So,..It Isn't Just Me!

Researchers: Some People Don't Mind Hearing Voices
Friday, September 15, 2006
By Andrea Thompson

For some people, hearing voices in their heads is a positive experience, not a sign of mental illness or cause for distress.

Researchers at the University of Manchester in England are aiming to find out why.

Traditionally, auditory hallucinations, as psychologists call them, are associated with mental illness. They are symptoms of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and sometimes depression.

But studies by Dutch researchers that began in the 1990s found that some healthy people also regularly hear voices.

The scientists ran a program on Dutch television asking for volunteers who heard voices, and they got a surprising response.

Many of the people who contacted them did not find the voices disruptive, and had never felt the need to consult mental health services. Some even said they found the experience to be positive or inspirational.

The resulting studies found that more people might hear voices than psychologists had thought, perhaps around 4 percent of the population.

Aylish Campbell, a psychologist at the University of Manchester, is hoping to expand on the Dutch study by investigating why peoples' reactions to hearing voices vary so widely.

The TrekMedic bemoans:

All that money spent of Zoloft,..I coulda bought cases of Yuengling, instead!