Link Between Hyperacusis and Tinnitus?

Hello !

I'm French. My audiologist explained to me that when hyperacusis is cured, tinnitus goes away... Because there is a link between these 2 things...

And according to her, tinnitus is a symptom of hyperacusis... So the first thing to cure is hyperacusis to have hope to reduce tinnitus...

What do you think about that? Has anyone succeed in reducing his tinnitus after having been cured of his hyperacusis?

 

I'm under the impression hyperacusis might improve over time. Cured is a strong term as I believe in one shape or form you're always stuck with it. A setback can happen out of nowhere. But maybe that's just my experience.

As for the tinnitus I believe there is a link. In my case I hear everything very high treble right now. I notice that my T increases when im around certain high pitch noises or speakers. Also I can feel my face tingling and tense up sometimes due to some high frequencies. Which has more to do with tonic tympani syndrome I believe.

 

I got my hyperacusis my overprotecting my ears. It slowly fades after a month, using masking sounds below my Tinnitus level and only protecting from loud sounds. The Tinnitus level itself stays the same at the moment. Just my experience.

 

How does see suggest curing hyperacusis?
Two years after my noise incident hyperacusis is still there.
(And tinnitus).

 

Uh oh... this is the 0REBLUE lady right?
I was so hopeful she was on to something...

I've never read that in any scientific paper, but admittedly, I haven't read them all.
It's probable that there is some correlation, but I have serious doubts about the causality.

I had massive T and massive H. After my stapedotomy I got rid of my massive H (it's very mild right now, flares up very rarely), but I still have massive T.
So I'm an example of "curing H did NOT cure T".

 

Yes it is the oreblue lady.. I m trying this therapy actually.. I did the first session of 3 weeks, then a break of 4 weeks and I will go again next week... When I will finish the therapy for hyperacusis, if I still have tinnitus I will try her therapy for Tinnitus...

 

Yes please keep us posted on your progress.

 

In theory trying to use white noise or music to improve tolerance to noise can make some people hear T, so in that sense sound therapy address H first and T may appear temporarily as a result of that therapy.

Usually T is related to hearing loss and H can be there without hearing loss (as measured by an audiometric test. There may be hidden hearing loss). Both T and H are a result of something else. They are both symptoms, and T is not a symptom of hyperacusis.

Basically, in my opinion your audiologist got everything wrong. Not a single point she made was right.

 

I think you can cure Hyperacusis with slowly teaching the ear to hear sounds again. I started with less ear protection when it was not loud and using masking sounds from my mynoise.net app plus mp3s on lower volume. The interesting point even I run masking sounds at 80% of my T volume, means less then the T, it masks the Tinnitus up to 80-90% which is great. Now after 1.5 month the whisle sound and reactive tinnitus that was always there after overprotecting my ears for a month faded up to to 60% .. still my tinnitus is not different BUT with the masking I really not really capture it, well Cicadas and Crickets get annoying over time...

So far my experience with T and H is complete silence is NOT GOOD for you ... but that is just my experience ..

 

HI @AliceW

With respect I have to say that I don't believe your Audiologist knows much about tinnitus, hyperacusis or the correct way to treat these conditions. Most Hearing Therapists and Audiologist that work with tinnitus patients and teach tinnitus management, also have tinnitus. They were either born with it or acquired it at some time in their life. I tend to believe your Audiologist has never experienced tinnitus or hypercusis in her life. Please click on the links below and read my articles: Tinnitus, A Personal View, and Hyperacusis, As I see it.

Please also click on my "started threads". There are many posts there on tinnitus, hyperacusis, the habituation process and positivity.
All the best
Michael
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/

 

So if you can't over protect, as this is obviously very dangerous, what about people that live quiet lives? They are in some kind of danger? I guess people that live in the country would be at high risk, no sirens, traffic noise and construction to keep their ears healthy. I keep hearing I should not wear ear protection walking down noisy downtown streets (this would be overprotecting), I can only imagine how screwed people are that don't even have access to all this noise! They must not be able to come to the city once they overprotect their ears by living in a quiet setting. Those quiet little towns with nothing going on, there must be a extremely high percentage of hyperacusis in those areas. Or people that work at home, live alone, don't go out, they must be seriously f ucked with ear issues. Maybe they should run white noise generators just as a precaution.

 

Hyperacusis is usually caused by exposure to loud noise. If a person keeps away from normal every day sounds or the condition isn't treated with sound enrichment or white noise generators, the hyperacusis or sensitivity to sound will always be a problem. This often manifests itself as tinnitus spiking or what some people refer to as Reactive tinnitus.

I agree, one of the worst things a person can do that has tinnitus and hypercusis is keep away from normal everyday sound in preference for silent surroundings. This will only make these problems worse.

Michael

 

I dont believe that hyperacusis can appear due to overprotection. That does not make sense to me. Actually people with very good (and undamaged hearing) have better tolerance thresholds than people who have hearing loss or have suffered hearing problems. This means basically that healthy ears, including those of people who lead quiet lives, can deal with a lot more decibels (louder sounds) than damaged ears. When a frequency is damaged, tipycally high frequencies get damaged first, the thresholds to cope with noise in that frequency go down, as hearing loss (even if very mild) goes up. In a graph it is like a mirroring image: where hearing goes down tolerance to sound goes down too, and the values of hearing loss and maximum level of noise acceptable (loudness discomfort levels) start to get closer. In healthy ears those values are as far apart as possible, hearing lets say at the minimum volume, maybe 1 db (in some audiometric tests it is possible to score at -10 and -15 dbs), and tolerance to sound way up over 100 dbs.

 

And both are caused by hearing impairment, be it only short and temporary, I believe? That links them perfectly. What I wonder is regarding the hearing impairment, why some people have hyperacusis instead of losing thier hearing straight away?

 

My son has hyperacusis without tinnitus.