Aa
Aa
A
A
A
Close
Avatar universal

Surroundings becoming weird and fast/intense/loud

I first experienced this weird sensation when i was a child and had a bad fever/illness in bed. Suddenly my entire surroundings in my bedroom became very intense and everything around me became fast and almost louder in my mind, although they weren't in reality.

Ever since then i sometimes (about once every few months) experience this odd sensation and it can become a bit worrying and strange.

The whole room seems to have a new feeling to it- everything im doing whether it be walking or typing seems to intensify and become louder yet the actions are very exaggerated and almost speed up (only perceived this way). I find it very difficult to explain fully but i'm worried it's some early signs of a neurological condition or something?

It usually only onsets when i'm alone and have a lot of silence for a while...?

Does you know what this could be, please?
753 Responses
Sort by: Helpful Oldest Newest
Avatar universal
This exact thing happened to me! It happened fairly regularly as a kid and just happened to me now again for the first time in years (I'm 29). I did have a stressful day at work so maybe that triggered it. I still wish I knew what it was exactly. I've looked up Exploding Head Syndrome but I don't hear any explosions or have any sort of auditory hallucinations (which seem to be a component of EHS) so I'm not sure if that's it. But the OP described exactly what I feel. Ambient sounds and my own thoughts become very loud, and time both feels like it is rushing by and at the same time deliberately slowed down? So difficult to describe, which is probably why I could never articulate what was going on as a kid and only succeeded in confusing my mother before it passed. As an teenager/adult it just became a weird thing that happened occasionally. Pretty scary as a kid though.
Helpful - 3
2 Comments
I get the same thing time to time, I'm 16 at the moment. It happens about every month and only at night. Always thought I was crazy which made me not want to  explain to anyone otherwise. Sometimes I get headaches afterwards. Everything seems to speed up, everything sounds louder, I hear my own thoughts as if I was yelling them outloud but I could only hear them, and I get a weird tingling sensation throughout body. I don't know what it is or if it is some kind of mental disorder but I am a little worred about it. I want to know what this is called, I don't want to be unsure about this.
I feel now maybe it's a kind of anxiety dissorder...
Avatar universal
I'm literally about to cry you have no idea how happy i am to find so many people who experience this exact thing. I've been getting these episodes randomly since i was a kid, and because i happened to get really bad one while i was on the computer i decided to google it and omg i'm literally so happy right now. the only way i can describe it is that everything is really loud and sounds angry and intense. my thoughts speed up and it feels like my mind is running at a million miles an hour, and i can't focus on anything. i don't think i've ever tried to explain this to anyone, but these little episodes have terrified me for as long as i can remember. usually it only happens when i'm alone, and if it does happen around people it only lasts for a few minutes, probably because i'm more easily distracted. if anyone's reading this, i would recommend trying to distract yourself, as that's usually the quickest way i can get rid of it - if not, it just ends up going away by itself.
Helpful - 3
1 Comments
i have never heard of anyone else experiencing this before. for me it started at dreams as a kid then it began to happen when im lucid and awake. it never happened at all really but recently its been happening between 1-4 times a day. i have never told anyone about it simply because i don't know how to explain it and i don't want to seem crazy, but i hate it and want to find out what it is. i have looked into all the things that everyone on here has commented but its not doing what i feel justice. i need help with finding what this really is.
