Anyone with MES (Musical Ear Syndrome) / Musical Tinnitus?

[BIRDNAME]

Musical Ear Syndrome and receiving vibrations. Very sensitive touch and the body's reactions to cold and heat. it all comes together. I sometimes manage to quiet down the music when I concentrate hard on a difficult logical task or painting intricate colorful patterns.

 

[PebblesForNow]

As far as I know I never heard it before. Maybe when I was a kid or baby who knows. but it's not like a full song, just about a 2 second loop. It has changed to a techno beat before but now back to the girl singing.

Hi Nate - Do you still have the music issue? Has it faded at all with time?

 

[in_LA]

Hello,

I have had tinnitus for about twelve years. It progressed from distant ringing on a rainy day to the 'horror' that it is now. I'm glad to have found a place to vent. The Doctors say there is nothing they can do. I've tried all the masking and it seems to be louder than any of them.

I have musical tinnitus now.

I was never exposed to loud music, but, am a musician. I played the organ in church and I think it is tied in with that somehow. I hear up and down up and down the scales with a drumbeat that sounds like a washing machine keeping time. A slapping noise. I think it could drive a person over the edge without the help of God.

Thank you all for being here.

How are you feeling now? Do you still have it? I'm going through something similar. Usually it's with the AC or fan, but I also get things get stuck in my head. Whatever genre I listen to or loud sound I'm exposed to, it echoes in my head for hours and it's extremely frightening.

 

[AvidReader]

How are you feeling now? Do you still have it? I'm going through something similar. Usually it's with the AC or fan, but I also get things get stuck in my head. Whatever genre I listen to or loud sound I'm exposed to, it echoes in my head for hours and it's extremely frightening.

Hope you don't mind me replying? I have musical hallucinations 24/7 where music is playing constantly in my ear - full songs, film scores, anything & everything.

Sometimes I have the same song or even just the introduction to the song repeating over & over for days without breaks. It is affected by outside noise such as rain which makes it sound as if it is being played on an old radio with that 'tinny' sound quality. I also find that if I hear something such as a car alarm, then I can hear it for hours after. I've also recently found that I can sometimes manipulate what I'm hearing into a particular song or if I am reading, my brain picks a relevant tune. It's scarily fascinating.

 

[in_LA]

Hope you don't mind me replying? I have musical hallucinations 24/7 where music is playing constantly in my ear - full songs, film scores, anything & everything.

Sometimes I have the same song or even just the introduction to the song repeating over & over for days without breaks. It is affected by outside noise such as rain which makes it sound as if it is being played on an old radio with that 'tinny' sound quality. I also find that if I hear something such as a car alarm, then I can hear it for hours after. I've also recently found that I can sometimes manipulate what I'm hearing into a particular song or if I am reading, my brain picks a relevant tune. It's scarily fascinating.

Do you suffer from profound hearing loss? I don't hear music 24/7 from what I've noticed. Mine is more like an intense ear worm. Sometimes the fan creates music or chatter but it's not always present, it depends on the fan and how I even point it.

I forgot to mention loudness seems to trigger it. I've also been taking Prednisone again and I don't know if that's making it easier for my ears to be more sensitive?

 

[AvidReader]

Do you suffer from profound hearing loss? I don't hear music 24/7 from what I've noticed. Mine is more like an intense ear worm. Sometimes the fan creates music or chatter but it's not always present, it depends on the fan and how I even point it.

I forgot to mention loudness seems to trigger it. I've also been taking Prednisone again and I don't know if that's making it easier for my ears to be more sensitive?

Not sure about hearing loss. I haven't been tested since this all started in February this year as I have hyperacusis too which would make it difficult for me to sit through a hearing test at present. The hospital took my temperature using an ear thermometer last week & it beeped in my ear & I about shot out of the seat & it left me with a recurring beeping noise for about 24 hours so I'm wary of having the audio test yet. I don't feel as if I have noticeably lost hearing though.

Musical hallucinations are linked to hearing loss but not always. The 24/7 music is like being tuned into a radio station all day. When it is more manageable I even find myself singing along to it at times, but when it's bad it's like being in a club - so loud, my ear feels like it is physically vibrating. The other evening I had just gotten in bed when the opening bars of Bohemian Rhapsody started. I had 5 hours of all 6 minutes of the song on repeat at high volume. Freddie had never sounded better, but suffice to say, if I don't hear it again for a decade it would be too soon.

