Overly anxious about sounds/voices...

Alisonlg

New Member
I don't know what to make of it or do with it (if anything)...

M seems overly anxious/concerned about sounds/voices that he can't place...like he wants to make sure that the rest of us heard them too and that we know where the sound was coming from. (did that make any sense? LOL) For instance, if we're all sitting in the kitchen eating dinner and the TV is on in the living room and there's a sound on the TV from a commercial, M will sort of startle, look at us, and say, "Did you hear that?" and we'll say, "Yes." and then he needs us to confirm what it was.

He's never been like this before (i.e. before coming home from his last psychiatric hospital admit). And, I wouldn't say noises in general are bothering him, it's just displaced noises...noises he can't readily explain. So, my first thought was...does HE think he's hearing things? So, I tried to casually pry to see if he was maybe hearing other sounds, but it doesn't sound like he is.

I would have thought that the combo of Celexa and Seroquel would be lowering his anxieties (and for the most part :::knock on wood::: things ARE doing really well around here), but this one component is new and magnified. It just seems a little odd.

What would you do with this?
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Could it be someone asked him if he was hearing voices or sounds? Or could he have heard someone else talking about THEM hearing sounds or voices and it made him aware that some people do?

That could cause him to suddenly have the awareness that maybe he is hearing things that not everyone does if he hears something he cant place. Am I making sense?

I see patterns in things like curtains that look to me like faces and I have repeatedly asked family members if they see the same things because I know I am seeing things...lol. Once in a blue moon they will humor me and tell me if they squint real hard they can see it.
 

busywend

Well-Known Member
difficult child does this at times. Usually thinking someone is trying to get in the house.
But, I usually do hear what she hears, and can tell her what it was and therefore she is reassured.
Sometimes I pretend it was something to reassure her. I would say something like - oh that was the washing machine sound that I heard yesterday. When in fact I have never heard it and within a few minutes I am investigating it myself.


 

Steely

Active Member
My son does this too. I decided that it must be because he heard people talking about others who "hear voices" (maybe in psychiatric hospital or in the movies?), and he knows these are bad or scary symptoms for a person to have. I perceive it as his worry, that he might someday "hear these voices" and then that would mean he is "really sick". Does that make sense?
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Just to let you know, Celexa can work to make a person MORE anxious too. It can work both ways. My daughter quit taking it because she was too nervous on it. medications don't always work the way we want them to. Just a thought.
 

WNC Gal

New Member
My daughter began having hallucinations and mis-hearing people who were speaking in person a few weeks ago (probably in response to increased stress about transferring to a new program).

Her psychiatrist was at first thinking that it was a less common side effect of SSRI anti-depressants. But soon they noticed a pattern of inconsistencies in her reporting the symptoms and observed that they never occurred when she was getting lots of attention. He suggested to her that if they weren't "ghosts", then these hallucinations must be an "extension" of herself and that she didn't need them to "speak for her".

Before long, she told him that her hallucination had made a new friend and wouldn't be around any more. So, it gave her a way to stop the behavior without "losing face" and admitting it was a factitious symptom.

So far so good - she seems to be cured of "hearing voices".
 

LittleDudesMom

Well-Known Member
My difficult child does this, to an extent. It's not a daily event, but ebbs and flows with his anxiety. It's not that he is "hearing voices", it is more than noises in the house trigger a "did you hear that?" "What was that?"

There are times, like with busy, that I will just make up what the noise is to satisfy his question and alieve his fears.

I'm not saying that this is waht is going on with your daughter. Just relating our experience.

I hope you find an answer.

Sharon
 

WhymeMom?

No real answers to life..
This may be an observation that is totally out in left field for your situation, but we moved into a home about five years ago. It was not a new house, but only about six years old and had "surround speakers" that you could hook into a stereo receiver to make you feel like you were in a theater. Well, we hooked our tv into this and it literally breaks apart the sounds of a tv show. For the longest time I thought we had crickets infesting our home, but no it was this sound system that made any show that had a "quiet evening on the farm scene" make you think you were there among the crickets. I also think the new ipods, nanos, shuffles, MP3's have enhanced sound too so you hear more of the background of songs, shows, etc. Even with my hearing not as sensitive as it used to be I can hear these things, that sometimes make me stop and wonder what is that noise? So if you have gotten any new devices that have sound capabilities or even the contrast of hearing different noises from those he heard (maybe even quieter in the hospital?) before he came home could make him more sensitive?

I guess I would keep an open ear if he starts to hear voices or someone telling him what to do, but if its just sounds that you do hear, I don't think I would worry too much.
 

ODDMOM8571

New Member
My daughter claims she see "ghosts" ... her doctor said it is part of her anxiety problem. I don;t know what to think. It might be her medications to ??? She takes Zoloft 50 mg and Focalin XR.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Nichole did this during her most unstable period. (unmedicated)

I would let her voice her concerns but didn't let myself show any marked difference in emotion. I was a bit afraid of the "attention" angle. But then, Nichole has never like being alone in a room or any place. And would take great pains in order to not be the only person in a room. She did this while NOT trying to draw attention to herself. When I did finally ask her why she mentioned again seeing people and hearing things others didn't.

psychiatrist made a grave mistake in my opinion. Nichole mentioned these symptoms to her and she blew it off. Nichole was furious. I was none to pleased myself as it had taken me nearly 8 months to talk her into revealing this to psychiatrist.

When Nichole is stable on her medications I've noticed that the symptoms wane. Although it doesn't completely go away. She won't talk as openly about this sort of thing thanks to the psychiatrist's reaction. But I can also tell by her behavior.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that outwardly I do my best to not make a big deal out of it. While I do pay close attention to it.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
This sounds anxiety-based - he seems to have a need to be reassured that what he hears has a rational explanation. From what you say, he does this more with sounds that he can't immediately identify or which seem to be out of context.

For difficult child 3, what he hears is less 'important' in terms of providing him with information about the world. He doesn't trust it as much, even though his hearing tests out fine. He may often mishear what we say, or only hear part of it. Where most people will sort of work out the gist of it from context, difficult child 3 INSISTS he has to be told EXACTLY what you said, even if it was something simple. If we paraphrase, he says, "No, that wasn't it." A real problem, when what you said wasn't important; was several conversations ago and is now almost forgotten anyway.
We put it down to anxiety - plus, he really is trying to fit in and be 'normal' and to do this, he has to be able to follow conversation - something he has a long way to go with.

Marg
 
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