Musical Hallucinations... Please Help

[SpartanMk]

Hey everyone... Really wanted some advice here as I am way out of my knowledge zone and google doctor is never a good thing.

Me and my girlfriend have been dating for 5 years. She has always been extremely emotional and when she gets emotional she is very erratic and insecure, etc. This is not surprising, it came from her Mum (childhood at home) and the way she was raised. The first few years was very up and down between us, but great in general. However after a serious fight she started changing (for the better) dramatically. We learnt how to work better with one another and she has gotten better consistently.

So...Literally a year or so an incident occured. My girlfriend was extremely stressed. Very little of which had to do with me. She was having lots of trouble sleeping, her end of year exams and a LARGE variety of issues were causing her tonnes of stress and she was having lots of panic attacks. At that point her period also hit..

At that point, she started hearing music. It's classical music by Chopin. This was consistent. We were very scared at first but we managed to come to the conclusion that such a thing was possible during high times of stress, sleeplessness and her period as well. It went away after about 3 days.

Since then things have been a lot smoother. She copes with her emotions better, etc and things are all around fantastic. Tonight we had our first MAJOR fight in a long time. Basically where she lost it to the point where she is verbally abusive and completely erratic. I know her quite well and when she gets to this point she also experiences a TONNE of guilt. MORE SO because of the fact that such a thing has not happened in so long. As the argument was kind of over, the same musical hallucinations started again.

Also worth noting, she used to listen to Chopin when younger after a fight with parents. She has no history of mental illness or drug use, etc.

It seems pretty clear the stress causes it. I suppose my main question is... How likely is it that this is a pre-cursor for something more serious? Or is such a thing normal when under a tonne of stress? Is there anything to do here? I just want information ...

Also worth noting, she is due for her period right now as she got this. She is 22 years old.

Sorry for the text wall...Anything is really appreciated.

 

[Philippa]

Really interesting.

I have nothing to really offer that might help here, but it's fascinating. I'm sorry if it's scaring both of you though...but you have to admit, it's pretty amazing, as far as reactions to stress go.

My only guess is that it might be her brains way of calming her down during high stress moments?

 

[SpartanMk]

Very amazing... The first time is happened was extremely frightening... Cause she called me yelling that someone was in the house playing piano... About 30 seconds later, she said, "Someone is playing the piano but I am looking at it and there is no one there."

One of the scariest moments of my life ... lol

In all honesty though, it happened today, but I don't think she is as scared of it any more cause we feel we know what it is. So it's a lot quieter even though it just started tonight. Seems like it will be gone tomorrow. My only concern is whether or not it indicates something worse, etc. Obviously it's a much better alternative to hearing voices, etc.

Edit - I don't know whether this means anything but both times have been during her period. What might also be worth noting is that she is very hormonal...her periods are extremely irregular and she gets intense pains during them.

 

[jeeps for now]

You might find it difficult to successfully Google something like this, anyway, unless you were to Google mature, practical self-grounding techniques. This is an excellent example of noting where 'hearing things' is not at all pathological, in the context of providing oneself with the memories needed to regroup one's constitution following a traumatic overload.

 

[SpartanMk]

That is very reassuring to hear jeeps, thank you.

 

[Loner]

You probably don't want to hear this, but the possibility of some sort of mental disorder other than ptsd should probably be ruled out first. Namely schizophrenia, probably others.

 

[SpartanMk]

I have looked at schizophrenia... The main positive thing here is that she has no other real symptoms of mental illness. She is generally happy, exercises, very social and active. Achieves quite well at Uni / work.

 

[anonymous]

OMG, I have never told my T about it, because I'm scared she will throw me into the loony bin, but the EXACT same thing happens to me!! And it is classical music too! As soon as my brain gets overwhelmed, overstimulated or highly worked up, I start hearing this classical music playing. This will either continue until I have calmed down, or until my brain shuts down and I dissociate. No, I don't have any other mental health problem apart from PTSD, that I am aware of anyway. I will keep an eye on this thread to see what others come up with. Oh god, I'm so thankful to hear that I am not the only one!

 

[SpartanMk]

Oh and as a follow up. This time being the second time this happened to her was much less frightening than the first. It was gone first thing this morning.

Happy to know this have given you some relief :)

 

[Philippa]

Very amazing... The first time is happened was extremely frightening... Cause she called me yelling that someone was in the house playing piano... About 30 seconds later, she said, "Someone is playing the piano but I am looking at it and there is no one there."

Don't want to sound all woo-woo, but have you researched the history of the house and who lived there before you? Might be worth a look. Is your partner particularly sensitive, and open to 'new agey' things?

One of the scariest moments of my life ... lol

I can imagine.

I'm with Loner to a degree though...might be worth checking with a psychiatrist into possible schizophrenia? We are learnign about this in my course at the moment, and these sorts of hallucinations are classic with schizophrenia and psychotic breaks or episodes.

It does sound like it's something she only experiences at times though. For schizophrenia to be present she would have to be experiencing these symptoms all the time for at least 6 months.

Edit - I don't know whether this means anything but both times have been during her period. What might also be worth noting is that she is very hormonal...her periods are extremely irregular and she gets intense pains during them.

It could very well have something to do with it. very interesting indeed. If you see a psychiatrist with her, make sure you get a good one, highly reputable and possibly someone who holds views outside of the bio-medical mainstream model that is currently the norm.

Having a label thrown at her and put on drugs without having all possibilities explored might be much worse for her.

 

[Mareah]

Hi, I have had similar problems. Mine was seeing things that were not there. Like spiders(really big spiders)
I told my T, she said it was from stress and that was my minds way of dealing with stress overload.
I did for awhile think I was losing my mind and that caused more stress. I do not have a T now but maybe if your girlfriend keeps having the problems, it would help her & you if she just talked to someone about it.
Hope this helps a little.

 

[Hashi]

I think this sounds normal!

Maybe I should look into the anonymous posting thing before saying this, but unless it felt scary in itself (leaving the strangeness to one side) it wouldn't worry me. I take it for granted that my mind's processing a lot and there are going to be different effects. Especially since you said your girlfriend used to listen to Chopin after fighting with her parents, I'd probably see this as nothing more than a subconscious coping mechanism for stress. I know it's weird when the subconscious starts doing stuff like this, but I'm more used to it now.

Apart from not knowing why it's happening and what it means, is it scary, distressing or uncomfortable in itself? Does it cause your girlfriend to behave in unwanted ways? Does it interfere with being able to do other things? If not, and if this was me, I'd let it be what it needs to be.