Setbacks from Watching TV

I watched a TV series over the past week or so, at about 2-4 30 minute episodes per day. I always watch at a pretty low volume with subtitles, but I try to keep it at the maximum volume I can handle because I enjoy it more this way. For the first few days my ears felt fine, not bothersome. By the time I reached the final few episodes, my ears had begun to feel more sensitive. I kept forcing myself through despite discomfort because not only was I invested in what was happening in the show, but it also seemed insane that the sound from my television on relatively low volume could have any real effect.

Anyway, I finished the show in much discomfort, and now I am in the middle of another full blown setback where my ears are burning, my face is tense, my head feels full of pressure, every sound has a tinny quality to it, and sounds I could handle 2 weeks ago are now painful to listen to.

This isn't the first time this has happened, either. In fact, earlier this year I had a very similar episode with a different TV show, although not quite as bad as this time.

It happens when I listen to too much music over several days as well, even at a low volume. It's why I am unable to see improvement with Jastreboff's music therapy for misophonia. You are supposed to raise the volume as you become more comfortable with the music, but I have to lower it because I become more uncomfortable with it.

These setbacks will then last for days or sometimes weeks, although typically they improve after the activity is ceased and I regress to my normal background sound therapy (low pink noise, background TV at a much lower volume, etc.) This is not good, though, because I enjoy watching movies and TV, they're some of the only pleasures I get in life, and putting it all on hold for my ears to recover makes life quite a bit more vapid for me.

I'm not sure why this keeps happening. Why do sounds that are comfortable become uncomfortable and cause setbacks after consecutive daily listening?

 

Hi:

I have had h. for 22 years. During the first 15 years I had no problems TV sounds. But in the last 5 years, sounds from tinny cheap TV speakers (and similar phones) kill my ears for some reason. That lead to a horrific setback 5 years ago, after watching part of a movie for 45 minutes, which took me 7 months from which to recover to a tolerable level. After that it was closed captioning all the time. However I could not resist listening to some fine music from a film for just 3 minutes last january ,which led to an even more horrific setback from which, 9 months later ,I still have not recovered to a tolerable level!! Imagine! There is just something about sounds from cheap speakers (phone, computer, TV, radio..etc...) which just destroy my ears quickly, even more than trucks and far-away lawmowers etc..

Marco

 

It's because those speakers only produce high frequency sound, and your ears must be way more sensitive to then. Try to get some decent speakers for your TV and maybe you'll be able to watch at very low volume

 

What speakers are you using ?

 

This pair of logitech pc speakers. The stock speakers built into the TV are very tinny in comparison. I know someone who may be able to give me a pair of bookshelf speakers, so there's a chance I can upgrade in the future to something better, but for now these will have to do.

I am already feeling a little better from my setback. I think there's a chance it may have originally come from an electric razor that I used as opposed to the TV. It's so hard to know for sure, there's always a delayed reaction.

 

Those speakers shouldn't be too harsh on the ears at least way less than the tv ones. I don't think bookshelves would make that much of a difference. Maybe if you can use an EQ to smoothen the treble it can help. Do you feel that treble sound are more tiring for your ears ?

 

VRZ78:

Thanks for the info.

Your recommendation to find some new speakers for my TV seems sound since I used to be able to listen to music on good sound systems for a good while, or even medium quality ones in some stores. I figured I could reroute TV sounds through good speakers. That is a project I have been thinking about for a long time. However, I never got around to it, and am even less able to do it these days, because it would involve getting to some high quality sound store way across my city, studying up on all this etc.. and I am just too down these days from my setback and other things to even consider such a project. The only little glimmer of hope is that I miss music (Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, Tears for Fears etc...) so much that I will eventually muster the energy do this.But, before I spend much $$$$ on a good sound system I have to be really sure I can stand even great systems and I am not sure ,since I have not listened to any music since the beginning of my setback last january, and I know of no one who would let me listen to their system to test my ears out.

Marco

 

Tinny TV/computer speakers used to make me feel like my ear was being pricked deep inside with a thousand needles.

 

Addendum:

Can talk on the phone longer these days , and use computer keyboards longer also, so I am better, but 15 minutes is max on the phone for now. Yesterday I talked for a half hour on the phone, because the conversation was so interesting and important, and I paid the price with bad h. for a few hours and burning. Yet I did not pay much of a price this morning which is great . For some reason , mornings are always the worst part of the day, and any trauma from the previous day may result in even greater next morning sensitivity for some reason.

Maybe some of you have noticed delayed reactions...well that is another worry when exposed to iffy situations...no immediate feedback sometimes...and then a while later pain and discomfort. And overnight delayed reactions also even if I wake up during the night and am OK. When wake up alertness begins after sleep ,increased sound sensitivity also may begin over a period of 5 minutes even in silence. Why, I do not know!?

Marco

 

Yeah, high frequency sounds are always worse. Unfortunately I don't always have the option to adjust the EQ because I stream much of what I watch to my TV using chromecast as opposed to using software that includes a visual equalizer. I can't use the EQ built into my TV either because it doesn't have that option for speakers plugged into the 3.5mm out. I can't even adjust the volume with my remote, I have to use my PC to adjust the volume on whatever software I'm using, or walk up to the speakers and adjust them manually.

Logitechs aren't known for being great quality speakers. They're better than stock TV speakers, but still not very good. I don't need hi-fi speakers or anything, but I think a half-decent pair of 2.0 bookshelf speakers could go a long way.

 

Since my setback last July, I haven't been able to tolerate sound coming from my phone speakers for more than five minutes at a time. I get delayed-onset burning pain.

Does anyone have a theory for the mechanism behind this? Why the pain is delayed, and why it feels like burning? I think it fits with the nerve damage theory but why is it so effing delayed and prolonged? Does it mean that the pain signals from the nerves just don't stop?

A cure would be awesome, but at this point, I'd be happy with an effective painkiller.

 

Lex:

I have had H a long time and I have no idea why I have pain sometimes with bad H and sometimes no pain with bad H. And why there are delays. No painkillers help with my pain, but a tranquiliser called clonazepam indirectly helps by reducing my H temporarily, and when that happens the pain also diminishes. Now my goddamm doctor wants to cut me off this helpful drug, after 20 years, when I NEVER HAVE HAD ANY SIDE FFECTS OR WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS from the drug. EVER. So I am searching around for other sources for this medication.

Also: sometimes sounds within my mouth bother me on bad days, and sometimes sounds outside my face bother me more. Why? Who knows!

TO ALL:

Anyways today H is bad after weeks of relative comfort. I think because I talked too much on the phone and spent too much time typing on this keyboard ,recently. That's the catch: when I feel OK , I get unrealistically emboldened to do all sorts of mildly noisy things I would not otherwise do, and sometimes I get burnt like today. It's hard for me to exercise self-control and STOP even if I feel I can go on with a noisy activity, because I might get burnt.

So, no more typing today even if I want to. I am outta here...Bye bye everyone. I know how you are all feeling.

Marco

 

Hi all:

Wow, two hours after my last post, and after a 15 minute excruciating period in that 2 hours, feeling so much better! I can only attribute it to just sitting in a quiet room with no extra sound, but that is what I did this morning and it did not help; now it did. I've noticed that I usually get better as the day goes on if I start out bad. But not always. Anyways, a great tension and worry has just dissapeared !

Weird, how my H can fluctuate wildly up and down on some days. Have no idea why.

Marco