Caring for my 93year old mum who's really suffering with Musical Hallucinations has anyone any experience in this and how I can help her to understand it?
Auditory Hallucinations: Caring for my 93year... - Care Community
Auditory Hallucinations
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Bluesue1
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9 Replies
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Hello Bluesue
Thanks for sharing; are you caring for Mum at home? I understand Mum has auditory musical hallucinations but are they causing her distress, does she need to understand? Was she musical when younger? It would be good to have a bit more detail. Do remember to take care of yourself.
I don't know how you might help your mum understand that her musical hallucinations are not real, but if they are pleasant, you might not want to do anything about them. Can you describe for us what they are like?
Bluesue1 -- I hope the music she hears is pleasing to her ear. I'm guessing that when people have auditory hallucinations they hear music and language that is familiar to their culture and life experiences.
It's not pleasing her if it's there all day, and it's not always music, it all the normal tinnitus sound and now she sort of hears what's in her conscious as she hears people talking "next door" about things she's been discussing or doing.. it's really hard as she can't understand the logic... she
almost totally
deaf but can hear all this? It's such a shame because she so fit and healthy for 93
Hi Bluesue1
If it isn't distressing her, I wouldn't worry about it too much. And don't let it distress you either. If she is mentioning this a lot, see if you can just work it into her everyday routine, and just tell her she is so lucky to hear this music which unfortunately you can't hear. Let her engage with it and maybe give it a name that you can both work with. For example, many years ago I nursed a lady with the same thing. In her case it was pan pipe music and we named it her 'fairy music', so that when either of us used that phrase we knew that we were talking about the music which only she could hear.
It's a bit more unpleasant when the music becomes annoying and the person in question wants it 'turned off', and, in that case, you may need the help of health professionals to see what can be done medically to reduce the annoyance for her.
Bluesue1 in reply to
Thank you... it's the fact it's moved onto it being spoken words from her conscious that's distressing her.. for instance she is really bright for her age.. but she can't understand at all why she can hear things and we can't.. so she thinks she's going daft in her words, she's been checked out medically and her memory is fine but a couple of times now the voice has been shouting to her Ivy's insane, Ivy's insane... also if she does
anything different something from that will come back to her.. it's such a shame
Hi Bluesue1,
Thanks for your reply. We do have to deal with some situations we really didn't expect, don't we?
Really sad and a shame that voices are now 'harrassing and menacing' your mum. I'd first try the same technique as with the music and reassure that hearing voices isn't madness at all, just a part of her mind, which as in a dream, sends voices which only exist in her head. That they aren't real and she doesn't have to listen to them or engage with them. But I would most definitely see what help in the way of medications are available that could help reduce the auditory hallucinations of any type. It's not all about sedation, so she could possibly have some respite from them without the medication turning her into a 'zombie'.
Very best wishes anyway. I know it's a very tough row to hoe, whatever challenges are sent to us to cope with, as carers.