Member- Apr 17, 2019
- 397
- Tinnitus Since
- 12.04.2019
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Loud concert
Hey everyone,
For a while, I wanted to post about my habituation to living with tinnitus, but these days, I think it's more interesting to share that I'm one of those people who managed to get their pain hyperacusis back to a milder variant of loudness hyperacusis. My tinnitus story isn't all that noteworthy, but let's just say I'm one of many who have learned to habituate to even somewhat intrusive tinnitus that's heard almost everywhere except the shower.
Now for the hyperacusis backstory. I got mild tinnitus and mild hyperacusis 6.5 years ago from a somewhat loud concert. I took both conditions seriously, as others here advised, but through misjudging situations or simple bad luck, I was exposed to occasional loud noise over the years. Some of these sounds had the real potential for noise trauma, others did not, but they still caused permanent worsening of both tinnitus and hyperacusis. Examples include a firework going off nearby, a very loud announcement on a bus, and a loud motorcycle passing by despite me wearing hearing protection. COVID and the vaccine, unfortunately, gave me worsenings as well, although not for hyperacusis. Over time, my tinnitus became louder, and my hyperacusis shifted from loudness hyperacusis to pain hyperacusis, giving me hours or even 1 to 2 days of ear pain after loud noises.
I also started getting worsenings from sounds that had no chance of causing hearing damage, such as seconds-long exposure to things in the 85 to 90 dB range. As a result, I used even more hearing protection and avoided more situations, eventually becoming a bit of a hermit, since that felt like the only thing I could do. At my worst in 2024 even something like accidentally hitting a fork against a plate would give me a permanent increase in tinnitus along with burning ear pain from pain hyperacusis.
Then things shifted. In 2023, I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (I'm in my mid-thirties). You may wonder why I didn't catch it earlier, but I had learned how to behave in social situations by observing others and imitating them, and I assumed everyone did the same. I only learned during diagnosis that this is not how it works for non-autistic people, who intuitively know how to manage social situations. A common feature of Asperger's is being more susceptible to feeling overwhelmed by sensory stimuli and by stressful events. Something that's mildly stressful for a neurotypical person can already be traumatic for someone with Asperger's.
So when I began having worsenings from noise that I knew I could manage just a year earlier, even without any new noise trauma, I became convinced that a major part of my susceptibility was stress-related. My Asperger's coach taught me that I need to do more "stimming," meaning repetitive movements used for destressing. Think of rubbing my hands together or repeatedly moving my hand over my leg. Non-autistic people stim too, just in a less visible way, for example, playing with hair, tapping fingers, doodling. I realized I had been stimming my whole life unconsciously, but consciously doing it is very different. Once I started doing it intentionally, I immediately felt how much it reduced my inner tension.
I wondered whether it could also relieve the traumatic stress from all my worsenings. And it did. It freed me from an enormous amount of pent-up stress, though it took several days. Then I realized I needed to go further and revisit events from my life that I believed I had resolved in many years of psychotherapy. I discovered that in many cases, the stress was still there. Therapy helped reframe things, but didn't always diffuse the lingering tension. So I mentally put myself back into those past situations and stimmed through them, sometimes for days or weeks, until I felt nothing left to process. Those events gradually shifted into a state of boring neutrality, and I could finally start to forget them. It felt like being born again, leaving behind a hidden mountain of lifelong stress.
Soon after, I had a small noise accident again, clanging a fork against a plate. It was loud, and naturally, it stressed me because that same sound had given me a worsening just 3 weeks earlier. But interestingly, my ears didn't flinch this time. I stimmed immediately, and nothing happened. No pain, no tinnitus increase. A few similar situations followed, and again, there was no pain, only stress that I managed with stimming. After all that destressing, my severe pain hyperacusis was gone.
I still have mild to moderate loudness hyperacusis, partly from what were likely real noise traumas and partly from Asperger's itself, since it often makes you hypersensitive to sensory input. I'm also less prone to tinnitus worsening than before, though brief exposure to around 90 dB will still give me a temporary increase. I'm still cautious, and my tinnitus didn't improve directly from destressing, but I reach my lower baseline much more often now because I can relax more easily than in the past.
So if you have hyperacusis and still feel stressed about the situations or noises that caused it, I'd recommend giving stimming a try, since it's not exclusive to autism. Try rubbing your hands, lightly touching your stomach, drawing repetitive shapes with a pen, or anything similar. For me, it works best when I surrender to the repetitive movement, almost transferring my inner tension into it, and continuing until there's no more impulse to keep going. Maybe it will help you calm down and diffuse lingering stress from loud noise events (even if they didn't cause a real worsening), and maybe it could reduce hyperacusis symptoms.
