Squishing while squinting but only when depressed

January 15, 2024 1:38 PM

I’m Bipolar II and an easy way to know I’m entering a depressive phase is that I (internally) hear a squishing noise in my temples when squinting or closing my eyes tightly. It just last for a second while I’m making the movement, but it happens throughout the whole phase. I never hear it at any other time. Mostly I’m just curious if anyone else experiences this.
posted by Tell Me No Lies to Health & Fitness (8 answers total)

Is it like a bit like…. WHOOMP? Does it keep going as long as the movement does? If so, I get that always no matter my mental state and I’ve been in a lot of different mental states!

I only get it when closing my eyes tightly though, not squinting.
posted by cabbage raccoon at 2:05 PM on January 15, 2024

Response by poster: More squishy than WHOOMPy. It sounds like a wet sponge being squeezed. Which it might be if there’s swelling or constriction or something.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:10 PM on January 15, 2024

Best answer: I only get it when closing my eyes tightly though, not squinting.

That sensation is your tensor tympani muscles. Which is more of a roar or whomp than squishy.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 5:33 PM on January 15, 2024 [2 favorites]

I can turn this sound on and off at will the way some folks can wiggle their ears, but it is easiest to activate by blinking/squinting in a particular way. I wonder if it means you are holding a lot of tension in your facial muscles or making a slightly different facial expression during the times when depression is coming on?
posted by Ausamor at 5:56 PM on January 15, 2024 [1 favorite]

Patients with Chronic Bipolar Disorder Exhibit Widespread Increases in Extracellular Free Water in the brain.

And since the retina is essentially an outpouching of the brain, it seems reasonable to guess that there might be enough water hanging around your retinas to be palpably squishy when you blink, and that other Bipolar people may share your experience.

It’s interesting this phenomenon only occurs in the depressive phase for you. That might represent an advance on current understanding.
posted by jamjam at 8:20 PM on January 15, 2024 [4 favorites]

Could this be an attentional thing? I had the same thought as 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a above (I'm an "ear rumbler") because—not that it's the same, but—the sound fades from perception for me frequently, only to be brought back into conscious awareness when I'm getting sick, exhausted, or otherwise a bit out of sorts.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 3:32 AM on January 16, 2024 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I'm another one suspecting that irritability - that is physiological irritability - is probably making your hearing more acute during this phase. It may also be related to auditory migraine prodrome - not that you are a migraineur, but that's another time when their neurology can cause someone to hear things.
posted by Jane the Brown at 6:15 AM on January 16, 2024

Response by poster: Just a quick follow up on this.

I figured out this morning that this phenomenon occurs also during my hypomanic phase. Enhanced senses are a major thing during that phase for me, so I think I’m concluding that it’s a noise that happens all the time, but I only hear it when I’m extra sensitive.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:11 AM on April 13, 2024