Do you find that noise at certain levels of pitch affect you more than others?

 

[Patsyi]

After about 2 weeks of tinnitus (I have only had it since damaging my eardrum 3 months ago) and hearing loss, I began to "hear" a male choral tune at the same time as the other regular sounds from tinnitus. It's usually a repetitive part of some tune, and like a chanting, church group or even scary demonicish, opera-like. Sometimes it switches to something else like a 40s jazz singer with a horn section or the same tune as the choral one mentioned but without the singers. If I have other sounds like TV or radio going, I don't notice it but in moments of silence it always comes back. It isn't music I have a history of listening to so I don't know why it got in my head.

EDIT:

Well, I did forget to mention another change that happened. After a couple of weeks of that male choral ditty, I started to "hear" one verse Walking in a Winter Wonderland for about 2 weeks. I'm familiar with that one of course but these others not that I'm aware of. SO much stuff filters through our brains that we could never remember all of it, not consciously anyway.

 

[cjbhab]

I've had musical tinnitus going on for a couple years now. Fortunately it has not really bothered me.

What happens is in the evening, when trying to sleep, I will hear what sounds like a party in the distance with music playing and I can hear the bass. In reality there is nothing there, you would swear the neighbours were blasting music.

The other night I could vividly hear the Halo 2 theme music playing in my head. This only happened once, but what's ridiculous about it is I couldn't even tell you what that theme sounds like anymore. Haven't played it in years. If I heard it, it's instantly recognizable though. The brain is weird.

 

[BuzzyBee]

I don't visit the boards often, but I somehow missed this thread a while back and wanted to say a few things.

First, MES is not always treated by Seroquel. Chronic earworms or repetitive song lyrics could maybe be treated by it, but it depends on the patient and the cause. In some cases, anti-hallucinatory drugs have helped. But it's not the same for every person and for some there is no treatment other than getting used to it or avoiding the trigger.

Also, MES is not the same as an earworm. An earworm is when you get a song or some lyrics stuck in your head and is more like an obsessive compulsive type symptom. With MES, you actually hear music. There are always anecdotal stories about people hearing Christmas carols and such and not being bothered. That's great, but MES can also be extremely debilitating. Imagine having to listen to an awful string of notes repeating all the time or being woken up every morning at 3:00 AM with it.

But yeah, a lot of us here have MES and tinnitus.

 

[JayZee]

It isn't music I have a history of listening to so I don't know why it got in my head.

I have exactly the same thing happening to me.

Even though you think you haven't heard this music before, you probably have and your brain remembers it.

Sometimes, when I get stuck on a certain musical pattern and it's been driving me crazy for too long, I try to "change the channel" by playing a song I know well. Often what happens to me next is that my brain will pick up the repetitive refrain from the song (three, four or five notes) and play that in an endless loop. When you get tired of that, you can just try to move to the next song.

It's hard to get rid of completely.

 

[Jupiterman]

When you get tired of that, you can just try to move to the next song.

It's hard to get rid of completely.

Try white noise.

 

[JayZee]

Try white noise.

Unfortunately, white noise drives my reactive tinnitus wild.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't...

 

[LouLou]

Hello all,

Musical Ear Syndrome has been a four-year journey of hell for me, but I now have some hope, and I want to share with you all what I have learned in the hope that it can help you, too.

It all started when I left my stressful banking job, my husband and I decided to go for early retirement and get out of the rat race and travel. I remember thinking how I wanted to rid my head of all the stress and worry, and replace it with calm and silence. Little did I know what was around the corner.

My brain started to play music - all familiar songs - in about eight second repetitive loops. At first I figured it was just an earworm. But it didn't go away and became highly distressing as many of you will relate to. My anxiety and stress level went higher, I couldn't sleep, and the music in my head became constant. My doctor, who didn't know what to do with me, gave me sleeping pills and Seroquel. The WORST possible decision.

I became hooked on the sleeping pills, just to get any kind of relief, and the Seroquel did nothing but perhaps made the symptoms worse. I was referred to a psychiatrist and treated for mental illness for 3 years. Never, during this time, was musical tinnitus or MES even explained to me as a possibility. I just assumed I was going crazy. I considered taking my life, because nothing was working. That's how bad it got for me.

