Warning for People with Noxacusis: For the Love of God, Protect Your Ears!

Hey everybody. I wanted to make this to warn anybody with mild or moderate noxacusis/ear pain or even just hyperacusis.

Quick background so you get an idea: I had mild hyperacusis and tinnitus in my right ear for many years. Hyperacusis got worse and I developed bilateral distortions from a heavy deadlift with earplugs in. I was not careful with all this ear damage and did not wear my earplugs in my delivery van and got in an accident.

Front airbag deployed, this was the beginning of my nightmare. Number 1, if you have any tinnitus, hyperacusis, or any ear problems, I don’t care what anybody tells you, wear hearing protection in your car at all times. I read some people on here said "oh you need to hear, and the odds of an accident are unlikely."

I thought the same thing... But now I know driving a car without earplugs is like holding a loaded gun to your head if you’re a tinnitus or hyperacusis sufferer.

I was taken to a hospital in an ambulance to get checked out, and of course all I cared about was my ears. I hopped on Prednisone right away which made my ears feel so much better. Even after the car accident my hearing recovered and I still can hear in both ears perfectly up to 16 kHz and have perfect speech-in-noise word recognition.

After an acoustic trauma it is extremely important that you protect your ears like a maniac for many months after. I was not careful enough. After two weeks I decided to go back to the gym. I was eating with family and I was blocked in the driveway so I had my windows down trying to see to back out. My car has high performance brakes that always squeal. That one squeal was the final nail in the coffin for my left ear.

Ever since that day the ear pain in my left ear has only progressively gotten worse and worse. It started with me only getting pain from high pitch squeals, from cars and doors, then as time went by earplugs stopped working, the sound started to go right through. I decided to give up my career, I made extremely good money but my job was just too loud to continue even with earplugs in all day. I was truly happy before the car accident, I was suffering from ear problems but it was manageable.

I was a sales manager and was soon going to take over my parents shop, and had many other side hustles. I realized that noxacusis can be aggressive for some people so I stopped going to a lot of places to prevent worsening .I stopped going to restaurants, bars, even going to friends’ houses, yet I still got worse. The pain started coming from my own voice, because I had bad loudness hyperacusis from my ear injury from the deadlift accident, it would trigger the noxacusis. In June of 2021, I completely gave up everything, but luckily could still play video games and watch TV without pain or discomfort.

As time went on I had to completely stop working out because it was making my loudness hyperacusis even worse along with the distortions. Not being able to workout that was keeping the noxacusis at bay definitely sucked. A few more surprise noises and squeals I was exposed to made me become full on hermit. Around August, TV started triggering my noxacusis, and other noises such as my own voice, others’ voices, dishes, squeaking cabinets, anything really. I started seeing a therapist close by for severe depression, and did not leave the house for anything other than dinner at my parents’, 10 houses down , and I always kept my earmuffs on and ate in the other room.

The noxacusis started getting so aggressive that squealing brakes from the mail men and work trucks outside my house started triggering it. This is when the real pain started. Before it was stabbing followed by aching that lasted for a few hours. Now it’s so bad all it takes to set it off is one little squeal from a closet door or a truck outside and I am in so much pain I am throwing up and can’t function for days. This was only in my left ear.

I was always going for walks at night with my mom to help get my mind off things, we would walk on a golf course but the street noise eventually pissed off my good ear. Even with earmuffs on. Before this my tinnitus was moderate and never bothered me, now both ears are screaming and get instantly louder from almost any noise at all, my noxacusis is so bad it reacts to cars driving by my house. Before this severe worsening I was miserable but not suffering for the past few months.

I played video games on mute and go on my phone, take long showers and go to my parents for dinner and have a walk every day. It was better than nothing. I should have been thankful, no outside noise bothered me, if it did, earmuffs would do the trick. Now with earmuffs on any vibrations go through my walls and hurt my ears. I have to wake up at 6 am every day to be ready to have my earmuffs on and run around the house all day to find quiet with all the lawn workers and street noise. I can no longer go for walks because every time I do even at 1 am I get blasted with airplanes flying over or birds chirping in my ears.

