Severe Hyperacusis and Reactive Tinnitus: How to Treat & Cope?

[Nick47]

Hi @Paulie87, Clonazepam is well known to reduce tinnitus and hyperacusis for many. Diazepam only seems to reduce the anxiety.

I woke up with mine screaming. When I went to bed it was much quieter and softer.

@MindOverMatter, did you notice the same in a setback? Waking up with it screaming, yet when you went to bed it was quieter. It really provokes a lot of anxiety to start the day.

 

[Vincent R]

Three weeks ago, I used headphones for an hour during a Zoom meeting. Millions of people use headphones for six hours a day, five days a week, while working. We're vulnerable in a way most people aren't.

Teams and Google Meet have a function called Subtitles. Zoom should have it as well. You can have the volume on zero while reading what people are saying. (I started to use the function to avoid noise accidents during video meetings.)

 

[Nick47]

Teams and Google Meet have a function called Subtitles. Zoom should have it as well. You can have the volume on zero while reading what people are saying. (I started to use the function to avoid noise accidents during video meetings.)

@Vincent R, did you regularly use headphones for work prior to that?

 

[Nick47]

Hi @Paulie87, your meeting seemed to go well.

You may want to read this: Severe Tinnitus: A Brain Disorder Beyond the Ringing Sound

 

[Vincent R]

@Vincent R, did you regularly use headphones for work prior to that?

No. If I participated in a video meeting, I used the built-in computer speakers. I don't know how well subtitles work out in Zoom, but in Teams and Google Meet, it's okayish.

 

[Paulie87]

Hi @Paulie87, your meeting seemed to go well.

You may want to read this: Severe Tinnitus: A Brain Disorder Beyond the Ringing Sound

Thanks @Nick47, it went well in that nothing suggests Meniere's anymore. There is no large hearing loss or significant vertigo. However, it is difficult when you learn there is no silver bullet, and that time is the best answer.

The stranger, but oddly more reassuring part, is that both my ENT and people at places like Neuromed seem to believe that while the person's ears are initially the issue, the problem largely becomes a brain one regarding reactivity and similar mechanisms. This means many of these changes in the central nervous and auditory system should calm down over time.

In the psychiatric hospital today, they had me cooking a BBQ with a couple of my colleagues. It was amazing how being in the sun and talking for a while completely removed me from the symphony of noise while I was doing it. The overwhelming mental health takeaway is that if you wake up and do nothing all day, you will fall further into despair.

I'm also using 0.5 mg of Clonazepam, which does not eliminate the noises but does help take some of the edge away.