Screaming in my head

September 19, 2015 6:35 AM

Sometimes, when I am tired and depressed, I hear screaming inside my head. What gives?

It's not a hallucination; I can tell it's imaginary and I don't hear it with my ears, but it loops, like when I get a song stuck in my head. It's a very chaotic and wild scream, like someone in a feral rage: aaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAA... and then it gets so loud it distorts. Before I was taking antidepressants, it would happen fairly often. Now it happens only rarely, when it's late and I'm in a bad mood. I don't have any visual or auditory hallucinations, and this phenomenon has been consistent (medication aside) for many years. It doesn't seem to be related to sleep paralysis or falling asleep or "exploding head syndrome," though it does happen more when I'm tired. Are there explanations for this? Should I be concerned?

posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (14 answers total)

Perhaps it's a form of inner speech* that you use to help you cope when things are exceptionally stressful?
posted by redindiaink at 7:25 AM on September 19, 2015

Could it be tinnitus?

Tinnitus can be perceived in one or both ears or in the head. It is usually described as a ringing noise but, in some patients, it takes the form of a high-pitched whining, electric buzzing, hissing, humming, tinging or whistling sound or as ticking, clicking, roaring, "crickets" or "tree frogs" or "locusts (cicadas)", tunes, songs, beeping, sizzling, sounds that slightly resemble human voices or even a pure steady tone like that heard during a hearing test and, in some cases, pressure changes from the interior ear.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:32 AM on September 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

You shouldn't be concerned unless it is negatively affecting your daily life. Auditory hallucinations are very common in the "normal" population, and the vast majority of people recognise that they are not "real". It seems it is one way that your brain is coping with anxiety and other stressors. If you haven't tried mindfulness, exercise, and improving your diet, I would recommend that type of self-care as a first step in minimizing any disruption the screaming causes you.
posted by saucysault at 8:27 AM on September 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

It's your depressed brain being a jerk. When I've been really depressed I "see" (more like visualize) violent things happening to me in incredibly vivid detail. It can be really unpleasant and disturbing.

If at all possible, try to depersonalize and not freak out too much when it happens. Think of it as your brain doing a primal scream for attention.
posted by joeyjoejoejr at 9:12 AM on September 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

Unlike the others I would be concerned. The symptom you are having in which you can tell this is a product of your mind but you can hear it clearly and not really do anything about it, is an early symptom of many serious mental psychosis. I think you have responded to it appropriately by not letting it get the better of you and not over-reacting. But my impression is that this would be an indication that you are more likely to develop ptsd or even schizophrenia or dissociative disorder, but only if you were exposed to extreme stress or hostility. But that would be only in case of that scenario. I do not think it's especially strange and I don't want to freak you out, but maybe take more care to respond to your response to hostile or traumatic situations.
posted by ksaklingon at 11:20 AM on September 19, 2015

is an early symptom of many serious mental psychosis.

It's also something that happens to many many people without ever turning into anything else. I was surprised when I found out how common auditory hallucinations are in otherwise neurotypical people. Then I had a few occasions where the music in my head became loud enough to literally wake me up when I was under a lot of stress and now I'm not so surprised.

OP, this is something you could bring up with whoever is prescribing your antidepressants. Particularly if it is causing you any kind of distress, there may be ways to lessen that. But if it has no other effect on your life and never escalates I wouldn't worry about it unduly, it seems to just be a thing your brain does when it's stressed in certain ways. Brains can be weird like that.
posted by shelleycat at 11:48 AM on September 19, 2015 [8 favorites]

I hear voices in any form of white noise when I'm exhausted and out of sorts, and particularly when a rash I get on my legs periodically makes an appearance as well, but so far I haven't been able to make out any actual words.

I think hearing screaming voices is normal, but it is one of many things normal people experience which can reappear in exaggerated form as a symptom of schizophrenia; from a forum in which schizophrenics discuss issues arising in the course of their illness:

Does anyone hear audio hallucination of people screaming?

when i was at my worst yes, it was horrible
...
I hear screaming more than I hear voices. I can handle the screaming way better than the voices, so I just put up with it.

These answers from two different people essentially bookend the responses on that page.
posted by jamjam at 12:28 PM on September 19, 2015

I've had something similar for most of my life which is not screaming but a crescendo of distortion. I've only ever been concerned once when it lasted a lot longer than the usual few minutes but it has always been when I am tired and stressed.

My usual response is meh.

Actually thinking about it it hasn't happened for a good while and I have been practising mindfulness and working on my reactions to stress so that may be something to think about.
posted by fullerine at 12:52 PM on September 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've done some reading about this general issue because I have a family member with psychosis - both hallucinations and experiencing "entities" in his head. ("Entities" are voices/people that are inside of his head, not an external hallucination but seem to be "other" and not "me").
- Frequency of this ranges from 1-2% to 25%+ depending on the population and how stringent the definition of the experience.
- People who become mentally ill often have mild symptoms first but lots of people have mild symptoms that never develop into anything worse and they can happily co-exist with needing treatment or causing problems. It's like not all moles are skin cancer (most aren't) but some are. Doctors vary in how aggressively they feel they need to treat it, if at all.
- Even when it is bad enough to be a problem, it is not necessarily schizophrenia - you can have these things show up in bereavement, depression or schizoaffective disorders as well as a side effect of drug use or certain physical diseases.
- Do make sure your doctors know - some drugs are known to trigger problems in people who are susceptible. This happened to us - a non-problem causing prior experience with "entities" turned into a full-blown psychotic break when the doctor added welbutrin to supplement the existing anti-depressant.
posted by metahawk at 1:50 PM on September 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

I intentionally 'internally scream' to release frustration sometimes if I'm really infuriated. I think it's perfectly normal and healthy to experience, so long as it's not accompanied with urges to be destructive to yourself or to others.
posted by Avosunspin at 4:39 PM on September 19, 2015

I get 'noise' in my head when I'm particularly anxious. I tend to think of it as my thoughts are so fast and so frantic that there is nothing discernible but noise (low signal). It is particularly severe when I am anxious, or depressed. To deal with it I often either listen to a mindfulness meditation audio loop, or listen to a song repetitively (occasionally loudly but it doesn't need to be most of the time).

Thus far medication (SNRI) has pretty much completely removed it though. Even when I get anxious now it's not that unrelenting noise in my head.

I would mention it to any mental health care professional you have though - I have spoken about it with my therapist and GP.
posted by geek anachronism at 4:54 PM on September 19, 2015

I see that you're saying that it's not a hallucination, and I think you're right -- this isn't your brain tricking you that you're perceiving something that's not there, it's an internal expression of stress.

I do not hear screaming voices. But I do have fairly intrusive visual images of harm being done to my body when I'm very stressed out. I was really worried about them for awhile, because... doesn't that sound kind of crazy? That's a crazy-person thing to say, right?

My therapist says that it's pretty normal to experience images or sounds or physical sensations as an internal manifestation of depression or stress. Some people's brains are more keyed to visuals and some more keyed to sounds, but everyone's brain will try to express the feelings that they are feeling. I use the images now as a way to judge how badly I'm feeling, and I know when I have a lot of bad imagery that I need to do something to knock my stress level back down. (It's like a Limit Break!)

Possibly relevant Previously on AskMe
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 8:34 PM on September 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

Metafilter loves to hate on TED talks, but here is one that may provide some insight or comfort: The voices in my head.
posted by seasparrow at 10:00 PM on September 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

Could if be something like Exploding Head Syndrome ?
posted by pickingoutathermos at 10:59 AM on September 20, 2015