Developed Hyperacusis 1 Week Ago

Nah. I have the upmost respect for @Bill Bauer I think he atleast tolerates me.

 

I just said that it`s very interesting to read his opinion, since i always respect the opinion of a researcher like him.

 

I can't talk about the experiences of the others, but I can talk about my own experiences. I can tell when I am stressed out and when I am relaxed. When the incident with the phone happened, I remained calm. After all, it is just a phone, this has happened to me before (but of course those experiences had happened before the onset of my T), and I couldn't see how a phone could have any negative impact on me. But my T had still spiked. This hasn't been a one-time occurrence.

I can totally see one being stressed out and getting a spike for a day or two. I can't see getting new permanent tones (@Alue 's case), or getting a permanent spike as a result of stress. I can't speak for others, but I can't maintain a high level of stress. After a week or two the original intensity is just not there. And yet, the phone spike wasn't fading back when I was two weeks into that spike.

Who knows more about what caused her condition to deteriorate - you or the person herself? She Hasn't been protecting, she learned (the hard way) that it was the wrong thing for her to do, and then she began to protect more diligently. By now she learned what behaviours cause her T to get worse, and what behaviours result in it staying at its original level.

Like I said, when I got blasted by that phone, I remained calm (why wouldn't I?), and I stayed that way.

I respect you too. I know you believe in what you write. It is likely that your ideas are true for a significant fraction of new T sufferers. But (in my opinion) those ideas can prove to be dangerous for many here.

I slept only 5 hours last night (this time T is not to blame), so I apologize for my aggressive post.

 

No worries, always appreciate reading a good debate Always makes me sad not having a Ph.D or other higher academic degree.

 

Thank you guys for your advices . I really appreciate it. We dont know exactly which is the best solution about earplugs beacuse even the scientists dont know which one is better. They have separate opinions about this matter.I think that we should protect our ears in some situations but also we need to be without them from time to time.I usually dont use earplugs when going out to walk or in the gym and I feel big pain. I will start using them but not all the time. For example if I go outside and I walk for 1 hour Im planning to wear them 40 minutes in the next 2 weeks. After that in the next 2 weeks I can wear them half hour. I have sillicone earplugs and titanium isolate audio flare. I think its beneficial to expose your ears to everyday noises from time to time and listen to some white noices at home. Im planning to order some sound generator and listen to a white noise for 3 or 4 hours every day. I will also order N- acetyl and I will protect myself. I really hope I will get a little bit after some time beacuse this kind of pain is hard to take ... I also take 5htp pills, they are some sort of seratonin type but in natural form and are not like other anti depresants. I take little dose everyday and they help me to cope with this afwul symptoms a little bit. This is all I know for hyperacusis, I dont know some other solutions to be honest. This is much much worse then tinnitus, it ruins my life

 

@Lex I know how you feel. This is really terrible symptom or should I call it disease. It really ruins your life in every single aspect. How much time did you need to get a little bit better ? When you go out now in restaurants you wear earplugs and even with them your H still makes you pain ? Im little confused. You say that you get better but also you say that you have pain when you drive in a car. That happened when your H was very bad or is happening right now ?

 

Months, and the progress was very slow, in spite of all the precautions I took. After more than a year, I still have pain.

Yes, I wear earplugs. And yes, I get pain depending on the unexpected circumstances, like if the staff suddenly switches the music on, or loud talkers move to the next table, or a server drops the cutlery, etc. That's why I always have an exit strategy. I leave early if I have to even if it makes me look rude and antisocial.

You're confused because you don't understand yet how bad it can get. I am not pain-free. I haven't been since the setback in July 2017. I got better only because the pain dialed down from 10/10 to 5/10, which is classified as 'moderate' in the pain scale. On bad days, the pain reaches 7 which is classified as 'severe.' The pain also disappears now, usually after a few hours, whereas from July 2017 to September 2017 more or less, my pain was unrelenting 24/7, even in total silence.

 

@Lex Yes I understand how do you feel. I believe you for sure . I feel very bad too. I cant rate it on a scale but from 1 to 10 I would say mine is 5/10 od 6/10 in the good days and 8 or 9/10 in my worst moments. Usually in the night is always 8/10 if Im not wrong. Did you do something now, do you use some treatment or you just protect yourself like before ?

 

Hearing damage /= T, although they are related. Plus, glutamate excitotoxicity is not the only way hearing can be damaged. People that suffer an acoustic blast trauma can lose their hearing and get permanent tinnitus almost instantly. Admittedly, most everyday noises would not fit into this category. Immediate spikes may well be more related to stress; for me the spikes are always delayed.

And TS was talking about hyperacusis/noxacusis, or are you implying they are psychosomatic too?

