But aren’t different types of voices associated with different illnesses?
This myth gets repeated a lot but actually no, not if you read the latest research. Which diagnostic label an individual will be given often varies between doctors. Many voice hearers experience being given different diagnoses according to which doctor they see. Often doctors believe different characteristics of voice hearing indicate different diagnoses, for example, whether the individual hears voices inside or outside of their head, and whether their voices talk to them or about them.
A voice hearer may get a range of diagnoses, from schizophrenia to personality disorder. However, it is often argued that unlike in the rest of medicine, diagnostic labels in psychiatry fail to indicate which treatment will be effective, and say nothing useful in terms of what the individual’s long-term outcome will be in terms of their recovery.
There is currently no conclusive evidence of discreet illnesses with different biological causes and treatments. It is argued labels given by psychiatrists frequently communicate little about an individual’s personal experiences. Research shows that what diagnostic label someone has been given by psychiatry says nothing about their voices, and what type of voices someone hears says nothing about what diagnostic label they will have been given.