Medium Tinnitus, Hyperacusis Guy Reporting In!

Hi fellow sufferers.

My status card :
T : mild, occasionaly very noticable
Hyperacusis
Hearing loss : 15%

I've had T for cca 7 years , caused by my own stupidity and blind belief in human body self-healing capabilities. Turns out these things last until death, funny thing not many people tell you about this.

Anyway, my T is manageable so far. Im taking ginko-based pills for 7 years, to prevent further damage. I can't tell if they help, or no, but I'm affraid to stop taking them suddenly. You could say I'm psychically addicted.

However, what irks me the most is my strange case of Hyperacusis - Let me explain : I have no problem when people talk to me, or when I hear loud natural noises. But only a half minute of exposure to low quality speakers (think notebook) really makes me uncomfortable - T gets worse, hearing too, my jaws are crunching, eustach pipe(or how is it called) makes crunching noises.

Let me visualise the scale of uncomfortability levels which I have :

UNCOMFORTABLE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > COMFORTABLE
Notebook speakers - Headphones - Cell phone - Bigger speakers - Natural(not reproduced sounds)


I could live with T and mild hearing loss, but this leaves me without any audio from all devices. Which means no cinemas, no music (the worst), no movies, no youtube, no nothing. People tell me : just for a few minutes, just put it on smaller volume. No, I would risk that it would permanently damage my ears further.

Ok thats about it. Im wondering if anybody has similar type of hyperacusis to mine.

PS: I tried T masker and it gave me ear pains and symptoms described above, also noise habituation is a big NO for me.

 

Welcome. I had severe hyperacusis too, which came soon after my high-pitch dog whistle T. It was tough to listen to any sound, even those from TV, kitchen dish washing, driving. social conversation, and even my wife's soft voice when spoken too close. I had to wear ear plugs all the time but the plugs blocked off all outside masking sounds, making my T scream so unbearable to handle. It was a tough decision, 'to block or not to block', LOL. But my type of H faded over time. I have read from many people who report the same. This type of H seems to be right after super high pitched T and then slowly they fade out. If yours is not the same, you may have misphonia issue and you need to consult ENT or specialist on that. You can contact Dr. Charlie who also post on TT and he himself has hyperacusis. You can also post about your H in the Hyperacusis support forum. Apparently a member @Danny Boy seems to have success with severe H by taking Keppra. Perhaps he can answer questions on that better. But always use drugs as a last resort. Take care and God bless.