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Thunder in your head? (kbin.social)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A long while back I was hanging out with one of my sisters and she said that she hears thunder in her head when she gets startled.

Me: "Scuse me. What?"
Her: "You know. That thunder you hear when someone startles you."
Me: "Again. What?"
Her: "You don't hear thunder when someone startles you?"
Me: "Uh, no."
Her: "Oh. I thought that happened to everybody."

Is this a thing? Does this happen to anybody else out there? She did struggle with depression for much of her life. Could that have had something to do with it?

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (23 children)

I believe this could be the result of the tensor tympani muscle activating, which it tends to do in fight-or-flight situations. It is located in your ear and has the purpose of lowering sounds that may otherwise make you deaf. I remember there was/is a subreddit called r/earrumblersassemble , consisting of people who claimed they could voluntarily "rumble" this muscle, and I happen to be one of them. Anyway, it does resemble a thundering noise, and it does activate when I'm startled.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Hey this happens to me! Something in my ear just twitches for only a second or two and I hear a vibrating sound. It happens randomly and doesn't seem to be triggered by anything. It's also pretty rare. Maybe a couple times a month. I never thought that it sounded like thunder though and so didn't make the connection. This sounds (Haha. See what I did there?) like the most plausible explanation yet.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I think everyone experiences this every once in a while, but usually forgets about it. I think it's because the education is limited so it's hard to explain and normally it's not severe so you tend not to think about it.

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