Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Finally found a book that I connect with on a cellular level. My son was diagnosed with schizophrenia 10 years ago. I have repeatedly begged my son's doctors to delve into his childhood. I have given ALL of his psychiatrists detailed descriptions of his life. None were interested. They all say that it is a physical brain disorder and ply him with drugs that have reduced him to a subdued version of what he used to be. I have always disagreed, but they don't listen. - This book, written by psychiatrists and health professionals, does a good job of presenting what voice-hearing sufferers experience - and, more importantly, a solution. It is based on the premise that the sufferer has experienced trauma that then results in hearing voices. Identifying the voices, their personalities, tones, words, etc., helps to identify the incident(s)/person(s) that caused the trauma. Recovery occurs when the sufferer learns to identify and connect a voice to a particular time/space/person. - This sounds so simplistic... and I'm probably doing a very bad job of describing the contents of this book. But I am so gratified to read a book that echoes what I have believed from Day 1. Unfortunately, the psychiatric community in the United States will think it's hogwash. Their solution, though, is to push meds. If the meds don't work (and they usually don't), then there is no alternative. They tell the "patient", and family members, that the "disease" is chronic and without hope of any significant recovery. The doctors tell you to get on with your life and expect very little from your loved one. Not only do they impart a sense of hopelessness to everyone concerned but they stick on the label of "schizophrenia" - which, as we all know, is like getting a neon light emblazoned on your forehead that says "psychotic killer." Add to that the numbing drugs that cause massive side-effects. - My son and I once had a meeting with a very famous psychiatrist (for which we paid a hefty fee). He strode into the meeting room, picked up a model of a brain, set it on the table and said: "This is your brain. The frontal lobe is the area where all of your difficulties lie." - There was no, "Hello, nice to meet you." My son was a brain - not a person with a history, feelings, experience.. We did not see this man again. - For those parents/caregivers that believe their loved one is more than a brain, read this book. There is recovery, and it is not about drugs.
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A new analysis of the hearing voices experience outside the illness model, resulted in accepting and making sense of voices. This study of 50 stories forms the evidence for this successful new approach to working with voice hearers.
