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?
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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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See a GP or an ENT (could be a form of tinnitus if you are not making out words). However, let them diagnose and stick with whatever they tell you to do next.
See a doctor.
Probably just a minor processing error in your sound driver and nothing to worry about. I think I have had a similar experience with a particular white noise machine with hearing some slightly patterned sound when there wasn’t really a pattern. If it’s bothering you or increasing can’t hurt to go see a doctor (well can’t hurt too bad as long as you’re insured…) and get their input.
See a GP
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 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 was my first thought, too.
zeroth of all, don’t ask randos on internet for medical advice. ask a doc about it if it’s distressing for you. this might be something as benign as normal reaction to sensory deprivation
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.
dude your brain is doing a ton of things all the time youre not directly aware of. youre just accidentally being made aware of your brains background noise.
if it comes into focus (you can hear and understand sustained voices/noises) , see a doctor.
otherwise it seems like the normal background brain chatter ive dealt with my whole life.
Not to imply anything about your wellbeing, but “background brain chatter” you’ve dealt with your whole life could also be a symptom of something that’s still bottled up inside your brain. Even if you have if under control, you may want to mention it to your doctor next time you’re getting something checked out, just in case.
Stuff like this could be completely benign, but it’s worth making sure you’re not at risk of any serious complications. For instance, certain drugs have been known to expose symptoms in certain schizophrenia cases for people thst would’ve otherwise lived decades longer without any serious symptoms.
It’s probably nothing, but knowing it’s nothing is better than assuming it’s nothing.
ha, im old. ive made peace with most of my quirks. i consider myself one of the lucky ones with mildly enhanced awareness.
it kills me that all these religious wackjobs ‘trust their feelings’. dude, how can you trust a meat-chemical bag of bullshit? ours species motto is ‘to err is human’ but sure, your feelings for jesus means hes real.
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.
Humans in general tend to occasionally hear voices that aren’t there, but if it’s happening as often as you describe, you should definitely get it checked out.
Auditory hallunications can be anything from stress to brain tumours to early signs of schizophrenia. If it is medical, your treatment options will only be better if you catch it early. If it isn’t medical in nature (physical or mental), you should at least get some guidance of where to go next once doctors and psychiatrists have ruled out serious issues.
I don’t believe tinnitus and other such hearing damage will manifest in voices (though I have read that there is an unfortunate brain component to tinnitus that makes physical treatment rather difficult), this will usually manifest in continuous noise or simply not hearing some sounds. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that whatever you’re suffering from may be made worse by your brain trying to fill the gaps in your damaged hearing, but I wouldn’t expect it to be your primary concern.
You should seek medical aid, and fast. If there is some kind of tumor or other form of brain damage affecting your speech center, your condition may be operable. If mental issues are starting to surface, you can often live a much longer, happier, healthier life with fewer symptoms if you can get medication/therapy/guidance early.
Of course it’s possible that you just have really good hearing that somehow gets amplified by white noise, but I wouldn’t assume that until serious trouble has been ruled out.
Schizophrenia is a jump, and treatment is too. Treatment only happens when it’s impacting your quality of life in some way, hearing benign auditory hallucinations, which as pointed elsewhere are common and can be induced in anyone with sufficient sensory deprivation, are not even slightly a concern.
Sometimes the white noise videos on YouTube actually have people in and noises in the background. Some are actual airplane engines.
Also I don’t doubt many are looped, so hearing a repeating pattern would make plenty sense…
Hey there. I experience the same thing. The voices, the music, in the white noises around me.
I’m not schizophrenic (or at least I hope not). It is a weird phenomenon that some of us experience that seems to be our brains trying to match important patterns, like speech, out of noise.
Heck, Devin Townsend even wrote a song about it “Voices in the Fan.”
If it’s really bothering you or scaring you then, yeah, you could seek help, but if you’re not experiencing auditory hallucinations outside of this context then my completely unqualified opinion is you’re probably fine.
It’s this:
https://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/apophenia-audio-pareidolia-and-musical-ear-syndrome/
People in this thread think they are psychiatrists.
Thanks for finding this.
Hevy Devy +1
Probably just your brain being creative and trying to make up stuff to entertain itself. I wouldn’t worry about auditory hallucinations unless they happen to you in times of silence. Like if it was dead silent and you hear Captain Hook talking but he’s not there, that’s a problem.
This happens to me as well, looking forward to a diagnosis 🧠
It’s this and it’s normal and it’s not schizophrenia:
https://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/apophenia-audio-pareidolia-and-musical-ear-syndrome/
