Auditory hallucinations and seizures.

[Buffheart]

Hi all! I have been meaning to make this post for awhile after I saw a simiilar topic on another site. After seeing that board I have been wondering if what I am hearing are seizures or related to seizures.

So all my life I have heard strange, unexplainable things. Usually this happens when I turn something else on. Often times when I am in the shower I think I hear my dog barking, but always when I open the door he is sleeping or doing something quiet. Sometimes I hear other noises when I am in the shower. Also, since I was a young girl I have slept with a fan on because the white noise is very soothing and blocks out other noises. Well I also tend to hear other noises when my fan is on. Often I hear beeping noises, like a watch or something. Sometimes I hear barking, frogs croaking, or the faucet/shower being turned on. There are other noises, but the creepiest are the people voices I hear. Usually it's a mans voice. Often times it sounds like a radio has been left on, but I can never make out any actual words, and as soon as I turn my fan off it goes away. I also hear echos of real noises, like when my alarm goes off I can still hear it, even after I have shut it off.
When I was younger I was convinced ghosts were haunting me and trying to talk to me through my fan and I would actually hide when I heard these noises. Now since it has happened for so many years I have become used to it, but hearing the strange mans voice still spookes me a bit. And I know these aren't real noises because, like I said, as soon as I turn my fan/shower off they all stop. I have even search my house looking for the sources only to find none, yet have the noises come back as soon as I turn my fan on. And nobody else hears them.

For my whole life I have also had an occasional ringing in my ears. It usually lasts for 5-10 seconds and is only in one ear at a time. It sounds kind of like somebody tapped a spoon or knife against a glass. It is just one "ding" and then fades away. My hearing isn't impaired when this happens, and sometimes I can only just hear it. This used to happen maybe 5 times a year but has started happening several times a day. I can still hear it when people are talking to me, but I know it is only me that can hear it. It happens at any time and I don't notice any sort of trigger. Nothing happens afterwards either.

I am wondering if these are seizures I am experiencing? And I have contacted one of the Epilepsy centers around my house, but I have contacted them three times and still haven't heard back. I am going to call again tomorrow because I have had so many strange things happen to me recently that I worry my seizure like episodes are getting worse. I am also going to compile a list of every episode I think is a seizure, because maybe that will help the docs figure out what is wrong with me.

Oh, I thought I should add that I am NOT schizophrenic (sp?).

 

[Nakamova]

Auditory hallucinations can definitely be migraine-related or seizure-related. They are most likely to be seizures that originate near the temporal lobe. Below are some links to CWE threads on the topic:

http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/tle-auditory-hallucinations-9949/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/audio-hallucinations-2679/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/can-hallucinations-part-seizure-activity-5273/

There may be a genetic component:
http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/publications/in-vivo/Vol1_Iss3_feb11_02/research-briefs.html

 

[Buffheart]

Thanks! I am still not sure if some of the things I am hearing are seizures, as they only happen when there are certain noises, but I will bring it up with ny doctor. And I am reading those links you posted.

 

[DayDreamer]

the genetics home reference page below provides some good information:

http //ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/autosomal-dominant-partial-epilepsy-with-auditory-features

This is a type of reflex epilepsy I assume I have, although I have not looked at any genetic tests besides some that we donated to Columbia but don't know the results of. Specific types of music/voices will trigger seizures in me, starting with simple partial then leading to complex if I don't stop the stimuli fast enough. I do not hear anything during my seizures. My brother says he does hear music and other stuff. His do not seem to be triggered by sounds, or he doesn't seem bothered enough by his seizures to track them. He outgrew the seizures affecting his consciousness more than twenty years ago. Hooray for him.

 

[valeriedl]

I've never heard things, but I've seen things.

I'll be sitting in the living room and swear the tv and pictures should be in other places.

I once even though my Aunt was in the house moving things around because every time I'd look around the room things just didn't look like they were in the right place.

 

[Endless]

I've heard people talking, like they were miles away. I also have heard random dogs barking, bells ringing. Those last two things could have been real for all I know. I see stuff, like bugs, shadow-like people. I hate hallucinations. They scare me.

 

[Buffheart]

I also see things out of the corner of my eye, like shadows or bright dots/lazers. Again, when I was younger I was convinced ghosts were scaring me. I was pretty superstitious. Even though I have become more used to it they still scare me a bit, especially when I am alone at night.

Also, has anybody heard of myoclonic seizures affecting ear drums? Today my right ear drum started "beating", and then shortly afterwards I heard that "ding" noise in my right ear. I was in the kitchen, so it was pretty noisy and I could just barely hear it, but I did hear it. After 5 seconds it went away, though my right ear drum is still beating. What I think it is is myoclonic seizures causing my ear drums to twitch as it has happened before.

 

[RobinN]

Magnesium deficiency can cause auditory issues, as well as lowering a persons seizure threshold.

