So... The names in this article are completely fake.. I did this article for my English college class. Which I surprisingly found out I got an awesome grade on.. I've always had interest of what happens with music and the brain.
Human Mysteries
THE SOUND OF MUSIC.. IN THE MIND
Are people suffering from music hallucinations insane?
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"Yet, I knew I wasn't insane. All I had known was that no matter what the music would always come back"
~ Ella Lispi
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It has probably happened to you before. The catchy song you recently heard on the radio is stuck in your head. It's probably annoyed you hearing it over and over again but it usually disappears from your mind within a few hours. Now imagine the distant tune in your head suddenly became very real. The rhythm of the drums. The strumming of a guitar. The singer's voice. It sounds as if you were attending a concert except your in a room by yourself and there are no external sounds coming from any object. Instead of the tune fading away, it plays in your mind on a daily basis to the point where it is not annoying but frightening. This is what Ella Lispi has experienced daily ever since she was 65 years old.
Ella is suffering from a mental illness known as music hallucinations. "The music I hear is always there," she says. Music hallucinations are a type of auditory hallucination where a person perceives tunes, melodies and rhythms in the absence of external stimuli. Ella states that the music she commonly hears is music from her childhood. Most of the songs she hallucinates are church hymns and the Beatles. "While the music was annoying at first, it then became frightening. It simply would not leave. I could make it leave temporarily when I was focusing, attending or thinking about other things like reading a book. It was always there though. It's as if there was an elephant in this room. You can do things to pretend the elephant isn't in the room but overall it's still there trunk and all."
Ella's auditory hallucinations are common in those aged 65 years and older. It is also common for folks around her age to experience sensory deprivation such as hearing loss. "I noticed I had trouble hearing when I was 62 years old when I was trying to talk my son Ben," Ella says, "Then, I was hearing music a couple years later." There is much debate over the brain activity of this involuntary music appearing in the head. While neurologists have determined various triggers for the hallucinations like hearing impairment, they have struggled figuring out what is precisely occurring in a microscopic level. So far researchers know in general that if someone is suffering from music hallucinations due to hearing impairment, they have found that certain neurons are misfiring in the auditory cortex located in the temporal lobe of the brain resulting for people like Ella to experience a never ending iPod stuck in their heads. Learning about Ella's mental illness, Ben, Ella's son, states, "Ella's illness is truly a mystery. I really hope researchers can find more explanations to the music she hears. I think it would help her understand why she is suffering so much. I'd just wish I knew about her condition earlier. She didn't tell me about the music until 5 years later."
The reason that neurologists, psychiatrists, and researchers are struggling to research more about this topic is because there is a lack of awareness about music hallucinations. Ella for example had no knowledge that her mental illness was an actual condition. "I didn't know a doctor could diagnose the music in my mind before I told him about it." There is a lack of awareness about this mental illness because today our society has formed a social stigma surrounding mental illnesses like music hallucinations. "I was scared to come out. I didn't want to see a doctor at first. I didn't want to tell Ben. I felt that what I was experiencing was the characteristics of a psychotic person. Yet, I knew I wasn't insane. All I had known was that no matter what the music would always come back," Ella admits. Before Ben completely understood Ella's condition he truly thought his mother might have needed hospitalization. He says, "The first time I heard about her hallucinations I thought she was crazy. It explained why she was humming a lot. I thought she was going to be placed in a psychiatric ward for her condition."
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| The stigma of mental illness |
Why as a society do we automatically label someone with a mental illness like Ella as crazy or insane? Well, one reason is the way doctors have treated the mentally ill historically. From the 1800s to about 1960, the mentally ill received unethical treatments like straitjackets, ice-cold baths, and prefrontal lobotomy as a way to return the mind back to the normal state. These patients were sent to asylums and psychiatric wards isolated from the outside world and stripped of their rights. Their doctors were the ultimate judges to allow a mentally ill patient to return back to society. Also, another reason is the media. The media has told us through television, magazines, and newspaper headlines their opinion of the mentally ill. The media wants society to assume that people with mental illness are violent and crazy. They want society to believe that the mentally ill are a threat to society. As a result of the treatment of the mentally ill historically and the media's view on mental illness, it is commonly viewed even by physicians that hallucinations denote madness. Therefore, there is a social stigma surrounding mental illness and in this case, music hallucinations, that needs to disappear.
