Feeling About to Break Down After Getting Exposed to Loud Intercom

Despite my worsened hyperacusis I've continued to work at my store. It's not loud or noisy...most of the time. There are sudden loud noises though. A baby crying, beeps from various motorized vehicles, various alarms that are nowhere near me. And....the intercom.

There is a schedule for announcements via intercom so I typically run to the bathroom while these play. Tonight there was someone lawn trimming right outside the bathroom so I got all panicky and tried to find a different one.

I didn't realize the one I went into had an intercom system in it. My reflexes were quick when I realized but not quick enough. These things are loud as the placement of them are sparse throughout the store (big store). The volume of the one in the bathroom is the same as the ones located around the store. The bathroom was a single person bathroom so small.

Getting exposed to this sound at such a close range is a nightmare come true and something I've worked to prevent. I'm certainly spiking and left ear feels slightly clogged/full. I'm scared to wait and see how this noise will affect me. I don't know how actually loud the sound is. Over 90 dB for sure though.

Any responses right now would be sorely appreciated.

 

How about 90 degree muffs. They are really slim and you can sew memory foam in them. I talk about hand held block muffs on another thread, one for each hand, I thought that might help with fire alarms. But maybe if you create a thin muff with memory foam inside to wrap around your ears that might help you.

 

Hi Red
I strongly emphasise with you - living on the edge with noise, it’s life changing and the anxiety takes you to miserable depths. I’ve been there too many times to mention over the past 16 years.
I wish we could press fast forward and get you out of this fearful space - chances are very high though that you’ll get out of this ok. Jump on here anytime for people who understand ...

 

Thank you. Mainly, I'm more worried because of the confined space. You can hear the person doing the announcements pick up the phone before speaking. That was my cue to leave which I acted upon instantly, hopefully before the actual announcement was spoken. All I remember was that it was loud. Thing is, these things happen so quickly that it's hard to recall once you get past it all.

 

I HOPE you get over this spike and that your ear heels, give it a few months. Try to stay distracted, anxiety can play a big role, I truly hope you feel better :/

 

Get these... They allow normal sound in, but cut out anything past 50 dB or so.

This way you are not overprotecting, but protecting when you need it all at the same time:

https://www.amazon.com/Walkers-Razor-Electronic-Bluetooth-Muff-Black/dp/B06W576CHT/

 

I am sorry you had such trouble avoiding the noises you knew out about and tried to avoid.

My only suggestion is some earplugs, several of which allow fairly normal talking to go through but block louder noises. I recall reading of some from etymotic.

Good luck!

 

Did you press on your tragus as soon as you got that cue? This seems to be as effective as the muffs or earplugs, and it takes less time to deploy this hearing protection...

 

That's exactly my go to in an emergency, it is more effective (for me) then putting index fingers in my ears. Nice tip!

 

Several months ago, I might have read what you wrote about it. It gave me an idea to see whether the protection is comparable to earplugs/muffs, and when I tried all three, as far as I could tell the protection seems to be very similar for all three methods. I even did that (pressed on my traguses) when I was driving a car and a person riding a motorcycle decided to accelerate and overtake me. It wasn't safe to let go of the steering wheel, but preferable to being within feet of an accelerating motorcycle without any protection.

 

No.
I don't use that technique after I got T in my right after using it. (Although it was in response to a loud noise to begin with and usually bilateral T develops anyway so maybe I'll use it)

Anyway.
Yesterday was only a small spike.
Today the spike is much louder. :/
Bye bye quiet T. Hello another thing to worry about. Here is my absolutely enormous pile. I've already been having a tough time dealing with my H worsening.

 

Hopefully within a week or two it will go back to baseline...

 

How are you doing today hon? Hope you are well.

 

Article on hand protection

https://solentacoustics.wordpress.com/2015/11/19/natural-hearing-protection-hands/

 

WOW this is a great article! I am afraid of getting ear infections by sticking my fingers in my ear, but this seems like the best method. I have always used the tragus

 

Tinnitus has been a wild ride ever since my hyperacusis got worse first week of September. It's been at points both the best and worst it's ever been within September.

