Hearing Sounds from Far Away

Since I got T and H five months ago, I've been sitting in the aisle of our fairly quiet open office. I used to sit by the window but I had to move because I could hear the honks and whistles from the street down below. They weren't painful, but piercing and distracting nonetheless. The new seat I moved to didn't offer a great view, but at least I could no longer hear traffic sounds.

But this week, I noticed that I could hear honks and whistles at my new seat. The sounds are faint, but because I hadn't heard them in the past five months, I can't help but wonder what changed. And also panic, because hey, another new symptom.

So this morning, I walked up to the window where I used to sit by, expecting loud traffic sounds to hit me. I haven't done this since I moved seats, simply because I was too traumatized being bombarded by traffic sounds. But the weird thing is that the sounds below, though audible, aren't particularly loud to me today. In fact, I would say that they're more muted now compared to what I had to suffer through before I moved seats.

So if they aren't as loud to me now as they were before, why can I hear them now from a farther distance?

This condition is so weird.

 

Hi.

I think that the fear you are showing is the main reason to why you care to much about noises around you.
I'm a with you on that, but just like paranoia you need to let that go.

It's make it worse for you and that circle just keeps pushing you to sad places.
Have T isn't the end of the world (i have it to :> ) but you need to let go of those
symptoms.

I can relate to the job environment. So i know what you feel.
To fix it is simple, don't listen, don't give in. Like if you were having paranoia, don't look back.
That helped me a lot, i can now wake up without having to listen to my T because i know that
it doesn't hurt and that i am not looking for it.


Hope i helped.

 

@MrLowBot, thank you. I agree that my panicky nature is adding a layer of constant vigilance and hyperawareness on top of hyperacusis.

However, T as of now isn't really bothering me (and I hope it stays that way). It's more of an annoyance. But it's H that's wearing me out. As much as I don't want to hear them, and as hard as I try not to listen for them, H brings all these different sounds to my attention. So I can't just let it go.

 

You need to desensitize your hearing.
Don't avoid the sounds or will become a phobia so build up your time around troublesome sounds.
Remember you are in control and walk away when you need to with out a emotional response and stay calm....lots of love glynis

 

Thank you, @glynis. I wish I have half your courage. I'm losing the fight in me. I'm tired of living in fear like this.

 

You need to see a therapist Alex as I have suggested earlier. You have an undercurrent of anxiety/depression...perhaps acute and you will be stuck in this state until you seek help and get on a medicine regiment as you were earlier in life to break this chronic cycle. Free will is a myth Alex. Nobody can will good mental health. Once you rebalance your brain chemistry and this may take trial and error in terms of type of med tried and dosage over a period of time, you will have reinforced different behavioral patterns which may allow reduction in medication. So, don't needlessly torture yourself by not getting help and wondering about your mental health and relationship to T and H. Yes, they are related but your mental health sets the table for tolerance of T and H and without a more benign mental state, T and H will affect you more profoundly.

 

My tolerances have improved in a way that I feel a lot less pain, and for that, I'm grateful.

But in its place, I'm developing this Spiderman-level hearing, except it isn't cool. I used to hear only car horns from the 28th floor. Now, I can also hear (and feel) motorcycles speeding below.

I can also hear a cacophany of children's voices from a school that's several blocks away from me. I've never heard it before, even after I developed T and H. This started happening on Monday.

I'm not scanning the environment for sounds. In fact, I've done the opposite because I don't want to hear everything. I've been listening to white or pink noise whenever I can to drown out those environmental noises, but they still pierce through and get to me, even over my T which isn't exactly low volume!

I know I'm anxious but it is not just anxiety that's causing this. I hate being patronized.

I don't know how to stop this. I don't want to hear everything around me. It's overwhelming and exhausting.

 

Maybe as you feel less pain you'll be able to go to placed with louder sound lever without earplugs and then your ears will "recalibrate" ?
I have the same thing as you with the traffic... I think it's low frequencies and very high frequencies that I hear from far away

 

I'm not sure anymore if wearing earplugs less is helping me. I tried to remove my earplugs inside the car which was fine for a bit, until a huge truck barrelled down the lane beside me.

I don't know if I'll just suck it up and bear it until I get used to it, or protect my ears whenever I feel pain/discomfort.

 

hey!
I'm hearing far away sounds too. at first I went along the street to see if it's real what I'm hearing and yes it was. just three days ago I heard someone screaming out so loud but far away from me. the person is screaming to a rhythm. I was so scared. and today I heard it again when I was studying. my heart beat rose and I started to sweat. I heard the exact sound today too. but at a different time. I didn't care first but now I do care and I don't want any stress.

