Initial Noxacusis After Acoustic Trauma vs Developed Noxacusis Later On

[Shizune]

As my recent posts have indicated, I've recently developed noxacusis in my left ear only for some unknown reason. I started with loudness hyperacusis primarily for 5 months after my chemical accident.

I've noticed a lot of people who suffer from acoustic trauma start with noxacusis and then may get better in time. I've known of a few that had it develop later on much like myself, but it seems the former group make the majority of cases I've heard of.

I was hoping that I would have to just worry about one thing, that I'd only need to wait for medicine that may work for loudness hyperacusis and restore hair cells, instead of worrying about synapse regeneration and all that.

Those who are more educated than me (most of you), do you think noxacusis as a whole is just an entirely different beast from loudness hyperacusis? Or does the onset of it differentiate the two? Obviously, I know many people do have both.

I had no major noise insults prior to developing pain last week. I'm beginning to believe this was going to happen anyway in my case, regardless of any measures taken, since I know there is some evidence it can be progressive over months regardless.

 

[GBB]

My very mild noxacusis came on 1-2 months after my acoustic trauma/tinnitus.

 

[100Hz]

As my recent posts have indicated, I've recently developed noxacusis in my left ear only for some unknown reason. I started with loudness hyperacusis primarily for 5 months after my chemical accident.

I've noticed a lot of people who suffer from acoustic trauma start with noxacusis and then may get better in time. I've known of a few that had it develop later on much like myself, but it seems the former group make the majority of cases I've heard of.

I was hoping that I would have to just worry about one thing, that I'd only need to wait for medicine that may work for loudness hyperacusis and restore hair cells, instead of worrying about synapse regeneration and all that.

Those who are more educated than me (most of you), do you think noxacusis as a whole is just an entirely different beast from loudness hyperacusis? Or does the onset of it differentiate the two? Obviously, I know many people do have both.

I had no major noise insults prior to developing pain last week. I'm beginning to believe this was going to happen anyway in my case, regardless of any measures taken, since I know there is some evidence it can be progressive over months regardless.

I think it's a progressive thing. Although it can take a while or be instant to go from normal to full on noxacusis, I think it is all on the same scale. My case happened over about 6 months which started with a noticeably bad dose of tinnitus that did go away after 5 days or so, but then over the coming months I was getting more noticeable ear fatigue and sensitivity to sound. Looking back I'm sure this was what you could call loudness hyperacusis. Then finally after an acoustic shock it became full on noxacusis.

The main thing you wrote that resonates with me is that looking back I can now see the progressive build up and I think it would have happened to me anyway no matter what. I also think it continues to get worse, but importantly, this worsening is at the fundamental damage level that we waiting for these drugs for. It can still be well managed though with silence and time. I can only speak for myself when I say this, but I do it by comparing my 2 recoveries over the last several years. The first recovery took 18 months. What was noticeable about this recovery is that music crept back into my life and I had a more or less normal life again although I knew I had to be careful. I got careless though and had a second acoustic shock that has followed the same recovery timeline (now in month 15), I still get mini setbacks but the trend is upwards in the same way. But, there is a big difference with this recovery, I cant take music anymore like I could in the first recovery and spend most of my time in silence. I'm becoming more pain free once again but am this time much more constantly on guard. And this is why I think I have yet more damage than the first time round.

So going right back to the point where I was getting ear fatigue and more general sensitivity to noise only. Could this be the beginnings of the OHC 'max simulations' we read about that are progressively beginning to sensitize the type II afferents, or OHC deaths? I do now believe it was. And then go forward to the acoustic shock which I understand some people may not actually get, but was this when my trigeminal nerve became sensitized? Without a doubt I say yes, because it was from this day that my facial, neck pain, and TTTS symptoms started. And then over the years since I just think that additional cochlea damage via further OHC deaths, type II sensitization, worsening ATP leakage here and there further decreases the ears tolerance. Hope this helps.