This isn't dive related and it's not worth going to see a doctor about but I'm curious if any the medical professionals can shed some light on something.
First of all, I'm not crazy, psychotic, bi-polar or whatever, I don't have Parkinson's or anything similar and I've never suffered any brain damage aside from a concussion that I got in a martial arts tournament once. I'm perfectly healthy. This could be relevant to what I'm about to say next, but I'm also fairly musical. I play a couple of instruments, including piano, albeit badly now that I don't play in a band anymore and don't have the time (or discipline) to practice every day.
But... (here it comes)
I hear music. Like ALL the time.
Much of the time it's just a background thing like a jingle or whatever running through my head but it's constant, like a radio in the background that never turns off. For example, as I'm writing this I'm hearing "Freak on a Leash" from Korn, a song I haven't heard for maybe 8 months or so, maybe longer. There's no reason for it, but there it is. And I can hear it in clear detail. Tonality, pitch, ever nuance.... Just like a radio turned very soft.
But the background stuff isn't too bad and sometimes I'm not aware of it at all, especially if I'm concentrating on something else. But it sometimes gets a little distracting. Last week, for example, I had a cold but I needed to get a lot of stuff going at my new job so I just took Paracetamol all week to keep it down and by Friday I had "37 stitches" from ... who are those guys.... mmmmm.... oh yeah, from "Drowning Pool" but it was just weird. I'd hear the song in my head as clear as day but at the very same time there was a piano version of it -- of my own invention -- being overlayed on it, as if listening to this music created in my mind a completely different composition that fit exactly in the timing, tone and rhythm but played on an acoustic piano. Like a piece of rock music and a piece of classical music getting played at the same time but fitting together somehow like lego. (believe me if I could get these piano pieces down on paper I'd make money with it because it's quite good! ). Point here being that drugs can sometimes turn up the volume a bit.
A fin, the point is that it can get distracting like this. And it can get even worse. On rare occasions I'll wake up in the middle of the night thinking that the stereo is on, blaring, in fact, or that the phone is ringing (I'll even get up and go answer it) or like someone is in my bedroom playing an instrument. There's never anything there. On one occasion it was so loud and so distracting that it woke me up out of a deep sleep and it sounded like there was a party going on .... that freaked the bejesus out of me because I thought it was some kind of metaphysical thing that was beyond my control. but I'm pretty sure that it was the same kind of auditory hallucination that I often have, only without form and very VERY loud, like being in a metro car full of people talking. I've only had that once and that's the worst it's ever been.
I've never really thought about this much since I've had this backdrop of music in my head to one degree or another for as long as I can remember.... I also know that it's not that uncommon among musicians, I know Mozart, Schubert and Tchaikovsky all had well documented cases of this, and Beethoven's auditory imagination was so pronounced that he could even write music (playing entire symphonies in his head) after he had gone completely deaf. I don't want to compare myself to them but because of reading about them I know that such things do occur and apparently affect a certain percentage of the population. I also know that it can get a lot worse than just a "backdrop" (Tchaikovsky was reported to have said that the music in his head could get so loud that it hurt.... which probably explains some of his symphonies LOL.... share the pain
).
My question is this: what the heck is it, actually? Is there some medical explanation for why this happens?
R..
First of all, I'm not crazy, psychotic, bi-polar or whatever, I don't have Parkinson's or anything similar and I've never suffered any brain damage aside from a concussion that I got in a martial arts tournament once. I'm perfectly healthy. This could be relevant to what I'm about to say next, but I'm also fairly musical. I play a couple of instruments, including piano, albeit badly now that I don't play in a band anymore and don't have the time (or discipline) to practice every day.
But... (here it comes)
I hear music. Like ALL the time.
Much of the time it's just a background thing like a jingle or whatever running through my head but it's constant, like a radio in the background that never turns off. For example, as I'm writing this I'm hearing "Freak on a Leash" from Korn, a song I haven't heard for maybe 8 months or so, maybe longer. There's no reason for it, but there it is. And I can hear it in clear detail. Tonality, pitch, ever nuance.... Just like a radio turned very soft.
But the background stuff isn't too bad and sometimes I'm not aware of it at all, especially if I'm concentrating on something else. But it sometimes gets a little distracting. Last week, for example, I had a cold but I needed to get a lot of stuff going at my new job so I just took Paracetamol all week to keep it down and by Friday I had "37 stitches" from ... who are those guys.... mmmmm.... oh yeah, from "Drowning Pool" but it was just weird. I'd hear the song in my head as clear as day but at the very same time there was a piano version of it -- of my own invention -- being overlayed on it, as if listening to this music created in my mind a completely different composition that fit exactly in the timing, tone and rhythm but played on an acoustic piano. Like a piece of rock music and a piece of classical music getting played at the same time but fitting together somehow like lego. (believe me if I could get these piano pieces down on paper I'd make money with it because it's quite good! ). Point here being that drugs can sometimes turn up the volume a bit.
A fin, the point is that it can get distracting like this. And it can get even worse. On rare occasions I'll wake up in the middle of the night thinking that the stereo is on, blaring, in fact, or that the phone is ringing (I'll even get up and go answer it) or like someone is in my bedroom playing an instrument. There's never anything there. On one occasion it was so loud and so distracting that it woke me up out of a deep sleep and it sounded like there was a party going on .... that freaked the bejesus out of me because I thought it was some kind of metaphysical thing that was beyond my control. but I'm pretty sure that it was the same kind of auditory hallucination that I often have, only without form and very VERY loud, like being in a metro car full of people talking. I've only had that once and that's the worst it's ever been.
I've never really thought about this much since I've had this backdrop of music in my head to one degree or another for as long as I can remember.... I also know that it's not that uncommon among musicians, I know Mozart, Schubert and Tchaikovsky all had well documented cases of this, and Beethoven's auditory imagination was so pronounced that he could even write music (playing entire symphonies in his head) after he had gone completely deaf. I don't want to compare myself to them but because of reading about them I know that such things do occur and apparently affect a certain percentage of the population. I also know that it can get a lot worse than just a "backdrop" (Tchaikovsky was reported to have said that the music in his head could get so loud that it hurt.... which probably explains some of his symphonies LOL.... share the pain
). My question is this: what the heck is it, actually? Is there some medical explanation for why this happens?
R..
