Audio changes cause temporary system freezes

When I change what audio is outputting (eg stopping a youtube video, or launching a game) this sometimes causes a system freeze. It's most often noticeable through firefox, but other apps sometimes experience it as well. I suspect that I most often notice it in firefox because I use firefox so much. It commonly happens with discord as well, but I stopped loading discord unless I'm actually chatting with people because I first thought that Discord itself was the problem. I am actively seeking a Discord replacement, but that's for different reasons than this.

Sometimes, but not always, going into System Settings and making a change (any change, it doesn't seem to matter what) in the sounds area will pull it out of whatever the freeze is. It's very inconsistent, though.

I use bluetooth headphones and a webcam microphone. Sometimes the webcam too, but usually just the mic. I do not have any wired audio options, so I am unable to test if this is a bluetooth issue.

Any ideas? I've tried a few things that I've found online, but none of them seem to cover this problem, just problems that are vaguely similar.