Avatar universal
THIS HAPPENS TO ME ALL THE TIME. IT STARTS OFF SLOW AND I CAN FEEL MYSELF FALLING INTO THE PATTERN AND ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO BREAK ONCE I'M IN THE SENSATION. USUALLY IF I'M BY MYSELF FOR A PROLONGED PERIOD OF TIME,(EVEN IF I HAVE MUSIC ON SO ITS NOT DEAD QUIET), IT'S SO DIFFICULT TO EXPLAIN, BUT IT FEELS LIKE EVERYTHING SLOWS DOWN IN MY MIND BUT MY ACTIONS AND SURROUNDINGS ARE FAST AND VERY INTENSE. I CAN REMEMBER IT ONLY USED TO HAPPEN IF I HAD THE FLU AS A YOUNG CHILD AND FELT LIKE I WEIGHTED DOWN IN MY BED, WHILE EXPERIENCING THIS. BUT OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS IT JUST HAPPENS WHENEVER IT WANTS. I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER IT AND IT ONLY LASTS FOR A SHORT WHILE. I NOTICE THAT THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY WHILE GOING THROUGH IT MAKES IT SEEM TO STOP ALMOST IMMEDIATELY. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THIS IS?
Helpful - 2
1 Comments
I HAVE THE SAME THING AHHHHHHH WE ARE INSANE
Avatar universal
GUYS. I've read the entire thread and looked into everything people mentioned but I didn't think any fit quite right. I think after some digging I've found the answer.  Tachysensia. "People with tachysensia experience episodes where everything appears to be speeding up, and sounds become unusually loud. These episodes are short in duration, usually lasting no more than 10 minutes, and unpredictable in nature, making them difficult to study. They are known by many names, including quick-motion phenomenon, the rushes, rapid spells, and fast feeling." The website I found was https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/tachysensia
Helpful - 1
5 Comments
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I read the article and I believe you really found the answer!
I'm glad. I've spent countless hours looking into this things because it drove me so insane. I hope most of us here can finally be ok with knowing what we might have and that it's harmless.
I've started paying attention even more when it happens to me. Happened last night while laying in bed in a quiet dark room. I sat up and started talking to myself about anything and everything OUTLOUD and it almost immediately went away.
Yes, that is *somewhat* helpful, in that is contains the "fast" and "loud" elements of the episode. However, this explanation is lacking the one - arguably paramount - element:  the apparent "angriness"  perceived  from things during it - be it  thoughts, voices(both own and others') anything really. This was a very significant thing about the nature of the episodes  I had.
Hearing angry voices and thoughts has never been a symptom of mine so maybe, whatever this is, everyone has slightly different experiences or it's different things? I definitely don't know much
Avatar universal
Hey, the exact same thing happens to be but i noticed it only occurs when i am ill in bed or couch, the trigger first happened to me when i woke up from a short nightmare where boulders fell onto me. (this is the only time i ever saw a nightmare in my life)  when I suddenly woke up i was hot and sweating crying etc felt week and of balance, the ticking of the clock was so loud in my head but i could here it in normal volume. But everything felt like it was in slow motion, so i got up and managed to talk to my mum, but i was overwhelmed by the tapping  of my feet and the creaking of the floor and the sound of her voice , all these sounds were max volume ringing in my head my perception of the room was also altered but in a way it is impossible to explain.

