Auditory hallucinations
 

Hey everyone! So as of this morning I've been sober 31 days (yay for me). I was wondering if anyone else experienced auditory hallucinations. I haven't in awhile but I remember the first time it happened. I was staying over a friends house for a week because i was dog/house sitting. It was the middle of the night and i woke up to go to the bathroom. As I was falling back asleep, all of a sudden i heard what sounded like a gunshot going off either in my head or right next to my ear and it was LOUD. I know for a fact that i wasn't dreaming because i hadn't even fallen asleep yet. I was too afraid to fall back asleep. This happened several more times over the course of a few months and for some reason i didn't think that maybe it was the massive amounts of alcohol i was consuming that was causing this. Another thing that often happened to me while i was drinking was as i would fall asleep i would suddenly be JOLTED awake. The only way i can describe it is when you're falling asleep and sometimes you get that feeling that you're falling off a cliff or something and it wakes you up for about a second. Except for me this went on all night. It was like my body wouldn't let me fall asleep. It was exhausting. Of course once I drank this would stop. Anyway I guess the point im getting at is that im so happy i don't have to worry about all that anymore!

Google "exploding head syndrome". It's a benign condition but freaky as hell. There doesn't seem to be a lot of understanding about it, but it's not uncommon and not dangerous.

I've been dealing with it for a few years. Sometimes it sounds like a gunshot, sometimes the strum of a guitar, once a dog bark. It's always SO loud and jolts me awake, gets my adrenaline pumping and makes it hard to go back to sleep.

Last week, I thought it happened again...but not quite as loud as usual. When I woke up the next morning everyone was talking about the sonic boom of a meteor. Sure enough that's why it sounded so quiet- lol.

I think everyone been jolted awake as they were falling asleep. I've had it happen a few times in a row and a few nights in a row. Nothing as bad as you are describing though.

I suspect our brains are dealing with a lot with this detoxing.

I certainly had these back when I would try to detox myself.

One time, I wound up with a gun searching bushes outside my bedroom window.

I'm half-way surprised I didn't get sprayed by a skunk.

That's scary stuff, and I'm sure many of us can relate as we've been there. What's wonderful is the freedom that sobriety brings. As you said - "I no longer have to worry about that stuff!" What an incredible statement. Sobriety = freedom :)

Thank you for sharing Anyak313

Yes. I would hear a phantom radio or a dialogue from a movie. I knew it wasn't real. Weird as heck. Thank god I don't have to feel that way again.

Get the jolts most nights!!! Sometimes I think I get air!!

I used to hear my phone ringing or the aquarium bubbles playing songs.

and then again maybe you are relaxed enough to hear things that went on around the room years ago.. no kidding .. the walls have ears they say.. and yes they do talk back... and then sometimes its just memories of days so long ago. that for some reason happen out loud again.. heard my two boys playing in their room from back in the 1970's Ivan was telling his little brother of Santa and going to Grand mas house... I was sitting on the 31st floor of the US Bank building at work in the middle of the day.. my sons now 45 and 43.. and little brother was in Afghanistan In uniform doing guard duty at a gate... days fly but the sounds of important things inside of you stay forever.. love a mom..... ardy needs a tissue...

I am 109 days sober after 27 years of daily drinking and I heard the "phantom radio" yesterday while cooking dinner.

Sometimes after a cell phone rings or the clock in my house chimes I swear I keep hearing it over and over again.
It happens more if I am anxious and/or tired.

I have experienced exactly the same thing a few times. Like someone slamming a door, or a loud reverberating metallic sound when on the verge of sleep. It's noting serious though.

Its amazing what we can convince ourselves is normal.

Any kind of hallucination is not a good thing, and it's best to see your Dr, just to make sure all is well and you're not going to lapse into the DTs or anything.

D

I know exactly what you're talking about, happened to me a few times and always at night when I was in bed. Scared the bejeezus out of me. Mine wasn't like a gunshot, I don't really now how to describe it other than kind of like a loud metallic scrape, like the sound a snow shovel makes on concrete, only very loud and very near.

And I don't think this qualifies as an auditory hallucination, but another fun byproduct I've noticed is that since getting sober I've developed tinnitus, a constant high pitched ringing in both ears. Could be coincidence, but it started almost immediately after getting sober. That was over three years ago, so it appears I'm stuck with this.

When the furnace would be on it would sound like someone was playing music in the background or if the tv was on. Another time it sounded like there were people talking outside my room or somewhere else in the house. Quite the weird experiences.

I had symptoms nearly identical to what you are talking about for the first 3 days or so during withdrawals. Mine would usually be a person's voice yelling "Hey!" Or my name. I'd have to turn the light on and look around to make sure I was by myself. The jolting awake was my absolute least favorite symptom of withdrawals.