Overcoming Distressing Voices, 2nd Edition

by Mark Hayward, Clara Strauss, David Kingdon

Practical help for managing distressing voice hearing experiences

Have you ever heard someone talking to you, but when you turned around no one was there? Voice hearing is more common than might be expected. Many of those who experience this phenomenon won't find it distressing, while some may find it extremely upsetting and even debilitating.

Although the causes of voice hearing are many and varied, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been found to be a highly effective treatment for distressing voices. CBT can provide a powerful and positive way of coping with distressing voices, helping people to live well, even though the voice hearing may continue.

Written by experts, this accessible self-help manual takes those affected by distressing voices on a journey of recovery and healing, based on the latest psychological research. This fully revised and updated edition

· Clear explanations of what distressing voices are and what causes them
· Techniques to explore and re-evaluate the links between self-esteem, beliefs about voices and feelings
· Practical steps to reduce the distress that hearing voices causes
· Consideration of the impact on friends and family, and advice for how they can help

Overcoming self-help guides use clinically-proven techniques to treat long-standing and disabling conditions, both psychological and physical. Many guides in the Overcoming series are recommended under the Reading Well Books on Prescription scheme.

Series Professor Peter Cooper

Genres: Psychology

272 pages, Paperback

Published October 23, 2018

Reviews

[Mohammed P Aslam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I, in part, randomly selected Hayward’s book to educate myself about the effects of depression and specifically about psychotic depression due to a recent diagnosis in my circle of friends. So, in order to help and support my friend, I also wanted to know what it means to be someone who suffers from what was charmingly considered in the 1905 publication of the Psychological Review as "psychomotor retardation", this is where both their thoughts and physical movements slow down. Today we refer to this in a much more considerate term of severe clinical depression.

Hayward’s work looks at a number of case studies which illustrate the impact of various areas of psychosis and how this changes the way in which a person sees the world. The book helps the reader to step in to the world of someone who sees hallucinations, which can be visual or auditory, this is where a person hears, sees and, in some cases, feels, smells or tastes things that do not exist outside their mind but can feel very real to the person affected by them; a common hallucination is hearing voices.



Andrea Rosenhalft wrote about a case study in the USA; in 2010, the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökul erupted, sending volcanic ash over nine kilometers into the sky. This caused Europe to experience air travel chaos for many weeks. Rosenhaft stated that the US patient became convinced that her desire was to prevent her doctor from leaving was so strong, that she had caused the volcano to erupt, preventing her doctor from leaving and flying to Europe. Her patient, in part, knew she couldn’t possibly have triggered the volcano thousands of miles away. However, she could hear the voices taunting her:

“It’s all your fault.
You know you wanted this to happen.
You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
You’d better not tell.”

The choice was not a bad one to select this book and it is really a hands-on approach to understanding the darkness of delusions and auditory hallucination where the brain creates the illusion of voices in a person’s mind. The book describes how the voices arise in different forms, such as a person standing beside you and calling you by your name or voices heard inside your head. Voices play a three-dimensional role in the human mind, and they can be either threatening or encouraging or sometimes be moderate.



The general outline of this book is very much based around the idea of self-help and written for those who suffer from psychotic depression to some degree. It helps them focus on the problem and shares examples of how others have overcome the challenges they face. It is a moving testimony of those who live their daily lives in a chaotic and frenzied world of psychosis. But also, it helps to have a peek inside their world and how and what experiences they must be living with this daily nightmare.

[Dr. Angelina Thomas Villikudathil (Ph.D.) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chapter 5,6,7 are helpful to me. I developed alternative beliefs with supporting evidence. The price of this book is expensive. I bought it for Rs650. It should be in the range of Rs300. MRP is 1,250. Which is very expensive. I got it at a discount on Amazon to help myself.

[Katrine Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gifted to me by my wonderful therapist. The book helped me to feel more comfortable within myself and my experiences, to feel less alone. Hearing other people’s stories was helpful and enlightening and I enjoyed the exercises included, it felt like I was able to connect with myself in a way that I wasn’t ready to before. I was apprehensive to read this, scared of how it may make me feel or what potential triggers it may bring up but instead I just found it incredibly helpful, like a little diary that was shared with people who understood, who didn’t judge. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who experiences voices.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book for voice-hearers and anyone with a loved one who is a voice-hearer to read for a CBT-based guide on overcoming distress around the voice-hearing experience. As a therapist this is an easy book to read to inform basic practice around working with individuals who hear voices.