Oh on the mark.
The trouble is I’m a bit short.
Oh s*** what have I touched? Swipe it?
Who am I?
Gosh um, my name’s Debra, I'm 60.
I’m an explorer, that’s what I am.
What I like to do is explore what’s going on in people's minds,
and I especially like to explore what’s going on in my mind.
Ohhhh!
Sorry you can edit that bit out.
What makes me different from other people?
I suppose primarily um, the fact that I hear voices that other people don’t hear.
Those voices have led me to different places,
one of which is called madness.
Why do I hear voices?
I’m a very anxious person, I have been since I was a child,
and a real worrier, and I believe I developed voices a way to cope with a world
that I didn’t cope with very well.
How can you tell that the voices aren’t your conscience?
With voices, they are completely foreign.
They can be male, they can be of a different age, they can even have accents.
They are completely different to myself so I don’t identify with them.
Do your voices have names?
The only one that I have named as such is my Nana,
and she is a voice that I’ve heard from childhood
and she’s a very positive influence, she’s my cheerleader.
She thinks I’m fabulous!
It’s come through three times, I love it!
Were you ever admitted into an institution?
Yes!
Yeah I was admitted when i was about 17, I went into a ‘mental’ institution.
If you go to an environment that is created to contain madness,
what you learn is how to be mad.
My darkest moments were there, my most despairing moments were there,
also my most enlightening moments.
So, you’re not dangerous?
[sigh] No.
I suppose the only real danger I am is to myself.
There is no harm that I could ever do to anybody
that I haven’t done ten fold to myself.
Because I’m an incredibly fearful person, so what I’m frightened of is everybody else.
Is there enough support?
Maybe there is enough support out there,
I think maybe the challenge is how do you access it?
So maybe it's about how we inform people about what support is available,
and actually don’t have any criteria as such.
If someone says they need support then they need it,
not having a service that says “no you’re not actually mad enough at the moment”.
And I think probably one of the areas that we are developing and need to extend further
is peer support, because nobody gets it more than somebody that has been there.
How do people react when they find out I’m a voice hearer?
I’m guarded about who I tell, I must admit.
And I’m still pathetically plagued by that notion of wanting people to like me.
It’s like coming out in lots of ways, um
but they don’t really have any parades for voice hearers, you know?
And there’s no t-shirts, you know?
Sort of 'Voice Hearer and Proud' you know sort of thing,
so no we’re not necessarily celebrated.
Any minute now... There it is!
What are my plans for the future?
Um, to keep doing what I’m doing.
I have a real passion for this,
I just want to have the opportunity to talk to people,
to dispel the myths, to define people's potential,
to eradicate all the negative aspects that come from having
a diagnosis of a mental illness, as such,
to talk about this, to get young people,
younger people than me, to take up the mantle.
What I want to see is a healthy society.
What I want to see is social justice.
What I want to see is a world of acceptance where diversity is embraced and celebrated.
Okay?
Alright?
Thank you so much!
Oh no it’s a pleasure, like I said I could do this for fricken' hours.
This is what happens, 18 years of bloody silence, I can’t shut up, God!