Clinician: Do you remember our first visit? What do you remember about it?
Voice hearer: You are the first person I told about my voices. Up until then, I only spoke briefly about them. I told you the bad time I had in a great deal of detail.
Clinician: What made you decide to share your experiences with me?
Voice hearer: You made me very comfortable about talking with you. I thought I killed and raped my family when I first started having symptoms. When you have something for 6, 7 years, the relief you had about speaking with someone.... It was a realistic fear. Every night you went to bed, you feared that you would wake up in hell. When I spoke with others, they looked at my alcohol history and thought my voices had to do with my drinking. I was already sober for a year! It was not because of my drinking. Some thought I had multiple personalities. They did not listen.
Clinician: Were there questions you remember the most about that visit?
Voice hearer: Spirituality. It was never brought up before. For me, my struggle was about heaven and hell, about morality. Like the Babylonian King [Nebuchadnezzar] who became insane and saved by God, mine is a spirituality journey.