Reach a clinician now if the voices are unclear or frightening
If you cannot tell what is you, or a voice pushes you toward not being here, reach a trusted person and a clinician now rather than sorting it out alone.
Warum es wirkt
When a voice feels louder than your own sense of who you are, that is a reason to bring in outside help, not to keep working on it alone. A clinician can tell apart what belongs to an inner-dialogue process and what needs medical or crisis attention, which a self-guided exercise cannot do. Saying that you cannot tell which voice is you is information a person should hear.
So gehst du vor
- Stop the position work for now, and do not try to decide which voice is the real you until you have talked with a person.
- Tell one person you trust that the voices have gotten louder and that you cannot tell which one is you.
- See a therapist or clinician soon. Tell them about the voices and how they have changed, and ask to be seen promptly.
- If you have thoughts of ending your life or harming yourself, or a part of you says you would be better off not here, call or text 988 in the US (the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), or find a line in your country at findahelpline.com.
- If you are in immediate danger, call your local emergency number.
- If you hear voices that other people do not hear, or you feel you cannot tell what is real, contact a clinician or a crisis line the same day.
Evidenz
988 and the Find A Helpline directory are established crisis and support services. They are not studies of dialogical self work, and they are included here so a person in distress knows where to turn. (clinical)
Crisis lines are support services rather than tested interventions for inner-dialogue work, and their hours and availability vary by country. Dialogical self theory is a research framework and does not replace a clinician's assessment. If one line is busy, try another listed line, or call your local emergency number.
Quellen
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (United States): call or text 988.
- Find A Helpline: international directory of crisis and support lines.
Häufiger Fehler
Pushing through a loud voice by arguing with it or writing a longer dialogue, which can keep the flood going. Reaching a person early is the more useful step.
Übe das mit IX Coach
Weitere Übungen für Dialogical Self Theory: Hermans and the Self as Inner Positions
- Set the voices down and come back to your body
Put the list of positions aside, feel your feet and breath, and let the room hold you while the loud voice quiets.
- List your inner and outer positions and choose the ones you recognise
Choose from a list of inner figures and outer figures the ones you recognise in your life, and name any the list leaves out.
- Rate how strongly each inner position shows up toward each outer figure
Take the positions you chose and rate, from 0 to 5, how strongly each inner position is active in your relation to each outer figure.
- Write a story from two of your positions, then rate what shaped each one
Choose two of your positions, build a narrative across past, present and future with guided questions, then rate how much events and people in your life affected each valuation.
- Picture your inner and outer figures on one stage
Imagine a stage with your inner characters entering from one side and your outer figures from the other, then notice how the two groups are linked.
Verwandte Konzepte
- Schattenarbeit
Den Teilen von dir begegnen, die du bisher ignoriert hast
- Internal Family Systems (IFS), praktisch erklärt
Das Anteile-Modell, die dahinterliegenden Mechanismen und eine ehrliche Einschätzung einer entstehenden Evidenzbasis
- Voice Dialogue: Meeting the Selves That Run Your Life
Hearing the pusher, the pleaser and the critic in their own voices, so they stop running you unnoticed
- Shadow Projection: Recognizing It and Taking It Back
When someone else seems to carry exactly the fault you cannot stand, and how to bring that energy home