My Hyperacusis Is Cured & I Barely Have Tinnitus Anymore

Y'all probably know my story around here. Suffered alone in a room not being able to go outside because of crippling hyperacusis.

I'm all good now and I think psychedelics positively rewired my brain and formed new neural connections.

I'm a professional musician now, with extra caution against loud noise exposures. I know to tread carefully and now I can use iJoy 4D sound headphones without a problems (60% volume, breaks every so often).

Good luck to all the sufferers out there. I barely have tinnitus anymore either.

 

That’s amazing. Congrats!

Could you elaborate a little more on the psychedelics?

 

Wow that’s quite a major turnaround for you especially when you compare that post of yours on June 22, 2021.

I believe a congratulations is in order. It’s also comforting to see someone in a better state either through habituation or straight up improvement.

Godspeed soldier.

 

It’s a serotonin boost to see someone improve so drastically.

Let’s hope we’re also in the universe’s good favor as well!

 

I did not see this coming at all. Coming from you that's one hell of a good omen.

 

Amazing and heartwarming to read this.

I have also set my mind to the "brain rewiring" approach to healing the hyperacusis and tinnitus symptoms I experience. For one thing, it sets me in a much more positive headspace and makes me look forward to the cool shit I'll do to feed, refresh, and grow my neurons past the pain. And now seeing that a similar approach has done good things for you... I'm inspired to keep on this track. Thanks for sharing your progress, and I wish you continued improvement!

EDIT: Would you mind sharing a bit more about whether you took a "microdose" vs. "heavy dose" approach to your healing? I think I recall some discussion of this a while back, which you may have contributed to, but I don't recall the details. Cheers!

 

Great success story, congrats!

Did you also have stabbing/burning pain in your ears, or just loudness hyperacusis?

Can you give more details about your recovery please? I am not sure how you used psychedelics? Is there a prescription for this?

Thank you!

I saw an interesting video sent by a friend about the brain, "Breakthrough with Healing Chronic Pain by Howard Schubiner", anyone can find it on YouTube (seems that I cannot paste the link).

 

Recreational tripping on DXM (Robitussin cough syrup) about 10 times, and I now take Zyprexa (mood stabilizer; olanzapine) and Vistriol (anti-anxiety). My theory is hyperacusis is caused by cortisol-induced oxidization, which is why mindfulness activities and psychedelics work so well--because psychedelics are steroids for the brain that force new neuronal connections.

 

It's always good to hear recovery stories but head's up everyone - DXM is not classed as a psychedelic drug, it is in fact a dissociative (e.g., Ketamine is a dissociative but not a psychedelic). This should be corrected or made clear.

 

Congratulations @weab00. That is great news.

So when did you start to feel like things were turning around? My improvements began to come on suddenly also around October of 2020 and over the next six months improved extremely quick. Things then slowed down from there and unfortunately just a couple weeks ago I had a hyperacusis setback which I'm hoping clears up soon.

 

@weab00, a big congrats. That’s great news.

 

@weab00, congrats for your recovery. Because you are an inspiration to many of us, can you give more details about your healing process? For example I saw that in April you were not better.

We know that you suffered for a long time and we are very happy and inspired to see that.

Some of us just wish you would be more descriptive because we are very curious what worked for you with as much details as possible, when we read a success story.

Thank you.

 

How are you now?

Offtopic, but y like your profile pic

 

Thanks for asking. The noxacusis has gotten worse to where I definitely feel like I lost all my progress. Currently, I’m exercising heavily, 2+ hours a day, doing heat and ice therapy, and taking supplements to combat it. I’m having some bright spots, but I’m also having some periods where it’s at its worst point thus far.

I’m having to plug up in many places in public again, my kids’ voices are hurting my ears again, if I have to project my voice to yell for my children or something it hurts. Occasionally typing and mouse clicks are also causing my ears to get tight and hurt. Music is out the window completely again. My ears just have that feeling of being very compromised.

Lol, thanks, it’s a photo of an abandoned house in Detroit. I’m a big fan of the album and the picture speaks to me in my state since getting all these health problems.

How are you doing presently?

 

"I’m having some bright spots, but I’m also having some periods where it’s at its worst point thus far." --- this is also my situation now... breaking records and not in a good way, trying to understand what happened to me that caused this insane rollercoaster ride.

From what I've read,there was a time when you felt better. What happened?

I know, I should read all your 758 messages and I will All the information is in there, but I'm so tired... and to be honest I was hoping to hear a success story...

Please just sugarcoat it for me, I'll take my Mirtazapine and hope that tomorrow will be better

 

Didn’t expect to find a Billy Woods fan on Tinnitus Talk!

 

Lol, yeah I’ve been a fan all the way back to Super Chron Flight Brothers. I created the hip hop thread here if you wanna check it out and maybe contribute, if you’re currently able to listen to music. Hell when I made the thread I wasn’t able to I was just wanting to share music I guess lol.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hip-hop-music-thread.37919/

 

Here’s the thread on my setback:

Had a Setback After Being Exposed to Music at a Record Store and I'm Starting to Get Nervous

I had made considerable progress since onset. My tinnitus is still low and mostly stable right now. Although I got a new intermittent tone in my right ear from the flu a couple weeks ago. In the beginning it was 7/10.