Best of luck to everyone.
For a while, I wanted to post about my habituation to living with tinnitus, but these days, I think it's more interesting to share that I'm one of those people who managed to get their pain hyperacusis back to a milder variant of loudness hyperacusis. My tinnitus story isn't all that noteworthy, but let's just say I'm one of many who have learned to habituate to even somewhat intrusive tinnitus that's heard almost everywhere except the shower.
Now for the hyperacusis backstory. I got mild tinnitus and mild hyperacusis 6.5 years ago from a somewhat loud concert. I took both conditions seriously, as others here advised, but through misjudging situations or simple bad luck, I was exposed to occasional loud noise over the years. Some of these sounds had the real potential for noise trauma, others did not, but they still caused permanent worsening of both tinnitus and hyperacusis. Examples include a firework going off nearby, a very loud announcement on a bus, and a loud motorcycle passing by despite me wearing hearing protection. COVID and the vaccine, unfortunately, gave me worsenings as well, although not for hyperacusis. Over time, my tinnitus became louder, and my hyperacusis shifted from loudness hyperacusis to pain hyperacusis, giving me hours or even 1 to 2 days of ear pain after loud noises.
I also started getting worsenings from sounds that had no chance of causing hearing damage, such as seconds-long exposure to things in the 85 to 90 dB range. As a result, I used even more hearing protection and avoided more situations, eventually becoming a bit of a hermit, since that felt like the only thing I could do. At my worst in 2024 even something like accidentally hitting a fork against a plate would give me a permanent increase in tinnitus along with burning ear pain from pain hyperacusis.
Then things shifted. In 2023, I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (I'm in my mid-thirties). You may wonder why I didn't catch it earlier, but I had learned how to behave in social situations by observing others and imitating them, and I assumed everyone did the same. I only learned during diagnosis that this is not how it works for non-autistic people, who intuitively know how to manage social situations. A common feature of Asperger's is being more susceptible to feeling overwhelmed by sensory stimuli and by stressful events. Something that's mildly stressful for a neurotypical person can already be traumatic for someone with Asperger's.
So when I began having worsenings from noise that I knew I could manage just a year earlier, even without any new noise trauma, I became convinced that a major part of my susceptibility was stress-related. My Asperger's coach taught me that I need to do more "stimming," meaning repetitive movements used for destressing. Think of rubbing my hands together or repeatedly moving my hand over my leg. Non-autistic people stim too, just in a less visible way, for example, playing with hair, tapping fingers, doodling. I realized I had been stimming my whole life unconsciously, but consciously doing it is very different. Once I started doing it intentionally, I immediately felt how much it reduced my inner tension.
I wondered whether it could also relieve the traumatic stress from all my worsenings. And it did. It freed me from an enormous amount of pent-up stress, though it took several days. Then I realized I needed to go further and revisit events from my life that I believed I had resolved in many years of psychotherapy. I discovered that in many cases, the stress was still there. Therapy helped reframe things, but didn't always diffuse the lingering tension. So I mentally put myself back into those past situations and stimmed through them, sometimes for days or weeks, until I felt nothing left to process. Those events gradually shifted into a state of boring neutrality, and I could finally start to forget them. It felt like being born again, leaving behind a hidden mountain of lifelong stress.
Soon after, I had a small noise accident again, clanging a fork against a plate. It was loud, and naturally, it stressed me because that same sound had given me a worsening just 3 weeks earlier. But interestingly, my ears didn't flinch this time. I stimmed immediately, and nothing happened. No pain, no tinnitus increase. A few similar situations followed, and again, there was no pain, only stress that I managed with stimming. After all that destressing, my severe pain hyperacusis was gone.
I still have mild to moderate loudness hyperacusis, partly from what were likely real noise traumas and partly from Asperger's itself, since it often makes you hypersensitive to sensory input. I'm also less prone to tinnitus worsening than before, though brief exposure to around 90 dB will still give me a temporary increase. I'm still cautious, and my tinnitus didn't improve directly from destressing, but I reach my lower baseline much more often now because I can relax more easily than in the past.
So if you have hyperacusis and still feel stressed about the situations or noises that caused it, I'd recommend giving stimming a try, since it's not exclusive to autism. Try rubbing your hands, lightly touching your stomach, drawing repetitive shapes with a pen, or anything similar. For me, it works best when I surrender to the repetitive movement, almost transferring my inner tension into it, and continuing until there's no more impulse to keep going. Maybe it will help you calm down and diffuse lingering stress from loud noise events (even if they didn't cause a real worsening), and maybe it could reduce hyperacusis symptoms.
Best of luck to everyone.
