“Hearing voices
no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world.”
~ J.
K. Rowling ~
Auditory
hallucinations are something I have been getting increasingly more frequently
this last year. There is no need to worry, it is only when I think they are
talking 'about me', rather than 'to me' or I think it is all a government
conspiracy that I might have schizophrenia, dementia,
or bipolar
disorder!
These
hearing equivalents of visions are very real at the time. Mostly what I get is a form
of tinnitus (from the Latin
tinnīre which means "to ring")
that
mimics the rhythm, tone and flow of spoken sentences. Conventional Tinnitus can
be heard as ringing or sounds
like clicking, hissing, or roaring. Mine is in the form of whistling but done quietly and
easily ignored. There are a number of potential underlying causes including ear infections, disease
of the heart or blood vessels, Meniere's disease, brain tumours, exposure to
certain medications, a previous head injury, and earwax.
For
me, these strange extras are sometimes like listening to a conversation through a wall
into the next room. You know it sounds like a conversation but you can’t make
out the words. Because my hearing is so poor there are many sounds that don’t
become clearly defined and so it is just like normal listening to me. This is why I am so easily fooled by them. It is not
volume I always lack, but definition of the spoken word. Water running, waves
crashing and wind blowing is noise that does not require definition to know
what it is. This means the uncertain sounds I falsely ‘hear’ are more
convincing and distracting as they are like my every-day listening to real
things. The most common one is to hear my name called. This is the primary
method of getting my attention before speaking to me. The result is for me to
look for who is calling.
Last month I heard my
wife speaking to me from the kitchen. Not unusual you might think? In this case
the kitchen is way beyond my distance range for hearing and I knew she had gone
out a few minutes before. I thought she had come back and I didn’t hear her
coming in the door so I got up and went to look for her.
Ray
is a single syllable word that has registered in my brain since childhood. I do
not associate it with a meaning. It is not only a proper noun, it is also 'me'. I believe the trigger for this
interpretation of the sound is not a similar sounding noise-confusion. More
likely it is my brain’s attempt to find a word that it is familiar with and most likely to be used in the
uncertainty of the occasion. As with visual trickery by magicians ears can be
fooled into believing they hear what is not really there. My brain fills in the
gaps for me with pseudo words, hence sometimes I answer a question I was not asked. It is all in
the mental interpretation of the stimuli. This is often gleaned from the
context in which it is being heard, or, I hear what I want to hear! The down side is
that after a while I resist the reaction to the call and so miss the real thing
when it does happen.
I
haven’t yet been put in danger by obeying a command that I thought was a
warning and so reacted instinctively in the wrong way by stepping into rather
than away from the problem. These are the normal quick interpretations of
sounds without first waiting to rationalise them that we all do by reflex actions.
I am aware that I have slowed down my reactions, perhaps because of the
distrust I have for what I hear. My increased concentration and lack of directional
awareness around me means I wouldn’t move out of the way until I was knocked
over. Then I would believe it.
Paracusia is the term for hallucinations that involve perceiving sounds without auditory stimuli.
Auditory
hallucinations are usually associated with psychosis but it is possible for
someone to hear voices
without suffering from any diagnosable mental illness. It
is, therefore, necessary to distinguished between the following conditions:
Endaural
phenomena (in the ear) are sounds that are heard without
any external hearing stimulation. Phenomena include transient ringing in the
ears and white noise-like sounds.
Otoacoustic emissions
(from
the ear) are a different form, in which a person's ear emits the sounds. The person
cannot hear those sounds made by their own ear but they can be heard by others.
These
categories do not account for all types of auditory hallucinations.
Others
include exploding head syndrome and musical ear syndrome. In the
latter, people will hear music playing in their mind. Other causes can be: lesions
on the brain stem (such as from a stroke),
sleep
disorders such as narcolepsy, tumours, encephalitis, or abscesses. There
is also hearing loss and epileptic activity. (extracted from Wikipedia)
In the past such things were
treated by trepanning or witch trials. In later times the victim would be chained up in the street or imprisoned in
an insane asylum. By the late 18th century the theory was that these
hallucinations were the result of disease in the brain (mania) and treated in a
Sanatorium. Attempts were made to treat it by dousing in cold water, starving,
or spinning patients on a wheel. This gave way to brain specific
treatments including Lobotomy, shock
therapy and branding the skull with a hot iron!
Non-disease associated causes for
auditory
hallucinations have been shown to occur in cases of
intense stress,
sleep deprivation and drug use. High caffeine consumption has been linked to an
increase in their likelihood. A study has revealed that as few as five cups of
coffee a day could trigger the phenomenon. The primary means of treating the
conditions is medications which affect dopamine metabolism.
There is on-going research into
those auditory hallucinations which have a lack of other conventional psychotic
symptoms (such as delusions, or paranoia). These studies indicate a remarkably
high percentage of children (up to 14%) experiencing sounds or voices without
any external cause, though it should also be noted that "sounds" are
not considered by psychiatrists to be examples of auditory hallucinations. Differentiating
hallucinations from "sounds" is important since the latter phenomena
are not indicative of mental illness.
The
causes of auditory hallucinations are unclear. Dr. Charles Fernyhough,
of the University of Durham poses a theory that gives evidence of involvement
of 'the inner voice'. (Extracted from Wikipedia)
For those of us that are deaf
the voices are clearer than normal because they are from the brain instead of
the dysfunctional ear. A distinction that hearing people cannot make as their
normal hearing is perceived in the same way.
Seeing Things? Hearing Things? Many of Us Do ~
HALLUCINATIONS are very startling and
frightening: you suddenly see, or hear or smell something — something that is
not there. Your immediate, bewildered feeling is, what is going on? Where is
this coming from? The hallucination is convincingly real, produced by the same
neural pathways as actual perception, and yet no one else seems to see it. And
then you are forced to the conclusion that something — something unprecedented
— is happening in your own brain or mind? Read more here:
Also see the
Hearing
Voices Network, the Mental Health
Foundation's fact sheet on hearing voices and the NHS Choices
Information pages.
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