Improvements for People with Burning Pain (in Silence) Hyperacusis?

I ended up getting really long cables and just putting my PC in the next room. It's been much better since then. I still get reactive tinnitus from something in the room but it's much less.

 

My hyperacusis burning pain in silence is gone again. I had a setback and had very bad pain every day that just lasted a month or two. It slowly got better. I have small aches some days now, but that's it.

It's like one bad event triggered the pain. I've been very careful protecting my ears the whole time. Maybe it was some of the supplements I was taking or maybe just time healed it, I don't know.

That pain can definitely come back again with noise exposure though so I'm going to try to be as careful as I can while still trying to live a normal life.

 

Thanks for the update. I'm supposed to up mine to 60 mg. But haven't yet.

 

Hi. I have never taken any kind of antidepressants. How did you get it prescribed? Did you go to the psychiatrist? Did you have to go multiple times? Did you ask specifically for this medication? And was the doctor reluctant to give any?

Sorry for the barrage of questions.

 

I went to a neurologist. Antidepressants works also for neuropathic pain. My doctor gave me a lot of medications. Duloxetine works the best.

Try to limit to 30 mg, the side effects are much worse at 60 mg. Although 60 mg is the minimum dose normally.

 

Did you take it at night or day?

 

Day.

 

Is it helping your pain hyperacusis?

 

I take Cymbalta at night and it seems to help. Maybe it would be better during the day but it made me sleepy.

 

Helps with pain, not with LDL.

I stopped it in May, but i am considering to start it again.

 

Ginger is good. Also curcumin, green tea, fresh vegetables and fruit, raw garlic, raw onion.

 

I know you posted this months ago, but sometimes I like to browse threads and read them when I’m having a bad tinnitus day. Thank you for sharing!

I’m really curious about using techniques of the mind to eliminate, lessen, or help tinnitus in any way. Have you found anything that works? You seem really well-researched and I’d love to know more if you’ve found anything that’s helped you.

 

Ambroxol takes the burning away. It has been studied for nerve pain too.

 

Yes, I have found things that helped me:

1. Time. Most report that this gets better with time as it did for me. For some there may be physical healing, for others maybe starting to ignore it or getting more used to it. For some they report that it just goes away on its own completely. If there was an exposure/injury you also need time to heal.
   
   
2. Ruling out treatable physical causes like an ear infection. This did not work for me and many voice frustration with ENTs here but it did work for my nephew last year. Sometimes stopping a medicine can also help.
   
   
3. Supplements have helped some but it's very hit or miss, probably because we all have different nutritional status and hence different deficiency/needs. One study showed a 50% reduction in volume with B12 but ONLY if the patient was deficient to begin with.
   
   
4. Medicine. I can't offer much here, I take almost no drugs but many other threads discuss these things.
   
   
5. Posture. I have extreme forward head posture and TMJ arrived with my hyperacusis. Posture correcting exercises and the chiropractor help me with my ear pain which is much more difficult than my tinnitus.
   
   
6. Sleep. This is a biggie, if I get tired from lack of sleep my condition gets worse.
   
   
7. Stimulants. Salt, caffeine and sugar all make it worse so I manage those things. I have found other strange things that make it worse and so I keep track of those and don't consume them, like one brand of antacids - my tinnitus went off the charts so I threw those out.
   
   
8. Masking/sound enrichment. Many people report improvement with various sounds like with pink noise, nature sounds, crickets (one guy here keeps crickets in his house), etc. This does not help me because normal sounds cause pain for me so I like it quiet or near quiet most of the time. That said, in the beginning there was a "just right" amount of soft noise that helped me. Working outside, very low level sounds from gardening, building guitar amplifiers in the garage, ...
   
   
9. Protection. Most advocate not over protecting so you don't become even more sensitive/reactive. I tried being stingy with protection in the beginning and I just kept getting re-injured. Like at the gas station, these kids with race cars and straight pipes would take off from the light and all that devastating 100+ dB noise would get amplified by the overhead roof at the pump and just hammer me. Now it's simple, gas station = ear defenders. I gave up trying to be stingy and now I protect a lot more and I have less accidents and my condition is better. Maybe at some point in the future I can back off but I'm better with it for now. I also take very few high volume risks for now. Example, I am a wood worker but there is no way that I would start say a wood planar or router at this point. I play guitar now at very low levels and don't watch much TV. No movie theaters, etc.
   
