[Coma Patient 7]

I've avoided medications most of my life as the ones I tried early on were not to my liking. It started with 3-4 years of depression in my early-mid twenties and several attempts on my own life. Three years after my last attempt I gained the voice in my mind at 28. I may have had an early advantage with it happening later in life and in the Mentally Gifted Minors program they taught us a lot of tools to help manage some issues that we may have encountered in the future. And while I may have set most of these tools down over the years, I have recently started utilizing some of them with hopeful results. I honestly never had much of a problem with my voice until I became physically ill with an autoimmune disease, this brought on chronic fatigue. It was a slide into hell for a couple of years after that, but I’m crawling my way back. So I figured I would share my story as perhaps it may aid someone else.

About my voice it often says I’m “stupid” since learning I was in the mentally gifted minors program, it used to be goofball, it’s still often playful in a semi-cruel manor. It’s learned broken language recently after I was researching more on psychology; it copies me often or follows my critiques of its approach on how to manipulate. So know it now uses phrases like, “that guy” trying to let my imagination do most of the work. Something I mentioned while criticizing his tactics in the previous years, silly me, lol. He will mimic sounds or people talking just out of earshot, to make it appear as if they are talking about or try to get me to think people are poisoning me or have turned against me, distancing me from those I care about, etc.

What I’ve noticed is my voice tries to draw me into a subconscious or day dreaming state in order to keep me with it and only pay attention to the voice. This is why I’m working on becoming more conscious, that and it will help me learn more efficiently. But what I have found is working on my hearing by doing audio exercises helps my mind avoid confusing sounds that the voice will use. And by increasing my over all awareness I’m more conscious so I hear the voice less often as I’m training my mind to focus on conscious things.

I do try to use what ever it says or does to my advantage and it has pushed me to the point where I can nearly completely control my emotions. I’m now refocusing my energy towards learning again. The first step of this is by becoming more conscious, by using my senses more often. I use him as my motivator now as he's always there yelling reminding me to be conscious, just like a personal coach people pay good money for, we get one for free.

A couple of exercises I use, they should help even if you take medications.

Audio exercise: when listening to music, focus on and single out each instrument, hop between them, several metronomes at different tempo’s work well. Strain your ears to hear the faint electrical hum of nearby electrical device or the distant birds chirping. Practice often hearing as much detail as you can from your environment. On the audio note, listening to audio books at night offer someone else to listen to while you sleep, helping to train your mind to focus on something else.

Focus exercise: Focusing can be achieved with mediation or intently focusing on something. For instance take a good look at a nearby object, notice any scratches or blemishes, as much detail as possible. You may notice your peripheral vision narrow or your hearing diminish, this is a natural side effect of intent focus a diminishing of other senses. Talking, hobbies, math or physical activities offer a good opportunity to focus consciously.

Awareness exercise: I found walking is great for practicing awareness as you need not think as much leaving more processing power to focus on your senses. Early on focus on one sense at a time, like the taste in your mouth, then the feel of the cloths on your skin, feel your feet touching the ground, define the smells, the sounds. Just hop around feeling different senses for the first week, then practice holding several at one time. And just keep working your way up, you can add visuals to this as well, by looking for people or items out of place, question or analyze everything.

Memory exercise: At the end of each day, recall as much detail as you can of the days events. Expand it to more days over time to work on long term memory. If you have problems, take notes or practice being more conscious. The above exercises can help you, as it’s easier to recall memories when you are more aware.

A large part of this is your will power, these exercises will get your will power in shape and give you much more intimate knowledge of your inner power. As you will learn, to be conscious it takes more then just doing conscious activities, it takes focus of will. So when you start over thinking, focus on your environment and practice asserting your will by being more consciously aware.

The effects will vary depending on the severity of your psychosis and it will take a month or two before you notice much of an effect. It doesn't take a lot of effort, but it is work, but then what isn’t with an inner voice yelling in your mind all day and night.


Have a safe journey through your recovery, may it be speedy and swift.

[jt25324]

Hey there...thanks for sharing those tips. I don't hear voices myself although I have in the past but I do have a stupid inner critic critiquing everything I say or do.. Stems from growing up im sure from a dysfunctional family fighting arguing and criticizing everything. This might come in handy because Id like to get off of an anti-psychotic(Abilify) for racing thoughts. I fear the possible harmful long term side effects of anti psychotic meds..Any more suggestions for memory because mine is like completely shot I cant remember 5 mins in the past what did earlier? I'm not sure if the meds are doing it or Im just becoming dumber or both..

[Coma Patient 7]

You're welcome JT, Oh boy do I have more on memory. lol

It's mostly about practicing, but there are some fun sites that can help train your mind.

This has some fun games and brushes on some of the memory techniques. There are tons of others you can search for, most will offer word games or puzzles.
http://www.braingle.com/index.php

Another excellent source for practice "it's math"
http://www.khanacademy.org/

Edit: I felt wrong to add in Khan Academy "math" without making it easier by adding in some math tip/tricks.

For the more advanced you can search memory techniques, there are many. This site offers several exercises that can be used, it has a lot more info as well.

Boosting your brain power
http://superconscious1.blogspot.com/...ain-power.html

Loci system, excellent for learning a phrase in a foreign language
http://superconscious1.blogspot.com/...membering.html

Peg system, great for lists
http://superconscious1.blogspot.com/...for-lists.html

Photographic memory, the holy grail
http://superconscious1.blogspot.com/...ic-memory.html

[jt25324]

Originally Posted by Coma Patient 7

You're welcome, Oh boy do I have more on memory, hehe.

It's mostly about practicing, but there are some fun sites that can help train your mind.

This has some fun games and brushes on some of the memory techniques. There are tons of others you can search for, most will offer word games or puzzles.
http://www.braingle.com/index.php

Another excellent source for practice "it's math"
http://www.khanacademy.org/

Edit: I felt wrong to add in Khan Academy "math" without making it easier by adding in some math tip/tricks.

For the more advanced you can search memory techniques, there are many. This site offers several exercises that can be used, it has a lot more info as well.

Boosting your brain power
http://superconscious1.blogspot.com/...ain-power.html

Loci system, excellent for learning a phrase in a foreign language
http://superconscious1.blogspot.com/...membering.html

Peg system, great for lists
http://superconscious1.blogspot.com/...for-lists.html

Photographic memory, the holy grail
http://superconscious1.blogspot.com/...ic-memory.html

Cool deal...thanks for your time with putting these together... I appreciate it.Im so happy I can kiss ya..

[OutofTune]

Thank you for the links. I'll have to try some of these exercises when I get a chance.

[Coma Patient 7]

Thanks OutofTune, I've found them quite helpful.

I'll ad one more little nugget, willpower is a good way to control most emotions, so any chance to increase your willpower, should make controlling emotions easier. Also remember controling your emotions is like anything else, the more you practice the easier it gets. And even persistent emotions can often be knocked free with positive counter emotions, persistence and willpower.