Name the Voices

It was an episode in my thirties when I took the step to uncomfortably sit and listen to the highly, cripplingly, critical voices inside my head. Then I was able to recognize these as versions of my mother and grandmother. These versions were 100% judgmental. The crippling element was my believing what they were telling me. Luckily I received excellent treatment during that time that allowed me new ways to 'turn down the volume' on the unhelpful noise in my head. Now in my forties, I'm in the midst of another episode and this time I'm listening out to re-name the voices feeding my depression this time. Again uncomfortable. This time I feel lucky to have learned the role of the voices and grateful to the existence of this website to allow me to write about them in a safe space. The mantra from earlier treatment... a thought is just a thought, not a fact... good luck to all.

Im glad you learned ways to deal with them. My voice isnt on 24/7 any more but it still visits me. My voice is my own and it seeks only to destroy me and unsettle anything i lay down as a foundation. Over time with recovery the voice got quieter but still to this day i havent found a way of shutting it up or stopping it from affecting me completely.

I guess its like an old adversary in a film who comes back again and again to fight, just like the baddies in horror movies who never seem to die.

I've never thought of it as a voice before but you make a lot of sense to me. In my case its just nagging negative and critical thoughts - like on the cartoon where they have an angel and devil on each shoulder, in my case the devil cartoon is whispering negative stuff into my ear and the angel is silent - but it's my voice making the comments. The trick must be how to get turn the volume down on the devil and up on the angel but I have no idea how to do this.

I've never thought of it as a voice before but you make a lot of sense to me. In my case its just nagging negative and critical thoughts - like on the cartoon where they have an angel and devil on each shoulder, in my case the devil cartoon is whispering negative stuff into my ear and the angel is silent - but it's my voice making the comments. The trick must be how to get turn the volume down on the devil and up on the angel but I have no idea how to do this.

I think it's particularly disheartening when you realise that you can't remember not having the voice in your head ! I have only just really accepted that depression is part of who I am, and has been for a long time, and it has been marshalled and fuelled by me, telling myself I should be this, or that - Wherever the voice came from in the first place, it is mine now - recognising how subversive and unhelpful that voice is and knowing I have a choice to listen to it or not, or acknowledge it and counter it with something that is positive is an important step - and not a part of a negative spiral that forms part of the daily trap - and I suppose is how CBT works