There's a lot about tinnitus that can't be fully explained by anyone. Perhaps you can explain why some people with hearing loss get tinnitus and some don't.

So it can't be fully explained by anyone 'Anyone!'... but you.
I mean, you're not wrong that it's neurological, but I find it ironic the way you say it can't be explained by anyone and call others arrogant, then turn around and emphatically state how it is implying that everyone else's experiences are moot and it's all in their head.

And what evidence do you have of this? I agree that some people here go overboard with hearing protection, but if anything, wearing hearing plugs often has helped me get used to my tinnitus (habituate).

 

These kinds of degrees often lead to closed minds and/or narrowed thinking, which is why most ENTs/autdiologists have so little to offer most of us. And much of what they do and/or recommend often leads to catastrophic consequences for us. Without some kind of "advanced" degree, you may have have more objectivity with a complex condition like tinnitus/hyperacusis than those who do.

I haven't read this whole thread, but here's my take: Underprotection and overprotection should both be kept in mind. HOWEVER, in the beginning, it's best to err on the side of overprotection until we've had a chance to get a good sense of what various sounds/noises can do to us--even seemingly minor ones.

When erring on the side of underprtoection, a person runs the risk of getting set back for a very long time, perhaps the rest of our lives. Why take that risk? Overprotection can set you back temporarily if you overdo it, but time will eventually let you know when you've gone too far.

In the beginning of the learning curve of learning how to live with fragile ears for the rest of our lives (which is usually the case), why do something that could possibly make you permanently worse, instead of choosing something that could temporarily set you back for a short while? The initial weeks/months/couple years into this new life are critical. -- Nobody should take unnecessary and/or unwarranted risks during this time period.

 

There's no treatment except for TRT but I can't tolerate artificial sounds like coming from speakers unless I'm far away from the speakers and the volume is low. But TRT requires in-ear devices so nope, no treatment for me. I don't use headphones for music anymore, just for noise-cancelling.

I protect my ears in environments I can't control and I and stay away from noisy places.

 

I've had hyperacusis and lately it seems to have gone away. Have hope. Protect your ears.

 

Please just avoid loud environments when possible.

 

Every last one of my spikes was associated with a loud sound exposure. And no, you cannot overprotect. Thats idiotic.

Are you joking? It's not fear, its sound advice based on experience, experience that I can also relate to. Yeah let's just forget about our acoutistic traumas and go shoot guns and then go clubbing, because fear is the problem, not physical damage to our ears. Doip!

 

Did you have ear pain before hyperacusis?

 

Personally, I got rid of my hyperacusis by just living. It hurt all the time but my family didn’t really care. I think exposing to normal sounds helped me in some strange way. You need to know when to protect. If you’re doing something completely normal, don’t worry about it. I wear plugs in parkinglots, loud malls, loud functions, and just loud places in general.

Don’t feed into people that encourage a negative response. There are tons of people on this forum that are not mentally well. Some have encouraged negative thoughts behind suicide and then express their sadness of someone’s passing after they did nothing to actually help them. It’s way more common than you think. you have to weed out the difference between the two. Sometimes I’ve noticed that people like to throw my pity parties for me and that’s not ok. Live your life because the only thing that you’re losing is time.

 

That being said...sometimes you can’t protect yourself and bad things happen anyway. It’s important not to beat yourself up over this. There is no reason to crouch in a corner if you can help it. If you feel stuck at home, do something productive. Chase the positivity because most tinnitus sufferers have had hyperacusis for a short period of time. Tons of times, it just goes away. Don’t die over it.

 

@Lane Yes I think you are right. Lets take injury in some part of the body for example. I had injury in my lower back 2 months ago. While I didnt go to gym i was resting at home and waited for my lower back to heal . After that i felt that I was better but I still didnt lift heavy in the gym when I started again. Even I was almost fully healed i didnt start heavily that fast beacuse another mistake will put me back for another 2 months or even more. Now I can lift heavy weights again in almost every day and regain my form faster but risking to get another injury or I can go slowly, with easy and careful aproach to lifting and regain my form in a couple of months but the most important thing is that I will be safe. THis is not important about this topic at all but after reading your comment i realise that the best thing is not rush things. Even if injury in the lower back is not the same like noise trauma i still find some similar logic after looking at your opinion. The only problem is that sometimes we dont know if we are OVERprotected or we are UNDERprotected . We should find the best solution after some time..

 

@Lex I didnt know that you must have earphones in your ears for TRT. Thanks for telling me that . I was thinking that I can listen to white noise on some speakers and after some time I will get better. Im planning to buy some sound device for that purpose but I want to buy some cheap beacuse i really dont thing that throwing 1000-2000$ is worth the money. Thanks for the advice and Im happy that you are little bit better from your worst but I hope you will be even better.

