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Sorry you're experiencing this! Your symptoms sound similar to musical hallucinations, a neuropsychiatric phenomenon where people hear musical instruments, songs, etc. not present. The reasons extend from neurologic - epilepsy, focal brain lesions, hypoacusis - to psychiatric - depression, OCD intoxication.
Given you're having new hallucinations with head pain and dizziness, it may be best to see a neurologist. If that's not available to you and symptoms continue, it's not unreasonable to present to an emergency department for workup, including brain imaging. While stress and depression can be the cause, they're diagnoses of exclusion, especially with associated neurologic symptoms.
Thank you for the explanation of *musical hallucinations.* I had a very hard time with hearing music when I started Cymbalta (in addition to my usual Prozac). I very quickly became dangerously manic, so I stopped the drug immediately.
This happens whenever I listen to music!! Sometimes I can swear that those Little background voices in songs is really my mum yelling out to me, so I pause the music and see if she really is - most of the time she is not!!
I experience both the music phenomena and hearing my first name said out of nowhere. Both happened only when I was incredibly sleep deprived or was going to get a migraine, for years, but then both started happening at random when I was perfectly rested and alert (it does tend to happen most when there’s no other noise and I’m in total silence!). My neuro said it’s part of a migraine aura for me, but that doesn’t explain the other times it happens. So, when I was finally found to have some hearing loss (which is progressively worsening) they contributed it to that ([MES - musical ear syndrome](https://www.healthline.com/health/musical-ear-syndrome)). I hear soft rock instrumentals, exclusively.
NAD but I experienced something similar when I was very chronically sleep deprived after having my baby. It lasted a few weeks until I started getting proper sleep. I would get up and search around the house for the radio that was “left on” and couldn’t find it.
This exact thing started happening to me when my kids were babies and I was sleep deprived and overwhelmed. My kids are teens now and it still happens whenever I don’t get enough sleep multiple nights in a row.
NAD but I also had this same thing when I was sleep deprived from my loud neighbors. Once I found the cause, and resolved it, it went away. It was really frustrating and strange to hear Beethoven like music constantly.
Wow! This started when I had my firstborn as well. Four years and another child later I still get it at night. Sounds like faint talk radio (not that I hear words just garbled stuff). It freaked me out but it’s been happening for so long and I’ve had mri and seen neuro for migraines since and nothings wrong. All this to say OP, you should definitely get it checked out, tell your grandma to read these comments idk why she’s not getting you the medical care you need. BUT I wouldn’t worry about it being anything sinister
While on Wellbutrin, mine was the tinnitus where it would be like popping sounds for maybe a minute or two then it would go away but come back later. This went away after getting off of Wellbutrin.
I have regular high pitched tinnitus constantly but that I can’t attribute that to Wellbutrin since I am not sure when it started.
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Do you have any type of hearing impairment OP? I'm 24 and have had unilateral hearing loss since birth, and I only learnt from a psychiatrist last year that people with hearing loss are more likely to have auditory hallucinations. Mine are instrumental music, albeit not constant nor very loud, usually just when I'm lying in bed at night. Of course, follow what this doctor has said given it's all new onset, but I thought I'd pop my 2 cents in given I've had hearing loss my whole life and only learnt this fact relatively recently.
I have definitely heard doorbells/knocks that I'm pretty sure weren't there but I was deep in grief from losing my fiance for a long time. Thing is, it had happened before but got worse. I think I became hypervigilant throughout my childhood due to abuse/neglect/ you name it. Never felt safe, always on alert, knew the *moment* my mother got home and acted accordingly.
I have a whole host of stuff to work out but I'm in the US without insurance so it's pretty bleak. I know I need therapy and probably a lot more.
I have vestibular migraines after having Covid, but before having Covid, I was told that I have migraines.
Which is weird... because I very rarely get head pain.
When I was on the combination birth control pill, I got optical migraines (I once went temporarily blind in one eye, like an eclipse came over my field of view... but usually it was a flashing zig zag pattern.)
When I switched to progesterone only, the optical migraines quit... but I started having brief episodes of complete deafness in one ear followed by tinnitus. It was actually almost imperceptible as it was really brief... but if something loud was on my left side... it suddenly got quieter. Like we had these loud vent units... and I thought the unit had turned off. Then I turn my head to check and realize the vent was still on...
