“Meeting up with likeminded people” – Pete’s story

A stock photo has been used on this blog at the request of the author. 

Pete shares his experience of hearing voices. He has been going to our Wiltshire Hearing Voices group for years, finding the socialising and environment really supportive.

I’ve had mental health issues for a long time, but the spiritual side is very difficult – thinking God hates me and all the rest of it. It’s made my condition worse. Sometimes I can’t make out what’s real and what isn’t. They’ve diagnosed me with schizophrenia which I’m not sure is the right diagnosis. 

I seem to pick up a lot of problems: I have permanent dizziness, tinnitus and find it hard to balance whilst walking. I hear voices, different voices sometimes. I try to talk to my friends about it, but it gets monotonous because they can’t do much about it.

If you’ve never had voices, you can’t understand it. There’s always jokes about people who hear voices, you can even get T-shirts with slogans like ‘when the voices say no, you’re just jealous they’re not speaking to you’. I think to myself, ‘if only you knew what living with it was like.

I’ve lost interest in things. Because I can’t drive anymore, I’ve started collecting vintage model cars to try and keep myself interested. It got to the point where people were saying to me that I needed a hobby. I used to collect cars eight years ago, so I thought I might as well start collecting them again. I’ve got quite a few and built my collection up after selling it a few years ago.

I’m relieved when I go to the Wiltshire Hearing Voices group because it gives me a couple of hours to socialise after spending so much time on my own. Meeting up with likeminded people is good for me. The group is brilliant and the people are really nice. Going to the group is something I look forward to - it’s like a break when it’s all too much. I’ve been to a couple of different hearing voices groups in the past but this one is the most successful.

We have the group every two weeks for a couple of hours. It’s pretty open – you can go in, you don’t even have to say anything. There could be three or four people there, sometimes it can be fourteen. If someone needs to get something off their chest, they can. Sometimes people will go there once; some people, like me, tend to go all the time. I’ve been going for years, I’m one of the people who has been there the longest so I see a lot of comings and goings. I’ve got a friend who I’ve encouraged to go to the group as well because I think it’ll help him. I’m hoping to see him there next time.