New to Hyperacusis, Tinnitus and Trouble Understanding Speech in Noise

I was recently diagnosed with hyperacusis. It seems that after years of in-ear headphone use developed my hyperacusis and an acoustic trauma after a concert made me have problems understanding speech in noise. I was in a noisy restaurant last week and I couldn't understand anything. Tinnitus started couple of weeks ago when I was hanging out with friends.

Hyperacusis isn't too much of a problem right now. I can do my business in town, take walks, even go to a gym with music (60-80 dB noise level).

My hearing test results said that my hearing is way too good. I think at the moment my trouble understanding speech is more worrying. Even the slightest bit of noise affects my ability to hear speech.

Any starters tips for how to cope with hyperacusis and any help for understanding speech in noise would be appreciated.

 

that's because those test have not been updated since the 1940's and only judge pure tonal noises within the human voice range. You could in theory be deaf slightly above the human voice range and those test would give you a 100% score.

I don't know how I can give advice on hearing distortion other then wait for clinical trials for hearing loss to complete in the mid-late 2020s, and don't use headphones.

Painful Hyperacusis depending on the severity it can go away by slowly exposing your audiotory system to noises and it rebuilds it's tolerance to them.

 

Thank you.

I threw all my headphones to the garbage bin already. My hyperacusis was it at height couple of days ago (I got scared by everything, a lot of noises bothered me) but I had no problem going to the gym and even listening some music (on low volume) from the car radio while driving today. I'm guessing stress makes everything worse.

I think my doctor had suggested that I could take some sort of training/therapy to help understand speech in noise.

It sucks that I have to deal with this at age 24 already, but I have to try and stay optimistic.

 

if you give your hearing time to rest you will experience some hearing recovery based on my personal experience

 

That should be the case but the problem is that I suffered the acoustic trauma a month ago and I didn't realize the damage the it did to my ability to understand speech in noise. I even went to bars and listened music through ear plugs afterwards. I was so stupid...

 

Demand a cure and don't give in to the people that tell you that you will learn to live with it!

Donate to hearing loss research https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/operation-regrow-hrp.29452/#post-341963

We are living in an age of science and technology ,30 years ago there was literally no research in hearing loss and tinnitus and hyperacusis just scammers tricking people to put melted gummy vitamins in their ears or at best actual research of cochlear implants for severe,profound hearing loss.

Now research like The University of Michigan has a device that stimulates a vagus nerve that plays a role in the tinnitus volume and tricks the brain into hearing lost frequencies thus reducing the tinnitus volume temporarily perhaps a few days
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...igan-tinnitus-discovery-—-signal-timing.2805/
Active Clinical Trial

A bio tech firm named Frequency Therapeutics is in an active clinical trial successfully regenerating cochlear hair cells the necessity for hearing. It was first discovered in the 1980's that reptiles and birds could naturally regenerate hearing and mammals have dormant cells that still have the ability. Frequency has figured out an all natural way to turn them on and restore hearing.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/frequency-therapeutics-%E2%80%94-hearing-loss-regeneration.18889/
Active Clincal Trial


A bio tech firm called Otonomy is working on inner ear synapse repair using neutrotrophins and other ways to repair neurons to restore hearing.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/otonomy-oto-413-—-treatment-of-hidden-hearing-loss.26091/
Trial begins mid 2019

More research here https://www.cochlearpro.com

All these things can help tinnitus and hearing loss the future is brighter then ever but only if people encourage research.

Some tinnitus veterans that lived long before any research existed are still saying there will never be a cure and that you just have to learn to live with it and put on a hearing aid. There is also counter productive pseudo tinnitus research such as TRT (tinnitus retraining therapy) and the Levo System which studies habituation and eliminating the emotional reaction to sound instead of find a actual treatment. Avoid that TRT is what holded back several decades of real research for the most part.

 

I suppose I'm lucky enough so that my hearing problems will surely be solved in my lifetime. Maybe even before I turn 30. Who knows? I have been searching everything about Frequency Therapeutics. Their research gives me a lot of hope.

Also my tinnitus is thankfully mild for now. It was troublesome at first but I'm used to it now. It only comes up when it reacts to noise. I just think it as a useful warning method.

So you don't recommend TRT? I was under assumption that pink noise and sound enrichment should help a lot.

 

anything that slowly increases the audiotory's system sound tolerance reduces painful hyperacusis.

TRT is a $3000-5000 glorified version of what a pink noise youtube video can do for free

Pink Noise - Ten Hours - Ambient Sound -...

 

Got it. My doctor is supposed to ring contact me in 3 days, so we'll see what happens then. I didn't have the hearing test results last time.

I yesterday listened pink noise all the time and had some nature sounds while sleeping. Today has been much more restful in terms of painful hyperacusis. I'm still not fan of the vibration my own voice makes when I talk.

I hope I get some help from some kind of speech-in-noise training. I suppose if deaf persons can read lips, I should be able to understand something with my limited hearing.

Thank you a lot Contrast. This condition has been hard on me and I am so worried about my future, but I will do my best to combat this.

Healthy eating, exercise and stoic philosophy should keep me on track.

 

Welcome to the hidden hearing loss club. I can't hear in noisy environments either. It sucks because everybody thinks you are just insane and making things up because 8KHz tests showed nothing.

Your hyperacusis will probably go away in due time, mine did and it was due acoustic trauma as well.

 

Do not do any ear tests and leave it alone. You will thank me for this.

 

Lets hope hyperacusis goes away. Hidden hearing loss sucks more at the moment. Do you have any tips how to cope with it, or any advice how to improve on it? I feel that I do better if I look at the person talking. Eyes, expression, lips etc.

I hope you don't mind explaining further? I will try to be careful.

 

Not really, you just ask them to repeat and try to pay more attention. But yeah, it's mentally tiring.