My loudness hyperacusis got much better. It also didn’t worsen with the latest setback.

The setback has basically just effected my noxacusis. Previously I was at a point of not plugging in public to do my regular shopping, eat at restaurants and stuff like that. I only plugged to go to Greek festival this summer and avoided the music stage like the plague and when I took my children to a water park resort in Nashville for vacation in some areas. Now I’m waking up to burning ear pain even in pretty much silence at night. The only thing running is an air filter.

I hate to hear that you are going through the same with the roller coaster. All we can hope is that the bright spots are a good sign and they continue to increase.

 

I had no idea there was a hip hop thread on here. I will def check it out later. I do still listen to music but it’s in no way as enjoyable as it used to be and probably never will be. I collect hip hop vinyl and still enjoy the collecting side of things. But I rarely actually play a record.

 

I should clarify that I'm not cured of hyperacusis by any means. I still experience occasional pain in my ears and some sound distortions (as well as a quieter baseline tinnitus), but they're not nearly as bad as they were before. I try to stay away from headphones because those can still cause some stabbing/trigeminal nerve pain as well as spiking. The kick/snare in rap music still somewhat activates my TTTS, but that's only sometimes. I can also physically feel the bass frequencies changing against my ear drum.

But all in all, I'm able to live a pretty normal life; my ears can even tolerate the movies, whereas last year I could barely leave the house. I thought all hope was lost for the rest of my days, and a lot of users here fed into that negativity. NoiseKills made me think I'd be living as a hermit, barred indoors for the rest of my life. But there's hope at the end of the tunnel, however distant it seems. If I ever have kids I will do my best to make sure they don't go through the hell I had to go through.

 

I can't directly attribute my 'recovery' to anything except the passage of time. Unfortunately, this is usually the case with hyperacusis, it's about getting the right balance between exposure and silent recovery. I had quite a few setbacks along the way and my ears will forever be more sensitive than the average persons'. But no, there wasn't any miracle pill (here's hoping for biotechs in the coming years/decades). I mentioned experimenting with DXM earlier in the thread but in retrospect, I don't think there's any direct correlation between the two events.

 

I would play it super safe from here on out. I’ve thought I was almost better 3-4 times since my noise injury 3 years ago, only to get brought back down over and over by stuff that should not have been able to cause a setback.

From here on out my plan is:

-Never use a phone or laptop speaker again
-Never use headphones again
-Never go to a live rock show again (this kills me)
-Musician’s earplugs every time I step out the door
-Always use musician’s earplugs when listening to music
-Always keep music at low-mid volume
-Heavy earplugs whenever there is the threat of truly loud sound
-Pink noise therapy every night while sleeping
-If ears start burning, rest them for 24-48 hours, then reassess
-No caffeine
-Get more sleep

This strategy seems to be working for me. I’m definitely feeling better than I did a couple months ago when I had my most recent setback.

Also, for some reason ginger seems to really help with my noxacusis burning. So I’m consuming a ton of ginger.

 

Yeah, I have noticed same. If you keep following some rules and stuff, it improves, but I have to be consistent in it.

I just can't give up on music production and my ears, they were all I had.

 

I agree. I would rather risk severe hyperacusis than give up music entirely. It’s the most important aspect of my life. Fortunately I’m able to listen to it at reasonable volumes still as long as I avoid headphones + cheap speakers and wear musician’s earplugs to cut out the most dangerous frequencies.

 

@weab00, did you have electrical head hissing/crickets/CRT TV sound as well and was it reactive? I am living the hermit life due to all this and not faring well.

 

So you listen to pink noise all night long? What volume?

I’m currently having pain from around 40 dB television. I feel like my tolerance is the lowest it’s ever been. My setback seems to be going downhill.

Glad you seem to be getting better. What did you do to get to this point before you started your regiment above?

 

I doubt it’s higher than 30 dB but I haven’t actually measured. I adjust it to a comfortable level that drowns out my tinnitus without triggering my hyperacusis.

I think I improved most by avoiding truly loud sounds and letting time pass. The pink noise is something I’ve done since the very beginning so it may have helped a bit.

All of my setbacks have come from listening to guitar rock music on either my phone speaker, my headphones, or my laptop speaker. Those devices combined with the guitar frequencies seem to set me back hard so I’m abandoning them. Every time I have a setback it’s been at a reasonable volume, for whatever reason my sensitivity to guitars thru cheap speakers and headphones is just out of control...

 

What were the durations of these listening sessions that set you back? Like to say 15 minutes in a record store under 75 dB has done me in for 3 months so far. Honestly in some ways I’m worse than I’ve ever been. I never got pain from 40 dB television till now. I used to just have pretty bad reactive tinnitus to it.

It’s strange because my reactive tinnitus did come back some, but at the level it was, yet my pain is kicking in at way lower volumes and to way more things than before.

 

They were numerous 10-15 minute sessions over the course of several days, instead of just taking a day off and recovering. Slightly pushing the envelope.

It’s weird because my tolerance of motors and sirens and stuff has actually improved the entire way without being affected by the latest setback. It’s just sounds thru a phone or speaker and then the typical glasses and plates and stuff.

 

What kind of "psychedelics"? Are you talking about acid or mushrooms?