This Happened once more when I was on vacation I was in the living room alone sitting on the couch and my cousin walked in every sound every motion felt slow but loud in my head to the point it irritated me enough for me to ask my cousin to turn off the TV I asked to be left alone in quiet darkness she said okay but on her way out on the other side of the room she said ok but she started drinking water on the compleat other side of the room 5\6 meters btw and every gulp echoed in my head to the point i coulnt stand it anymore it rushed me with anger and frustration felt like she was doing it on purpose, so i thew somthing and the gulit snapped me back into reality.

I am now 19 and havent felt this sensation again... but your not alone
Helpful - 1
1 Comments
That episode of irritability you explained at the end sounds familiar , I wanted to say ^.^ It can sometimes happen to me when I'm at the food table with others. Basically, *out of nowhere* I become overly sensitive and irritable to stimuli like smacking when theyre eating, or - even more ridiculously - repetitive hand movements  lool. It just really irks me in that situation and its hard to regain composure and control. So, because of the intensity and its complete robbing of my attention, I know it's not just normal irritation but rather a very distinct type of episode I enter for a while. Anyway, thought your experience sounded similar ^^
Avatar universal
Hi, this happens to me every time I get up at an odd hour, or i have bouts of insomnia. It seems to happen around 7am if up all night... Or if I didn't get enough sleep. For example- Showering in the morning to try to wake up instead of sleeping like is should, the voices that arent there the sounds and speed... everything speeding up and the real stuff slowing down, the shower echoing and these voices non coherent sound like they are getting closer, and a white noise all at once, then like pounding on the bathroom shower stall echoing slow and reverby and heavy. Or when I get up to check an email its silent around me, and my head gets loud and the sound of the typing has the pounding on the shower wall effect to try to get my brain to stop speeding up having this skitzo moment, this has happened to me a few times during the day too. Maybe not just tiredness or lack of sleep. Maybe when my brain is processing one thing, a task, like typing something... and my brain processing thoughts too. Its a sensory overload entirely. I am not certain if it is a seizure, a form of bipolar mania, skitzephrenia isn't skitzephrenia if you know it isn't real, well thats what most doctors tell me. And their is also maybe seizures. BUT unless they are right by you when you are having one, how are they going to trace it happening to you? mine are so rare. every few months to once a year or just generally infrequent.  but they are as intense if not more and more each new time. If anybody knows... Email me, a doctor more so. e m b e r j a y r u t h @ g m a i l . c o m
Helpful - 1
1 Comments
It's weird I call it time distortions. It effects sound for me aswell, it's like everything can be sped up or slowed down, like fast forward or rewind. Like birds singing or If it happenes and music is playing or even in conversation it's as if everything is being dragged along by time and it feels like perhaps it can be manipulated in some way. It's happening to me all the time in 2022, I remember getting it as a teenager once, I'm 40 now and have been having this daily for about a year. Has anyone ever considered a link between this and the sun's activity? We are getting pelted regularly with huge CME and some x class flare. This is really ticking up, I think to peak in 2025. I think there is a connection.
Avatar universal
i have exactly the same thing. i was diagnosed with Mild right temporal lobe epilepsy. If you google it it tells you the same symptoms
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
I GET THE SAME THING AND I USED TO GET SICK AND FEEL THAT AND IM SO GLAD SOMEBODY ELSE KNOWS!
Helpful - 1
1 Comments
Same I always tried to explain it to anyone and they all looked at me crazy. It's hard too explain I would tell them but that didn't help it. And since I never knew what it was or could find how to determine it I just called "a different kind of deja vu" if anyone does find out what it is plz tell me
Avatar universal
I am currently 31, diagnosed with aspergers syndrome, and had this happen to me for 20-30 minutes every 2-8 months throughout my whole life since I was 7 years old.  It first started when I played the following game for 8-12 hours a day for a significant period of time:
I had a nightmare one night where I was seeing images of the game zooming in and out really fast and hearing a high pitch tinnitus sound getting louder and unbearably louder.  I then woke up feeling the same heightened sound sensations.  I only seem to experience the intensified (as oppose to louder) distortion of sound, my body parts feel bigger and any body movement feels amplified.  I, like so many others, feel very fortunate to have found this discussion as Ive never been able to feel like I can articulate the episodes correctly and have felt like I'm the only person in the world going through it.
Helpful - 1
1 Comments
the game I played was Treasure Island 1984
Avatar universal
Hope this helps. (from my experience) one way to stop/to get out of that state that is taking to someone or speaking out loud  I had difficulties starting the conversation though, even there were people around me.. I've had the same seizures (or whaterver that is called) since I was a kid. On and off while doing something or just working. It stopped probably when I turned 24 (I'm 28 now). But few months ago it happened again. This might be totally unrelated, those were the times when I had no weed .After noticing that I kinda tested it out few times.. At the age of 24 I started smoking weed on a regular basis, kinda makes sense. It might be something else too lol. Anyway I'm just too high to write anymore. :P
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
Finally people who have gone through this aswell I used to get it a lot as a kid. Used to make me cry that's how bad it was. It's a terrible feeling. Even when my parents would try calm me down. I'd tell them to whisper and it still shouted like they was super loud. Haven't experienced this in years now
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