Then, two things happened, which have changed my life around:

1) I stumbled across hearinglosshelp.com (no affiliation) and reached out to the site author, Neil Bauman, Ph.D., who is in fact the doctor who named this condition "Musical Ear Syndrome". I spent an hour on the phone with him, and learned as much as I could about the condition. I highly recommend you visit his site and reach out to him, he tries to answer everyone individually.

2) I visited an audiologist, who ruled out hearing loss and suggested I receive the same treatment as a severe case of regular tinnitus. She suggested I wear Widex Hearing Aids playing Zen Sounds 24/7, and receive Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

Widex Zen sounds are "fractal sounds" - almost like wind chimes - so they sound musical enough to satisfy your musical brain but they are completely random, no patterns or repetition, they are generated within the hearing aid. So if you struggle with always "hearing" the last song that played, it's because it gets committed to your short-term memory and the brain calls upon it as the easiest melody to play in your brain. Fractal sounds, on the other hand, don't stick in the brain. This, for me, was a complete revelation.

I now wear hearing aids playing these "wind chimes" 24/7, yes even while sleeping. They helped me get off the sleeping pills and all other medication, and I am much calmer. I play them at the quietest volume possible and they give me enough sound stimulation to shut my musical brain off, so I don't have to think about it every second of every day and can re-focus my attention to what is truly important in life.

Like many of you, I have developed hyperacusis and have difficulty going into grocery stores or other people's homes etc. because I have had to remove myself from musical environments for so long. It is still uncomfortable for me to hear real music because the fear has been embedded in me that it will stick in my brain and drive me crazy. And, when I take my hearing aids out even for a few minutes, this fear becomes warranted again. For this, I am undergoing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which is helping me to understand that I cannot avoid or fight MES, but have to learn to accept it without judgement.

For anyone really struggling with this condition, please know that you are not alone and that there is help available. This study talks about fractal tones and how they help tinnitus. It is well worth a read.

 

[ECP]

Ugh, I am going through a bout of musical tinnitus right now. I have had it in the past, but only temporarily, and I had hoped it had gone away for good. No such luck.

As I read through all the responses in this thread, I see a lot of things I have in common with many of you:

1. For me, the music usually manifests as a brass or woodwind type of instrument, such as a horn, saxophone, or trumpet. It can even sound like an entire brass band. Curiously, I never hear instruments like pianos, violins, or drums.

2. Occasionally, the music changes to something that sounds like an entire chorus of singers, never a single person's voice. There are no distinct lyrics that I can pick out, just vague vowel sounds like "aaaaaaaah." Since the human voice relies on air flowing through the vocal cords to form vowel sounds, my theory is that this type of choral tinnitus is just a variation of the brass and woodwind tinnitus I described above.

3. I can confidently say that musical tinnitus is not the same as an earworm. If I have an earworm, I will "hear" the song in the center of my brain, and it will play from start to finish with crystal clarity, with all the instruments and vocals intact, exactly the way it sounds on the radio. When that happens, I know immediately that it is just my brain ruminating on the memory of a song. On the other hand, my musical tinnitus usually occurs in only one ear at a time, and the perceived origin of the sound is so far outside my body that it is not so much "coming from one ear" as it is "coming from my far left" or "coming from my far right," just like a real sound in the external world. Almost invariably, the music will not only have a brass, woodwind, or human choral sound, but it will also sound muffled or tinny, as if I am hearing an AM radio playing the music from the other side of my neighbor's wall. Another distinguishing characteristic of my musical tinnitus is that it may not sound like an entire song from start to finish. Sometimes it is just a short snippet of a melody that repeats in an endless loop, like a record player with a damaged needle or record.

Like some of you, I have been attempting to modulate the musical tinnitus. It is truly bizarre. Yesterday, as an experiment, I listened to "Stand by Me," sung by Ben E. King. I listened to it only twice and at the lowest possible volume to avoid triggering noxacusis. Later that day, I could hear the song coming from a spot three or four feet away from my right ear, but it sounded like a brass band playing only the melody, without the harmony or vocals.

