Conflicting Information?

I'm wondering if H is considered a life-long issue that you just "manage", or if you can be "cured" of this?

My understanding is that T is forever, but H - ??

 

I don't think that it can completely cured but get a lot better to the extent where it doesn't bother you anymore in your daily life or only on rare occasions or when it's really loud. There are special sound/music therapies for Hyperacusis,you should look into it, I think there is a lot more that can be done for H than T.

 

I've read about sound therapy. I'm trying to "wing it" until I actually see the specialists.

 

Eh, depends. I think you can largely be cured of it. I had it a long time ago before I knew what hyperacusis was. The piano bothered my ears, the vacuum cleaner too (even though I hate them), and some other sounds. I recovered 100% and could tolerate silverware clanging, children yelling, buses screeching, etc. It wasn't an issue in my life at all.

Could it come back again? Yeah, I think so if you abuse your ears.

So no, hyperacusis isn't forever and neither is tinnitus in my opinion.

If this is your first incident with hyperacusis, I'm pretty positive you'll be able to get back to 100%.

 

Great to hear your success story NeoM. I'm eager to progress with my H as well, especially now that I've started the white noise treatment. How long after H onset did you experience relief? And how long after did you consider yourself cured from H? Do you sometimes get H spikes, as in sudden rebound and/or days with some returning H? I also wonder if your T decreased when your H went away?

You write that H can return if you abuse your ears but alot of people without hearing loss or acoustic trauma got severe H. It's a complex thing. As shared before my two hearing tests came out within normal range, still I have loud hight pitched T and severe H. I believe somatic aspects can affect both T&H in many different ways, at the same time I think tests could be improved in accuracy.

 

I didn't have any injury or event that lead to this. I also wonder if my case is considered mild or not. My tinnitus ringing in my left ear is high-pitched, volume is pretty consistent (low) but is always present.

Today, I went to my friend's house. It has been many months since I've seen her and this was something we scheduled a while ago. I wanted to see her even if it meant discomfort because it'll be many months before I see her again. I did "okay". She got excited at times and that was bothersome when she laughed. Then I hit the grocery store and I actually tolerated it quite well. I couldn't hear well, but I didn't feel like I had to run out of the store.

I've been trying to listen to TV at as close to normal volumes as possible without getting overwhelmed. I don't know if this is just positive thinking, and listening to some success stories, but I think I can get this into "remission". Seems to me, the message is this is all about what your comfort level is and there's not a one-size-fits-all experience.

 

First off, I had tinnitus before hyperacusis and that tinnitus went away completely. I mean even if someone mentioned tinnitus and I tried to search for it I was never sure if what I was hearing was tinnitus or just background noise. So I considered myself cured, or for those skeptical, I achieved habituation of perception.

The hyperacusis I never really monitored. I can't tell you how long I had it, but it always seemed to get better. I really didn't view it as a "condition" so to say. I viewed it as just something temporary that would pass and it did. I also never experienced any setbacks. This was several years ago probably 6. So yeah, my memory is off and I can't really say how long it lasted. Maybe a couple weeks or a month or so. All I can say is that it caused zero problems for me when I was cured. I could walk by people using leaf blowers and while I thought, "Damn that's noisy." There wasn't any discomfort.

However, now it's different, this is a much more intense case and mainly my left ear. When it began even the opening of soda cans caused "OUCH!" type feeling of pain. This hyperacusis occurred maybe 3 days after the onset of the tinnitus. It started to get better within a week or two. However, when someone yelled next to my ear it set me back completely and I think it made it worse than the beginning. For instance, I have sensitivity to raised voices that are close to yelling. I helped my sister today move something and she has a bischon frise and the dog barking bothered my ears. I still noticed my sensitivity in the shower and some sensitivity to things like opening a soda can. But this sensitivity isn't the "OUCH!" from the beginning, but more along the lines of "ugh" (if that makes sense). I'm making progress daily (for instance the grocery store bothered me last week but yesterday no problems) and I believe given maybe a couple more weeks or months I will be largely back to normal.

I understand that tinnitus and hyperacusis can occur at random or for other reasons. I was just trying to say being gentle to your ears is always a good idea. Since my tinnitus and hyperacusis incident I've learned things that make me think, "Why the hell didn't someone tell me this when I was like 5 or 10 and ingrain into me until it's a habit brushing your teeth." I'm just hoping that taking precautions now will preserve my hearing so I'll only have to worry about hearing problems until I'm past 60 unless they come up with drugs or cures by then.

The biggest problem for me is that people just don't understand hyperacusis. They are more understanding of tinnitus, but hyperacusis it's like a "huh?" type problem to them. For instance, someone compared it to an earache. Ummm....hell no. For instance, the whole yelling thing I want to avoid but people either forget or don't care. So it's hard.

So my ultimate hope is that when the hyperacusis clears up so will the tinnitus. I realize that it's mainly psychological and there's a need to delink "hurting" and "pain" to the hyperacusis and I'm trying my best and I believe I'm doing really good.

I realize there has to be a gradual process. For instance, I would like to go to the movies, but no way. Not now. Maybe later. I haven't been to some restaurants either or a busy mall. I realize I'll need to test them out, movies last, but for now I'm just trying to gradually recover.

 

Thank you for the feedback.

My husband doesn't get it yet. I don't know how else to get him to be more cooperative. He's been gone for a couple of days and it's so much better with him gone. Yelling from one room to another, tromping up and down the stairs. he's always been a noisy person, so he's not doing anything different than before, but I need him to be different than before. My son is coming home from college this evening, so now it'll be 3 men. UGH!

 

The first person I actually met with T said he also had H in the beginning but that he was totally free from H now. So I guess it can go away for real and not just because one habituate. He still has T.