Radio-Head ... or Voices in My Head

This is a great forum and really helpful! (TY to the creator.) For example, just learning terms for things, like
"Morse-code tinnitus" or "pulsatile tinnitus," is actually liberating. Maybe misery does really love company, at least for the purposes of education and support.

OK, here goes, for a wild topic: hearing radio or TV conversations in one's head. It's happened to me at certain times, in certain places, and under certain conditions. It's not something I like. The conditions, some of which may be irrelevant but let me mention them anyway: tinnitus + head congestion + night-time + proximity to a radio receiver/computer. If I'm correct, and not crazy myself - El McMeen - Wikipedia - then people who hear voices in their heads are not necessarily crazy. That's huge, if I'm right.

Let's consider the situation: radio and TV waves everywhere; metals we have in our bodies; metals that occur in our drinking water (we have a well, and I've had it tested); metal in various over-the-counter medications like Zicam; plus the wonderful human brain and ears. In my case, I tend to hear loud voices, and conflicting ones, which is consistent with stronger radio or TV signals coming through over weaker ones. To be honest, I'm not straining to hear the individual words and, honestly, am trying to keep myself from getting a bit freaked about this whole thing.

Now that I've opened the can of worms, anybody want to chime in? Pardon the mixed metaphor.

El

 

You should really go see a doctor about this and explains your symptoms. I have never heard anyone saying their tinnitus sounds like voices. That sounds more like schizophrenia to be honest so I really encourage you to go see a doctor ASAP.

 

I appreciate the concern. This phenomenon co-exists with the tinnitus; it doesn't replace it. It doesn't happen all the time, and it's not associated with any particular psychological or other emotional state. I have been having a low-frequency Morse-code type tinnitus recently, which I don't have all the time. Let's see how many others have experienced this rather weird situation. It might be the type of thing people haven't wanted to talk about...

 

Please ignore @Jack Straw's ignorant post.

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It is rare, but a few of us do/have experience(d) it.

For me it only lasted a year, and was back when my tinnitus was generally milder.

It was as @danielthor said (in the first profile post I've linked), nothing like a clear conversation, but more like the Morse code in my right ear mimicking a conversation.

Anyway, there's an overlap between diminishing mental health and tinnitus, where (mis)diagnosis is concerned, even amongst our own ilk (it appears). Why exactly should tinnitus only ever be tonal in nature? The brain is capable of extraordinary f*ckery after damage to itself, or the sensorial organs it receives it's input from.

It's a bit like thinking that Solar Retinopathy should only result in blind spots, when in fact sufferers can also experience: micropsia (objects appearing smaller than they are), metamorphopsia (distortions in the size and shapes of objects), and dyschromatopsia (a deficiency in the perception of colours).

Just remember, even those suffering something as unambiguous as pure tone tinnitus, would once have been considered out of their minds.

 

I’ve never experienced this, but I believe I have heard of ones who says they have I think it’s called musical tinnitus, where they hear music instead of the usual ringing or high pitch hissing. I remember that one said he heard the national anthem over and over. I had read this on this site a long time ago and can’t recall where I found it.

 

@Sybelle had some issues along the lines of what you describe:

My Tinnitus Sometimes Has a Resemblance to Human Voice Inflection?

She discusses it more in this thread:

Any positive experiences with Sertraline (Zoloft) and Tinnitus?

I think she mentioned it going away at some point. You can browse her post history for more details.

 

Hi John,

Anyway let’s look through this.

They are hearing an echo of their own voice when pressing their ear to a pillow. Prob collusion effect and not a voice speaking to him. He even talks about a vibration when he speaks in his previous post.

This guy literally describes it has a hallucination.

Just because a couple of people are experiencing a similar “tinnitus” doesn’t mean it’s tinnitus. It could be something else a doctor should look at.

OP also describes them as voices and not music. Perhaps OP should go to a doctor who can actually diagnose this as tinnitus or schizophrenia or whatever it is. Or is that ignorant to let a medical professional give a diagnosis?

 

I take your point, and, as you will note, I didn't criticize it or you in my response. I want to monitor how frequently this happens, and under what circumstances. (It's too bad the medical professionals really don't seem to have a handle on the whole tinnitus phenomenon - and I shouldn't use the word phenomenon since, sadly, the condition is so common.) In my recent case, I had a lot of head congestion, which could have amplified a sound.

I'm not sure I go along with the notion of "illusion" that the meds seem to use for musical tinnitus, unless the brain somehow stores and then replays an earlier experience. Like "conventional" tinnitus, it seems to be an actual experience, not an assumed one.

Please keep the posts and experiences coming, people. Here's what's on my heart, and I am reaching out to professionals who interact with a lot of patients in mental health facilities: wouldn't it be tragic if there are people in those facilities who aren't crazy, but in fact hear things in their heads that have a physiological basis that needs to be explored further, and the failure to do so on the part of the medical professionals leaves them so frustrated that they lose their minds. Anyone with tinnitus can relate to that issue.

 

Do you hear clear words or just a sense of people talking in the background?

 

Thanks for the question. It is a sense of hearing the type of radio show where the DJ/Radio guy shouts at you a lot - that is, so-called "personality radio;" that kind of vocal rhythm and modulation. That was, at least, the most recent experience.

 

The reason I ask is that I certainly have gotten audible illustrations within my tinnitus. For example trying listen for a beep of a device that maybe I can or maybe I can’t hear and suddenly finding that pattern develop within my tinnitus. I can imagine that the sense of some people talking in the background could be the same thing. If you are hearing distinct words, sentences and ideas being expressed then maybe it is something different. I don’t know, if in doubt maybe you should talk to an expert.

 

Voice thing may be SOLVED. Woke up congested this morning, with noises amplified. When I would move my head or other parts of my body, there was a noise in my head. Also, natural sounds, like heartbeat were amplified. These sounds may have combined to mimic voice sounds. To be continued. Thanks for listening to this strange tale...

 

It happened again this morning a bit; still trying to figure it all out, but not getting stressed.

 

Hi @EL123 , I don't know if this is relevant to your problem or not, but I thought I'd give you the link since you mention hearing internal body sounds. I'm planning on also sharing this to the whole forum, just in case it fits someone's symptoms. It is so strange and fascinating.

https://stanmed.stanford.edu/2016fa...-superior-canal-dehiscence-syndrome-SCDS.html

Good luck,
Della

 

Hey there, what you are saying is correct but I also had times, when I could actually hear my intrusive sounds or "inner voice", when while thinking about stuff without saying I could actually perceive and hear it as an "external" sound. I think having Moonlight Sonata and bunch of classical stuff also counts, but I kind of experienced "chunks" of it and they sounded muffled.

I had this for one month, it didn't go away completely, but takes less time. It's reoccuring, but everytime it gets milder.

 

It happened to me. Not sure that it was related to TV or radio, but I heard a voice in my head saying (wrote it down 2nd of January this year when it happened – translated from Swedish):

"Thomas, yeah I've met him. He's a project leader. Damn it."

I have no idea where I would get this from at that time when it happened. ‍♂️

Was in an awake state in the afternoon. But I was having trouble with newfound tinnitus since a couple of weeks back then. Haven't heard any voices since then, I think.