“Sometimes I walk and walk, hoping to get some peace.” Dealing with hearing voices and sounds nobody else hears

Abstract

Our objective in this article is to add to the understanding of how people with mental illness experience dealing with hearing troublesome voices and sounds in everyday life. Fourteen people contributed through in-depth interviews and we analysed these using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. We found that the participants (a) tried to block out the voices and sounds, (b) navigated the health care services, and (c) struggled to come to terms with limitations. Our overall understanding of how the participants dealt with hearing voices is that they sought to be independent and lead ordinary lives despite being troubled by voices. The participants fought desperately to find relief and avoid being overcome by the voices and sounds in intense phases. In less intense phases, they developed ways of getting along with daily life in spite of these experiences. We reflect on the implications of these findings and emphasize the need for care providers to attempt to understand and engage in collaborative explorations with service users in search of the most helpful ways of dealing with hearing troublesome voices and sounds in everyday life.