 

@JohnAdams Thanks for giving me hope. Im in depresion and i feel soo bad. I just hope that I will not have this terrible condition for the rest of my life. After how many months your H faded away ? When you say we must protect from loud places you mean 1. very loud places like nigthclubs, 2. going out for a walk in the streets around cars or 3. as loud you reffer to every sound that hurt us ( toilet flush, people normal talk and etc) ? I will not go anymore to nightclubs or noisy reaustarants and Im planning to protect myself when I go out for a walk, going to gym, in public places with lot of people and etc. But should I use earprotectors when Im home ? Is this okey or should I even protect myself from some sounds at home ? Sry for my bad english ...

 

@Contrast No i didnt have. I mean I was shooting with double protection 2 weeks before I had this terrible symptom. After shooting I had my usual spike next day, the same spike when I was going out to clubs. Usually when I attend some loud place next day or 2 days after that I have sharper tinnitus and a little bit of a pain. However the pain is 1 or 2 days and my T spike is 5-7 days. Sometimes I dont have pain but T is always louder and sharper.Its always like that. After that I was back to normal ( after 7 days in spike), my T was okay like before . Then 14 days after the shooting or 7 days after my spikes Ive got my H. I didnt felt some pain, I just felt that cars are too loud to me, some guys hitting the machines in the gym that day and some similar noices ...

 

when my t started I had no hyperacusis for like 4 months or so, then I was exposed to some loud speakers and leaf blowers and I had a nasty spike that lasted about a month. that spike included new hyperacusis that I never had before and cricket sounds, that eventually faded away and I'm right back to where I was in the beginning.

 

@katri Thanks for your support. I have some hope after you people told me that lot of tinnitus sufferers had this condition for some short period of time. This is very important for me. Yes I understand you how you feel about that matter. Its really hard to explain to someone about tinnitus and ringing in the ears. About hyperacusis I dont even try explaining myself to nobody except to my mother, sister and some close friend. They look at you like with weird look on their face and they asks you some stupid questions like- What is that, is that maybe only in your mind , maybe you are under stress and you need to calm down .. blah blah .. Its the same situation with me .. So your opinion is that we should use earplugs when we hear sounds more then 60db , and we hear cars around us, child screaming, motorcycles and etc which are somewhere around 70,80 db I suppose ?

 

@JohnAdams When you was exposed to the loud speaker did you had any protection on your ears, did you have some earplugs ?

 

Yes. You’ll know when you need them. Pain happens but pushing through it all is important. Hold on to the positive and push away the negative. Like I said, stay away from the negative people on this site and realize that these people are SICK. (Not on purpose. It’s just true.) the better you become at recognizing your irrational thoughts, you’ll start recognizing everyone else’s.

 

noop. I could feel it hurting too.

 

Some people here use speakers instead of earbuds. I sometimes do too. Sudden noises make me startle a lot so when it’s dead quiet at night, I put on white noise on a really low volume a few feet away from me. The white noise serves like a cushion against sudden noises. One of the symptoms or hyperacusis is collapsed dynamic range, which I have. This means my ears can’t cope with big changes in volume in an environment. For example, if I’m in a quiet room and someone sneezes, I’d jump out of my seat. But if I’m in a room with background noise and someone sneezes, I wouldn’t be as startled because the change in volume isn’t as big.

If my ears had a good day, I would slightly turn the volume up of the white noise as an attempt to increase my tolerances.

I suggest you do the same. Push yourself but stop when it’s painful. Note that pain is different from discomfort. If I feel uncomfortable with a sound but I don’t feel pain, I acknowledge that I may just be anxious and nervous. But pain, I take seriously. It’s my body’s way to tell me I’ve gone to far so I give it a rest. Also, if you get delayed pain response like me, take note of what your triggers are so that you’ll know what can hurt you. One thing you don’t want to do is to push yourself too hard to the point of no return. Some setbacks are long-term.

 

I'm arguing that the pain is hyperacusis.

 

@katri Yes I saw lot of people improve over time. The only good thing about H is that sometimes fade away at least a little bit. My ears hurt from some low noices, I hope that I will improve at least a little bit

 

@Lex I use both silicone and titanium protectors for going outside. I wear my audio flare earplugs mostly for nightclubs but since my H I will not go anymore. Also they protect too much and I can barely hear people talk. The other one, silicons, dont protect that much but they are perfect for outdoors situations . Yes I do the same thing like you when I go to sleep. I dont have sound machine but I put my laptop close to me and I listen some relaxing sounds from youtube.