“Is no one else listening? There is a man who orders me to kill and destroy.”
The condition that led Leandro Torquato Amaral, 38, to seek medical help can be seen by medicine as a mental disorder. But for an international organization of people who hear voices, it is not synonymous with disease.
At the International Listening Voices Movement (HVM), hearing is analyzed based on each person’s trajectory and discussed in support groups. The proposal also intends to break taboos associated with the phenomenon.
Voice Hearers come together in therapeutic groups dealing with stigmas, including madness, and finding ways to deal with what they hear, such as identifying triggers.
The process also involves looking for stimuli that drive away perceived negative voices or, in some cases, talking to them.
The idea was born in the Netherlands in the 1980s and arrived in Brazil in 2015, when two centers were opened in the interior of São Paulo. Four years later, there were more than 40 groups.
Translated by AZAHARA MARTIN ORTEGA
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