especially as my personal belief is that my condition has an emotional/psychological genesis and is not the result of a chemical imbalance in my brain that requires a drug to correct. Having said this I cannot deny that medication, while no guarantee of health given that I have suffered three episodes while on them, appears on the surface to have had a beneficial effect on my condition. However, I have been on drugs for my condition for 13 years, so long so, that it is hard to know for sure whether the improvement in my condition over the years has been caused by the medication, or by my emotional and psychological healing. In any event, while I have thought to take what I call “The Great Experiment” by discontinuing the drugs, I remain on them because, if I am wrong about the drugs not having a beneficial effect on my condition, then to discontinue them would cause me to slip back into an episode that would cause a major disruption in my life that I choose to avoid. Maybe some day I will have the courage to act on my belief that my condition is psychologically/emotionally based and discontinue the drugs, but for now I continue to take them.
10. Determination and perseverance. I have saved the most important strategy to the last. I cannot say enough about how important determination and perseverance are to both my recovery and the management of my condition and the attendant voices. Determination as defined by my dictionary is “…great firmness in carrying out a purpose,” while perseverance is “…sticking to a purpose or aim; never giving up what one has set out to do.” My main overarching purpose has been and is to live with and overcome the limits of my condition, or, to put it in other words, to heal. I never give up. I find ways to succeed, achieve, or carry on. I persevere. To give up is to admit defeat and cease trying. The cessation of trying is the death of all possibility of a desired outcome, the death of hope. It is final. But trying holds open the door to the possibility of desirable outcomes, from that possibility is born hope, and with hope there is reason to carry on trying. Moreover, the act of trying is of itself an honorable undertaking regardless the failures along the way, or how great or modest the achieved outcomes. It is never over until it is over. I can always try again. There is no one to stop me from trying but me and I am not about to stop myself. Not giving up, remaining determined and persevering in my purpose, is essential to my continued health and healing and I never forget it.
This completes the three part series on coping with hearing voices. I hope that if you suffer from a condition you found something useful in this series of posts.
Until next time.
BJ