What to do about distracting mental chatter?
gruseom: I haven't experienced what you describe, but have had different involuntary auditory experiences for years. The key for me has been to learn not to be bothered by them. Everyone has involuntary thought processes; I don't see why some shouldn't be connected to the auditory parts of the brain.It helped me to see that what was bothering me was not whatever I was "hearing" but entirely a secondary process - thoughts about what I was hearing, like worrying or frustration. I don't know if that makes sense, but it's a critical point and I recommend it.Equally helpful (and intimately related) has been to develop simple somatic awareness. A good way to grasp this is to pay attention to the space between thoughts. That is silent, so it is a mode you can shift to when you don't want to deal with mental chatter. Having that option provides relief. It is also grounded in the body in a way that most thoughts are not (I'm speaking purely experientially). Developing that awareness over time gives you greater inner depth, which turns out to be invaluable in a lot of ways.If the auditory stuff never settles down, maybe the space "between" thoughts is inaccessible; in that case I switch to the silence behind them. Inner silence is never far away, but you need to find your own way of connecting with it.As I said, I don't know if this will make sense. These things are hard to articulate. I will say that sometimes they are challenges that pay off if you learn what you need to learn.As for whether you're going nuts, who cares? You can be a balanced, well-grounded nutcase. This is an example of a secondary idea that pretends to be about the underlying experience but actually isn't; it's a meta-worry.