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Flu and ear infection making voices clearer?

Nous

New member
I recently acquired a bad case of the flu of which combined with a server left ear infection that has impacted my peripheral hearing abilities and generally sounds losses an octave, high tremble sounds are similar to a tiny speakers on my laptop, or they sound muffled when you hone in on them to inspect them further.

As we naturally have an ear dominance just the same as your sight or if you are left handed or right handed, due to the left and right hemispheres of the brain, as I wondered about if anyone noticed if their auditory voice hallucinations or perceived sounds during psychosis would include an vantage point or emanating from a certain direction or distance away, like for instance one time at night whilst trying to get some rest, I thought the 'voices' where outside of my bay windows as it sounded as if it contained distance and a clear direction, so I went to make a drink and realised that while the conversation was continuing inside of my head or (around the peripheral of your cranium or around your crown to give the impression of being inside of your head,) I realised that I was standing in the kitchen and far way in another room with no bay widows, but the sound or 'voices' were still coming from the right side of my head or ear.

So, I soon realised that there was nobody talking outside late at night, and that I can perceive the direction of the voices, either behind me or coming from a particular side of my head.

As now I am enduring the flu, I have an ear inflection in my left ear which has given me partial hearing at the moment, but has amplified the variation of my internal speech or sub-vocalization as I 'think to myself' as well noticeably it's also made the 'voices' more audially clearer and and more noticeable, as it sounds a kin to the bay windows scenario, as in emulating from in or around your head, so I was wondering if our vestibular system of which produces sounds to be processed by the brains verve in the Broca's area plays a part within this experience, as I have an ear infection not a brain tumour, as it's actively involving my vestibular system and not my mind or forehead.

As there are only town ways of hearing in general, either through your hearing cortex or vestibular or through bone conduct of the bones around your ear, like say your jaw bone etc.

So being that my hearing has been effected by my flu why would this effect my internal hearing or my so called AVH, as it's very much related to my vestibular system and not my mind or brain so to speak.

Would anyone have noticed the alternation within the perception of thoughts, sub vocals/self talk, and internal and external sounds, and my voices, as these are hearing related issue's and not head ones.
 
That’s actually a really interesting point. I’ve heard from a few people that changes in physical hearing — like ear infections, blocked sinuses, or even pressure changes — can affect how they experience voices or internal sounds. Your bay window example makes sense because direction and distance are things our brains normally work out from tiny differences between each ear. If one ear is inflamed or muffled, it could throw that whole balance off.

The vestibular system link is worth looking into too. If it’s feeding slightly distorted signals to your brain, it might change how your internal voice or AVH “feels” in space. It’s like when you get bone conduction from your jaw or skull — it’s still “you” hearing it, but the sound quality and location can feel different.

I don’t think you’re alone in noticing that physical ear problems can shift the whole perception. It’s probably not all in the mind — the body’s hardware is part of the chain.
 
Safe Sapce for the LQBTQIA+ community.

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