Anybody Recover from Acoustic Shock Disorder (ASD)?

Hi all,

I've been on Tinnitus Talk for around 4 months and I have been unofficially diagnosed with ASD by Myriam Westcott via email, as I told her my symptoms and what happened during the acoustic event. She is extremely knowledgeable in the field and I'm glad I was able to reach out to her.

I am curious to see how anyone has progressed and recovered from this. My tinnitus is very low volume but super high pitch that clicks every few seconds. I can modulate it by doing neck retractions and chin tucks as it increases in volume. Also if I chew on my opposite side of my mouth (right side), my tinnitus increases with each bite.

I definitely have progressed in the wrong direction as anxiety and depression have taken over and now I have TTTS that seems to come on whenever it wants to. I get ear fullness, dull ache in ear, robotic sound distortions from people talking and myself, slightly off balance as well. My neck is always tight and uncomfortable and I can't seem to get into a good posture while sitting. I do not have much jaw pain, but my bite is definitely not right and I some tooth tenderness. I thought I had TMD due to the ASD but not sure. I do wear a bite guard at night.

My audiograms are great and speech recognition is great, so no hearing loss recorded. I've been tested with a VNG and ECoG test which were both normal. This was 3 months ago. Most recent audiogram was mid November.

I know @Greg Sacramento is fairly knowledgeable about the subject as he has recovered from this I believe, and I am trying to reach out to him to hear his story. I do not want this to progress any further but my auditory hypervigilance is off the charts now. I am seeing a therapist for help but not sure where else to go from here. The robotic sound distortions are the scariest and worst part about this.

Sometimes if I get a good sleep, the distortions seem to go away for a bit, but then return just as easily.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks.

 

Watching this. I've had symptoms of ASD for 6 months now. Worst has been fullness, jaw pain and general ear ache. It was incredibly painful to begin with but has since improved but my quality of life is still low.

Shaun.

 

Hey Shaun,

We have similar timelines and causes. Can you tell me what your audiogram looks like? Did you have a dip in high frequency levels, but stay in the normal range? Do you remember your numbers on speech recognition?

Thank you,
twa

 

After 14 months with awful ASD (I got it from concussion) I can say that almost all my pain is gone (90% or even more). I still have tinnitus but it's quiet. If I am recovering why can't you? Everything will be fine just let your ears rest, take vitamins, try your best to stay calm and just wait. As for pain... I just took it day by day mostly. I sometimes took Ibuprofen when my teeth got really achy.

 

I have had some ASD symptoms for 8 weeks. They started 2 days after an acoustic shock. The distortion is the worst, music, TV, voices sounds like people talking through a fan or underwater and some words are missing.

 

I'm still waiting on a proper hearing test. Had a doctor's office one but that just felt crap... Plus I went a little bit drunk so my tinnitus was right up. My own tests suggest hearing is fine... Ear feels otherwise.

Again own speech in noise tests I pass but not done a proper test yet. ENT appt next week but I doubt I'll get any answers.

Shaun.

 

So good to hear you are improving! I think this is good advice. When I calm down, generally my tinnitus calms down too. It is a day by day challenge. All my best~

twa

 

Hey SeanD5054,

Do you know if you had a dip in your hearing in the high frequencies but still in the normal range?

Glad your hearing is good. Hope you start to feel better soon. Was yours noise induced?

twa

 

@Vassili thanks for the reply.

Do you still get ear fullness? If so, do you do anything to relieve it? Thanks.

 

Hello!

Yes, I still get it sometimes. It comes and goes. It used to be a very unpleasant, even painful sensation but now it's just a mild discomfort and I often don't even notice it. Till this day when I have this sensation in my ears I just start massaging them inside and outside. Usually this sensation goes away after massage. Sometimes it's just there and it does not go away for couple of hours. Then I just wait for it to go away and try not to think about it.

 

@Vassili

How bad was your hyperacusis? I feel that mine was driven by anxiety and not actual damage since acoustic shock is more of a psychogenic injury. I feel my middle ear fills with pressure and slight ache and then I hear sound distortions like robotic voices from people. Yesterday and most of today I had almost no pressure and my ear just released like I heard an actual fizzle and my tinnitus was literally absent for the majority of the day. My sound sensitivity is still there.

I usually don't have any breaks with the ear fullness. Yesterday was the best I felt in months.

My kids loud voices and screams set it off so I wear ear plugs around them, but not too much else really. I will protect my ears when it feels uncomfortable. Hope you continue to improve my man.

Thanks.

 

Mine was severe. I couldn't do the dishes, couldn't go outside, hardly could talk to people or watch TV, now I think that even my own voice caused a headache. First 4 months it was very unpleasant and then things slowly started to change and I think after approximately 10 months or even a year my hyperacusis almost fully resolved itself. But I still have tinnitus and I feel that hyperacusis still comes back time after time but in a mild form. I also had severe 24/7 headache and pain in my neck and body accompanied by mild vertigo and visual snow.

All I can advise is to give it time and concentrate on your life and loved ones.

Thank you. I hope I will. I think I am at least halfway there after 14 months.

I wish you all the best. Take care.

 

@Vassili

Did you get the ear fullness with the pain hyperacusis pretty consistently?

My TTTS is in constant spasm but I don't get fluttering sensations in my ear, just a thump and pressure. It lasts for weeks, then subsides a bit.

