Noise-Induced Hyperacusis and "Reactive" / Sound-Sensitive Tinnitus 80% Gone

You wore ear plugs all the time? Even at work? I just started wearing them at work. The ringing seems to have dialed down a little I think over the past two days but I still get that odd “loudness” the minute I walk into a quiet room. It seems “louder” is that the hyperacusis? Idk. Ugh! It’s so strange.

 

Do you remember how you got your tinnitus?

 

Nope. Woke up with a weird echoing/ringing. Had burning later on, more ringing, vibrations, fullness... “loudness.” UGH.

 

Hi,

Does that cause a vibration in your ear?

 

I’m so confused people say not to protect because it will make hyperacusis worse, then I read to protect! I feel like I definitely have reactive tinnitus and every time I turn something on, like a tv or music, it’s like it amps something up in my ears so it gets louder. Like it’s trying to compete with it or something. Does that make sense?

I just want to make sure I am doing the right things to try to get some relief from this! I do agree with a post that an overly sensitive system does need to be desensitized..

@MichaelLeigh @aot @sssing

 

I really wish I could give you solid answers, Tara. Sound therapy works for some, silence works for others. If sounds bother you, I would probably avoid those sounds. But that doesn't mean protect constantly.

 

@Tara Lyons it makes complete sense to me as I feel the same way. My T isn't mild to begin with as I can hear it over every other external sound, however it seems to compete with mostly "artificial" sounds. What I mean by that is phone/TV/computer speakers and the sound of car tires on the road. People speaking, plates clanking, etc. doesn't seem to bother it as much. I should mention that I don't seem to have any pain or sensitivity to sounds, only the reactivity.

I've seen from your other posts that you're really struggling with this and I just want to extend my compassion. I'm also struggling a lot with thinking at times that my life is over and I won't be able to move forward. Some days are worse than others but we just have to remain hopeful that it will either fade or become completely manageable in time. Stay strong.

 

Hi, yes I am struggling. I don’t know why any of this started... every day I wake up and I’m like “it’s just another day of noise...” but I guess everyone thinks that or feels that way at first.

When you say you hear it over other sounds, you mean you can’t hear a TV or someone talking because of the noise? Mine is different every day, I can’t tell if it’s getting better or not. I get a lot of this odd vibrating sensations in my ears, not sure what’s up with that. It’s all so weird

I’m trying to get a grip on this and take it day by day but it’s hard when it’s physically agonizing, as I’m sure you know. I just want my life back and to be the person I once was.

 

Hello!

To be honest, while first 5-6 months I wore only a hat and a hood while being outside and didn't wore anything at work and while being at home. And still I got a major improvement (I think 70% for sure). I decided to wear earplugs month ago. I thought that it would make things better and it did. The process of healing went further (now I'm 7 months in and something like 80% healed). In the beginning my ears could not tolerate any earplugs at all. They started to hurt and burn inside. At the moment when I'm outside or in the mall I use earplugs and while I'm t work I use mu old small headphones without any music, just to plug my ears. I works for me. So find your balance with earplugs. Do protect but don't overprotect.

As for your other symptoms... I have them too. I think it's called reactive tinnitus. My symptoms are slowly going away.

Stay positive. Things get better.

 

My ears react to everything I don’t know what to do. Even the tv at this point. this is horrible I can’t believe any of this.

 

@tbuzz89
How have you been?

 

I can understand what you are going through. I would say my first 5 months were absolute hell. But believe me it is really important not to panic and try to focus on other things in life, to distract yourself from it. My ENT told me that constant stress can have a really bad impact on kidneys. And I totally believe her, stress won't do anything good. Try to focus on other problems, help your loved ones, don't stop living. The more you concentrate on your ears, the more you listen to all those tones that are constantly changing, the harder you wait for it to go away the scarier it gets. In the beginning I also had some kind of a protest and thoughts like WHY ME? etc. But there's one psychological trick I did. I just excepted the situation and forgave myself for going to that really loud rehearsal. I was grateful for the fact that I didn't lost my hearing. And when I did all that, when I excepted all that the healing began. So give your ears a chance, protect them, take some supplements, try to sleep as much as you can, stay positive, do not concentrate much, eat healthy add some exercise, do not stop living. Read only success stories to have a positive mindset. It is really important. And remember that you are not alone. Right now I hear a strange sound of birds singing in a distance or may be some firecrackers in a distance. It's really weird. Plus my ear is burning inside. But if I don't think about it constantly it gets better. It worked when I was 2 months it and it also works now (7 months in). I know it's hard not to focus on tinnitus especially if it is followed by hyperacusis with all sorts of pain but there will come a moment when you will be tired of being constantly sick and tired and scared. And after that that you will be slowly letting it go and giving your ears a chance.

