Wanted: People who hear voices to tell their story and help challenge stigma

Added: (Fri Jun 16 2006)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Voices in My Head: Channel 4, 7.30pm, Sunday, 18 June 2006

On Sunday night Channel 4 screened an important new documentary about the experience of people who hear voices. The programme pointed out that people have always heard voices. Hearing voices was what spiritual and artistic people did and it was perfectly normal. But now, people who hear voices are simply labelled as 'mad'. What has happened to inner voices; have they changed or is it society that has undergone a transformation?

INTERVOICE, (the international umbrella organisation supporting research into voices) supports this opening up of discussion about the meaning of voices for the people who hear them. For too many years it has been assumed that hearing voices is directly associated with mental illness, however, recent research, presented on the programme, has shown that this is not the case, in the UK, of the estimated 2 million people who hear voices, 1.25 million have never had a problem. Voices, then, can be regarded like being left handedness or homosexuality, not a problem in itself, but a variation in human behaviour that can sometimes cause difficulties for people.

Paul Baker, coordinator of INTERVOICE said:
“We would like to hear from people who hear voices and do not have problems with them or have found ways to overcome their problems. We want to use these stories to help reduce the stigma associated with this experience and will publish them on the first World Hearing Voices Day on the 14th September 2006.”

The theme of the World Hearing Voices Day addresses whether hearing voices should be considered an illness or as part of the diversity of human experience that does not in itself have to result in an illness. Because of the fears and misunderstandings in society and within psychiatry about hearing voices, voices are generally regarded as negative and consequently rarely discussed. To challenge this INTERVOICE members from around the world, including the UK, America, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Palestine, Scotland, Sweden and Switzerland will be holding a range of events to open a public debate on the significance of voices in society.

“We promise to protect the confidentiality of people who contact us”, Paul Baker said, “and to use their stories in a positive way - as a means to help other people who hear voices and are troubled by them and to dispel the myths about voices that are held in our society”

END

Notes to editors:
For more information, please contact Paul Baker, co-ordinator INTERVOICE, telephone 020 7617 7378
email: 965263097@terra.es

INTERVOICE aims to:
• show that hearing voices is a normal though unusual variation in human behaviour
• show that the problem is not hearing voices but the inability to cope with the experience
• educate society about the meaning of voices so as to reduce ignorance & anxiety and to ensure this innovatory approach on voice hearing is better known by voice hearers, families, professionals and the general public
• demonstrate the wide variety of voice hearing experiences and their origins, and peoples' approaches to coping
• increase the quality and quantity of mutual support available to all people and organisations involved in hearing voices work across the world
• make our work more effective and develop more non-medical ways of helping voice hearers cope with their experience

For help on hearing voices in the UK contact:

HEARING VOICES CONFIDENTIAL HELPLINE: 0845 122 8642, 10am – 4pm Monday to Friday, calls are charged at local rate.
Hearing Voices Network, 79 Lever Street, Manchester M1 1FL. Enquiries and information: 0845 122 8641, Email: info@hearing-voices.org
Website: www.hearing-voices.org, Registered Charity Number 1094201

For more information on the Hearing Voices Movement go to Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_Voices_Movement

For more information on press coverage of hearing voices research go to:
http://society.guardian.co.uk/mentalhealth/page/0,8149,606449,00.html