 

[marlena23]

I've had ringing in the ears and deafness and "fullness" that lasts for days. When I spoke to my doctor about it she says that its related to my non-epileptic seizures. Sometimes the deafness is just in one ear. If it is an actual seizure I would like to know if there is something more than results from a EEG that can done to get a diagnosis. My EEGS have always come back as "slightly abnormal" so I don't know exactly what that means. I have also freaked out during an EEG test, they had me close my eyes during a strobe light simulation and during the red light flashing I could not move or talk but it looked to me like blood was pouring on me like rain. Since I couldn't move all I could do was cry. Worst experience of my life!
The thing is epilepsy does all kinds of weird things to our brains and when new symptoms Pop up I just try to stay calm cuz the stress and anxiety triggers more seizures. I hope things get better, or that you find a med that helps control them.

 

[mel239]

my epi said that was a symptom of my temporal lobe seizures.I often heard 2 men arguing in diff rooms of my house. For years I thought they were they ghosts of the 2 men who committed suicide here but once I went on meds they disappeared.now I have visual hallucinations that are instantaneous,but no 2 men arguing.

 

[Buffheart]

What do you mean by "symptom"? Like it was a seizure, or what? Can you have symptoms without seizures? I just can't figure out why they always seem to happen when there is white noise, like fan or shower. Maybe they have happened other times and I have forgotten? I don't know. Most of my strange symptoms have been happening my whole life, so I usually forget as soon as it happens.

Well, today I called the center again. Funny thing is that they have called my cell phone three times, but my cell phone never rang, nor ever showed their number. A woman there left three messages on my phone, but I don't know how they could have called without my phone ringing or registering it. Well, the woman who called was gone, but I talked to someone else and the woman who called me is going to call again Monday, but on a different phone. I thought it was strange that nobody called, come to find out they called three times!

 

[mel239]

I mean to say it was related much as a simple partial or aura would be-sometimes it would lead to a complex where i would forget and sometimes just the aura.but this was back when I was just cataloguing the strange things as he would ask me questions.I had not been diagnosed and never related it to e--he did

 

[valeriedl]

I notice alot of times when I'm sleeping I hear the phone ring and jolt awake. I'll usually be having some type of dream when I hear the phone ring but the dream has nothing to to with phones.

I don't think I'm having any type of a seizure when I hear the phone ring, unless I'm having a seizure in my sleep. I don't know if I have those though.

 

[petero]

I have the same thing happen to me.
also what is odd is that sometimes I have a synchronous thought with, for example, the TV. sometimes I mumble (or speaking with my inner voice) to myself things I'm thinking and the tv speaker/show (or sometimes people around me even) will say the exact thing, or speak of the same topic I was mumbling/thinking about.

but hearing the voices/sounds is something I'm very familiar with.

I've come to accredit it (my grand mal diagnosis was in 2008 - idk about seizures when younger- perhaps absence seizures) with seizure oriented phenomena-
but being the introspective sort, and a musician, I've tried to justify these sounds - (I like the fan on too)
because seizures are increased brain activity, and electricity is at a frequency - maybe oscillators act as filters (putting "white noise" in place of background noise in the case of fans) which would negate out a lot of frequency noise other than that in the typical human vocal range
(otherwise fans would sound like a monotone voice going "uuhhhhhnnn" or something
because the "voice" frequency range is 200-400-700 Hz (?) frequency range
and a fan spinning is in thousands and thousands of rpm...

same thing with the shower: white noise ..
so like reverse engineering a seizure by the brain seeking out reasoning from noise- it may be piecing together sounds to sound like familiar sounds

as far as the beeps, tones and things, I had considered again that maybe the hyperactive brain-state heightens a hearing sense, and that with sooooo much electronic stuff everywhere, (diode oscillators are everywhere, small cooling fans, etc) harmonics of these devices could overlap to create an audible (or be close enough to an audible to compel the brain to piece together an audible tone/s

but these would still not discount the hyperactivity of a brain state I guess
meaning, maybe these tones and sounds actually ARE there, but outside of a typical aural experience

sometimes I just get very focused on the sounds around - in the restaurant now: tv, beeps from the kitchen timers, mumbles of conversation of everyone as a whole, the kitchen fan, the pans clanging, metal pings and plates...
I have to force myself to stop doing that at times because it can get overwhelming

but think of how some sounds are keyed to make people snap to attention: a baby's cry, screams, beeps fashioned after those same frequency tones to act as alarms (microwave beep beep, ex.)
these wouldn't be as noticeable if they sounded like the pluck of a bass string
people are generally 'cued' to these ranges of frequency - maybe the epileptic brain can end up 'cued' to a much much broader range of frequencies
(maybe even frequencies not "audible")
many people can hear mains line hum, which is at something at 40Hz, which is supposedly outside the "normal" audible range

just as products on the shelves need brighter and brighter labeling to catch the buyer's attention, because we get desensitized, the aural brain gets desensitized for many, leading the brain to seek out brighter and brighter sounds, given the inundation of background noise nowadays