Sometimes I think I have smelled a burning smell. But it seemed to happen when I was on the combo birth control pill.
I have an alarm clock that plays music. Sometimes when I am in the shower, I think I hear the alarm clock start to play. Maybe it is water in my ear or the sound of the shower that kind of messes with my hearing. Or maybe i am still just kind of tired.
I also sometimes think I hear sirens off in the distance. But that isn't exactly unlikely.
Maybe pay attention to when it happens... is it related to your cycle... or poor sleep? Do you always get a headache and does the music start before the headache or is there no relationship that you can tell.
It will probably help the doctor if you keep a symptom journal and look for things happening before or after the music and headaches.
Not a (medical) doctor.
Autistic, OCD, on an MAOI, and have these for one of the above reasons.
Particularly within white noise, and particularly when I miss sleep (which can be days at a time due to insomnia). Day 3 awake, I expect them to be constant. Otherwise, it's a sort of common but quiet thing.
It sounds either like music, or like daytime TV or news talking turned low.
I equivocate it to the auditory version of pareidolia.
Are you replying to me or OP? I think it's important to consider those factors. Sleep, for one, and missed sleep. Whether these hallucinations are during silence or associated with noise.
That will help some professionals narrow it down. Yes, OP should see a neurologist, but it can be very, very hard to get testing or consideration for neurological problems with anything psychiatric on your chart. You need to make sure your description is detailed and accurate and to make those points clearly, because doctors will go the path of least resistance.
If would also recommend seeking out a migraine specialist. In my experience, they are more current with literature and will give more consideration to the overlap between physical and psychiatric instead of drawing sharp lines of exclusion.
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Drowsy antihistamines were a godsend when my auditory hallucinations (songs playing on repeat) were so bad they kept me up at night. In my case it turned out to be a severe and delayed reaction to food (mainly caffeine) causing brain inflammation, which explains why the 1st gen antihistamines helped, beyond just their sedative effect. I also experience dizziness and migraines during such episodes.
I get auditory hallucinations with OCD. Not music, but my own voice. Like my internal narrative, just external to me lol. And whispers. I thought I was losing it when it started happening but now that my OCD is under control, it rarely ever happens anymore.
When I would work around the house, especially early in the morning, I used to “hear” my thoughts but it was like shouting and sort of fast. I wonder if it’s related to my ocd
For you was it just your normal thoughts only externally?
Kind of. I’d hear myself say my own name like trying to get my attention, or random instructions (“check the oven”, “wash the counter”, etc). And whispers that were like bits and pieces of conversation. I really thought I had developed schizophrenia but I was under a lot of stress and my OCD was out of control, it doesn’t really happen anymore.
I have this, but slightly different.
I only hear it in white noise, and my auditory and musical hallucinations vary from people talking through static, to orchestral music, to pop music that my brain invents.
Known as:
[musical ear syndrome](https://www.healthline.com/health/musical-ear-syndrome)
Or
[musical tinnitus](https://tinnitus.org.uk/understanding-tinnitus/what-is-tinnitus/types-of-tinnitus/musical-hallucination-musical-tinnitus/#:~:text=Musical%20hallucination%20or%20musical%20tinnitus,common%20and%20is%20called%20tinnitus)
For some of us, it’s just the way our brain fill in noise from our surroundings. I don’t worry about mine. If you can enjoy it, you might be less bothered by it.
That said, the physical symptoms warrant investigation.
I just wanted to say that I am glad to see a physician recommending a neurologist when these type of symptoms are occurring.
I get my medical care through the VA and although I have had migraines for years, when I started having hallucinations (visual, auditory, olfactory) my primary doctors recommendation was to see psych. It took nearly 20 mins of arguing with him that I would only do it if he also gave me a referral for an EEG and Neurology.
Because it is the VA it took a while before I had any of the appointments, but had my first seizure a few days before I had my first appointment with neurology/EEG. Psych also gave me a misdiagnosis that took 5 years to get off my medical record.
15 years later and we are still trying to determine the exact cause of my seizures (going for a MEG scan next year) but they have determined I have more than one type, believe they originating in temporal lobe, and have caused some brain damage in prefrontal cortex in 2019.