This stigma that has surrounded music hallucinations has consequently prevented people like Ella to open up about the music in their mind. Ella's physician Dr. Clayton Hersch states, "I think Ella took so long to tell anyone about her musical experiences because of this social stigma." Thanks to this social stigma, a person may feel scared or embarrassed of what close relatives may think or react about him or her because they hear music in the head. Also, a person may think that he or she will be sent to the hospital for treatment for hallucinating music. This social stigma surrounding mental illness has not only affected people suffering from music hallucinations but neurologists and researchers continuing to research this mental illness. It is hard to conduct a study about musical hallucinosis when there are not many people seeking for treatment to stop the music because of the social stigma that surrounds mental illness.
Despite what has happened historically with the mentally ill and what the media has claimed, society needs to change its perception about mental illness. Since there is a lack of research on this topic, there is not enough awareness that music hallucinations are an actual mental illness because of the social stigma. As a beginning step, though, neurologists have tried to rename the mental illness from music hallucinations to the Musical Ear Syndrome. People who hallucinate music and doctors like this term better because it does not have a negative connotation like the word hallucination that seems to carry more of an ominous charge. As a result, more people with this condition have been opening but as mentioned it is only a beginning step.
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| The Musical Ear Syndrom Online Support Group |
"It would have been helpful to meet a community of people suffering from the same condition as me," states Ella. If we want even more people to seek treatment for having the Musical Ear Syndrome, creating awareness organizations would be the best way for people to realize that there may be end to the hallucinations. The problem is that there is not one official music hallucination awareness organization in existence. This mental illness should have just as much recognition as other diseases like diabetes or heart disease because many people in the elderly population may be experiencing music hallucinations and may never realize that the music in their mind can be diagnosed. The closest awareness group that can be found is a Musical Ear Syndrome Online Support Form found at mdjunction.com. While this is a good way to show a community of people suffering from music hallucinations, an online forum is not as powerful as an official organization that can make public announcements in various methods like television commercials or social media to raise awareness about the Musical Ear Syndrome.
Since there are no official organizations for those suffering from music hallucinations, we as individuals can do our part by being wary of labeling someone as insane, mad, crazy, or psychotic. Instead of attaching labels, we should be more understanding and suggest a person who may be hallucinating music to visit a doctor. Despite what the media conveys, people suffering from music hallucinations are not crazy. They are not a threat to society. They understand that the music they hear is coming from inside their head. It is important know that people with music hallucinations have a non-psychiatric illness meaning it is not necessary to be treated in a hospital for this condition since they aren't a threat to themselves or other people.
If we as a society do not take the effort to de-stigmatize music hallucinations and mental illness, people suffering from music hallucinations may never receive the treatment they deserve. The treatment doctors that have found to reduce or even eliminate the hallucinations are very simple. In Ella's case a hearing aid was able to reduce the music hallucinations she was hearing. "It's been such a relief for the music to simply disappear with this hearing device. Sleeping has been so much easier. As much as I love my Beatles, its nice not to hear them for once serenading me to sleep," Ella claims. In response to her mother's treatment Ben says, "I never thought the treatment would be so simple. I just wished I would have known about her mental illness sooner, but I guess it's better late than never." Other treatments include various medications. According to a study by Stefan Evers MD/PhD, the most successful medication to stop music hallucinations is called carbamazepine but whether its the best medication is questionable since this study consisted of only 46 case studies of patients suffering from the Musical Ear Syndrome.
We have heard about music hallucinations since the late 18th century. Historically, famous people have be known for suffering music hallucinations like Robert Schumann the German composer from the 19th century who composed the music he hallucinated. It has only been in the last decade that researchers have seriously studied music hallucinations. Researchers have been struggling to learn more about this non-psychiatric illness though because of the social stigma that surrounds music hallucinations and mental illness. As a society, we can help out by de-stigmatizing the stigma and create official awareness organizations about this mental illness. The more we can de-stigmatized music hallucinations, more people affected by the Musical Ear Syndrome can open up and seek treatment. Hopefully, in the future researchers can find a better medication that will consistently and successfully cure the endless music marathon in the mind that people like Ella have suffered day in and day out.
