Hearing Voices Group?

[Elmer]

I've found a new local-ish hearing voices group that would be easy for me to get to. I'm torn - on one hand lots of professionals have been encouraging me to go to one for months now. On the other hand I don't want to come out of it feeling worse. I know if it's not constructive or supportive it's not for me.

Does anyone have experience of these groups? What could I expect? There's one on Thursday evening.

[[Luna]]

Hey love, did you manage to go to the group? if so, how was it?
I went to a group once but I don't think my experience is indicative of how they usually go. I've heard from a lot of people that they've found groups extremely helpful. You don't get pressured to speak, you can just take it in and participate when you're ready xx

[Elmer]

Thanks for replying :)

That’s helpful, thank you. I didn’t go on Thursday because I had too much going on, but I might go next week.

[[Luna]]

Well, if you do manage to go, I really hope it can be a helpful resrouce for you. xxx

[Elmer]

Thank you :) <3

[not_so_insig]

I go to an hearing voices group. I dont think my group is typical of an hearing voices group. It's no pressure to do anything. Our group runs for 2 hours with a break once a fortnight. There's a gentleman who only stays for an hour due to severe anxiety. I think if you leave after a while just as long as you tell whoever is running it you are leaving there's no need to stay for an whole session.

Our group runs like this: we start with a meditation session which lasts 5 minutes. Then we have a talk about how our voices have been for the past fortnight for ten minutes. During our talking about voices session people ask questions and if we are struggling we provide suggestions and support. Due to covid there is only 6 people in our group plus 2 group leaders.

Then we have a break. Then the rest of the time is taken with coping strategies. For example I take my artwork or poetry in and another of our group has written an book about hearing voices (which is available on amazon) so she sometimes reads an extract from it. Sometimes it's just a sharing of ideas. The second half varies from session to session.

I think that's it. If you have any questions please feel free to ask away.

[Unbreakable.]

I've never heard voices or done group therapy so naturally, I felt like my opinion on this was relevant.

What would you have to lose by going to see for yourself? I feel (again, this is based on zero experience) that groups of any kind must be pretty different from each other even when they use a shared framework/approach. The people running as well as the ones attending probably vary quite a lot.

So, as you're considering going you might just as well?
If it's underwhelming just get up and leave and be like 'soz, the voices said I need to go'. Or something less insensitive.
If it's helpful - fantastic.
If it's unhelpful you get to rant about that to your friends or you can just send me passive aggressive messages about how you'll never listen to me again (which tbh is a very fair approach to life in general) because I don't run your life.

I would have *one* sensible thing to add to this though (alas, I do apologize for that)- consider whether or not you have the mental and physical resources to commit to a group on top of appointments/volunteering/starting uni soon etc. It might have have the opposite of the desired effect if it's just another item on an already too long to do list.

I'll stop rambling about my unqualified opinions now for real, don't want to risk Kiran falling asleep while reading my post!

[Elmer]

I wanted to wait until I had my laptop to do a lengthy reply so that’ll be tomorrow but I wanted to say thank you for the thoughtful and in some cases hilarious responses <3

[Auror.]

Probably not helpful, but I've been to a few NA meetings in the past (not for me, just to support/transport a family member) and they were all different. So I'd also say if you DO end up going and don't find it helpful, not to write off the entire group as it might be a different group or leader could be a better fit.

[Elmer]

Thanks again for the replies :)

Dawn, that's really helpful, thank you for sharing your experience.

Lana - you are very right, as per. I will definitely be employing your excuse if I need to go.

Camden, this is unfortunately the only group in my area and I don't think I could cope with any of the Zoom ones weirdly. But I think I'm going to try the group next week as I have commitments tomorrow. It'll be a fun adventure as it's in a town that is only 45 minutes away but I've never been there before.

[not_so_insig]

Just an note that have you contacted the group leaders to ensure that you have the right location? I ask because our group has the wrong location information and day on the hearing voices network Cymru (as it's based in Wales) and telephone number. It's not even listed on the main hearing voices network site. Also due to covid we can only have 6 people in the room. I would hate for you to make the effort of going to a strange place to find that the group is not running/not taking on new members.

[Elmer]

Thanks Dawn that’s a really good point. It’s a new group (started in May) so think the info is correct but will def email next week.

[not_so_insig]

That's good Elmer. Hopefully the information will be correct that you have got as it's a new group.

[shadow-light]

I attend one online once a fortnight, I have mixed feelings about it to be honest... but it is nice to "meet" other people experiencing similar things and sometimes they do have some useful ideas that hadn't occured to me before. Only way to know if its right for you is to try it out I guess