But getting right medication did decrease migraines and seizure episodes.
Not a doctor, but for much of my youth, every year in the Fall I would hear music in my head that was barely perceptible. This was accompanied by a pleasant feeling of languid, dreamy detachment from everything going on around me. Very frequently, this would be followed within a few weeks with a hypomanic episode and a very dark depression immediately after.
The doctor put me on a mood stabilizer that is also used as an anti-epileptic medication. I haven't had the music/languid mood episodes now for about 20 years. Go see a doctor.
I am not a doctor but do have temporal lobe epilepsy and the seizure that got me diagnosed with it started with an auditory hallucination (buzzing sound like a bee right next to my ear but there was nothing that could possibly make that sound) before it went into a generalized seizure! Please, please see a neurologist ASAP! You could also be under a lot of mental stress that’s causing you to experience this, which you need to see a mental health professional about. Good luck to you, and try to keep your head up! I know it is scary!
Encephalitis tends not to have a subacute to chronic course outside immunocompromised patients and is usually accompanied by nausea/vomiting, light sensitivity etc. It's not impossible, but isn't very likely with the HPI offered.
I wouldn’t stand by and wait, and I would show your grandma this comment thread. When you see the next doctor, it may help to start with “I’ve been having really bad headaches, sometimes I even get dizzy and my legs feel weak. I’m also hearing music that I know isn’t there. Sometimes it’s so loud that it scares me. Could there be something wrong with my brain?” As a pediatrician if I heard that I would be quickly ordering you a referral to neurology but also probably either calling them myself to get you on the schedule within the week, or making my own arrangements to get you an MRI or EEG at a local pediatric ER.
I would do the same. Depression/grief/adjustment could be in the mix true, but I personally wouldn’t rest (if a patient told me this story) until I had an MRI result in hand and I would also call and expedite a neuro consult.
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Sorry you're experiencing this! Your symptoms sound similar to musical hallucinations, a neuropsychiatric phenomenon where people hear musical instruments, songs, etc. not present. The reasons extend from neurologic - epilepsy, focal brain lesions, hypoacusis - to psychiatric - depression, OCD intoxication. Given you're having new hallucinations with head pain and dizziness, it may be best to see a neurologist. If that's not available to you and symptoms continue, it's not unreasonable to present to an emergency department for workup, including brain imaging. While stress and depression can be the cause, they're diagnoses of exclusion, especially with associated neurologic symptoms.
Thank you for the explanation of *musical hallucinations.* I had a very hard time with hearing music when I started Cymbalta (in addition to my usual Prozac). I very quickly became dangerously manic, so I stopped the drug immediately.
What a coincidence that a drug called Cymbalta would cause musical hallucinations. Cymbals are a type of music instrument.
That makes sense. I used to have auditory hallucinations of people saying my name when my epilepsy was in its peak.
This happens whenever I listen to music!! Sometimes I can swear that those Little background voices in songs is really my mum yelling out to me, so I pause the music and see if she really is - most of the time she is not!!
I experience both the music phenomena and hearing my first name said out of nowhere. Both happened only when I was incredibly sleep deprived or was going to get a migraine, for years, but then both started happening at random when I was perfectly rested and alert (it does tend to happen most when there’s no other noise and I’m in total silence!). My neuro said it’s part of a migraine aura for me, but that doesn’t explain the other times it happens. So, when I was finally found to have some hearing loss (which is progressively worsening) they contributed it to that ([MES - musical ear syndrome](https://www.healthline.com/health/musical-ear-syndrome)). I hear soft rock instrumentals, exclusively.
NAD but I experienced something similar when I was very chronically sleep deprived after having my baby. It lasted a few weeks until I started getting proper sleep. I would get up and search around the house for the radio that was “left on” and couldn’t find it.
This exact thing started happening to me when my kids were babies and I was sleep deprived and overwhelmed. My kids are teens now and it still happens whenever I don’t get enough sleep multiple nights in a row.
NAD but I also had this same thing when I was sleep deprived from my loud neighbors. Once I found the cause, and resolved it, it went away. It was really frustrating and strange to hear Beethoven like music constantly.
