Eleanor Longden, PhD

Was diagnosed with schizophrenia, rejected her diagnosis as a meaningless label, recovered, and has been off medication since 2007. She is currently a research scientist, manager at the Psychosis Research Unit, and a UK Deputy Prime Minister’s Mental Health Hero Award recipient. As a college student, she shared her experience of hearing a voice in her head with her classmates and was persuaded to see a doctor, who started her on a treatment. After the treatment began, voices multiplied and became disturbing. Things became so bad that she once tried to drill a hole in her head. She was in and out of hospitals until Dr. Pat Bracken helped her recover. In 2009, her voices were still “menacing”; by 2016, they had “transformed in character” and became “guides and allies, not tormentors.” After spending years in the coercive system “which emphasized factors like compliance, sedation and silencing,” she now advocates for recovery-oriented approaches. She describes her position as, “I’m not anti-medication; I’m pro-choice.”

Books: Relating to Voices using Compassion Focused Therapy: A Self-help Companion (Routledge, 2022) https://www.amazon.com/Relating-Voices-Compassion-Focused-Therapy/dp/0367762846

Learning from the Voices in My Head (TED Books Book 39) https://www.librarything.com/work/14511456‍ ‍