TED Talks: Eleanor Longden - The voices in my head...

I don't know if this has been posted here yet. Someone on another forum I frequent posted it over there and I thought I'd share it here, as it relates, although she doesn't mention dissociation directly (but refers to fragmentation, and trauma-related parts of oneself).

http://www.ted.com/talks/eleanor_longden_the_voices_in_my_head.html?utm_medium=on.ted.com-static&awesm=on.ted.com_Longden&utm_campaign=&utm_content=awesm-publisher&utm_source=m.facebook.com

Here's a description:
To all appearances, Eleanor Longden was just like every other student, heading to college full of promise and without a care in the world. That was until the voices in her head started talking. Initially innocuous, these internal narrators became increasingly antagonistic and dictatorial, turning her life into a living nightmare. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, hospitalized, drugged, Longden was discarded by a system that didn't know how to help her. Longden tells the moving tale of her years-long journey back to mental health, and makes the case that it was through learning to listen to her voices that she was able to survive.

Eleanor Longden overcame her diagnosis of schizophrenia to earn a master’s in psychology and demonstrate that the voices in her head were “a sane reaction to insane circumstances.”

I've watched her. Although I can't really relate to the way her voices presented to her, I have enormous respect for this woman, to stand there talking about the bizarre and embarrassing things she did and thought, such power, such self respect, what a beautiful woman.

That website crashed my browser! Otherwise, great talk.

It sounds like Ms. Longden's diagnosis of schizophrenia was correct. Her voices are typical of that. Her story is further evidence that recovery from schizophrenia (or at least high functioning in spite of it) is possible. The most famous story like it is Nobel Prize winner Dr. John Nash. His story is told in the book and film A Brilliant Mind.

A couple of things she said made me wince. Foremost among them, her saying that disclosing to her college roommate and then a doctor were major mistakes. She was going down fast and, whether she asked for help or not, likely the result would have been the same: hospitalization and medication. Eventually she did get competent help.

She speaks highly of the Hearing Voices Network of community support groups. That is an excellent resource for voice hearers, including multiples.

Wikipedia: John Forbes Nash, Jr.
Wikipedia: Hearing Voices Network

Thank you for posting this

There is an essay by Eleanor Longden on the website of an advocacy organization, Mad in America, about her experience of giving this TED Talk. I'd like to quote a short paragraph of it that caused an explosion in my head:

At the end of my talk June Cohen, one of the conference’s wonderful co-hosts, came onto the stage and asked me, with a respectful interest, whether I still hear voices. For a split second I hesitated, wondering whether to play it down with an airy “oh, not all that much now.” Instead I opted for the truth: “All the time,” I said cheerfully, “In fact I heard them while I did the talk – they were reminding me what to say!”

Imagining myself being asked that question in front of a large audience, I heard an uproar in my head, mostly denying: "No, don't tell." "Play it down!" "Say no!" "Deny, deny, deny!" And among them was my own thought of how I would answer: "Of course. In fact, I am hearing them right now, giving their own answers to your question." Ha ha. Where is all that cover-up coming from? As far as I know there are only 3 of us in here now and Alter 2 and I are in favor of coming out even more than we are now. I am light headed. Time to take a break and do some grounding!

Mad in America: Raising Our Voices at TED 2013

Una, I just had a similar reaction to that post. In fact, I can hardly focus to type this out. Most of my alters can't understand why we'd want to be so open, especially the protectors. -Jeff

I'm not one of those protectors, but I can hardly manage to comprehend it. Perhaps our system just isn't ready to be open when we needn't be. -Lewis

I saw this too and have mixed feelings. Her voice that caused the SH sounds so close to my own experience, but I began to SH when I was very young and the voice was internal as well as in manifestations.

The thing is I never told anyone I was hearing voices as I wasn't aware as I was so mixed up, I thought they were real. Had someone asked me I'd have said 'no' because I would have been in trouble.

It's interesting to see other's opinions on this. I have looked into the Hearing Voices Network. While I think it's more enlightened than the MH system. Some aspects triggered me as a part of my DID I get religious delusions and I never want to think they are somehow normal. But I have considered going to a group meeting.

That TED Talk has inspired some commentaries.

Mind Wide Open: Listening to Disturbing Voices, Thoughts and Feelings
This is a Huffington Post essay by Dr. Gary Trosclair. He argues that some voices "need to be disregarded or perhaps medicated," others can be listened to but only "if we hear them symbolically rather than literally". Sigh. He does acknowledge that "the intolerable becomes unspeakable and silenced in a reservoir so vile one can only try to avoid it. But this is unsustainable and the soul will scream horrifically if it isn't heard." That's for sure.

He also writes

Longden's voices really became problematic once she revealed them to others. [...] I suspect that had the voices originally been met with a cautious but respectful curiosity by the people who treated her, she would not have experienced the hell she did.

That was also my impression of her story. I am grateful that my therapists (2 LPCC, MFT, PsyD) have all been respectful of my anomalous experiences: not just the voices but all the "bizarre" phenomena I've had to contend with. None of these therapists ever labeled me mentally ill, psychotic, delusional, hysterical, or faking it. Clearly I do have a problem, but who doesn't have a serious problem of some kind? And I am getting help.

I wholeheartedly agree with what seems to be the essay's take-home message:

The people that I'm really worried about are not the ones who hear voices or have strange thoughts or feelings, but the ones who suffer under the delusion that their own psychology is solidly unitary, and can't help but see everyone else as the crazy ones.

May you be blessed with good therapists and limited contact with anyone who would stigmatize you.

Una+ wrote:I am grateful that my therapists (2 LPCC, MFT, PsyD) have all been respectful of my anomalous experiences: not just the voices but all the "bizarre" phenomena I've had to contend with.

Una, would you like to share something of the "bizarre" phenomena you've experienced?

I've read in past post you mentioning events that even professionals have just not been able to explain.

Sea