Auditory hallucinations

Post Reply New Topic

I don't agree. An illusion is whenever there's a stimulus / there are stimuli, and your brain uses this / these to make something new. A hallucination is when the brain makes something by itself, without using a stimulus / stimuli in the world outside.

Stress is bad for hallucinations and significantly increases mine. It is annoying.

But if the auditory "hallucinations" are happening in places with a great deal of background noise, chances are there is a stimulus.

I'm not saying what Alphabetania described is definitely a hallucination and not an illusion. I'm just saying it might also be a hallucination. But this depends on whether the brain uses stimulus /-i to fill in the sensation, or whether the brain just makes the sensation by itself.
When experiencing hallucinations, there's also (always) background sounds. And you'll also hear those. But the brain doesn't use these to fill in the sensations.

Last edited by Scientist on 29 Nov 2009, 4:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

"I feel better knowing that this is not uncommon under these circumstances."

No, it really is not that uncommon... stress amplifies so much... But even if you take the stress out, I think it is common enough for people to pull noise that is not there out of other noise. I know for me, even when I am calm and content, whenever I vacuum I will swear the phone is ringing. It does not ring, but I hear it. I hear a lot of things though, from the electric sqee outside of my head to the millions of cicadas/static in my head. The nonstop buzz of it all makes me ask people, now and then, "Did you hear that or was it just a me thing?" Now that cold weather is setting in, I will be hearing things in the sound of the heater. When stressed, I used to hear music, like a choir. It has been some time since the choir was around... I used to try so hard to make out what their song was...

It is worth mentioning to the doc. You never know with meds what you will get, and I would really hate for you to have to go through negative side effects that could have been avoided by switching. I know med switching is an incredible pain, but if it is the medication, then it needs to go.

I hope the stress level in your life goes down soon. To say that it is no fun is an understatement. I wish you well.

I have tactile ones

Stress can definitely cause these hallucinations, especially if you're sensory sensitive. I used to have them pretty often and discovered I was extremely sensitive to salicylates in food (also common in sensory sensitive people). The hallucinations now happen only when I'm under very severe stress - or when I get bored from my very limited diet and decide to have salicylates! Salicylate sensitivity can also cause anxiety when you're exposed, so this is something you might want to check out.

Ivory

Interesting comment about sensory deprivation tanks.

Is it possible that these "hallucinations" are really just an overactive brain shooting something into the wrong mail slot and we hear something that isn't there just because a thought got misdirected?

Check this out:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/ ... cinations/

I experience auditory hallucinations when I am in a state of semi consciousness (not quite asleep). Just today I thought I heard someone calling my name and a cell phone ringing. Both were hallucinations because I was the only person at home and my cell was on silent.

yes, stress, medication, internal processing--all can be causes, and a hundred other things.

after the suicide of my lover i didn't sleep but a few hours for an entire month. three times during that period i hallucinated someone speaking (the first time, i thought it was real, but since no one was there when i turned around...).

other than that, i've never hallucinated. but my lover was hallucinating wildly and in fact, that's pretty much why he did what he did.

i think the main problem enters if you're unaware that these things aren't real (as my lover wasn't). once i realized my stressed-out mind was conjuring up stimuli, i noted it and went on with whatever i was doing.

keep an eye on this, get a med check (tho seroquel isn't a likely cause for this, being in fact an anti-psychotic used often to quell hallucinations; also used to make folks sleep like the dead, but your personal chemistry may be different), keep lines of communication open with whoever you're friends/family with.

if you start being unable to tell if something's real or not, please look into other measures. but most likely, this will pass when the stress eases up.