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.