I've been better with my SO home, helping me take my mind off it. I suspect the exposure knocked back my hyperacusis progression, which also makes my T worse since my T becomes progressively reactive.

 

Please hang in there.
We all feel the same - "being constantly under the threat of NOISE".
This is our T lives. I wish you recover from the T spike soon.
God bless !

 

If it makes anyone feel better, the constant paranoia and skittish feeling when being outside does eventually fade over time and it becomes a habitual feeling of caution (minus the fear that usually accompanies it.)

Just my experience.

 

@coffee_girl You are the example of a success story.
Thank you for your encouragement and sharing of your experience.

 

It did. To an extent. Letting my guard down brought me back here. Now I have worse hyperacusis. Anxiety is me embodied into a person, at any rate.

 

Sleep very early, I noticed that’s the most effective way to calm down an all-day spike; when it happens I take Melantonin and go to bed at 10 pm and try to sleep the earliest possible.

 

Ha! This is the opposite of what I do. I go to bed at 5am in the morning. Work late and a night owl anyway. Would be nice to not get woken up in the middle of my sleep though by obnoxious noises...

 

Thanks for the article, and I appreciate their look into this. They made at least two errors that would have to be worked out, both have to do with the finger insertion method

1) I would normally place a finger in with the fingernail to ear of my head. This may may allow for a different engagement of the ear canal.
2) The depth of finger insertion will vary by person. A person who cannot insert far may be better served with other methods. They could have tested for shallow and deep insertion.

But....Overall I would question the results which show two of the three techniques amplifying noise from 0-1500Hz.

 

Feeling down. No improvement on my spike. I was making some progress with my hyperacusis before this, now I've backslid. I have trouble masking at home. My tinnitus cuts through them or the white noise ends up hurting me with my hyperacusis. I can't find any noise to help me mask. My hyperacusis just hates speakers for some reason.

Lonely and just kinda...here.

 

@coffee_girl @Bill Bauer When I posted the above link, I had though sticking my fingers was best - it works for me and I still use this method - but I told by a neighbor who is a bio sound engineer that covering the entire ear is better for those who have feeling of blocked ears. It's also better to cover the entire ear for those with TMJ or compression of cervical muscles - physical somatic. I didn't take his word and asked another bio sound engineer and was told the same things.

 

So I'll add on to the tragus method. After reading that report on the wired up dummy, when I was at a large auditorium with 100db music, I stood in the foyer/entrance and tried putting a finger in the ear canals or covering with the tragus, and for me tragus covering seemed about 20% better. It's a given I don't know about all frequencies that I couldn't hear, of course.

But I also combined covering the opening with the tragus and cupping the ear with the remaining fingers and that was even better.

 

Hi @Red

Jeeze! I truly feel your pain and frustration. That’s so damn annoying especially when you work hard to avoid it. I’m
Going through a spike just now... 2 weeks snd was caught out by a bell I avoid which was being tested. The wait for the outcome is nerve wracking to say the least but I truest hope you’ll be okay xx

 

Is there any kind of ballpark range on how loud these "loud" store intercom setups tend to be?

I was in a 2nd and Charles bookstore earlier where one of the obnoxious teenagers yelled at the top of her lungs into the intercom with long, drawn out monologues about the store closing soon, specials coming up and a million other things to draw attention to herself. And she did it three different times while we were in line to checkout as the line was moving really slowly. It was apparently loud and annoying enough that a guy yelled out "shut up!" The last time that she did it was as I was checking out and the cashier and I were basically having to yell from 2-3 feet away to be heard over the intercom.

The speakers were those usual ceiling ones with a bunch of small holes in them and were probably about 20 feet directly overhead; there were a lot of them. Do they tend to get over say 100+ dB?