What Does Your Ptsd Sound Like?

[Martin Taylor]

When I get wound up I start to hear a woman yelling in the back of my head. I hear the voice and anger in the background, don't really get the words. I respond by listening to imaginary music, usually a rockin' slide guitar or something else loud enough to drown it out. This is all in my head of course. After a while I hear both at the same time. It gets distracting. Do you have a similar experience?

 

[elizabethnueve]

When I get wound up I start to hear a woman yelling in the back of my head. I hear the voice and anger in the background, don't really get the words. I respond by listening to imaginary music, usually a rockin' slide guitar or something else loud enough to drown it out. This is all in my head of course. After a while I hear both at the same time. It gets distracting. Do you have a similar experience?

I think it interesting that you are able to turn up music inside of your head to drown out the noise. I have a friend who is a therapist. He always spoke to me about turning down the volume of things that I heard in my head until the sound was gone, just like a regular stereo's controls would work. I enjoy the idea of what you said about listening to music in your mind to drown it out. I will try this as well.

 

[Kim]

There's so much noise. I can't think straight or concentrate. There's my mother mostly -- all the horrible things she used to say to me. There's my abusive alcoholic ex husband and the tirades he used to have. There are so many other voices as well. Worst of all there's the voice asking the question "what makes you think they were wrong?"

 

[Martin Taylor]

"just like a regular stereo's controls would work."

Unfortunately and so far, my control only goes up. I'll work on it. Thanks.

 

[Martin Taylor]

"There's so much noise." That voice of self doubt is wrong. Not you.

 

[Venator]

It kind of just sounds like growling, grunting and anguished moans mixed in with my terrible inner monologue that sounds like I'm talking through my teeth.

 

[Froggie]

Just hearing the word (in french) "Aller" (means go). That word is the cyclone eye trigger of triggers. I get all my physical, psychological and emotional responses just hearing that word. I can even make me dissociate. It is such a powerful key trigger related to what happened.

 

[OKRADLAK]

Great thread!! Mine is a vibration. I can feel it, too. If it's really bad, sounds around me get all muffled.

 

[Anna]

Mine is the sound of screaming. Really loud.

 

[Emilie]

I just remember the dead silence of when my trauma happened-not really a sound but rather the severe lack of sound. a lack of sound that induces a severe sense of emptiness and desolation.

 

[reddevil1111]

Mine is mixed.I sometimes have a vaccume of noise. nothing at all. Or, it can with be my father yelling,the sound of his belt hitting my flesh,or the sound of him kicking me-kind of a squish-oouf type of noise.
Or the sound of several bullets flying by cloes to my head.
I sometimes get the smell of blood and death. The coppery smell and taste of blood and the smell from the shooting of guns. The oil used to maintain the weapons. I guess for me its not just noise, its sounds and smells as well. I cant recall a flashback not having one or two, sometimes all three of those senses all at once.

 

[Martin Taylor]

I'm like you, in a way. One whiff of urine mixed with cheap whiskey and I'm back in my parents room. No bullets, but a constant threat (and sometimes real) violence. That's when the noise starts.