For most people who hear voices, the first thing they discovered is that some activities make the voices quieter, or at least less loud-feeling, and others make them worse. That practical wisdom — long before any clinician got involved — is what distraction techniques formalise. Used well, they reduce distress and give you back hours of your day. Used badly, they become avoidance and quietly shrink your life. This article is about the difference.
Distraction techniques use competing mental, sensory, or physical activity to reduce the intensity of voices — most effective when used as one of several tools, alongside acceptance-based and meaning-focused approaches.
Why distraction works
Auditory hallucinations engage the brain's language and auditory processing networks. When you do something that competes for those same systems — speaking aloud, listening to speech, humming, reading — the bandwidth available to the hallucination is reduced. Reviews summarised in the NICE schizophrenia guideline and the NIMH schizophrenia portal identify distraction and attention-shifting as core self-management techniques.
The techniques, ranked by what most patients try
1. Listening
Music with lyrics, podcasts, audiobooks, or talk radio in one earbud. The verbal content competes most directly with voices. Many people find that spoken content beats music for this purpose. A favourite podcast in the morning shower or on the commute can be a daily anchor.
2. Speaking aloud
- Reading a passage aloud (a paragraph from a book, a poem, lyrics)
- Counting backwards from 100 by 7s
- Naming objects you can see, out loud
- Describing what you are doing, narrator-style: "I am walking to the kitchen, I am opening the fridge..."
3. Humming or singing
This is a discreet move that works in public. The vibration in the throat and the production of sound recruit the same machinery the voice is using. Try humming a single note for a slow exhale.
4. Engaging activity
Anything that requires moderate concentration: a crossword, a puzzle, knitting, a walk in a busy area, cooking from a recipe, a video game. The aim is "active and absorbing," not "passive and quiet."
5. Sub-vocal counting or phrasing
If you can't speak out loud, mouthing words silently or saying them in your head ("one, two, three…" or a short prayer) provides some of the same benefit.
Techniques the evidence is more mixed on
- Drowning out with loud noise. Sometimes helps in the moment but tends to be exhausting and can damage hearing if used with headphones at high volume.
- Heavy substance use. Cannabis, alcohol, and other drugs can blunt voices temporarily but worsen psychosis over weeks and months. See cannabis and psychosis.
- Sleeping all day. Provides relief but disrupts circadian rhythm and tends to worsen overall stability.
The avoidance trap
Distraction becomes a problem when it is the only tool, or when it leads you to avoid all the situations where voices appear. Common patterns:
- Always having headphones in, even when speaking with family
- Refusing to go anywhere quiet
- Never being alone with your own thoughts
Over time this shrinks life. CBTp therapists generally suggest pairing distraction with normalising and acceptance-based approaches (see ACT for psychosis) so that voices become less frightening even when you are not actively distracting from them.
A balanced weekly plan
One useful structure that comes out of CBTp:
- Daily. Two or three short distraction tools you reach for when voices spike.
- Weekly. One session of practising "letting voices be" without distracting — five to ten minutes, ideally with a therapist initially, while you do something simple like washing dishes.
- Monthly. Review with your treatment team: which techniques are working, which have become avoidance, what to add or drop.
If voices give commands
You are hearing voices commanding you to harm yourself or others, or you feel less able to resist them than usual. Call your treatment team, an emergency line (988 in the US), or go to an emergency department.
Building your personal list
Most people end up with three to five reliable techniques. To find yours:
- Make a list of every technique above plus any you have discovered yourself.
- Try one a day for two weeks.
- Rate each on a 0–10 scale: how much did it reduce voice intensity, how much did it reduce distress, how feasible was it.
- Keep the top three. These go on your coping card.
Working with a therapist
A clinician trained in CBTp will help you tailor distraction to your specific voices, integrate it with reality testing and acceptance, and recognise when it is helping versus when it has tipped into avoidance. NAMI's Support and Education hub can help you find local options.
This article is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified mental health professional. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 in the US, or your local emergency number.