Did you protect your ears when doing dishes and other things? Or mostly for just louder places?

Thanks bud.

 

I would say 10-12 months I got it 24/7.

I can sense fluttering sensation in my left ear at night if I put it against a pillow. If I put my right ear against a pillow, I'll hear "electricity". Thump and pressure are also present.

I never protected my ears at home. In fact, I did not wore any protection at all during first 6 months because

a) the ringing was so loud that it was unbearable and

b) my ears were so in pain that I couldn't put anything inside them, I couldn't even massage them.

I started wearing protection only after first 6 months. As I already said, I do not protect my ears at home but when I'm outside I plug my ears with my old small headphones because I don't want to overprotect, and if the environment is too loud, then I use professional musician's earplugs. They are always with me.

You're welcome.

 

That's great! No tinnitus for the majority of the day! That's amazing! Was this the first time you did not have tinnitus since September?

 

@twa yes it was the first time! I'm sure it was there but I really couldn't hear it. That was so relieving and it makes me think that my tinnitus is from my middle ear issues. Once the pressure was relieved, all the symptoms seemed to vanish. Except for the sound sensitivity. It only lasted a day. After that fullness and tinnitus came back.

 

The good thing is that you know it's possible to subside!

I think I read that your tinnitus is mild, it's the fullness and hyperacusis that are bothersome. Is that right?

 

@twa yes that's right. It gets a bit louder when my middle ear muscles tighten more and it becomes uncomfortable. Mostly it's mild though.

 

The tinnitus part is the most bothersome to me. :-(

 

How are you doing? Hope you and your family had a good Christmas.

Twa

 

Hi @twa, hope you had a great Christmas too. I am doing OK, thanks for asking. I'm still dealing with the ear fullness but I feel that my middle ear muscles are causing all my problems. They are being over reactive and it seems the tighter the tension I feel, the more consistent the tinnitus becomes, like a high pitch whistling. @Vassili, is this how it is for you too? Myriam Westcott mentioned to me that most people suffering from acoustic shock can get tinnitus from the tension in the middle ear. However not all cases are the same obviously. Hoping for recovery sooner rather than later.

I hope you are doing better.

 

@Vassili how are you doing bud?

I've suddenly hit a relapse here and it seems I'm back to square one. I'm usually pretty good for a few weeks and then my brain tells my ears to do some funky stuff and I am back to crazy ear fullness and loud hissing/whistling noises in my ears. It has definitely moved over to my "good ear" but very very mild. I don't notice it unless im extremely stressed out. I think I'm having a hard time with this still. My 2 young rambunctious kids don't really give me much of a break. However one day I felt so relaxed, got a ton of sleep, and in the morning my tinnitus was nearly gone and no fullness whatsoever. Throughout that day the fullness seemed to fizzle out of my ear and my tinnitus was gone for that short afternoon. Next day fullness and tinnitus was back.

Hope you are doing well.

 

@ShaunR how are you doing so far? Is your tinnitus loud or pretty mild these days? Is it high pitched noise like mine?

Hang in there.

 

The quieter day sounds encouraging. I'm learning ways to live with hyperacusis and a loud kiddo with ADD. Hope you have many better days to come!

twa

 

Still doing crap really. I had a good 3 weeks and my symptoms were very low but I have since started to get jaw ache and some kind of face tension. I do have a bit of cold right now though which may be influencing things. Right nostril which is my bad side is constantly blocked.

Tingling and other weird symptoms have gone away.

Tinnitus never got any worse since this kicked off.

Not sure I have hyperacusis at all... Sat through a loudish presentation today (70 dB according to my meter and I have no pain etc).

I had a hearing test just before Xmas and I apparently have perfect hearing... Yes yes I know those tests not that accurate.

How are you doing?

Shaun.

 

Hi @ShaunR,

Glad some of your other stuff went away. I have been rather crappy myself. I went to see a hearing and dizziness specialist and they tested my hearing from the highest range of hearing possible. The audiologist said my hearing is fantastic for my age but I a dip at 13,000 Hz at 40 dB in both ears. I do not think my daughter screaming caused my hearing loss there however it probably shocked my system which is why I have tinnitus. Most likely it is caused by the constant muscle spasms in the middle ear making tinnitus worse or better. There are some days I wake up and have very low tinnitus and others are rather louder but never terribly loud I suppose. I am awaiting the doctors report write up for any follow up if necessary. I am sure I have loss at 13,000 Hz from drums for many years seeing as I have the loss in both ears. Just my left ear is a bit worse.

I am hoping I can see really good results after a few more months but I do not have very many good days anymore. I will have one or two good days followed by a week of terrible ear fullness and louder ringing, then cycles back again. Good sleep definitely helps but it is hard to get these days.

Hang in there.

 

How are you doing now mate?

I fluctuate from doing OK and coping to the pits of despair. I think it's improved over the year but I'm not back to normal yet

Shaun.

 

hey @SeanD5054, please, do you have any update on the matter?

 

@SeanD5054, I'd love to hear an update. I suffered from an acoustic shock 5 months ago. I have ear fullness sensation that comes and goes in one ear, my ear also pops/clicks when I yawn or swallow.

 

If it helps, I suffered an acoustic shock and am now much better. It just takes a very very long time. Almost 2 long horrible years in my case.

Cheers,
Shaun.