When your eyeballs become audibleWhen your eyeballs become audible
All In The Mind
There's a condition so bizarre and rare that most doctors haven't even heard of it - it's called Superior Canal Dehiscence Syndrome and it causes people to hear their blood moving, bones creaking, lungs breathing and even eyeballs moving. It can have a profound impact on a person's life and mental health. So can it be fixed? We go into a hospital operating room to learn about this little-known condition. Warning: this episode contains a description of a surgical operation.
28:16•29 Mar 2020
When Your Own Eyeballs Get Loud: Life With Superior Canal Dehiscence
Episode Overview
- Superior Canal Dehiscence Syndrome can make people hear internal body sounds such as heartbeat, breathing, joints and even eyeball movement.
- Symptoms often go years without proper diagnosis, leaving people feeling dismissed, misunderstood and worried they are "going crazy".
- The condition can severely affect daily functioning, with dizziness, visual disturbance and overwhelming noise disrupting work, relationships and mood.
- Surgical repair involves opening the skull, gently retracting the brain and plugging the affected balance canal with bone wax and cement.
- Patients like Anne and Bruce report major reductions in internal noise and a strong sense of relief and validation after successful surgery.
“"If you have a patient who tells you that their eyeballs are audible when they move them, don't think they're crazy."”
All In The Mind follows teacher Anne Miller and farmer Bruce Williams as they live with Superior Canal Dehiscence Syndrome, a tiny hole between the brain and inner ear that means, as surgeon Dr Tom Cortez explains, "your eyeballs, which normally are inaudible to you because of the closed nature of your ear, now become audible." You’ll hear how Anne’s dizziness, double vision and internal noise grew so overwhelming she ended up crying in the middle of her classroom, convinced others thought she was "going crazy".
How do people manage co-occurring mental and physical health issues while recovering? This story zeroes in on a little-known ear condition that turns the body into a noisy drum kit – with serious mental health consequences. Bruce jokes about the cow that smacked him in the head, but beneath the humour lies constant ringing, echoing, and knees and eyes that sound like "worse than any of that sort of thing".
Host Sana Kadar takes you right into the operating theatre, where Dr Cortez cuts a window into the skull, gently shifts the brain aside and plugs the faulty canal with bone wax and cement. It’s graphic at times, but the focus stays on what this condition does to a person’s daily life, mood and sense of sanity.
Two years on, Anne says life is "just saved" – she can teach, socialise and, as she jokes, finally enjoy a drink again without fear of falling over. Bruce reports his operated ear is around "70%" better and still improving, and he’s keen to get the other side done.
If you’ve ever doubted your own strange symptoms, or worried you wouldn’t be believed, this episode might make you ask: how many people are suffering in silence, and who around you might just need to be taken seriously?
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