Voices in Your Head? | How to Deal With Inner Dialogue
Summary: Is it crazy to have voices in your head? We all have them to a degree, but when it negatively impacts your life, it's time to get help. Fortunately, there are some things you can do to eliminate the voices.
Do you have voices in your head that hinder your life? Do they say negative, hateful things that make you doubt yourself and feel down? Or maybe the voices are of the interactions you had that day, replying in your mind. Or a variety of other things. If you have any inner dialogue that is interfering with your life, then there is a reason you have these voices and things you can do about it.
First, let’s talk about the origin of the voice you’re having. It can vary greatly and be caused by multiple things. For voices that tend to be negative and doubtful, then they often stem from childhood trauma. Perhaps your parents made you feel as though you were never good enough and always put you down. You then encapsulate their personality into your mind and you hear their voice, sowing doubt within you no matter what you do. It may not even sound like them, but these voices are caused by their abuse. Similarly, you may hear voices of past abusers, not necessarily your parents, or people in your life presently that cause you a lot of stress.
Other voices you may hear are what happened during the day, conversations you had, music you listened to. This will play back like you recorded it in your mind, often very clear, and may overlap with other voices, where it sounds like many people are in your head. It may sound like racing thoughts. This happens because your subconscious became susceptible during the time the dialogue was happening. For instance, you may have the TV or videos on in the background while you’re working, and it enters into your subconscious mind. Consciously you may not even remember what you were listening to, but it gets trapped in your subconscious and it may come out, and unwind, during times you’re more relaxed, such as when you’re trying to sleep.
You hear these thoughts play out as if you’re actually listening to them now. Not just background audio, but any dialogue or sound that becomes part of your subconscious when you get into a susceptible and suggestible state. This can be during times of intense stress and anxiety, when you’re physically and mentally unwell, like a cold sickness, and depression, or anything else that brings you down. The voices are then trapped in your subconscious, binding and coiling up, and must be released. The more stressed you are, the more it begins to constrict you. You may notice that the voices are especially noticeable when you’re in a more relaxed state, such as trying to go to sleep.
So, how do you deal with these voices? There are some similarities with how to properly deal with these two types of voices, but there are some major differences as well. Techniques that may work for both types of voices is relaxing auditory stimulation. You want to focus your sense of hearing on something else besides the voices. While you’re not actively hearing the voices with your ears, your mind thinks it’s external. So, having something relaxing to listen to will use the same sense and pathway to replace the negative voices with something more positive.
You can use things such as a white noise generator, or relaxing music in the background. Perhaps you like the sound of rainfall or water flowing. You may find that listening to sounds that vary may cause more stress, so keep it very simplistic. For instance, listening to nature sounds where there is running water, branches, birds, crickets, and so on may be too sporadic. Maybe you’ll do best with a constant sound without variation. Maybe listening to a relaxing person’s voice could help, like an audio book or other audio material like a guided meditation or hypnosis recording. Furthermore, you may find that you don’t like any sound at all, and earplugs would be the best. Find what works best for you.
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When it comes to trauma-based voices, on top of the techniques we just described, you also have to face and heal the trauma that is causing the voices. If your parents still make you doubtful within your mind, then that’s a sign you have not healed yet. Talk about your problems and learn techniques to let go of the trauma from the past to take dominance over the voices instead of them controlling you.
When it comes to the playback of voices from dialogue you heard today, be mindful of the noises around you that may be going into your subconscious. Practice some relaxation techniques to prevent you from being overly stressed and take the voices into your mind for playback later.
We’ve all heard voices in our head at one point or another. Everyone has voices and inner dialogue daily and we don’t consider that a problem. The difference is that many people think voices in your head have to be someone else. But, it could just be your own voice, judging you or saying rude things. It may sound like you, but you don’t have to take what it says personally.
Reducing stress and properly dealing with trauma are the two most important things you can do to eliminate the voices in your head that are preventing you from relaxing, sleeping, and being successful. Once you have done these things and replaced the negative, distracting voices with something more positive and welcoming, then your key to success and happiness has been found.
Let me know how this works for you. Have a great day!
Additional Info
I know I’ve had inner voices for a long time, but nothing so severe that it felt like someone else, or even external. On very rare occasions it feels worse, like a negative voice controlling me, but I eventually take control over myself and not let it have control. Furthermore, there have been times where songs, commercials, and other pieces of dialogue will play in my mind like I recorded it and am playing it back. This greatly impacts my sleep as they just play on repeat and end up getting jumbled up due to all the talking. Distracting myself with some other relaxing sound is very helpful. I personally find the music or sound has to be consistent. I don’t like variation in the track or it makes me feel more anxious. But, it does help take my mind off the constant onslaught of voices I’m hearing.
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