Voices through the Walls

Yeah, I hear ya!

There are many voices that go out unto the world…Most are not of God.

Many years ago I was counseling a client who was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia. Recently this client had just moved into a new apartment and he was complaining to me that his neighbors were talking about him through the walls. When I asked him what the neighbors were saying about him, he told me that they were talking about how "dirty, smelly, and nasty" he was and that they wished he would take a "damn shower.” I asked him if he had ever met his neighbors? He said “no.” After telling me this he had small epiphany which led him to say: “Now how the hell would they know if I needed to take a shower!?! They have never met me and I’m fuc*ing always clean!” I told him that was a great question! For how could someone you never seen, or been in close proximity to, know about your personal hygiene habits?



Over the next couple weeks we talked about how these negative voices had been a pattern in his life over the years. For the truth was- this was not the first time he had heard the voices of “people”, he did not know, talking about him through the walls. I also contacted the apartment manger and I was able to show this client that the apartment next to his (where he claimed to hear the voices coming from) had been vacant since he moved in.

Segue

I was thinking about this client the other day and it got me pondering  a few questions, which I’m just going to throw out to you:

Have you ever let voices (real or imagined) dictate whether you did/did not do something?

Have you ever let others tell you who/what you are?

Have you ever lived in an apartment where you talked to your neighbor through the walls, or they talked to you? If the answer is yes, was there actually someone living on the other side of the wall? (You do not have to answer the last part if you feel it will incriminate you:)

Where are your messages coming from?