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The findings of Study 2 and Study 3 should be considered as preliminary
findings of a current problem that should be examined by further research.
Nevertheless, the results could be a basis not just for further research, but it
could facilitate interventions and addiction treatment services to deal with
the new challenges of NPS use and addiction.
6.3.3. Study 4
The phenomenon of voice hearing could be discussed from many perspectives.
One of the most important aspects could be to define voice hearing. In inter¬
national literature there is no consensus yet what is voice hearing: is it a
psychotic symptom or it is an acceptable and understandable variation of
human experience (M. Romme & Morris, 2013). Nevertheless, the present
book aims to discuss voice hearing from the perspective of recovery and
examine voice hearing as a condition or an experience from what recovery is
possible. For this the examination of personal lived experience and the phe¬
nomenological side of this phenomenon is inevitable. The aim of Study 4 was
to explore how people who are living with voice hearing interpret their experi¬
ences and how they could recover from this condition.
The elements of recovery approach (such as hope, agency, identity, mean¬
ing) outlined by literature (Terry & Cardwell, 2015) also appear in the recov¬
ery process of voice hearers. The findings of Study 4 suggest that recovery
from voice hearing is a subjective process, it could be individually different.
According to previous study findings and the results of Study 4 there is a
common essential element in the recovery processes of voice hearers. This is
that point when they could accept their voices and they could reveal this is
an effect of an inner crisis (Chin et al., 2009; Mawson et al., 2011; Milligan,
McCarthy-Jones, Winthrop, & Dudley, 2013). As it was highlighted by Study
4 the acceptance of voices could happen by an influence of the self-help group.
The moment when they start attending the group and meet others with the
same condition is considered to be a “turning point” in voice hearers’ life
narrative.
The main aim of voice hearers’ self-help group meetings is to help members
to articulate and better understand their individual experiences. Members
often ask one another questions like: “What the voices say?” “How many
different voices are there?” “Have they changed over time?” (Dillon & Horn¬
stein, 2013, p. 290). Encouraging this kind of contextual analysis helps mem¬
bers to make sense of their experiences and identify circumstances that trigger
voices, thereby offering more control over their experience (Dillon & Horn¬
stein, 2013). On the other hand meeting with others with the same condition,
better understand and gain control over their voices means a “turning point”