I tried to override the musical tinnitus by mentally "playing" the recorded version of "Stand by Me" in my brain, but no matter how hard I tried to superimpose the missing vocals and backing instruments over the phantom brass band, I could not succeed. The brass band was so loud that it drowned out Ben's voice and the stringed instruments that my brain was trying to supply.

I am equal parts fascinated and exhausted. It does not help that I am also hearing two kinds of regular high-pitched tinnitus while the musical tinnitus is going on. The overall cacophony is horrid. Strangely enough, I have periods during the day when the music stops for a few hours and then starts up again. Like any other form of tinnitus, it does whatever it wants to do. I do not know what to do for it except try to erase "Stand by Me" by listening to another song for five minutes.

 

[Hardlife]

Did the Musical Ear Syndrome get better for you? My multi-tone tinnitus has morphed into MES. I now have two tones of music playing in my head all the time.

I am totally frustrated with this and really need help from others who have experienced MES.

 

[Hardlife]

Thank you. I will look up Seroquel. I appreciate your note.

Did the musical tinnitus (MES) go away for you? If so, can you please let me know what helped you, including any medicines or other treatments?

Ugh, I am going through a bout of musical tinnitus right now. I have had it in the past, but only temporarily, and I had hoped it had gone away for good. No such luck.

As I read through all the responses in this thread, I see a lot of things I have in common with many of you:

1. For me, the music usually manifests as a brass or woodwind type of instrument, such as a horn, saxophone, or trumpet. It can even sound like an entire brass band. Curiously, I never hear instruments like pianos, violins, or drums.

2. Occasionally, the music changes to something that sounds like an entire chorus of singers, never a single person's voice. There are no distinct lyrics that I can pick out, just vague vowel sounds like "aaaaaaaah." Since the human voice relies on air flowing through the vocal cords to form vowel sounds, my theory is that this type of choral tinnitus is just a variation of the brass and woodwind tinnitus I described above.

3. I can confidently say that musical tinnitus is not the same as an earworm. If I have an earworm, I will "hear" the song in the center of my brain, and it will play from start to finish with crystal clarity, with all the instruments and vocals intact, exactly the way it sounds on the radio. When that happens, I know immediately that it is just my brain ruminating on the memory of a song. On the other hand, my musical tinnitus usually occurs in only one ear at a time, and the perceived origin of the sound is so far outside my body that it is not so much "coming from one ear" as it is "coming from my far left" or "coming from my far right," just like a real sound in the external world. Almost invariably, the music will not only have a brass, woodwind, or human choral sound, but it will also sound muffled or tinny, as if I am hearing an AM radio playing the music from the other side of my neighbor's wall. Another distinguishing characteristic of my musical tinnitus is that it may not sound like an entire song from start to finish. Sometimes it is just a short snippet of a melody that repeats in an endless loop, like a record player with a damaged needle or record.

Like some of you, I have been attempting to modulate the musical tinnitus. It is truly bizarre. Yesterday, as an experiment, I listened to "Stand by Me," sung by Ben E. King. I listened to it only twice and at the lowest possible volume to avoid triggering noxacusis. Later that day, I could hear the song coming from a spot three or four feet away from my right ear, but it sounded like a brass band playing only the melody, without the harmony or vocals.

I tried to override the musical tinnitus by mentally "playing" the recorded version of "Stand by Me" in my brain, but no matter how hard I tried to superimpose the missing vocals and backing instruments over the phantom brass band, I could not succeed. The brass band was so loud that it drowned out Ben's voice and the stringed instruments that my brain was trying to supply.

I am equal parts fascinated and exhausted. It does not help that I am also hearing two kinds of regular high-pitched tinnitus while the musical tinnitus is going on. The overall cacophony is horrid. Strangely enough, I have periods during the day when the music stops for a few hours and then starts up again. Like any other form of tinnitus, it does whatever it wants to do. I do not know what to do for it except try to erase "Stand by Me" by listening to another song for five minutes.

Did your musical tinnitus improve? I have also been suffering with this hellish condition for the past five months. Please let me know if anything has worked for you.

 

[ECP]

It improved a lot and then went away, but it took weeks to do so. Sometimes it still comes back when I'm not expecting it. I find that it is most often triggered by exposure to fans and air conditioners, but sometimes even ambient noises from the other side of a wall or a window can set it off.

I have not sought medication for it, so I cannot comment on Seroquel.

I hope you find some relief.