I am truly miserable, depressed, I cry every single day, and miss my old life terribly. I am a tough person inside and out but having severe noxacusis, severe hyperacusis, moderate severe tinnitus, and severe distortions, have broken every bone in my body. I wish I was dead every single day. Even if I do improve, which I think is very unlikely, because all it takes to set me off is a bird chirping outside my house, I will have PTSD for the rest of my life. I am only 23. And I lived happily with mild tinnitus and hyperacusis for 4 years until this.

My main point for any mild tinnitus sufferer or mild hyperacusis suffer out there reading this, please for the love of god protect your ears so you don’t have the same fate as me. Wear earplugs in loud places, in the car, and when needed in any noisy environments. I don’t know how much longer I will be alive but this would advice would have saved my life. I am trying to stay strong hoping these regenerative medicines will give me and others hope in the upcoming years so we can get somewhat of a life back.

This suffering and agony has really opened my eyes. I came from a well off family, had friends, was popular in high school, had a great job and future and did not appreciate it enough. If you are able to go out and have fun and live life, enjoy every second till your last. Love your family, love your friends, don’t hold grudges. Be nice to people, and help others, make the world a better place. Prevent this nightmare from happening. If you develop noxacusis, stop it cold in its tracks before it gets worse because it can and it will. Some people are worse in the beginning and take a long time but do recover to a certain point. Some people like me only get worse from every setback.

Thank you for reading this, I hope any newbies take my advice or anybody else who needs it.

Brian

 

It's unbelievable that there are no treatments for this. I hope you will improve.

 

I know it’s terrible. There’s pain meds and stuff obviously but it’s playing Russian roulette with all my tinnitus noises. Praying for these regenerative meds. Thank You.

 

I wish I would have read something like this after my acoustic trauma. I did many reckless things the months following and by the end of the year it got real bad.

Some things I would be pretty ashamed to admit, but I just didn't know any better. Never even heard of hyperacusis before...

When it comes to pain I'm not nearly as bad as you and still I see my life as more or less over at this point.

Some would probably say I'm overprotecting now but what else can you do.

As you are saying the lack of any treatment is terrible, and add to that many doctors won't even acknowledge the condition, at least that has been my experience.

If you are looking up info about hyperacusis in Swedish it basically says that most gets better by taking SSRI, stopping being afraid of everyday sound and loosening up on the hearing protection.

TRT don't seem to be very widespread around here.

So thanks to such info people around you will naturally think that anxiety has a big part in this...

Take care, I hope we all will see improvement soon.

 

Really, really sorry you're going through this now. From my reading, it seems that noxacusis improves extremely slowly with time and a silent environment, and I hope that's the case for you.

As a new noxacusis sufferer, these kinds of posts are really helpful, so thanks for sharing your experiences. I have been protecting the everliving shit out of my ears and will continue to do that, so know that you advice is not in vain. I just turned 23 as well, so I know the kind of pain you're in--it's so hard to watch your peers move on with their lives while you're house bound because your ears are just too sensitive. It feels like I'm wasting the so-called best years of my life. Here's to hoping that regenerative meds will let us enjoy our 30's.

 

Praying and hoping the best for you. I can’t imagine being in your situation as mine is nothing compared to yours or others here but it’s debilitating at times. If it means anything I will take your advice and start wearing my plugs again while driving.

 

I know, so true. And the worst part is that I knew all of this. I read dozens of stories before my car accident. I was being as careful as possible but did have no idea I could wear earplugs everywhere and get worse. I truly thought I understood hyperacusis but definitely noxacusis is a way different ball game.

I knew if I was not careful I would get worse, I mean not much more I can do by wearing earplugs everywhere and any noise that causes pain avoiding it. But any pain triggers caused my ears permanent damage. Even just a little squeak from a car break or a door would shoot through and hurt me. It’s crazy!

 

I know, let’s hope we can get our 30s back man! It’s what keeps me going. Yeah I have read every noxacusis story and it seems like the people who get better are horrible in the beginning then slowly get better. All the people I read who only get worse and never recover, they get a little better but they have to live in silence nonstop and don’t leave the house anymore or they just get worse.

