Don't do it without supervision, I nearly jumped 100m because the voices in my head convinced me I'm a Star Trek captain and will be transported to my bridge mid-jump.
Never do anything to confirm a paranoid person's psychosis unless you have total control of the situation and a psychiatrist supervision. Never try to peace them by saying unrealistic things, you never know what's going on in their head that you just confirmed. My GF tried to reassure me by saying she will be with me in 15 minutes, but she was 100km away and I thought "okay well that makes all of this real, let's do it".
I've been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder when I was in my early twenties.
I've had several full blown psychotic episodes and been hospitalised several times.
Fortunately there was one medication - Amisulpride - that kept me stable enough to be able to have a professional career, though not without a lot of struggling and sacrifice.
I know what psychosis is and honestly, this avatar therapy feels a bit like bullshit to me.
When in psychosis, you are not listening to your voices - you are your voices and they can command you to do things you do not want to do. You are not in control of you consciousness.
There is hope though. A revolution in mental illnessis going on - check the metabolic mind site for more info - https://metabolicmind.org
Many other people have substantially improved because of metabolic therapy and there are dozens of random control trials going on with very promising early results.
There are ever more cases of successful treatment via metabolic therapy
Under the risk of being unpopular, it's my responsibility to let people know about this treatment option and bring hope to those who suffer from this terrible illness.
>As much as 8 percent of the population reports experiencing auditory hallucinations on a regular basis (13 percent hear them at least occasionally), compared to just 1 percent who are diagnosed with schizophrenia. https://medicine.yale.edu/news/yale-medicine-magazine/articl...
Hearing voices may be a symptom of something serious, but not always. As long as a person's grasp of reality is not in danger and voices don't stress out people, they can live with them and not even seek help. Not all people hear negative voices. Older lonely people have been known to say that voices keep them company.
> voice-hearing experiences of people with serious psychotic disorders are shaped by local culture – in the U.S., the voices are harsh and threatening; in Africa and India, they are more benign and playful. https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2014/07/voices-culture-luh...
Maybe the most famous case of a high-functioning outlier was Carl Jung. He hallucinated complete persons since childhood ,visually and everything. He discussed matters with them. In the end, he was able to get rid of them when he decided that they were not helpful anymore. It's easier to understand his weird theories and spirituality when you have read his autobiography. The guy was off the charts but not disabled by it.
One of my favorite speculative hypotheses is Bicameral Mind Theory, which asserts that something like schizophrenia was relatively common until relatively recently, about 3000 BC. It argues that it was relatively normal for humans to hear voices in their head directing them. So when we read religious texts about the gods commanding so-and-so to do such-and-such, it wasn't just a spiritual metaphor, but an actual voice people heard in their heads and interpreted as higher powers.
Interestingly this idea of helping people to talk to the voices in their head is not new. The basis for IFS therapy (which emerged in the 80s) actively teaches people to have dialogue with their inner "parts". It is becoming one of the gold-standard therapies for CPTSD, anxiety, and a range of other trauma related conditions.
The core discovery of the therapy is that the human mind has an inherent multiplicity. Once you accept that and go from there, the rest of the technique emerges naturally. It's really quite amazing. I highly recommend the book "No bad parts" by Dr Richard Schwartz, the discoverer of the technique.
What really excites me here is the use of a virtual avatar that personifies the voice. That is really new to me and I can see all sorts of possibilities to link with IFS.
throw4950sh06 ·8 hours ago
Never do anything to confirm a paranoid person's psychosis unless you have total control of the situation and a psychiatrist supervision. Never try to peace them by saying unrealistic things, you never know what's going on in their head that you just confirmed. My GF tried to reassure me by saying she will be with me in 15 minutes, but she was 100km away and I thought "okay well that makes all of this real, let's do it".
Show replies
arijo ·6 hours ago
I've had several full blown psychotic episodes and been hospitalised several times.
Fortunately there was one medication - Amisulpride - that kept me stable enough to be able to have a professional career, though not without a lot of struggling and sacrifice.
I know what psychosis is and honestly, this avatar therapy feels a bit like bullshit to me.
When in psychosis, you are not listening to your voices - you are your voices and they can command you to do things you do not want to do. You are not in control of you consciousness.
There is hope though. A revolution in mental illnessis going on - check the metabolic mind site for more info - https://metabolicmind.org
I talk about my experience in my blog - https://www.feelingbuggy.com/p/finding-hope-after-decades-of...
Many other people have substantially improved because of metabolic therapy and there are dozens of random control trials going on with very promising early results.
There are ever more cases of successful treatment via metabolic therapy
Under the risk of being unpopular, it's my responsibility to let people know about this treatment option and bring hope to those who suffer from this terrible illness.
Show replies
nabla9 ·6 hours ago
Hearing voices may be a symptom of something serious, but not always. As long as a person's grasp of reality is not in danger and voices don't stress out people, they can live with them and not even seek help. Not all people hear negative voices. Older lonely people have been known to say that voices keep them company.
> voice-hearing experiences of people with serious psychotic disorders are shaped by local culture – in the U.S., the voices are harsh and threatening; in Africa and India, they are more benign and playful. https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2014/07/voices-culture-luh...
Maybe the most famous case of a high-functioning outlier was Carl Jung. He hallucinated complete persons since childhood ,visually and everything. He discussed matters with them. In the end, he was able to get rid of them when he decided that they were not helpful anymore. It's easier to understand his weird theories and spirituality when you have read his autobiography. The guy was off the charts but not disabled by it.
Show replies
DevX101 ·7 hours ago
Show replies
JimmyBuckets ·8 hours ago
The core discovery of the therapy is that the human mind has an inherent multiplicity. Once you accept that and go from there, the rest of the technique emerges naturally. It's really quite amazing. I highly recommend the book "No bad parts" by Dr Richard Schwartz, the discoverer of the technique.
What really excites me here is the use of a virtual avatar that personifies the voice. That is really new to me and I can see all sorts of possibilities to link with IFS.
Show replies