Auditory Hallucinations

[molly627]

ok let me see if i can explain this.... For a good 4-6 year i would say i have heard what sounds like multiple different things..
1. radio/ songs
2. heartbeat
3. ringing
4. television/sound waves/frequency
5. people talking... never to me..
6. knocking

.. Side Mark... I only hears one of 1, 4, or 5 one to three times a week.. i hear 2 and 3 24/7 alternating .. i hear 2 only when i sit certain ways or head is tilted a certain way.. The house has to be completely quiet for me to hear these things.. and it is not like i try and look for me cause they scare the hell out of me and annoying.. So PCP said i have auditory hallucinations.. but i have not been diagnosed schizophrenia.. just MDD and PTSD .. i am only on an antidepressant but that started a few months back and this has been happening a lot longer. My fiance has hear the knocking a few times and maybe the radio twice but i hear it a lot more.. dunno what else to put.. any questions ask

 

[Intrepid]

I've had similar intrusive experiences.

My flashbacks haven't always been simple. They haven't always been in the form of clear representations of the past. Sometimes the trauma caused things to get sliced and diced, so that what comes to me in the present is a small part of the original trauma. Sometimes what I experience is a feeling, physical sensation, or sensory piece of the original trauma.

However, I also cover-up, avoid, adapt to, transfer, or symbolize the trauma. These have caused in me similar experiences to what you are having. For example, there are times I needed the noise in my head to cover up the debilitating auditory flashbacks. My head being busy with noises wasn't always about the original trauma.

Finally, there's a lot of co-morbidity with PTSD, and probably for MDD too. There are a wide variety of symptoms. You don't have to be schizophrenic to experience hallucinations.

PTSD can be layered and really complicated. You are not abnormal for what you are experiencing.

 

[joeylittle]

As far as the ringing goes, have your hearing checked; tinnitus would be a straightforward explanation, and part of how it works (generally) is that you will only hear it when there is no other sound.

The heartbeat could be related to something in your ear canal as well; many people can hear their own heartbeat simply by plugging their ears, and there are other ways the ear can basically reflect backwards and 'hear' sounds that are internal rather than external.

People talking - is it outside yourself or from inside your head? Are you typically in similar environments when you hear it - like apartment, or whatnot? Sound travels very strangely in some old buildings, especially.

I don't think these kinds of things will answer all the things you list, but checking out your ears and trying to soundproof your home environment might eliminate some of the irritation.

 

[Kailani]

You are not alone!!!!!! I have dissociative ptsd which results in audio and occasional visual hallucinations; depersonalization; it feels that it is separate from you but you hear it in your head. Probably just really loud thinking from subconscious. I hear white noise sometimes that is really calming and I believe it's all connected to traumatic experiences , head injuries and maybe some drugs I did as a teen. It also causes somatization also related to trauma. I sometimes hear people talking. There are some awesome threads on here to check out related to what you are experiencing. It might help to further explore this with your PCP and a psychologist to really be sure what the cause is and get a better explanation. I found deep breathing, grounding, exercise and a lower stress environment helpful. I hope that helps you!!!!

 

[eikram]

I've had similar things. Mostly sounds of someone talking to me. When I lost my best friend, for months and months after, I would often hear what sounded like someone whispering "hi" or "hey" or my name to me. It really freaked me out for so long. I haven't heard anything like that in quite a while, though.

 

[Anarchy]

Our brains are very good at pattern recognition on very limited data, because they had to be, to spot well camouflaged predators and food against a background of distractions.

That is how both the Rorschach ink blots, and impressionist art both work.

As joey has said, there is a good chance that you r brains are trying to make sense in the quiet of tinnitus and stray noises in your environments. For millions of years, that was the job it evolved to do.

In terms of actual speech and voices, electrodes on volunteers faces show that when they are thinking in words, impulses still reach the muscles that would have been used to speak the words out loud.

The same happens with people who hear voices, it is their internal monologue. Only for some reason they don't attribute it to themselves. This isn't unusual. Paul McCartney famously spent weeks trying to find out where he'd heard the tune for "yesterday" that he'd woken up with one morning.

Because he hadn't expended effort to compose it, he didn't assume that it was his.

Approximately 10% of the population hear voices, only about 1% of the population get diagnosed psychotic. So, although not universal, hearing voices is an unusual but hardly a rare part of human experience.

There is an international " hearing voices movement " that began with a group called "resonance" in the Netherlands.

It seeks to have the experience liberated from false medicalisation, just as homo and bi sexuality are now (usually) considered personal matters, rather than reason for coerced "treatment".

Hope this reassures.
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