Hearing Voices Experience - Essay Example

Hearing Voices Experience: Reflection Essay People suffering from schizophrenia often suffer from auditory hallucinations where they are exposed to arange of voice hearing experiences in various settings. Such an experience can prove to be a highly daunting task and is likely to take a toll on the social lives of patients of schizophrenia. I recently, had the opportunity to participate in a hearing voices experience through the schizophrenia simulator, as part of my study. The experience was aimed at helping regular people understand the difficulties schizophrenic people undergo in their day to day lives.

The experience was both - enlightening and unpleasant at the same time. It exposed me to the real challenges schizophrenic patients face when they constantly hear voices in their head while doing routine everyday tasks such as talking to people, doing origami, or even in the middle of a cognitive test. I realized that the voices are clear which makes it difficult to concentrate on the task on hand and is highly distracting. The voices, at times, could be so loud and clear that they often tend to drown out the real voices of people around them, thus making it difficult for such patents to venture out and carry out their daily tasks such as commuting from one place to another, remembering peoples names, things, numbers, or addresses and communicating with people.

This experience helped me understand people suffering from schizophrenia in a much better manner, and realized the significance of helping them overcome this hurdle. While trying to reflect on my experience, I realized that after a certain point it becomes all the more difficult to differentiate between these auditory hallucinations and actual voices of people around me. The voices are so clear and specific that it could often blur the lines between imagination and reality.