Are Crackling and Distortions Symptoms of Loudness Hyperacusis?

Hi guys,

A little background: I've had pain hyperacusis twice in my life - one being now. However, I've never really considered the "sound" of loudness hyperacusis like many of you describe. I always just thought things were loud in one ear because one frequency that would distort or whistle when people spoke very loudly near my left ear, etc. That was pretty stable for 15 years and didn't notice it much.

Now things have changed as my pain hyperacusis came back. I've seen some of you describe plastic bag crinkling as little explosions which I've had when it's bad. But now I also notice at dinner parties people's voices sound more broadly crackly and distorted across multiple frequencies and more centrally (a bit in both ears), like the internal amplifier is turned up too loud and clipping everything above a certain volume.

Is this the definition of loudness hyperacusis, or is it just a symptom of permanent hearing loss?

It seems crazy to me that I walk into a louder restaurant and it's basically a 100 explosions and crackles while everyone else is fine; it doesn't seem like older people are plagued by it.

Can I treat this if I desensitize? And how do you desensitize when you're fine up to 75 dB? I'm assuming no one is playing white noise that loud.

I have no measurable hearing loss in the band that it seems to distort, 1-3 kHz.

Would love to hear your experience.

 

My experience is somewhat similar in that my hearing distorts significantly.

Low, mid, and high frequencies all have points where there is distortion and reverb. I performed a tone generator test on my PC speakers, starting from low and moving to high frequencies. Specific frequencies were 2-3 times louder. You can imagine if someone speaks and that frequency briefly hits, it distorts the entire experience. The same happens with bass sounds. What should be a nice bass rhythm, only changing in frequency, goes like bum bum BUUUUUM (3x louder) bum bum bum BUUUUUM. Certain voices and letters also produce a crackling sound.

While I don't think I experience the same pain most others here do, the distortions cause my ears to tense up, leading to a painful experience nonetheless. For me, it has been like this for years in a much milder form, and the distortions subsided by 70-80% but have returned multiple times (the last time in August 2023). So I do have hope my current experience will also improve. But for the past month, it has been very intense.

I am exhausted.

Regarding your question:

Hyperacusis is not very narrowly defined; there isn't a specific committee that owns its definition. So, I guess you can call all these symptoms hyperacusis, with the distortions being either a consequence or an additional symptom (dysacusis). This complexity makes it harder to identify similar patterns and research solutions. It doesn't help that most ENTs lump it all together and have never heard of noxacusis or dysacusis, so they give you a hyperacusis flyer and a psych referral, and off you go...