My father has hearing loss, but is hearing songs. He says the songs have personal words to him and is paranoid. What do I do?

This happens to my mom as well. I read that one reason might be that with her being hard of hearing (no outside stimulus) her brain is trying to stay active. Sometimes a sound will spark a memory of a song which will play out in her mind; she swears that the radio is on it's "sounds" so real. "Hearing" involves two distinct processes: one that takes in and converts sound, and one that expresses that sound. Since Part 1 cannot take place, the brain substitutes and accommodates and continues with Part 2 on it's own. The study showed that the music that the people heard were from their younger years (which happens to be the case with my mom), and it was usually repetitive. Now that she has a proper hearing aid and a new pet (more outside stimulus), we'll see if this phenomena goes away.

There have been recent studies linking hearing loss and alzheimers/dimentia. Keep in mind, one of the symptoms of memory loss is paranoia. The earlier you treat hearing loss, the better:

my mom is always saying she hears music and voices also. She always thinks people are talking about her. Which we are not.

JULIE:

Some people hear voices; your father hears songs. What do the songs say? Unless he's making the songs up, there might be a message in the lyrics he didn't notice before or that he really identifies with. Ask him. His answers might help you figure out what steps to follow.

Was he a music lover? If so, not being able to hear it must be the greatest tragedy of going deaf and he's probably hanging on to some tunes he'll never be able to listen to again.

I urge you to sit down with him and take a trip into his head before some "professional" pigeonholes him into some kind of psychiatric treatment (and medications) that will make his condition worse.

Let us know what you find out.

-- ED