Phantom Sounds .. Audio Halucinations?

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SimplyMints

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Yet another of my curiosity threads. I've been totally deaf for a few months now. That is to say, no technology in the world can offer me the ability to hear at this point. Since the last of my hearing slipped away into a fading memory, there has been no sound in my life, not even tinnitus. Prior to this, I've had tinnitus for several years, and it has been almost constant.

Just earlier today, I had an experience which I can only describe as physiologically impossible considering how my doctor described my hearing loss. It isn't actually a concern of mine as much as it is amusing to me. See, what happened today is I suddenly perceived a strange sound. The fact that I perceived sound at all is strange, but this was interesting to me since it didn't resemble tinnitus in any way. I heard a very distinct ghostly waling sound, such as those used in spooky movies involving the living dead. In the best audiological terms I know how to use, it was a single complex set of tones, each bending in pitch to produce e very clear audio representation of the call of a spirit of the dead as it is portrayed in science fiction movies. The sound was so real to me that it was hard to accept that it could have been just my imagination. However, the way I understand the nature of my hearing loss, there is no way the sound could be real or generated by any physical part of my ears. The sound seemed to originate from all around me. It was very spooky, but I was very amused by it, not frightened.

Has anybody had a similar experience? Has anybody any expertise or knowledge to share about this topic?
 
One of my best friends is suffering from musical hallucinations - she has been going crazy with hearing sounds - opera, rap, ghostly, rock, etc - she keeps asking us if we heard sounds - of course we dont - she is really taking it very hard and she had a sudden hearing loss as well. She went from hard of hearing to totally deaf practically overnight and she hsa not found any help yet.
 
Gemma said:
One of my best friends is suffering from musical hallucinations - she has been going crazy with hearing sounds - opera, rap, ghostly, rock, etc - she keeps asking us if we heard sounds - of course we dont - she is really taking it very hard and she had a sudden hearing loss as well. She went from hard of hearing to totally deaf practically overnight and she hsa not found any help yet.
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:hmm:I wonder if this is a sign of things to come. I'll continue to post my experiences to this thread if I have any more. One thing I forgot to mention and was reminded of when you mentioned music is that at some times, I can hear a very faint almost to the point of inaudible sound of a distant trumpeter playing fast trumpet music. It doesn't sound like any particular sound, just practising fast parts and playing fancy fast classical music. When I was hearing, I never listened to a lot of trumpet music, so I don't know where this came from if it's all in my head. But it's interesting how the trumpet continues to play on pitch. Now that I have been talking about it, the trumpet has gotten stuck on a single unresolved note for several minutes. This is a slight bit more like tinnitus, but it's so faint that this trumpeter could easily be my imagination. But again, since I never listened to trumpet music, I don't know how it got in my head or why I'm imagining it now.
 
SimplyMints,

After I had my first and second CI surgeries, I experienced auditory hallucinations in both of my implanted ears. The hallucinations I heard consisted of 8 different sounds that alternated with each other. Just when I became used to one sound it would change to another. I don't mention this to scare you (since it's highly unlikely that this will happen to you), but my auditory hallucinations became so severe that I had to be hospitalized for them for a little over a month. Incidentally, that's also when I was diagnosed with Bipolar I Rapid Cycling. My pdoc (psychiatrist) said the hallucinations were caused by a variety of things including the loss of my hearing, sensory deprivation, emotional stress caused by both CI surgeries and several other factors I'd rather not mention here. I'm not ashamed to admit that I now take an antipsychotic to help minimize the hallucinations. I'm happy to report that I don't hear any hallucinations when I'm on my meds unless I'm having a manic episode or am off my mood stabilizer and antipsychotic completely. So no, you're not alone in having this experience.
 
I used to hear a dog barking, even though my dog would be sleeping (not barking at all). this happened with my first dog, and I've had that experience a couple of times recently and my current dog is just sleeping away.
 
I hear all kinds of stuff. I hear birds twittering sometimes CONSTANTLY in one or both ears. An oboe-type sound, sometimes, a booping/beeping sound...drives me nuts. I'm hoh, wear two hearing aids and also have MS. I'm not crippled or wheelchair bound, but it's possible the auditory aggravations could be from the MS, but who knows...?
 
About five years ago, before I lost some of my hearing, my mom had her cell phone set to play a certain ringtone, and she had it set on that particular tone for about three years straight. Now, I swear I hear her phone ringing. It's amusing, but my roomate thinks I'm nuts. :giggle:
 
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When I'm at the swimming place or the water place without my ci and hearing aid i seem to hear like quiet music which i find bizarre

anyone else the same?
 
Deafteen90 said:
When I'm at the swimming place or the water place without my ci and hearing aid i seem to hear like quiet music which i find bizarre

anyone else the same?
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it sounds like what you're experiencing is musical tinnitus.

i have tinnitus, but it's not entirely musical -- although i do hear 70s and 80s music being played in my ears from time to time. all of this occurred as a result of both ci surgeries since the tinnitus i used to have pre-ci was mild and restricted to my left ear.
 
DarrenD said:
I hear all kinds of stuff. I hear birds twittering sometimes CONSTANTLY in one or both ears. An oboe-type sound, sometimes, a booping/beeping sound...drives me nuts. I'm hoh, wear two hearing aids and also have MS. I'm not crippled or wheelchair bound, but it's possible the auditory aggravations could be from the MS, but who knows...?
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auditory hallucinations can indeed be attributed to ms.
 
