Hearing Voices

A voice that isn't yours. Or at least doesn't sound like it is. It comes as if from outside — from the side, from above, from the wall, sometimes from the middle of your head, but still foreign. It says things you would never say. It commands, warns, insults, comments. Sometimes it is only one. Sometimes there are several, talking to each other while you sit there in silence. And nobody else hears them.

That is exhausting. That is frightening. And it is lonely — because hardly anyone in your environment understands what is happening, and you've learned not to speak about it, because you know how people react. Psychiatry has the term "acoustic hallucinations" for this phenomenon and assigns it to various clinical conditions. This approach is real, it can help, and it must not be minimised.