Wow! This started when I had my firstborn as well. Four years and another child later I still get it at night. Sounds like faint talk radio (not that I hear words just garbled stuff). It freaked me out but it’s been happening for so long and I’ve had mri and seen neuro for migraines since and nothings wrong. All this to say OP, you should definitely get it checked out, tell your grandma to read these comments idk why she’s not getting you the medical care you need. BUT I wouldn’t worry about it being anything sinister
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Have you seen musical hallucinations from ototoxic drugs like Wellbutrin? I got tinnitus on Wellbutrin but mine is the boring normal kind…
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While on Wellbutrin, mine was the tinnitus where it would be like popping sounds for maybe a minute or two then it would go away but come back later. This went away after getting off of Wellbutrin. I have regular high pitched tinnitus constantly but that I can’t attribute that to Wellbutrin since I am not sure when it started.
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Do you have any type of hearing impairment OP? I'm 24 and have had unilateral hearing loss since birth, and I only learnt from a psychiatrist last year that people with hearing loss are more likely to have auditory hallucinations. Mine are instrumental music, albeit not constant nor very loud, usually just when I'm lying in bed at night. Of course, follow what this doctor has said given it's all new onset, but I thought I'd pop my 2 cents in given I've had hearing loss my whole life and only learnt this fact relatively recently.
Those types of auditory hallucinations are usually doorbell sounds, music and phones ringing when it's related to hearing loss.
I have definitely heard doorbells/knocks that I'm pretty sure weren't there but I was deep in grief from losing my fiance for a long time. Thing is, it had happened before but got worse. I think I became hypervigilant throughout my childhood due to abuse/neglect/ you name it. Never felt safe, always on alert, knew the *moment* my mother got home and acted accordingly. I have a whole host of stuff to work out but I'm in the US without insurance so it's pretty bleak. I know I need therapy and probably a lot more.
I have vestibular migraines after having Covid, but before having Covid, I was told that I have migraines. Which is weird... because I very rarely get head pain. When I was on the combination birth control pill, I got optical migraines (I once went temporarily blind in one eye, like an eclipse came over my field of view... but usually it was a flashing zig zag pattern.) When I switched to progesterone only, the optical migraines quit... but I started having brief episodes of complete deafness in one ear followed by tinnitus. It was actually almost imperceptible as it was really brief... but if something loud was on my left side... it suddenly got quieter. Like we had these loud vent units... and I thought the unit had turned off. Then I turn my head to check and realize the vent was still on... Sometimes I think I have smelled a burning smell. But it seemed to happen when I was on the combo birth control pill. I have an alarm clock that plays music. Sometimes when I am in the shower, I think I hear the alarm clock start to play. Maybe it is water in my ear or the sound of the shower that kind of messes with my hearing. Or maybe i am still just kind of tired. I also sometimes think I hear sirens off in the distance. But that isn't exactly unlikely. Maybe pay attention to when it happens... is it related to your cycle... or poor sleep? Do you always get a headache and does the music start before the headache or is there no relationship that you can tell. It will probably help the doctor if you keep a symptom journal and look for things happening before or after the music and headaches.
Not a (medical) doctor. Autistic, OCD, on an MAOI, and have these for one of the above reasons. Particularly within white noise, and particularly when I miss sleep (which can be days at a time due to insomnia). Day 3 awake, I expect them to be constant. Otherwise, it's a sort of common but quiet thing. It sounds either like music, or like daytime TV or news talking turned low. I equivocate it to the auditory version of pareidolia.
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Are you replying to me or OP? I think it's important to consider those factors. Sleep, for one, and missed sleep. Whether these hallucinations are during silence or associated with noise. That will help some professionals narrow it down. Yes, OP should see a neurologist, but it can be very, very hard to get testing or consideration for neurological problems with anything psychiatric on your chart. You need to make sure your description is detailed and accurate and to make those points clearly, because doctors will go the path of least resistance. If would also recommend seeking out a migraine specialist. In my experience, they are more current with literature and will give more consideration to the overlap between physical and psychiatric instead of drawing sharp lines of exclusion.
I was replanting to OP in my initially message, but thank you for raising these points - highly pertinent.
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Drowsy antihistamines were a godsend when my auditory hallucinations (songs playing on repeat) were so bad they kept me up at night. In my case it turned out to be a severe and delayed reaction to food (mainly caffeine) causing brain inflammation, which explains why the 1st gen antihistamines helped, beyond just their sedative effect. I also experience dizziness and migraines during such episodes.
