If your voices are a problem, for example if they are causing you distress or affecting your day to day life, you might want to seek medical treatment. This page covers:

• How can I access treatment?
• Talking therapies
• Medication

How can I access treatment?

The first place to go is normally your GP. They may refer you to a psychiatrist who may give you a diagnosis and treatment. Your GP or psychiatrist may see your voices as a result of an illness and prescribe medication and other treatment.

Your GP should always check to that there are no physical reasons why you are hearing voices before you are prescribed medication or referred to a psychiatrist. For example, they should check:

• that you don't have a high temperature and you're not delirious
• if it's a side effect of any medication you're taking.

Different doctors may have different approaches. Our pages on seeking help for a mental health problem have information on how to make sure your voice is heard, and what you can do if you're not happy with your doctor.

Talking therapies

There are different types of talking therapies but they are all designed to give you space to explore difficult feelings and experiences with a trained professional.

See our pages on talking therapies for more information on how they work and how to access them.

You may also be offered other treatments including arts and creative therapies.

For more information on treatments for specific mental health problems, see our pages on treatments for psychosis, schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder.

Talking therapies work well for me and are essential for improving my coping mechanisms.

Medication

If your voices are very troubling and you have been referred to a psychiatrist, they are likely to prescribe an antipsychotic drug. These drugs may:

• stop the voices or make them less frightening for you
• make you feel indifferent to the voices, even though you can still hear them
• make the voices quieter and less intrusive, so you feel calmer and less upset by them.

Medication may be something you need only in the short term, allowing you to learn other ways of coping with the voices so that you then no longer need drugs.

See our pages on antipsychotics for general information about this type of medication, and details about specific drugs.

Watch David talk about his experience of getting help for hearing voices.

This information was published in October 2018. We will revise it in 2021.