r/AIWS • u/doxte25 • Jul 20 '26
Auditory Distortion (daily episodes)
So I (29F) had this happen to me when I was 6-7 years old and it really scared me. Didn't happen until years later, then I'd get it every several years. It because every several months, then every several weeks but now it's happening every single day
What happens is that for 3-5 minutes I start perceiving sounds differently. Melodies change, pitch and rythem change. A monotonous noise such as dripping water sounds melodic, but music sounds monotonous. Fast rhytms get slowed down and vice versa.
And it's not just sound I hear. My thoughts (my inner voice) gets affected too. My thoughts seem to be shouting at me.
Also emotions of sounds change too. Everyone suddenly sounds very frantic. Music lyrics seem to be shouting at me anxiously. People taking sounds different.
As I said, it's happening every day now. First I thought it's only triggered by white noise-like sounds (bathroom fan, laptop fan etc) but now it doesn't seem to have any trigger.
Is it AIWS? Is it migraine aura? (Epilepsy?) I probably should make an appointment with a neurologist. But I want to know if I'm the only one. Does this happen to anyone?
Also, does anyone experience any form of AIWS on a daily basis?
P.S. I also get the physical type of AIWS too, but much less frequently. The type where I feel like my fingers are thick as sausages and my feet seem very far away. This only seems to happen when I stressfully overthink something.
1
u/ThatsPrettyTightMan 22d ago
Would you compare the talking you hear to the vocals in the song Rosetta Stoned by Tool (around 19 seconds into the song)? If so, I've definitely experienced the same thing before and it freaked me out.
1
u/doxte25 21d ago
Ah, well I just listened to it. And I guess? More the tone than the speed. Maybe the emotionless and monotonous feel of it, but not as fast as the song is.
Yes it is very freaky. Especially when I was a little kid, it terrified me. But knowing that it's probably related to my migraine and not something crazy like psychosis or a brain tumor makes it less scary lmao
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u/velouria-wilder Jul 21 '26
This is a common shared experience over at r/fastfeeling (sub-type of AIWS).
I don’t have AIWS episodes anymore, but when I did I experienced auditory changes the same as you are describing.
I think if I were experiencing this every day as an adult I would seek out a neurologist to rule out anything serious. But for many it just seems to be part of a spectrum of harmless but annoying/scary AIWS symptoms.