I brought this subject up once or twice on the AOL SDMB, but no one came up with the answer, so I’ll try it here on the web SDMB.
I continually hear what sounds like a whispering human voice in my left ear. I can’t quite make out what, if anything, it’s saying, but it sometimes sounds like someone clearing their throat, and other times sounds like a “sssssssss” hiss. Don’t tell me I need Dolby Noise Reduction™ in my ears!
I have been diagnosed as schizophrenic, BTW, but these sounds are clearly real to me, as if someone were actually whispering to me. It’s as annoying as hell. I don’t think it’s tinnitus (sp?) because I’ve never heard of quite the same symptoms. Can the human brain actually produce phantom sounds, or “audio hallucinations,” as my doctor calls them, and have them sound real enough to fool an obviously stable person such as myself?
I hope this doesn’t sound too close to a FOF story, but my sister’s step-son has a mental disturbance alternately called by the shrinks post-traumatic stress disorder or trauma induced psychosis. One of his symptoms is hearing voices, or auditory hallucinations, those words straight from the shrink’s mouth. He takes an anti-psychotic drug called Risperdal for it, but claims it doesn’t work.
So, yes people do hear voices or sounds that aren’t there, and it’s not tinnitus, which is a physical condition.
Hey Snark – are they bothering you? Audio hallucinations of the sort you are describing are indeed often used to diagnose someone as “schizophrenic” and they are usually treated as major impediments to functionality. However, in the anti-psych movement I’ve encountered many folks who say the “voices” don’t bother or disturb them, they are “used to it”. Others find them profoundly disturbing and would do anything to make them stop.
Absolutely. LSD, and other hallucinogens, can cause audio, as well as visual, disturbances. The audio hallucinations are a common symptom of schizophrenics. They often manfest themselves as human voices wispering or making other noises. They are heard as though they actually are being said; the voices seem to be coming from the outside world. Some schizophrenics have a hard time telling the difference between real people talking to them and their phantom voices.
You can put me in that last group, the one that finds them profoundly disturbing. But I’m glad I’m not the only one who has experienced them. Sometimes they drive me up the wall. It’s hard to believe that my brain could create such a perfect replica of the whispering human voice.
Sorry to hear that. I’ve only had the voice thing happen to me a tiny handful of times, briefly. It was like having a really vivid memory of being cussed out and made to feel ashamed, except that the subject of the cussing-out was entirely present-day. Definitely could do without it.
The medications the shrink-folk prescribe for schizophrenia can stop the voices but I’m cynical and have had the input of a great many diagnosed schizzies in the movement against forced psychiatric treatment, so I’m sort of under the impression that most of these drugs work by shutting down nerve cell operations in a very generalized, unfocused way. God knows the side effects (permanent and temporary alike) sound pretty gruesome! But admittedly a population of politically active folks pissed off at being forcibly psychiatrized is a bit of a skewed sample population, and others have said, essentially “thank God for my meds”.
If you go that route, take everything the psychiatrists say to you with a pound, not grain, of salt; so your own research; and above all else, preserve your right to decide what to say yes or no to.
You might also ask around about meditation practices and other ways of focusing that would make it easier for you to come to terms with the voices.
I’m… uh… well… relatively normal, and I have heard voices all my life! It is rare, happily… Usually I hear someone call my name. It is not a whisper, but a normal volume call. It usually happens when I am alone, but sometimes happens when I am with a crowd of people. I have gotten so used to it that it no longer bothers me…
Thank you, Astroboy! I am relatively normal myself and I hear my name every once in a while. Always happens when I’m alone and occasionally scares the crap outta me. Also, many times when lying in bed I will hear what sounds like a large group of people whispering my name. Is this (hopefully) another one of “those things everybody has but nobody talks about” or am I losing my sanity?
Whenever I’m about to fall asleep I hear a musical instrument. Just the other day I was woken out of a half sleep by a harp crashendo. I’ve talked to a phycologist about it, and its supposed to be pretty common to hear things just as your falling asleep there is even a name for it, but I don’t remember what it is.
Having recently taken a class in which these drugs were a major subject, I can positively say that they work in a generalized way. That’s the only way drugs can work so far, at least in the brain. They don’t necesarily shut nerve cells down, though, it’s infinitely more complicated than that. I’d explain, but it’s so complex that I’ve already forgotten.
(Hey, I’m on two psychoactive drugs myself, albeit milder ones (Prozac and Tegretol).)
Auditory hallucinations are by far the most common hallucination in Schizophrenia. They are so characteristic of the disease that if one is having true auditory hallucinations then they are presumed to have Schizophrenia unless proven otherwise. The voices are a misfunction of your sensory apparatus.
The exact machanism of the production of these voices is not well understood. At this time the most plausible explanation is: Schizophrenia selectively affects the auditory centers in the brain. One study found: “an increase in blood flow to a major language center of the brain during auditory hallucinations.” Another study showed that “the hallucinations used a language region of the brain in patterns like normal people do when they listen to themselves.” That could explain why the voices seem so real.
I know little about the subject but wouldn’t schizophrenia (as a diagnosis) involve a lot more than simply auditory hallucinations? Doesn’t it involve lot of other strange behaviors as well, not necessarily specifically connected to the audio hallucinations.
Yes, but auditory hallucinations are a hallmark signal of the disease. When a doctor, for example, hears of a patient hearing voices, Schizophrenia is nearly always presumed until proven otherwise–by further diagnosis.
Once, during an acid trip, I swear I could hear Beatle’s tunes coming from the bathroom fan. I dont think this will help you, but I just thought I’d share.
While schizophrenia may indeed be involved in this case, perhaps there’s an alternative explanation which is vaguely related to tinnitus.
Like many other people, when I’m sitting in the bath with the water running, I often hear the phone ringing. I shut off the water – no more ringing. It turn it back on and the phone is ringing again. It’s clearly an illusion: my brain hears white noise and tries to make sense of it.
Sometimes the noise isn’t so white. I was once in a hotel and I was lying in the bath (what’s with these baths?) while the water was going down the drain. It made a glug-glug sound, but the sound was also reverberated up the overflow spout, which had a very wide opening (about two inches). The sound utterly creeped me out: it sounded like somebody talking very fast, but I couldn’t quite make out what was being said.
What I’m wondering is if sometimes somebody has a problem with his hearing that produces random sounds and the brain tries to make sense of them. Just as when you stare at a mish-mash of random lines you’ll tend to see a human face rather than, say, an antelope, perhaps some cases of “hearing voices” are caused by random sounds generated by an ear problem, which the mind then tries to interpret in a meaningful way.
I know I don’t have much proof, but I expect that others have had experiences like my “talking bath tub”.