This feeling usually occurs to me in the morning when I get ready for school. I'm 15, but it seems to happen when I'm tired or haven't gotten enough sleep, although it happens like once a month .
Helpful - 1
2 Comments
I sometimes feel like there's voices in my head, whispering or sometimes even screaming .
My son suffered similar episodes for 14 yrs. We finally got an answer when he was 11. A rare form of epilepsy of the occipital lobe. Ask your doctor for an EEG to confirm /rule out seizure activity.
Avatar universal
I have the same thing!! I started experiencing mine about 2 years ago when I was sick in bed with a fever and I still have them to this day. I'm having one right now actually. I'm in high school so almost everytime I take a test it happens or if I'm in class and everyone is typing a paper or something like that it happens. I used to experience something similar to this when I was younger, sometimes when I was in bed trying to fall asleep it felt like everything was getting bigger and my walls were closing in on me and it would eventually stop. They weren't the same thing but they are similar.
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
I can't believe I've found this forum! I've been suffereing from this for as long as I can remember ( I'm 18 now). I genuinely thought I was the only person in the world that felt these weird sensations, so it's almost a relief knowing people have this too and im not alone.
I've just had an episode now, which is why I decided to search it by searching  in my symptoms. It's so so so strange, it's as if time is going so slowly yet really fast, small movements feel like I'm doing them really quickly and everything seems loud and bright. I can hear all my thoughts so loud in my head and it's sometimes quite scary. The only was I can get out of it is by concentrating hard on something or talking to myself. I thought I was going crazy!
Does anyone know if there is treatment for this?
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
I can't believe I found so many other people who have experienced this.  I've only had it twice.  Once as a child with a fever and once as an adult while pregnant and sick.  Both times were terrifying.  As a child I heard lots of peoples voices and it sounded like they were arguing.  It would get really loud and then fade and then get loud again.  I couldn't tell what was being said.  Everything was intensified.  The second time I felt like I couldn't move at all.  I heard a very menacing voice laughing.  I promise, I'm not mental :D  I don't hear voices.  It just happened both times that the intensified sound and awareness happened.  I haven't had it again.  Thank God.
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
This is AIWS, alice in wonderland symdrome
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
I used to experience this in high school...it was so nice to find this thread and see I'm not the only one. Luckily it stopped after high school and I haven't experienced it in the last five years!
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
(I'm an autistic and Adhd individual with major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder ) this happens to me too
Everything feels so slow but then loud and then so fast and all my thoughts start to scream and everything gets so scary and I have a phobia from a specific bird so it happens that I feel like it's about to attack me or near of me or above my head flying in circles or toward me although I don't see that just intense feelings and fear and the worst that all of it happens so fast and feels horribly fast and loud and it can last for several mins  In my case I get it very often
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
It happens to me every few months, normally when im concentrating on something. Whenever i get it i normally go and talk to someone and it goes away. Is it some kind of condition of what?
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
Yeah, I can somewhat relate to that. I feel like it could be more likely to happen if i heavily concentrate on something for long periods of time in complete silence. Its just , thankfully , i dont do that that often lol
Avatar universal
i have read that it may be an episode of Depersonalization/derealization the definition does not match perfectly but its the best i found.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
i have this to an extent, what i have is called derealisation, its more a sideeffect of drugs, but essentially your world grows and becomes something thats familiar but unreachable, like its a movie, i sometimes get everything going loud but usually i cant hear anything, look up derealisation and have a see if you relate :)
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I had these my whole life 2-3 per year. When I was a kid it felt like a deep feeling of awareness. Some times it felt like a dangerous thing and other times an exciting ride. I just had the biggest episode ever where thing were so loud and fast I couldn’t take it. So I talked to someone and when I talk to someone it always fades away. I talked 2-3 years ago with a spiritual teacher about this and said it’s a conscious connection with another dimension. Spiritual teachers say they can travel subconsciously to another dimension. Well this is the conscious  one so you are in the in the in between. That is why everything seem faster and louder cause in other dimensions things are actually different. In reality I don’t know what is this thing but whatever it is when it gets scary I find that it fades away when I talk to someone. Other times I just enjoy it cause it feels I am more aware than ever! Take care ;)
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I know its been years since this post was made. My husband  has the exact same feeling. We've been together for 7 years now and he has episodes on very regular bases, probably once a week. He has always tried to explain them to me, but never really got how intense they were to him. For the last two month he's been having episodes almost every day, so I decided to search on google and found this.
After all this time... does anyone knows what this is???
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I've just spent two hours reading through this thread and I just want to add my own experiences, many which I've seen here already but a couple no one has mentioned.

