8 weeks ago i started going to a group called "hearing voices". It was run by community mental health. It has really helped me to open up about my experiences. The best thing about it is meeting other schizophrenics and people diagnosed with a mental illness and learning how to understand what it is we go through. How common it is to hear voices and how to understand why you are hearing voices. 

The second best thing about it is the lady who runs the group with a nurse hears voices herself and she is a very open and great communicator. She had spent most of her life indoors - 18 years- and she learnt how to take control of the voices in her head. She then went to university. I also went back to university after my second time in hospital to study women's studies-gender roles and representations in society.

The lady who leads the group- Barbara is very reflective, dedicated and busy going to conferences and working hard at her job and i am blessed to have met her.

This really is just to say i still have hope for mental health employees and even though i have a shocking history with them i am open to experiencing more groups like this one.

I am starting my second group this friday called "the beliefs group". I am sure this one will be great and some of the same people i met at my last group are doing this one too. I will write later to say how it is going.