The Voices: Marija's narrative on living with hallucinations

Abstract

This paper presents how Marija copes with hallucinations through insight and self-reflectiveness. She hopes that professionals and, most of all, persons experiencing “The Voices” benefit from her experiences and recommendations. Marija approached us with this research aim. She wanted to be unhindered by guiding questions, leading us to the Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method using a Single QUestion aimed at Inducing Narrative (SQUIN-BNIM). Data collection involved three meetings and emails for five months. I-poems present Marija's vivid and evocative imagery and her narrative dominates the paper. Marija represents the ambivalent body of literature regarding quality of life (QoL) and Voices, namely that insight and self-reflectiveness are not only coping mechanisms allowing for self-sufficiency and independence, and a better QoL; but can also lead to more anxiety due to deeper understanding. She declares that resilience, attitude, mentalisation, and spirituality are vital coping skills and recommends some strategies she finds useful. She feels contained using structured daily schedules and year-long planning. Her mentalisation allows her to distinguish which voices are real and which are hallucinations, aware of a continuous challenge. Her belief in God gives her purpose, contains disappointments, and allows for value-based aspirations to create a purposeful and meaningful life that leaves her content, with efforts to inspire others. These findings embrace human diversity and how professionals must continually address a person's uniqueness, not their condition.