 

It doesn't make it difficult to hear other sounds, it's just that nothing else masks the sound or pitch of my T at all. The only thing that does is a shower.

I totally understand this. I loved silence. It was my favorite thing and now I feel like I've been robbed. I'm so sorry that you're struggling with this as well.

Hey @LilSass. I feel like some days are better than others but no matter what there's still no silence. On such a roller coaster. Hope you're doing better, thanks for always asking!

 

@tbuzz89
Nice to hear from you! Glad your 'ok'. I've got a migraine right now, so ive been better. Here's to better days ahead!

 

Both of these things are so true for me too. I hear very soft noises, yet one of my tones is somehow so internal I hear it all the time. I can't even say it's reactive because it doesn't get louder? It just doesn't block out. Of course my tinnitus fluctuates a lot, but it's not as if x noise makes it louder - there's just some noise that doesn't block it out for some reason. It's pretty weird.

Also yes on the silence. It was my everything. Being in bed late at night/in the morning and hearing the rain, the birds, a random car passing by... and then back to silence... I miss that.

 

@ASilverLight in a very quiet room I have multiple tones that I'm pretty sure I've had for a long time and they've never bothered me in the past. Totally blocked out by mild ambient noise.

However this new high-pitched hiss/buzz that started over two months ago is totally piercing and audible in almost every environment. It does appear to get louder around other louder sounds, such as the TV, fans, etc.

There are some days where I think it's faded from what it was at the beginning, and others where I don't think it has at all. All I know is that this entire thing is vicious and I can't understand why our brains would do this to itself. There aren't many things I wouldn't give to be able to enjoy silence again for the simple reasons you stated above.

It has also stolen music away which is huge deal. Yes, I can listen to it low volume over speakers, but the enjoyment is no longer there due to this piercing hiss.

 

@tbuzz89 I've never had any tinnitus before. I only had perfect, complete silence, even with my ears plugged. I also have no notable hearing loss, but since the onset of my tinnitus I've had so many tones fluctuating almost by the minute, so it's literally impossible to get used to.

It has also stolen music from me, and that's something I find impossible to live with, given that music was my everything. I'd just saved up for a nice, high quality record player, lol, go figure. Didn't buy it yet at least. I still genuinely don't get it because I wasn't exposed to anything really loud in months, I kept my headphone use low and infrequent, protected my ears etc...

But I ended up here from nothing, not even any fleeting tinnitus, to this. I'm just trying to get through each day but it's incredibly tough.

 

What do you do for your hyperacusis? Do you expose your ears to noise all day? Avoid certain sounds? Every day is different for me.

 

I miss silence. It’s so hard not having it. It’s relentless, I try explaining it to my family but they don’t get it. Like I literally forgot what silence sounds like.

 

I avoid all sounds that give me pain, that are unpleasant for my ears at the moment. I never protected my ears while being at home. Home is not a noisy place. But, for example washing dishes or going to the shower was hard in the beginning. But I still decided to introduce everyday sounds into my life starting from the beginning, at lest while being at home. Plus my ENT told me that it would be nice for me to do it because I have to continue to go on with my life. She also told me if I can't handle some noise while being outside, then I can plug my ears. And I did it in the end (first I wore only a hat and a hood plus my ears could not tolerate any earplugs because of the pain). I already wrote all this in my previous post. So I won't say anything new here. Basically, I don't do anything special for my hyperacusis. I just protect my ears and wait. And yes, every day can be different. Some people here wrote that they use pink noise or some kind of sound therapy. I don't do that. I don't know nothing about it. So I just use silence and protection for my ears. All I do for the moment is mask my tinnitus with some nature sounds when I go to sleep.

