Hyperacusis 2.5 Years Later: Any Hope of Improvement? Any Preferable Treatments?

I have quite bad tinnitus and hyperacusis - the last few years have been very much up and down and while I feel I have habituated to the tinnitus somewhat, the hyperacusis still creates mental drain, a short fuse and day to day stress. I'm only 28 and worried about living the rest of my life with this, assuming it will most likely get worse rather then better. I guess I'm asking for any help in regards to coping with it -

1. Does anyone have experience in hyperacusis decreasing / increasing over many year?
2. Any preferable treatment - I have a white noise in ear generator but it still doesn't take my mind of it.
3. Any advice of tinnitus / hyperacusis - I've began focusing my efforts into reading self help / positive mind set books...

As a side point, I've been fortunate in recent years to generate a healthy income from owning my own business as well as investing in certain products. I've been researching and looking into gaps within the tinnitus market and feel there is limited products / supplements which are readily available (I guess because nothing universally works). I was wondering whether there was any products people would actually like to see readily available which may potentially be beneficial / of interest?

Many thanks!

 

Hi there! All very good questions. As for how hyperacusis may evolve, I am a long long time sufferer and it does change. This does not mean it gets better. It means it gets different over time and my guess is it changes for every person in a particular way. For some hyperacusis increases, for others decreases, for others tinnitus gets worse and hyperacusis fades, or they get hearing loss..

For me, hyperacusis changed into some sort of recruitment (hearing loss plus hyperacusis or sound sensitivity) and tinnitus appeared after a few years, some days the beep is better and others worse...

About supplements: some stuff may work temporarily but nothing cures hyperacusis or tinnitus, as it can be (if it noise induced) a cochlear problem (inner ear problem) and this cannot be fixed. Watch your diet, as eating healthy can make a difference and try to make exercise and stay positive! This is they only way to go!

 

In all your years of suffering have you ever taken a few months and avoided every sound that bothers you? If you constantly irritate the nerve then it’s unsurprising that your condition hasn’t changed. I developed this 4 1/2 months ago and I’ve improved because like many young people I lost my job and have spent most of my time at home.

 

I've been suffering from hyperacusis & tinnitus for 10 years, and I'm 37 (ex-musician). It got a lot worse in the last years, due to some acoustic traumas (that normal people wouldn't consider "traumas").

As @Croaker said, the more you avoid the sounds that hurts you, the better you'll get. But don't close yourself home, just be uber careful, and always protect yourself as soon as you feel pain. Easy to say, really hard to do

I find staying in nature (mountains & rivers) really helps me relax

Sadly I can't do that all the time, and *ucking unexpected city noises (mostly motorcycles) causes me setbacks and pisses me off A LOT. But don't blame yourself. I do but I'm working on that!

 

Hi Alessandro, over that 10 year period with hyperacusis how did your audiogram change? Did you get hearing loss?

 

Last audiogram (2 months ago) reported quite a huge loss around 3000 Hz in the left ear. Plus I did a VEMP test (Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential) that says I have hyperacusis mostly on the left side (but I feel sensitivity on both sides...).

Doing VEMP test with headphones was quite challenging...

 

Sometimes there are dips on the audiogram that may recover, some of them are just temporary changes of threshold due to noise exposure. How big is your loss at 3.000 Hz? How many dBs and how did it happen?