Eleanor Longden, psychologist, was in her first year of university when she started hearing voices. Initially she dismissed this experience as harmless, simply an expression of her own thoughts, triggered by the loneliness and pressures experienced by many students on starting university. However having confided in a friend and, later, a GP this led to a swift diagnosis of schizophrenia, a mental health condition considered by many as having little hope for recovery.

Eleanor spent some time lost and ignored by mental health services eager to provide heavy doses of medication and shut her away in inpatient care facilities, but uninterested in providing any form of emotional support. After struggling for some time and being bullied due to the stigma of her condition, she returned to her family home and this is where her luck changed.

With treatment under psychiatrist Dr Pat Bracken Eleanor began on the path to recovery. She has since earned a BSc and an MSc in psychology, the highest classifications ever granted by the University of Leeds, England. Today she is studying for her PhD, and lectures and writes about recovery-oriented approaches to psychosis, dissociation and complex trauma. She is actively involved with Intervoice and Hearing Voices Network amongst others. She hears voices to this day but no longer views this as a negative experience.