   
10. Our state of mind. This has a major effect on the total impact of this condition. Does someone have tinnitus because their head is not right? No. Do people suffer simply because they can't get their head right? No. The perceived sounds are real, the suffering, fear and anxiety is real. That said, how we react to this, how we feel about it, our state of mind, our emotions about it can help or hurt the total outcome. This is true in all aspects of life including illness. What can that look like? On the negative side: Fear, catastrophic what if thinking, constantly worrying about the future, being angry, constant obsession with the sounds, etc can make this considerably worse. More constructive techniques can improve or eliminate this as it did for me (near elimination of tinnitus, improvement of hyperacusis). Mindfulness, meditation, CBT, Back to Silence, positive affirmations, positive imagery, doing things that distract and that bring us joy. staying busy. Having passion about what you want, not what you don't want. Figuring out how you have to modify your life to still achieve your goals and enjoy your life. I was finally forced to go have high speed dental drill work done or I risked losing teeth. I started the week before meditating and saying positive affirmations to my self all day, visualizing this as necessary, routine and something that will not hurt me even though it was going to be the worst noises since this started. It was rough and that drill was louder than expected but within 2 days I was back to baseline. I had no lasting effects from the dentist drill. I believe that our thoughts actually change us physically, modify our brain and body chemistry, mediate pain, lower the perception of tinnitus. Our brains are creating sounds that have no physical source (in most cases). These sounds are then reported and perceived, all of this by our minds. Sure you can see this as a malfunction, a dirty trick, life handing us a shit sandwich, its unfair, life sucks, ... Or we can say, OK this isn't great and I could have lived without it but life is full of challenges, health challenges visit us all at some point in our lives. The good news is that our minds create the whole thing from no physical source and so our minds can reduce its perception and impact. I think a great place to start for most people is the Back to Silence thread. After that I can recommend many books and techniques if you have more questions.
    
    
11. Stay out of the Suicidal thread and other desperate conversations. They have purpose for the most affected but that is not constructive for you at this point.
    
    
12. Lastly, acceptance. This happened, it's OK. You did not do anything wrong and it's just life. Be kind to yourself and let this be OK, be at peace with it. This does not mean give up or falling into depression about a situation with no help. You can absolutely make this better, you can still enjoy your life, there is plenty you can do about it and you already are by asking these questions. You can get better. I did and many people have.

If you have any more questions, just ask.

George

 

Is Ambroxol something that can lead to dependency long term? Is it permanent relief and healing or just kinda like taking a painkiller? Ginger works for me like a painkiller but I haven’t found anything that genuinely heals your ears and strengthens them to prevent burning in the future.

 

I used to have 24/7 burning, acid pain for 5 months, then it slowly faded away.

 

Same here. Mine is totally gone but I almost certainly still am susceptible to relapses but can handle more and more noise all the time.

Very slow improvements though. I still have tinnitus the same, but pain is gone for now, thankfully.

 

My 24/7 acid pain has been gone for about a year barring a couple smaller setbacks this summer. I think once you get to this level of recovery it is imperative that you avoid any setbacks for a very long time. It’s too easy to think you are ok and can handle more exposure than you actually can.

I’ve gotten to this level of 80% recovery 3-4 times since 2019 and every single time I have started to get greedy and overdone things, which has led to major setbacks over and over.

This time I am giving myself tons of completely quiet days combined with days of greater exposure. This seems to be working. There are also certain things that I still just won’t do ever again like use a smartphone or laptop speaker, or listen to music with headphones. I also haven’t played any musical instruments in a long time, which sucks, but nothing is worse than noxacusis.

I'm able to do a lot more these days and can live a somewhat normal life at this point, but I can tell I’m always a few bad days in a row away from another setback. The lasting strength and durability against harsh sounds just isn’t there anymore.

 

Sounds like you are getting on top of this @chinup. Well done!

How do you find it affected your work, did you require time off?

 

I jinxed myself, ear is sore now again but I think it's an ear infection that I've had for quite a while that's coming back.

 

I've had the acid pain straight for the last seven months and swelling in my middle ear as my ear heals. I'm hoping it goes away by the end of the year since that would be 18 months from the date of my trauma. I'm tired of the pain and having to take Tramadol for it, among other drugs.

I sleep with minimal white noise to hide my tinnitus while wearing an earplug in my ear to allow full silence for healing. Usually when I wake up it is ok, but around 5pm it starts the noticeable acid pain from dealing with everyday sounds. Basically any noise above 70 dB causes the pain.