 

I agree. It's hard for others to understand what you are going through. This condition is special, that's for sure. But I would still advocate that you break the circle of suffering and guilt and try to distract yourself from this problem and gain a positive mindset. As Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead once said: "If you lose sense of humor you're done".

 

Hi @tbuzz89 et al!
If you don't think your t is from acoustic damage nor ototoxic meds, you may want to look into upper cervical chiro (may work for TMJ, stress-induced, neck/whiplash issues). This website explains it well. It's inexpensive and non invasive (no cracking!)
https://www.riosspinalcare.ca/nucca/
When it is loud mine also seems to be aggravated by artificial sounds, i.e. t.v., music

 

@LilSass

I'm not sure what truly caused my tinnitus. I had been an earbud user and lived in loud NYC for five years, but in the 2.5 months leading up to the onset of tinnitus, my life was very quiet as I moved to a rural area and was not listening to loud music. I was under more stress than ever before in my life, and had a couple of (very short) use of power tools, so who knows, maybe that was the straw that broker the camel's back.

I've been going to physiotherapy for three weeks now in the hopes that may help as neck movements do seem to quieten the tinnitus quite a bit.

Though, my audiogram from the ENT shows a 20/25 dB R/L notch at 3-4 kHz which indicates hearing loss. At this point I think I have to give up on finding what the cause could be. It's coming up to three months and my only hope is that in time, it will fade to the point of "can only hear it in a quiet room."

 

Hi @Tara Lyons, I came across your posts and they reminded me of how I felt when my T started. I thought my life was over and the thought of never ever having silence again was killing me. What helped me a lot is that from day one, I used nature sounds on the Calm app 24/7. This helped me get through the nights especially. I do have to add that my T probably wasn't so intrusive as it is now, I think I had a fairly mild case. Even though it has fluctuated a lot since it started (now 3 years ago), I can say that I completely habituated and the feeling of loss of silence fades. You just get on with your life.

As for the hyperacusis, I have to say that's a completely different situation. I only got hyperacusis in September 2019 and it really settled in the months after that. However I had the misfortune of going through some situations in which sounds were too loud and I'm now struggling through an immense setback where my symptoms are worse then they've ever been. So all I can say is: please avoid any loud situations and when you're not sure it's too loud, be wise and leave anyway. Go with your instincts and wear earplugs when you feel needed.

 

@lauracolle

Thanks, this is a nightmare.

How did your tinnitus get more intrusive? From exposing yourself to loud noise?

 

@tbuzz89
Could there be another cause to your hearing loss I wonder? I think I read immune disorders can cause hearing loss? Did you have bloodwork done? At any rate, I think you're right about just dealing with it as best we can, as it doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. Here's hoping it starts to fade soon!

 

@LilSass I’ve had bloodwork done a few times since January and it never picked up on anything out of the ordinary, so best guess is noise exposure.

 

@tbuzz89
Makes sense with the hearing loss. From what I've read there's a very good chance of things improving. I guess we just need to be patient - not an easy task!

 

@Tara Lyons I know. A nightmare is absolutely what it is but it will get better. There will be many ups and downs, don’t get me wrong. What I do remember is that in my early months, I had decided one day to not focus on the T. I stopped trying to listen if it was still there. This gave me some kind of calm and it was really a step forward in my habituation process.

I can’t really tell you why it’s gotten louder, I feel like it’s connected to my H and since that’s gotten worse, the T has as well. T fluctuates wildly though, so sometimes it’s more bearable. Funny thing is that when you have H, you suddenly care a lot less about T, at least that’s my experience.

Hang in! It’s still your early months and there’s a real good chance it will get a lot better. One more thing and I know this is so hard: try to keep the stress about it low as I really feel when I stressed so much about it in the beginning, it actually made it worse.

 

Thanks for reaching out. The hyperacusis I have is hard as well, I can’t be in a room with more than a few people - especially women’s voices. They’re really triggering. Just makes me upset when I think about not being able to spend time with family and friends.

I’ve gotten shock like pain from a speaker at work and the radio in my car. Also when turning off the tv. So bizarre... like my ears are reacting to the noise.

I hear to protect, not to protect, or protect only when loud. I certainly don’t want to intensify any of my symptoms. What do you suggest?