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What I should do about auditory "hallucinations" (lemm.ee)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I'm not sure I experience exactly what you describe - I'd describe what I hear as a radio just barely audible in the background. I only experience it when I'm about to fall asleep or supposed to be getting up.

Ten or so years ago after a really long day of school I flopped down in bed and noticed it and I made a conscious decision to listen rather than move. Ever since it happens a couple times a month now. I've never found it concerning and it's maybe almost comforting, like, "oh, that thing is back."

It's exactly like a soft radio where you're only catching bits and pieces of what's being said. Sometimes I recognize unusual words I heard from that day, the voices are distinct and can be female or male. I can't decide if I can influence what's being said or not. I do think the harder I pay attention the more coherent things start to sound.

My feeling is that bits of what I've heard throughout the day, or maybe longer, are getting played back to me. But I've never recognized any of the voices of heard anything said that I could identify as verbatim from the day.