Please Tell Me Hyperacusis Gets Better

I’m 25. I have extremely bad anxiety and almost a year ago in November I made a terrible decision to get off Zoloft which caused me to have a bad episode of anxiety and during that time my ears started ringing. About a month later I started having bad sensitivity to sounds, where even normal conversation can be painful. Fast forward to now, it hasn’t gotten any better. I’m pregnant and I don’t know how I can possibly raise a baby when loud sounds make my ears feel like they’re being stabbed. I feel like crying because honestly I don’t even know how to live the rest of my life like this.

 

You could wear earplugs or ear muffs when you are around your baby (until the time when the child could be trusted to not be loud around you).

 

Your Hyperacusis will improve it takes time.

 

There are a lot of people with hyperacusis who have kids. Actually, kids seem to be a lot more understanding than most adults. They will learn what you show them, the way you ask them to behave. Think that there are deaf couples raising kids, and the children pick up sign language, as well as normal conversation when they are like 2 years old.

 

Hi Ravera:

I have had hyperacusis for 23 years, and based on that experience, I tell you categorically that , IF you are careful, your ears will VERY PROBABLY improve. It takes time.....and vigilance.

In your case, having a baby around will probaly be a big problem, although I do not know that from personal experience (except for the baby living underneath my room for 2 years a while back; the floor barrier between us prevented any damage to my ears ). If you are not far advanced in your pregnancy, I would seriously consider an abortion, or putting the baby up for adoption. Sometimes drastic measures are needed, to prevent us from deteriorating into constant bad h. which would be constant Hell. As for me, if you read a therad I started today, I may have to move, and potentially that may cost me thousands of dollars. Either that or Hell. How will you choose?

As far as your anxiety, you may wish to look into some alternative natural psychotherapies when your h. gets better, that do NOT use drugs as part of their procedures. I know it is hard to avoid medications: I take clonazepam for my rare anxiety, or when my h. is bad like today, the drug actually reduces my h. for a while, not just anesthesize me like alcool. You may wish to read the works of psychothrapists Alexander Lowen, Wilhelm Reich, and especially Arthur Janov. What the latter has to say about the sources of anxiety is mind blowing, and while just knowing what may cause the anxiety will not cure it, it still helps a little. Janov's therapy is only available in Los Anegeles unfortunately, but Lowen's is available in all major cities in N. America, Europe, and South America.

Good luck.

Marco

 

Don't worry about it too much--earplugs are all you need. We have a newborn and I am very sensitive to high frequency sounds (including loud crying). I just make sure I have a pair of earplugs handy if I will be dealing within them, especially when they are crying. You will also probably get used to it over time. Good luck!

 

Congrats on the baby! If I've learned anything it's that a woman with a newborn can overcome any obstacle. You're going to do great!

I got my t, and h, from a combination of long term and short term noise exposure. After 6 months the h has improved significantly.

You're going to have to work on putting ear muffs on or ear plugs on first when the baby cries. I know it's going to go against everything a new mother feels. Once sleep deprivation kicks in kicking dad out of bed may become your preferred option, it did for my wife.

If you haven't started inserting ear plugs get some practice with them now so it's second nature when baby comes. It takes about a minute to insert them and wait for them to expand if you're having a good day.

 

Chances are good you won’t have to. In my experience reading posts about people with hyperacusis, it usually resolves. Not always, sometimes it is chronic, but I think the odds are very much in your favor.

I would suggest being careful to avoid sounds that hurt so as to give your ears a chance to heal. Use ear plugs and / or ear muffs as necessary to avoid sounds that hurt.

 

It's likely to get better with time. Also, I would not be surprised at all if being pregnant exacerbates the problem. Newborns aren't *that* loud, It takes a while for their lungs to develop to the point where they can really scream. That might give you time to adapt and figure out what works for you.

You're telling her to have an abortion or to give up her child because she has hyperacusis? Really dude?

 

You can improve only if you're careful not to expose yourself to loud noises, which, unfortunately, is the exact opposite when you're taking care of a baby. There's a reason why hyperacusis sufferers avoid being around children if it can be helped. One scream into your ears and you can end up getting effed for good, or at least, for a very long time.

If you want to stay functional enough to be in your child's life all the way into their adulthood, I suggest you wear ear protection (plugs and/or earmuffs) when around your baby, and make sure to have someone to help you so that you can give your ears a break. This is probably not the answer you want to hear, but it's what you need to hear.

 

My reaction as well, disgusting

 

You have months to improve. You will see. God is with us. Just enjoy your pregnancy.

 

All stories I heard from people recovering from hyperacusis are from young people like you. You will be ok.

 

Yeah you’ll smash it, enjoy being a mum!!!

I have 4 kids, all noisy & the dishwasher is constantly in use, does my ears in every time, I’ve just given up being emotional or scared of it....

Don’t stress on the future, it’s not here yet enjoy now, it will get better, you’ll adjust or your brain will..

Stressing won’t help a bit. Chill, enjoy, be kind & good to yourself

 

What is wrong with having an abortion if the fetus (a mindless clump of cells that) should it be allowed to be born, has the potential to ruin the parent's health? Why not wait for H to resolve? It is not like getting pregnant again is particularly difficult or unpleasant.

 

Because having an abortion is not an easy thing for a woman to do, but you don't seem to be paying much attention to how women may feel regarding their body, do you ? Plus a foetus is very quickly not only a clump of cells anymore. It didn't cross you mind, did it ?

Waw...

 

But it IS a clump of cells at the time of the abortion, so what is the problem? Very quickly all of us will be corpses, so even if one were to use your logic, one would come to a conclusion that there is no reason to treat abortion any differently then the removal of a benign tumor or cutting one's nails.

 

I agree with you @Elliott.S With respect to @Bill Bauer occasionally he raises some good points but I don't think on this one. There is much more to a foetus than a mere mindless clump of cells as he puts it. There are other aspects here which I shan't go into but people on the same wavelength as me will know what I'm talking about.

Michael

 

What I focus on is whether something is conscious, whether it is aware (so I am not talking about just being awake). Rocks, plants, and fetuses are not conscious, so one ought to be able to do whatever one wants with them.

 

I am not sure what you are getting at. Removing a mole is also not an easy thing for a person to do.

 

Hello @Ravera

As someone who had more moderate H in the past, I can attest that in my experience it does get better! When my H was at it's worst, I wasn't able to ride the bus, take the sky train, or even deal with the sizzling of a frying pan.

For me, once I got a handle on my anxiety that related to my H, It slowly started to improve over time.

I would consider myself to have more "mild" hyperacusis right now. I still protect when it's needed, but only when it's needed. I found that when I was over protecting, my H actually got worse, and my sensitivities to sound increased.

It does get better, but it can take time and patience - I know that is easier said than done when you're dealing with H.

Has your general anxiety improved at all since the onset of your H?