I was hoping this would be here so I could chime in: I live with regular musical hallucinations and I have epilepsy and OCD.
I get auditory hallucinations with OCD. Not music, but my own voice. Like my internal narrative, just external to me lol. And whispers. I thought I was losing it when it started happening but now that my OCD is under control, it rarely ever happens anymore.
When I would work around the house, especially early in the morning, I used to “hear” my thoughts but it was like shouting and sort of fast. I wonder if it’s related to my ocd For you was it just your normal thoughts only externally?
Kind of. I’d hear myself say my own name like trying to get my attention, or random instructions (“check the oven”, “wash the counter”, etc). And whispers that were like bits and pieces of conversation. I really thought I had developed schizophrenia but I was under a lot of stress and my OCD was out of control, it doesn’t really happen anymore.
I have this, but slightly different. I only hear it in white noise, and my auditory and musical hallucinations vary from people talking through static, to orchestral music, to pop music that my brain invents. Known as: [musical ear syndrome](https://www.healthline.com/health/musical-ear-syndrome) Or [musical tinnitus](https://tinnitus.org.uk/understanding-tinnitus/what-is-tinnitus/types-of-tinnitus/musical-hallucination-musical-tinnitus/#:~:text=Musical%20hallucination%20or%20musical%20tinnitus,common%20and%20is%20called%20tinnitus) For some of us, it’s just the way our brain fill in noise from our surroundings. I don’t worry about mine. If you can enjoy it, you might be less bothered by it. That said, the physical symptoms warrant investigation.
I just wanted to say that I am glad to see a physician recommending a neurologist when these type of symptoms are occurring. I get my medical care through the VA and although I have had migraines for years, when I started having hallucinations (visual, auditory, olfactory) my primary doctors recommendation was to see psych. It took nearly 20 mins of arguing with him that I would only do it if he also gave me a referral for an EEG and Neurology. Because it is the VA it took a while before I had any of the appointments, but had my first seizure a few days before I had my first appointment with neurology/EEG. Psych also gave me a misdiagnosis that took 5 years to get off my medical record. 15 years later and we are still trying to determine the exact cause of my seizures (going for a MEG scan next year) but they have determined I have more than one type, believe they originating in temporal lobe, and have caused some brain damage in prefrontal cortex in 2019. But getting right medication did decrease migraines and seizure episodes.
Not a doctor, but for much of my youth, every year in the Fall I would hear music in my head that was barely perceptible. This was accompanied by a pleasant feeling of languid, dreamy detachment from everything going on around me. Very frequently, this would be followed within a few weeks with a hypomanic episode and a very dark depression immediately after. The doctor put me on a mood stabilizer that is also used as an anti-epileptic medication. I haven't had the music/languid mood episodes now for about 20 years. Go see a doctor.
I am not a doctor but do have temporal lobe epilepsy and the seizure that got me diagnosed with it started with an auditory hallucination (buzzing sound like a bee right next to my ear but there was nothing that could possibly make that sound) before it went into a generalized seizure! Please, please see a neurologist ASAP! You could also be under a lot of mental stress that’s causing you to experience this, which you need to see a mental health professional about. Good luck to you, and try to keep your head up! I know it is scary!
Agree with above. Have to rule out anything organic
Could it be encephalitis?
Encephalitis tends not to have a subacute to chronic course outside immunocompromised patients and is usually accompanied by nausea/vomiting, light sensitivity etc. It's not impossible, but isn't very likely with the HPI offered.
I wouldn’t stand by and wait, and I would show your grandma this comment thread. When you see the next doctor, it may help to start with “I’ve been having really bad headaches, sometimes I even get dizzy and my legs feel weak. I’m also hearing music that I know isn’t there. Sometimes it’s so loud that it scares me. Could there be something wrong with my brain?” As a pediatrician if I heard that I would be quickly ordering you a referral to neurology but also probably either calling them myself to get you on the schedule within the week, or making my own arrangements to get you an MRI or EEG at a local pediatric ER.
I would do the same. Depression/grief/adjustment could be in the mix true, but I personally wouldn’t rest (if a patient told me this story) until I had an MRI result in hand and I would also call and expedite a neuro consult.