di Lina Lakhani
Eleanor Longden, uditrice di voci si laurea in psicologia con il massimo dei voti: "Non sono contro gli psicofarmaci, ma per la libertà di scelta", dice dopo aver smesso di prendere gli psicofarmaci e aver incontrato uno psicologo che anziché voler eradicare le voci, l'ha aiutata a capirle e a capirsi.
Eleanor Longden was revising for her final university exams
in May when she was interrupted by a hostile middle-aged man, who
barked: "Stop! You can't do this; you're going to fail. You're not good
enough to get a degree." Nine other people joined his tirade in a chorus
of noisy abuse as Ms Longden, 27, tried to concentrate on studying.
"You know what?" she replied. "You're right: I do need to stop for a break. Thanks for reminding me."
Ms Longden has been hearing the same critical, often menacing,
internal voices for about 10 years. Every day, the dominant male speaks
to her in an authoritative tone. The others back him up and the messages
are always the same: you're not good enough; why bother with anything
when you're such a failure? Except that she is not. She recently
graduated from Leeds University with a first-class honours degree in
psychology, the highest ever awarded by the department. She now works
part-time with people who are hearing voices and is preparing for her
PhD next year.
But it has been a long, hard struggle to where she is now. The
psychiatrists and mental health nurses Ms Longden first encountered
agreed with her voices. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia, forced to
take high doses of powerful medication and written off as a hopeless
case.
"My family mourned me as if I were dead," said Ms Longden, from
Bradford. "They were told that I had a degenerative brain disease and
they should prepare themselves for the worst as I might end up in a care
home. I was told there was no hope, that there was nothing I could do
apart from take medication." How did she go from a hopeless, mentally
ill patient to a brilliant academic? A new wonder drug? A lobotomy?
Years of therapy?
It was much simpler than that. She was referred to a consultant
psychiatrist, Dr Pat Bracken, who encouraged her to listen to her voices
and try to understand what they meant. He helped her to reduce her
medication so that she could think more clearly. Slowly she worked out
the connection between previous traumatic experiences and the messages
the voices communicate. She also discovered her voices were worse when
she was stressed. "This was the first time anyone in the psychiatric
system had talked about recovery. Before that I'd been labelled,
medicated and left; my past didn't matter and I had no future."
Yet between 4 and 10 per cent of the population hear voices and fewer
than half of these people ever see a psychiatrist, according to
research by the Hearing Voices Network. Between 70 to 90 per cent of
voice-hearers do so after traumatic experiences.
Voices can be heard in the head, through the ears or through the
environment. Conventional psychiatry tries to eradicate them using
medication. But a growing number of critical psychiatrists,
psychologists and voice-hearers try to listen, understand and accept
them.
Dr Bracken, the director of mental health services in West Cork,
Ireland, said: "As professionals we need to help people who are
depressed or dominated by voices to find a path out of that state. That
could be through medication, therapy, religion or creativity. It is
completely wrong to try to use one template for everyone."
Ms Longden now has an agreement with her voices to listen and respond
to them at 8pm for half an hour. If they come earlier she reminds them
of the agreement. It works. She hears menacing voices every day, but
fits them into her busy life. Talking to them hasn't made them worse.
Stopping her medication hasn't made her dangerous. Yet some
psychiatrists would section her and force her to take medication.
She said: "My original psychiatrist told me I would have been better
off with cancer because it was easier to cure. She still says that to
people. What happened to me was catastrophic, and I survived only
because of luck. If I had lived one street to the right, I wouldn't have
been referred to Pat Bracken. That can't be how people's lives are
determined. I'm not anti-medication; I'm pro-choice. Hearing voices is
like left-handedness; it's a human variation, not open to cure, just
coping."
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