Seems like my case is like that but gotta hope it’s my ears acting funny and that they improve in a year or two. Still blows my mind how a little squeal going though a door through my earmuffs and hurts me, it’s insane!

 

Yes good, I wanted to keep anybody from ending up like me. Enjoy life! And don’t take any risks! Being in a car is like going to a gun range with no earmuffs. Until they find a way to change airbags I’m avoiding cars as much as possible. All we can do is prevent worsening. Gotta try our best.

 

I still get confused with hyperacusis and noxacusis.

I bookmarked this interesting article:

When even soft noises feel like a knife to the eardrums

I currently have the most odd events of ear pain. I stupidly pushed in earplugs that weren't in properly last Thursday because I didn't have time to insert them as I had an acoustic trauma or loud siren go by me. I usually plug my ears with my fingers but that time I didn't, I tried to use earplugs but didn't get them properly positioned in time.

I have a spike and my ears have alternated in pain, first the left one, then right, then both - then, I thought both were improving but now, tonight - the left one is in severe pain again.

A simple car horn while my window was down? That's the last sound I was exposed to.

It shouldn't have done anything like this?!? I don't know if this is hyperacusis or noxacusis but I haven't had this kind of ear pain in several months. I also have some minor clicking and the damn amplification of indoor sounds again.

I hate this!

I don't know what to so since it seems there's no way to avoid these situations. I don't care about anything except researchers finding a cure or treatment and it doesn't seem like there will be one in my lifetime.

Severe tinnitus and ear pain is like sound/sonic torture except it's internal, not external and it never gets shut off.

 

There may be cures man, just hang in there. Healing, cures, or somehow getting used to it. Keep trucking anyway you can... don’t give up.

 

Have you considered moving to some quieter place? I am also always wearing foam earplugs + NC headphones when driving but mainly for this low frequency car/road noise.

I was also quite sportive before hyperacusis. At least I had some fun mountain biking through the woods here. But my ears do improve (with 24/7 ear protection) although quite slowly. But that's the only way as you mentioned.

 

How do your ears handle 24/7 protections? Mine get irritated from wearing earplugs. Earmuffs aren't all that comfortable either and don't help as much with glasses.

 

I have tried many earmuffs/earplugs probably as everyone else here. The best earmuff which is recommended here also in the threads and I ended up using is the Optime 3. Quite leightweight and comfortable to wear the whole day and gives you good protection also with glasses. I put them on when I wake up and put them off when I go to sleep (and when brushing my teeth). I am doing this over a year now and had no problems with that.
Earplugs are more a personal fit. I have just ordered a bunch of different earplugs. What works for me are the Moldex 7403 small for sleep and the Bilsom 303S for more noisier situations (driving).

 

When? In 2120?

I would even settle for sticking morphine injection in that ear joint area. Would that even work? Lol.

Seriously, there's nothing AFAIK that relieves ear pain.

The tinnitus and spikes are another animal. :-(

 

Nothing works, not even heavy pain relievers? Oh... never mind

 

I feel the same way. I sometimes feel like their won’t be anything in our lifetime, when I’m down. This past week has been the hardest of everything. I only get worse. And oh man you would be surprised with how bad it can get. If I got exposed to a car horn now it would probably end my life.

Yeah between noxacusis and hyperacusis I have suffered both severely now. Big difference. Hyperacusis can be kinda painful when hearing a noise but then stops when the noise is over. Noxacusis is stabbing horrible aching pain that lasts for hours. In my experience hyperacusis is highly treatable. Sound therapy works for sure, and oval window reinforcement surgery too. Noxacusis is 10x worse. Noxacusis has permanently ingrained fear in my heart. It has beaten me. I can truly debilitated at this point and wish I had one more day of being able to leave the house.