 

Could be a form of recruitment. That's when due to hearing loss of a certain kind you don't hear a sound until it crosses a certain threshold of intensity, then you suddenly hear it big time.

 

This particular symptom has not improved. It got worse. Now I feel the vibration of passing motors too on the 28th and 32nd floor.

I'm in a calmer state of mind, so I don't think this is anxiety-induced. Some wiring in my ears and/or brain went wrong so I'm no longer processing sounds correctly.

Hyperacusis is already rare to begin with but this vibration sensitivity is even less common among sufferers. It's hard to find someone who can understand this specific kind of sensitivity.

 

@Lex
What do you exactly mean with vibration sensivity and where do you feel it?
I ask this because I have very severe H, without pain but also with vibrational feelings in my head

 

Mine has been getting a bit better. For me it seems related to the fact that I hear a T on top of some other sounds so even if I hear the normal sound a tiny bit I will here the T tone louder so it acts as if the soft background sounds are amplified.

 

@Lex how does music sound to you? especially stuff with sustained sounds (string sections, or synthesizer pads) you know, not jumpy compressed music, do you hear certain frequencies very loudly compared to the rest of the music? How does music sound in general to you nowadays?

 

Music sounds less scratchy to me but still tinny, so I crank up the bass on my equalizer just so I can tone down the tinniness. I don't hear certain frequencies louder. I hear them higher than I know they should be and that drives me crazy sometimes.

 

In audio engineering a common beginner rule mentioned is "lower frequencies you don't want rather than boost the ones you do want", so I would be prone to suggesting you try lowering the hi-end rather than boosting the low end. You should be able to achieve the desired effect this way, and it may even be safer for someone with hyperacusis.

On the other hand hearing aids directly boost certain frequencies so maybe boosting eq is necessary in some cases. If you actually have a low freq loss, then boosting the bass would be the most direct method, and probably more effective than lowering the hi-end.

In any case I'm glad you can enjoy music to some extent.

I still can't really enjoy music, but even for listening to videos of talking, I cut certain high frequencies on the equalizer, because these are the loudest frequencies in recorded voice audio. For instance the "S" sound is usually very high frequency and significantly louder than other speech sounds. In audio engineering this is called "de-essing". Removing the loud "S" sound peaks from a vocal recording.

I listen to vocal audio so rarely and so quietly that if I did not de-ess the audio, the s sounds are virtually all I would hear. Especially on something like a small laptop speaker.

If only other people took such a cautious and conservative approach to sound, I wouldn't be in this mess to begin with.

 

At which frequencies are the S sounds ? Because I also have problem with them but usually if I cut off everything from 8 kHz and above it is alright

 

It really depends on a lot of variables. Mainly recording equipment and recording environment, but it also varies between people's voices, and then your actual listening device. The best method would be to somehow put an actual de-esser over your audio output, but in general, some sort of slope cut from 4k up should help. Without using an actual de-esser, what youre doing, cutting above 8k should help, but you may need to try dipping 4k, or even 2k in some instances.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-essing

 

I dont know much about audio engineering but I heard people with good hearing tend to prefer speakers that produce flat sounds instead of enhancing low or high sounds. Is trat true?

 

Thank you so much for this suggestion! I did it today and the difference is remarkable. I know I'll never hear music the same way again but this has been the closest to what it used to be for me.

Yes, I still listen to music, but only at a low volume for a short time, and on speaker. I tried going back to earphones but my ears protested with delayed pain.

I hope you can go back to enjoying music even if it's not the same anymore, @SilverSpiral. *hugs*

 

In my chest, like a rumble. Also tips of my fingers and soles of my feet.

 

Hey @Lex
This quote made me laugh and despair at the same time! Spot on! I'm the same, it's almost like I have some Superhero hearing system which is driving me nuts! I get noise distortion like if a song is on the radio and certain frequencies is like someone is holding a triangle and tinging it in my ear! So very frustrating and my reaction is to cover my ears. I was listening to music tonight on my iPad, low and heard what I thought was a house alarm in the distance but it was the music and my distorted hearing! I also have what sounds like a giant bluebottle buzzing around. All very frustrating and scary and it's so hard to be 'cool' about something we just have absolutely no control over. Impossible for those who haven't experienced this to understand the fear attached to this condition.
Hope is what keeps us all trundling along... hugs xx

 

What makes you think you'll never hear music the same way ever again? I'm going through a H setback right now where I also hear music and pretty much anything tinny. Especially through speakers but I have hopes this will subside.