I'm 17 now and I've been having these episodes since I was around 5-8 years old. I cant remember the first time i experienced it but i know it was a pretty constant thing throughout my childhood and at some points i experienced it weekly or monthly. They have slowed down and I've only had two since I was 15, the last being around six months ago. The episodes used to last from 5-30 minutes but in the last few years none were longer than two minutes and the last one I was able to get rid of in 20 seconds by concentrating reallly hard on distracting myself.

The main symptoms are hard to describe but it's mostly an intense and fast feeling. I feel like time is moving very quickly and all sounds are much more intense, I can hear very small sounds loudly like people breathing or turning a page. The description of your thoughts screaming at you everything you are doing that I've seen here is so spot on it's scary. It feels like I'm narrating my own thoughts and actions in caps lock or with a megaphone but all inside my mind. My entire body usually feels tense and super aware of all sensations. I haven't seen anyone mention this, but I usually get these during tests in school or when I'm studying and so I'm often holding a pen or pencil and it always feels like I holding on super tight to the pencil like I'm angry but even harder to the point I think my fingers might snap. I also feel like I'm writing super hard and I might rip the paper. The entire time I know that this is not actually the case and sometimes I try to physically hold on the pencil with less force, which sometimes results in me holding the pencil so lightly  I'm about to drop it and it still feels like I'm holding on super tight.
My jaw is also tensed up and sometimes I feel like I'm biting into a sponge or styrofoam with my back teeth. Sometimes I also get a metallic taste in my mouth.

Until I found this thread I don't think I realized that this always happened when everything was quiet but thinking back it happened a lot during tests or while I was reading a book in a quiet place. I never had a name for this when it happened and I also never told anyone about it. For some reason I never thought of sharing this I dont know why. I was never scared when it happened only a bit intrigued and for a while when I was about 12 I thought it could be a sign of me gaining superpower that I needed to learn how to control.

Any help in figuring out what this is would be much appreciated, just for some more context, I do have anxiety and I experience panic attacks pretty often, this is very dissimilar in all aspects. I also had a very high fever as a child (104) but I dont associate this with showing up with or right after the fever though I suppose it did begin sometime after, I don't see any connection though.
Helpful - 0
Have an Answer?

You are reading content posted in the Neurology Community

Top Neurology Answerers
620923 tn?1452915648
Allentown, PA
5265383 tn?1669040108
ON
1756321 tn?1547095325
Queensland, Australia
1780921 tn?1499301793
Queen Creek, AZ
Learn About Top Answerers
Didn't find the answer you were looking for?
Ask a question
Popular Resources
Find out how beta-blocker eye drops show promising results for acute migraine relief.
In this special Missouri Medicine report, doctors examine advances in diagnosis and treatment of this devastating and costly neurodegenerative disease.
Here are 12 simple – and fun! – ways to boost your brainpower.
Discover some of the causes of dizziness and how to treat it.
Discover the common causes of headaches and how to treat headache pain.
Two of the largest studies on Alzheimer’s have yielded new clues about the disease