I am gonna have to stay inside this damn house for the rest of my life. I keep asking myself is it better to die or live like this? Death seems better that this point. But I’m gonna try to hang in a bit longer. So if you have terrible pain that lasts for hours after a noise then yes that’s noxacusis. Do not mess with it. Just don’t. Wear earplugs everywhere if you have it because it can and will destroy you if you let it get bad enough.

If you are able to drive at this point and not be in pain, be happy, enjoy every second. I wish I did.

 

Yeah man, I have noxacusis too. I can’t believe people say to expose yourself to noise to improve your hyperacusis, that’s literally what caused my hyperacusis to worsen. When I first got it, it was mild, now I have full blown pain hyperacusis, every single little noise gives me stabbing pain for days.

Hey at least I can still drive and talk without much pain. :/

 

I feel your pain. I'm 23 too, had this for 1,019 days now. These past few months, it's gotten very bad. This year in general my tinnitus has soared to new levels. Sometimes without any reason. Sometimes for reasons I couldn't really avoid.. like going to the dentist (2x this year and now will have to postpone wisdom teeth because I'm afraid it'll only worsen it). Or flights. Or how I couldn't get my left ear manually cleaned (went deaf for 24 hours due to the wax buildup from wearing earplugs, the wax was right on my eardrum) ,so I chose syringing over the vacuum and it's gotten a lot worse in the left ear. Everyday noises suck. I stayed at home for the first 2 years and regret doing nothing the first year I got it. I went broke. Now I'm working but it'd probably be quieter and less riskier to be at home.

I wish I got tinnitus after I made enough money to just live off of freelancing at home or renting out rooms or something like that. I had to get it right when I was in a terrible place financially.

Life has gotten drastically worse. I try to distract, but it's been growing in severity since the beginning. Tried everything. I must go on, but it's daunting to consider decades more of this torture. I won't give up easily, otherwise I would have a year or two ago. But I wish I had at least mild tinnitus for a couple of years before it got drastically worse...

 

That will not work if there is cochlear damage or a problem with the inner ear, which is likely if hyperacusis was caused by excessive noise exposure.

It's like having a physical injury inside the ears, that was not fixed, and cannot be fixed.

 

For me it lasted for weeks. Just awful.

 

Why doesn't the ENT remove wax manually?

There is a tool for that and it makes no noise at all.

 

Damn man, sorry to hear. Yeah I can barely drive sometimes, I only drive like half a mile to the beach at night, that’s all I can handle. You from Florida? I live here too.

 

Damn man, that’s crazy. Luckily I’m financially stable for a few years. I can’t even imagine... I miss going to bars, to work, to the gym. I would totally accept this being older but being young and we gotta stay in our rooms and rot just truly sucks man. Every noise makes me worse too. We just can’t give up brother.

 

I feel you man, I wish I had read similar posts when my noxacusis was milder. But no, I had to use the subway, told myself "how painful can it be?". I was sooo stupid. It got a lot worse.

But after 6 months after the subway thing it started to improve a bit, meaning that I the pain was like 2-3h/day instead of non-stop.

Then I had to go to the dentist 2 weeks ago and it was a fatality. The pain started way worse and nothing helps, although I am taking 3 types of pain pills which helped me in the past.

The pain is excruciating, it occurs even in silence and during the nights when it's silence in the room. I also feel that my life is over, the only things that keeps me going is my wife, but I hate to keep telling her that I cannot do this and that. And to go in holidays without me.

I learned to live with it, but this is not living.

 

Yeah man, I live in Davenport, close to Orlando. Where are you from?

 

24/7 is not good. It's not natural and you could develop other problems.

You should only use them when you anticipate or expect loud noises.

I have insanely loud tinnitus and it also sucks to isolate or block sounds since nothing is masked.

 

Naples man. Not too far.

 

Hey man, question, what do you take for the pain? Do you recommend anything? I’ve been isolating myself but I still find myself with pain. It’s usually sharp stabbing pain or burning, or sometimes both.

 

Honestly man I don’t take anything because I have so many tones and I don’t want to mess with it. Some people I talk to try Ambroxol and a low histamine diet, they swear by it. But if you can do push-ups and sit-ups at home it helps so much man.