Auditory hallucinations

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Lately I have often thought that I hear my cell phone's alarm tone feintly in the mix of a lot of sounds such as at the airport, but when I check, it is not the phone. You may think that I could be hearing someone else's phone with the same tone, but this happens even at the office where there are only three people, none of whom have that tone. I also hear a section of a song sometimes, usually something from my favourite rock group, over and over, and it doesn't move on to the next part or the next track. This is different from just having the latest hit from the radio "stuck in your head"; I can really hear it, and until I realise that it must be a hallucination, I usually look around for the source.

It scares me a little because one aspie friend of mine who had a 'nervous breakdown' a few years ago described getting a piece of music going over and over like that, but full-volume, at the time of the breakdown.

I have also twice in the past few months awoken from dreams and seen the dream-things superimposed on top of the real things when I opened my eyes like a semi-transparent overlay. I opened my eyes as wide as possible and watched for a while, puzzled.

Could this be a side-effect of some medication, or due to sensory processing problems (which I definitely have)?

I used to have the visual image sometimes when I woke up. I was told they were hypnagogic hallucinations. They only happened to me when I was under a lot of stress, which used to be frequently.Here's a link that gives a broad overview.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-hypnag ... ations.htm

I have had the auditory to a much lesser degree but I find that if I am around noises like an air conditioner or some other kind of background ambient noise I feel like I hear people talking or music. It's almost below the level of consciousness, but I feel like I can definitely tell changes in tone and inflection. These of course would be situations when you know you're alone. I think the brain always wants to make sense of chaos.

BTW Alphabetania, It's nice to see you posting again.

I have an auditory hallucination I call "the radio". The Radio is a faint sound of people talking or of music playing, over and over, just below the threshold of hearing so I can't tell what they're saying, but I know that it's English, and I can tell the changes in tone. It sounds like the voices/music are coming in on an AM (mediumwave to our UK friends) radio, and since I collect old radios I used to look for the source. Sometimes The Radio occurs while I'm asleep, and if it does it is clear and loud as a bell and I can make out what they're saying. Also, sometimes I hear police sirens when I'm driving, especially if I'm driving in the middle of nowhere, which is often. They are faint but discernible. I'm always looking for the cop car, since if you fail to pull over for an emergency vehicle in California the penalties are severe. When I lived in San Francisco 15 years ago I would wake up and imagine that I saw "graffiti" on my apartment walls, and the vision would take a while to clear. I believe now that it was the result of bloodshot eyes.

The "radio" is exactly what I experience. I can even hear the cadence of disc jockey patter. And it is just below the level of being able to understand what is being said. Strange brains.

I'm not sure that that counts as a hallucination in the traditional sense of the word.. it may be almost more like an auditory illusion? Since it's something that you hear often, and when you "hallucinate" it it's in the presence of lots of other background noise, it could be your brain putting together other sounds into something that it's familiar with, based on the imprint of the ring of your phone. It seems like the auditory equivalent of seeing the triangle in this: or the green dot in this:
It may technically be a hallucination, but the word is misleading, because it implies a problem, not the natural tendency of the brain to fill in things that are expected.

I think you're probably right. It is known that when someone is in a sensory deprivation tank, all kinds of interesting things happen. The brain, having insufficient input, will generate it's own.

I think it might also really be some form of hallucination.
I experienced visual and auditory hallucinations myself during my psychosis.
But they can also appear in other conditions.
See also: Hallucination & Hallucinations in the sane

I have auditory hallucinations that my phone rings once, in the middle of the night, or when I lie down for a nap. I have telephone anxiety and it bothers me when I ghe them.

This does sounds really scary. I don't have any experience with this, but I hope you can take a "time out" and take care of yourself ..... I know life gets in the way, so it not easy to do. I wonder if there is a lot of stress in your life, so these hallucinations are more like memories that your brain is trying to process.

This does sounds really scary. I don't have any experience with this, but I hope you can take a "time out" and take care of yourself ..... I know life gets in the way, so it not easy to do. I wonder if there is a lot of stress in your life, so these hallucinations are more like memories that your brain is trying to process.

Sometimes I would hear something and think its my cell phone vibrating, but then it turns out to be my stomach and that I am hungry.

At work, there are times when I think my price checker phone is ringing or that someone is hollering for me to do a price check...but it isnt and that nobody is calling me.

Hi,

It is possible that your hallucinations are a side effect of your medication. You need to discus this with your doctor. Don't leave it. Medication usually do more harm than good, perhaps cognitive behaviour therapy would be better for you, to learn coping and social skills.

This used to happen to me when I was a kid. I would play my Game Boy for hours, and when I tried to go to sleep, I would still hear the game music playing. I would look around for it, but it wouldn't be on. This could be a result of white noise. Sometimes when my air conditioner is on, I start to hear a tune from all the noises being mixed together. I think the human brain can pick what it wants to hear, and sometimes form a pattern. It's just like when you look at a tiled floor, and then you start to see patterns of squares. Also take into account that you really may be hearing things..whether it's a hallucination or not. It could be a hallucination, or it could be a sensory problem associated with Asperger's. Do you have trouble filtering out excess noise?

I also read something a few years ago about a classical composer who would always hear noises. It wasen't a hallucination, but I think it was another problem. I'll try to find a source. I can't remember what it was.

Or it could be your medication...but don't over react just yet. If I told my pyschiatrist every time I thought I was crazy...I would be put away for life. I think anxiety can be a factor in this. The more you worry, the more you think there is something seriously wrong.

Thank-you, many of you have described things similar to what I experience. Yes, the stress is definitely there -- I am being treated for an anxiety disorder, taking Seroquel 25 mg twice a day, and also trying to manage sensory stressors with occasional wearing of noise-canceling devices. regular exposure to the deep heavy beat of my favourite rock group (Muse), and stimming in the form of dance. I am also seeing a psychologist, sometimes accompanied by my best friend. It is this relationship that has been the trigger for much of the stress.

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

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/unde ... tus-basics
This could also explain the radio noises that people have been describing. I've had this problem, usually when I'm trying to sleep. It mentions it in the article. I really recommend reading it.

The composer who had this was Beethoven.

Right.. but the white triangle and green dot may technically be hallucinations too.
Alphabetania was talking about being afraid she was going crazy because of what she was hearing, but even if the word hallucination applies, it doesn't seem to me like it's the most applicable word, because it implies that there's something wrong. The brain naturally fills in gaps when there's information missing, it's not abnormal. Another example is movies in theaters. As the frames change, you actually spend half off the movie in complete dark. The picture and light seem continuous because your brain fills in what was missing.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I interpreted that to mean that even though there are only a few people in the office, there's still a lot of background noise? Possibly sometimes some tones of the same frequency as parts of the phone ring? So in the presence of other noise, when one note that's in the ring gets to the brain, it fills in what is expected, the same way as your brain fills in the white triangle in the picture of the circles with slices cut out of them. The cell phone ring is also something that you want to hear and recognize, that your brain is trained to hear and recognize. So upon hearing something incredibly similar to the sound that you've trained your brain to recognize as relevant, it fills in what would logically come next-- the rest of the ring tone. Just because the word hallucination is technically accurate doesn't mean that it's not still misleading.