I’m trying to figure out what’s happening to me and I’m not sure where to look.
For the last several years, whenever I listen to silence-filling noise (white, brown, pink, etc.) I tend to hear additional sounds. It’s like having your radio tuned to a MHz that’s just off a tiny bit, so you hear static but there’s just a slight edge of voices or something that you can’t quite make out but is definitely there. Sometimes, instead of voices, it’s also patterns in the noise or various pitches.
It happens in a variety of situations, like Youtube videos, audio tracks from meditation apps and noise generators, and even devices that have no audio input or antenna and are specifically for noise as you’d find in the waiting room of a massage clinic. It even happens when it’s a completely benign source like an air fan. And the sounds I hear match the volume of the source.
Do I have superpowers? A brain tumor? Am I just sensitive to imperfect wave form generation? Am I part-dog? Have I done damage to myself from listening to Metallica way too loud for too many years?
Where do I start looking into this? Does anyone have any possible explanations for what I’m experiencing that might lead me in the right direction?
Normal I think. I hear what you’re saying, but specifically more noticeable when it’s dead silent. I hate it. So… I sleep with rain sounds or a YouTube video of someone talking.
As said by others; see a physician, then a psychiatrist (in that order).
Auditory pseudo-hallucinations may be completely benign, especially if you’ve partaken in psychedelic substances recent or long since past, but they may also be an early warning sign of (like you said) potential pressure on the brain or abnormality in brain functioning.
And even that might be fine.
Either way, why gamble? Go see a doctor.
You should go see a psychiatrist if you can. This definitely sounds like early schizophrenia and a lot of people ignore the early signs before it’s too late. With medications a normal life is possible so don’t worry.
This was my first thought, too.
This is not schizophrenia. It is a common occurrence and a type of tinnitus.
https://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/apophenia-audio-pareidolia-and-musical-ear-syndrome/
Yeah this is why a real psychiatrist should diagnose it to make sure, better to see a doc and not lemmy
This is not something for Lemmy to solve. This is something for a psychiatrist to solve.
It’s a type of tinnitus. Learn about it.
https://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/apophenia-audio-pareidolia-and-musical-ear-syndrome/
Thanks. Still not something for Lemmy to solve.
I disagree. I think humans are supposed to talk to each other, share experiences, and figure things out.
Yes, but we tend to suggest going to a professional when lives or health are at stake. This is why we use engineers to design bridges and not groups of well-meaning laypeople.
As others have mentioned, see a psychiatrist. If you need medication then it might take a little bit to figure out what works best for you and catching it before it gets worse is always good.
That’s a referral to a series of specialists and probably an MRI or two at minimum. Cancer is a deeply shitty way to die, go talk to your doctor ASAP.
If you smoke or otherwise consume marijuana, it can cause auditory hallucinations.
Because it can’t be said enough…
See a doctor. Make an appointment today, now. Not tomorrow.
Do not try to self diagnose. It will only go poorly.
See a doctor.
If it’s changing, you might want to get a brain-scan, immediately.
No, it isn’t normal ( not for me, anyhow ), to the guy who said it is normal.
It’s not an ear thing, it is an auditory-processing thing, so it’s your brain that’s doing it.
The question is why it is doing it.
Perhaps it’s just fuzzy wiring, as most such cases likely are.
( synaesthesia is a case of weird wiring, and I’ve got that, but not in the normal way, not senses blurring into each-other, but rather my non-visual cognition being a kind of “blur” to those senses, so they mesh oddly )
But if it begins changing in either intensity or character, get a scan.
( I’m a braindamage survivor, and it takes decades to adapt to braindamage: prevention/avoidance is better than hating one’s life for decades, while being bullied by all who reject that it could still validly be a problem, and hold that one ought either force oneself into being an “acceptable” drugged psychiatric-zombie, and not “pretend” to be getting better, or one ought be able to be acceptable-pretence, just like Valid People™ are. )
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This is normal, I hear it too sometimes. Particularly when I’m laying with one ear covered so I’m hearing white noise while trying to fall asleep. Something about the mix of frequencies, part of them traveling through/bouncing off the walls and the pillow, and just getting older sometimes creates an illusion that a TV is on in the other room or someone is talking outside. Sometimes I’ll think my phone alarm is going off (I use internet radio for the alarm, so I never know specifically how it will sound), but then lift my head and my brain has enough info to determine it’s just noise.
Mild hallucinations are normal. It’s impossible for your brain to gather 100% accurate data, let alone process everything it is handed, so it hallucinates all the time in ways you don’t notice to fill in the gaps (ex. the large blind spot in your vision that your brain has learned to ignore). It’s only if it’s starting to cause you distress or cognitive dissonance that you should seek help. Ex. it’s one thing to hear a TV in the other room that’s not there, it’s another to conclude that your long-deceased grandfather must be watching TV and think that’s normal.
What about when wearing (really good) noise cancelling head phones? Everything you’ve mentioned is when there is some sort of noise going on, but it’s it also happening with everything cancelled out? A few people have pointed out Auditory Pareidoilia which is your brain trying to find words/pattern/meaning in the noise it is hearing, but is it also doing that when the only sound it can hear is it’s own blood whooshing though your veins, which it should be used to? What about in a sensory deprivation tank?
There’s Hearing - which is what the all the tiny bits of your ears connected to the nerves do, then there’s Perception - which is how your brain interprets the information it receives from the nerves connected to your ears and puts it back together. Basically, your brain is working overtime to try to figure out why you are listening to the noise you are listening to. As long as it’s only happening in those situations described and, as others have said, it’s not voices telling to do anything.
I have this, the fan sounds I can hear music in there, and to me it sounds like it’s coming in my ears, not from my brain. Running water can do the same.
Yes it’s hallucinatory but no way is it pathological unless you start believing the voices are real and talking to you.
It’s pretty normal, brains try to meaning or something in its senses. Sometimes if you hear tapping you may start believing it’s the beat to a certain song. There is also of course that viral video that makes you hear “brainstorm” or “green needle” depending on which option you are mentally choosing.
If you expect to hear something you will hear it. There have been funny moments where I removed my earbuds, put them down, and I kept listening to the faintly playing music. I put them back in 30 seconds later and I realized they were muted the whole time
See a doctor. Do it now. Not later. Nobody here will give you accurate medical advice. The underlying causes are diverse. You will not receive worthwhile medical advice without a proper diagnosis.
I would add that advising OP is the importance of seeing a doctor is also medical advice, subject to the same caveat about accuracy. A group of people telling them to see a doctor urgently could induce a harmful level of fear or anxiety. Anxiety is not warranted in this case, given that OP described the normal experience of auditory pareidolia to a T.
Don’t listen to this guy, go see a doctor. It’s probably nothing, but only a doctor can help you get diagnosed.
I’m not saying don’t go, just don’t work up much worry about it. (The doctor is going to explain it’s normal, too.)