Deafteen90 said:
but i never listen to music
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i don't think that matters because it's your brain that is producing the "music" you hear.

in my case, i experienced severe and LOUD tinnitus following both of my ci surgeries. even though i didn't have enough residual hearing to hear certain sounds (for example, a fan turned on low speed, high/medium pitched beep tones and female/male voices), i still heard them in my head.

it's the brain producing those sounds, not your ears.
 
Some nights i experience what i think is tinnitus, it is just like this noise and it goes from loud to quiet then back to loud and quiet again. I just ignore it if i can or put my fingers in my ears because i do not like it at all. It is only just recently iv experienced it so it was a shock the first time. It doesnt last long
 
Deafteen90 said:
Some nights i experience what i think is tinnitus, it is just like this noise and it goes from loud to quiet then back to loud and quiet again. I just ignore it if i can or put my fingers in my ears because i do not like it at all. It is only just recently iv experienced it so it was a shock the first time. It doesnt last long
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i've had the same thing happen to me before where a particular sound i was hearing in my ears (following ci surgery) changed from loud to soft and then loud again. i think it's just part of the tinnitus.

i'm sure that surprised you the first time it happened. it surprised me as well and i eventually reached the point where i didn't think i could cope with it any longer. as i mentioned in a previous post, the tinnitus was so severe that i begged my ci surgeon to give me *something*. he prescribed prednisone, but i refused to take it due to side effects of depression and mood swings (which i'm already prone to because of my bipolar).
 
Deafteen90 said:
When I'm at the swimming place or the water place without my ci and hearing aid i seem to hear like quiet music which i find bizarre

anyone else the same?
Click to expand...

For the first month or two after I first lost the final bits of my hearing, I heard nothing, not even tinnitis. Then one morning, I woke to the sound of my mom singing. I was in my bedroom (duh) and the singing sounded like it was coming from her study, which is one floor below me and on the other side of the house. I was shocked that my hearing was returning, and so well that I could hear my mom singing softly in her study. I've always enjoyed the sound of my mom's singing.

However, after about 15 minutes or so laying in bed quietly listening to her sing songs she always used to sing, I discovered I was able to manipulate her singing with my own mind. Once I discovered I could make her sing various songs from My Little Pony and Lord of the Rings and various other selections in quick succession at my will, things she doesn't even know or would never sing, I knew it was all in my head.

Now, I most often hear a trumpet playing. It used to be chaotic, but I've learned to control it. Now, I can make that trumpet play whatever I want. Unfortunately, I haven't learned to choose my instrument.
 
mints,

how do you control tinnitus? when my tinnitus used to be severe, i found it impossible to control.
 
Hear Again said:
mints,

how do you control tinnitus? when my tinnitus used to be severe, i found it impossible to control.
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Haha! I donno, I'm still trying to figure it out a bit myself. I'm not even sure it is tinnitis, but I don't know what else it could be. It's always made of sounds that I've heard when I was hearing. For the past several years before I lost my hearing, I had tinnitis, but it was not musical. It was often static or buzzing or humming or squeaking. Only since all my hearing was gone has it become musical. I still hear things like some spazz ringing the doorbell a thousand times a minute, or my mom's bird clock chiming non-stop sometimes. I can't control those sounds. All I can do is distract myself from them by playing a rousing game or watching an engaging movie. But the music I can usually control to the degree I described in my previous post. Well, except sometimes, the trumpet gets stuck on a note, and it won't move on to the next note. It will just play that one note for hours from an infinite set of lungs never needing to take a breath. That can be annoying. Not as annoying as my mom's bird clock though.
 
I have tinnitus too, its so weird and different. From all I remembered since losing my hearing in right ear I have had are loud buzzing that it hurt everytime I get upset/crying, little girl blood curling scream randomly, pulsating "boop" sound almost electronic if I lean too far, fire alarm going off everytime I or someone else cooking in oven or on stove never goes off with microwave or deep-fryer thingy, weird, if I'm looking at thing and remember way it sound I'd hear it like if someone touching papers I'd hear "crumbling" sound, if someone or I bang the silverware while looking at it I'd hear it but if I look away I can't hear it so its obviously tinnitus. New one is dog barking, so annoying lol.
 
SimplyMints said:
Haha! I donno, I'm still trying to figure it out a bit myself. I'm not even sure it is tinnitis, but I don't know what else it could be. It's always made of sounds that I've heard when I was hearing. For the past several years before I lost my hearing, I had tinnitis, but it was not musical. It was often static or buzzing or humming or squeaking. Only since all my hearing was gone has it become musical. I still hear things like some spazz ringing the doorbell a thousand times a minute, or my mom's bird clock chiming non-stop sometimes. I can't control those sounds. All I can do is distract myself from them by playing a rousing game or watching an engaging movie. But the music I can usually control to the degree I described in my previous post. Well, except sometimes, the trumpet gets stuck on a note, and it won't move on to the next note. It will just play that one note for hours from an infinite set of lungs never needing to take a breath. That can be annoying. Not as annoying as my mom's bird clock though.
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oh wow. i can't imagine how annoying it must feel to hear a trumpet stuck on a single note all the time. that would drive me stir crazy!
 
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