You know... not to be pessimistic or anything, but the voices never really go away... No psychologist can ever make them go away, and the ones that are worth their huge salaries don't try. They teach you to reject them and to block them out of your brain.
As humans, we all have our little voices that we hear and that tell us to do things. Random thoughts that pop into our heads telling us to lash out or do something stupid. Most people learn to cope on their own or have much less violent or socially unacceptable thoughts; however, schizophrenics have a much harder time coping because they cannot always block out the voice inside. They have a reputation for doing very violent or "insane" things, but this is because the disease would not be noticed otherwise.
Often times, the voices people hear will follow the same pattern of logic and develop a type of sub-personality. In extreme cases, schizophrenics may have sub-personalities so defined that they begin to manifest visual form and become seperate beings that the person can see, hear, and even smell, taste, or touch. These voices can have such a hold on a person's mind that they may interact with real-world objects in the person's mind. For example, the person may see their hallucination opening a closed door, while in reality, the door remains shut or was never shut to begin with. These instances, however are quite rare and only occur the most extreme cases.
Schizophrenia is not something that is entirely bad, however. Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia very often display great puzzle-solving abilities and are good at finding hidden pictures, messages, or meanings in something. They often test to have higher than average IQ's due to their ability to link 2 seperate concepts together to gain a higher understanding of a subject. Many need to understand how or why something works before they can truely understand the thing itself.
I honestly can't say I blame your friend for wanting to sever her connection with you, anyone who's honest with themself would be scared after something like that happened, whether they stand by you or drift away. On the other hand, I can and DO fully blame her for dragging the rest of your friends with her, rather than letting them choose for themselves; she is a selfish fool, and you're better off without her, even though she is most likely what triggered your "cure".
Overall, I believe, sadly, that you will never actually overcome this illness, but because you have at least subdued the voice, I believe that you will be able to cope with it in any future situations. Many reported schizophrenics do one of two things after their friends abandon them: silence the voice permanently (suicide), or give in to it entirely (the serial murderers and general "crazys"). But you did neither. You found the resolve and willpower to silence your voice. You have conquered your demon, which by itself is more than can be said for most people, and you have done so alone. Your story is very inspiring, and I salute you for your bravery.
~Wonko the Sane--scientist, programer, psychologist-in-training, mild schizophrenic.
