Did I Do More Damage? Does a Noise That Causes Pain Always Mean More Damage Has Been Done?

Does a noise that causes pain always mean more damage has been done?

I don't know if the noise was loud enough to damage me, but it was enough to give me pain. I think I read somewhere that pain isn't necessarily a sign of more damage, that it could just be a sign that the muscles have contracted in response to the noise. But I don't remember where I read that and I don't even know if it's true.

 

Can you be more specific? What is/was the noise in question?

 

It doens't follow that more/further damage has been done. More likely the existing pathway of injury/symptom has been re-activated.

 

Pain does not mean further damage, it's just part of our condition. Some people here can even feel pain when they believe that a loud noise is suddenly about to happen.

 

No, not necessarily. For example, when my hyperacusis was at its worst, people whispering to me would cause ear pain but that doesn’t mean new damage was being done. You’re probably talking about a sound that was louder than someone whispering but if you suffer e.g. from hyperacusis then ear pain is not necessarily a sign of further damage.

 

Nope.

Do you have Hyperacusis? In the beginning even a kiss on the cheek would cause me pain, but I doubt it was harming me.

It gets gradually better.

Best,
Zug

 

My post was longer, but some of it is missing now.

 

Thanks everyone. I do believe I've developed hyperacusis ever since a noise exposure in February.

After two years of tinnitus, which I had mostly gotten used to, I panicked when a loud high-pitched beep sounded right next to my bad ear. Ever since that moment, I've had new symptoms which I believe might be TTTS.

Sometimes my whole body tenses up when I expect something loud might occur. For example: TV shows where people sometimes curse. Each curse word is beeped and I know that sooner or later someone will curse, but I don't know exactly when.

This hyperacusis is so much more of a disability than my tinnitus ever was. With the tinnitus alone, I made a few big changes to my life, but after that, it was business as usual. With hyperacusis, every high-pitched sound startles me and makes me think I've damaged my ear even more. And high-pitched beeps are everywhere, even in my own home.

 

Its the high frequency jab isn't it. My current car is full of them, and I wasn't smart enough to check before I bought.

Everyone: Mazda CX3s sold in Australia have ludicrous loud screaming beeps if you put the thing into reverse...just to let you know. Unpleasant to even those who don't have H.

 

It isn't damaging anything any further, its just incredibly irritating and it triggers your sympathetic nervous system to heightened awareness because your brain has long catalogued such sounds as being in the realm of threatening. Its the physiology of psychology in action. We pretty much all think, or have thought along the lines you are thinking. Its part of the overall disease complex. You are certainly not alone.

 

The hyperacusis is kicking my but from high pitched beeps too. I don't feel a pain more of a discomfort or possible soreness. If I have too much high pitched beeping a few hours later I'll get the fullness from a few hours to a couple days. Going through the checkout at the grocery store can be an ordeal to me. I loaded my groceries onto the belt as far from the register as I could today. I've vowed to brink ear plugs but wanted some noise exposure too.

Oh, don't forget the telephone ringing and the microwave beeping. It depends on what kind of day I'm having and how far from the offending appliance I am if I plug my ears or not.

 

How else would you know you're going backwards if it doesn't tell you?

 

Sounds like my brain needs to get its act together. I suppose I should just expose myself to high-pitched beeps and prove to myself that they're not damaging me. Maybe then I won't keep having this physiological reaction.

 

Oh dear, the grocery store. I haven't been to a supermarket that uses scanners since before my hyperacusis began. I tend to avoid them for other reasons, but I usually go once in a while to get things I can't find in the little independent store I usually shop at. I think I had better continue to stay away from them until my hyperacusis improves.

 

I'm trying to find that happy medium between exposure to some beeps and too much exposure to beeps. Of course, we all experience these conditions differently so what works for one may not work for another.

Still love the bunny with glasses.

 

No don't. Not now. The time for that will come, but right now all you will do is reinforce the discomfort message. Ear plugs are there, use them if they help. I still do and its been five years. I tend to use them to acclimatize myself slowly to the sound of the day, and release them slowly over the morning. Some days I don't need them, some days I do, but probably don't really. Despite what many say, the sky won't fall if you use them when you think you would benefit.

If you use them in the spirit of analgesia rather than as a security blanket then I don't think they do any harm. H does improve a bit over time. I found this to be true when I realized i'd stopped paying attention to some of the sounds that were once the stuff of horror. It just occurred with the passage of time, not because of anything I think I did.

 

I'm trying not to add new high-pitched sounds to the list of problem sounds. About a week or so ago I "noticed" the sound my building's elevator makes at every stop. It's not a very high-pitch, but once I suddenly noticed it, I couldn't stop noticing it and wanting to cover my ears.

Since the noise exposure that started the H was five weeks ago, I figure that logically, any sound that didn't bother me for the past five weeks obviously hasn't been hurting me. It's only after I "noticed" these sounds that they become a problem.

I'm trying to regard these sounds as grandfathered in. So I don't cover my ears in the elevator. I do feel somewhat anxious, but I know that feeling some anxiety is an inevitable part of the process. But I definitely won't be overdoing this. As you say: I don't want to reinforce the discomfort message. I just want to reinforce the message that sounds that were safe before the H are still safe.

 

There's something about high-pitched tones that easily, perhaps naturally, translates into pain.

Why on earth do humans create sounds that are so irritating to human ears?

 

When it began for me the first thing I noticed was thinking the car stereo had broken a speaker. It unfolded over a period of some weeks from there. The high pitched bleeps, crappy phone speakers and such crossed over from typically annoying to threshold busting searing. Friction sounds became super intense. I changed the sheets to flanels because rolling over in bed on cotton created that searing friction sound. The computer keyboard, closing the screen door...all sorts of things. I avoided everything...wouldn't go to supermarkets...the beeps, the screaming kids. It was like sounds within a particular frequency band were being heard at a completely different level to other surrounding sounds and the balance was gone.

 

This is a good start, but don't torture yourself at the same time. Also, like any other body system that takes a trauma, your ears need rest.

 

They were grandfathered in, but the format is now altered. Its a good move to have your external psychology talking now with your internal psychology (your voluntary nervous system having the talk with your involuntary nervous system). The earlier you can bring your mind into a space where you can return to coping the better. Remind yourself that it can always get better, because many here will concur, myself included, but it will take its own sweet time.