Despite the media sensationalizing violent acts committed by marginalized people with documented mental health deficits, and the public safety panics it creates, many actively caring people remain unfazed by the gruesome hype.
These are people who are not interested in the gory details of highly rare occurrences or the online orgies of macabre retribution fantasies shared in dastardly detail by medieval torture enthusiasts. No. These are people who are interested in genuine and sustainable solutions for their loved ones, whether they be family members, colleagues, co-workers, or just simply members of their larger community. There are many people who do not hear voices that are seeking understanding of the voice hearing experience. These are people looking to help other people.
I have seen such people ask on forums or support groups dedicated to voice hearing, “how can I help so an so…how can I understand what they are experiencing?”
The answer is simple.
You already are helping. Your love for this person you care for, that person who hears voices that others cannot, is evident in your question. Loving a person beyond their gift or curse, that is however the voice hearer claims to experience their extra sensory activity at any given time, is a helping act. It is actually more than that…
Loving is the most helpful way of being present in this world in relation to any other person. Love is an understanding between two people. It exists on multiple levels of our existence: logical, emotional, an spiritual.
Love can embrace each one of these planes and even supersede it. Your loved one may query you as to why you may be feeling a certain way, and likely has. Sometimes you can’t explain it, because you aren’t sure. You are feeling a certain way but reason cannot sort it out for you. Other times you may be confused and simply choose not to give a reason. Whatever the case, you are loved and that does not change suddenly in the face or disappointment, illness, stress, or even anger.
Love is first and foremost an understanding that is helpful in attaining a stable and manageable state for the person you care for.
Everything else flows from it. And everything else is what mental consumers and many medical professionals conceptualize as Recovery.
Recovery is largely symptom management. This may entail recognizing triggers and avoiding them, coming to terms with the past, learning to accept the future as a welcome achievement for simply being present within it, a lifestyle based on healthier choices, and combinations thereof!
I may not always understand why my lover, or kids, or partner, or friends behave the way they do. It is pretty much guaranteed that there will be times when this is to case. And vice versa.
Start with Love. End with Happiness.
Keep on helping your loved one through the understanding that already exists between you.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
The Four Witches and Me 