Habits That Can Help with Hyperacusis and Distortion

[Mike Allman]

To all dear people with hyperacusis, here are some basic observations to improve faster that helped to me. I'm experiencing this by two months and half and I feel better with time.

A month after that went to the ENT and eat pills and make the valsalva exercise and others. Diagnosed by hyperacusis, distortion on right, ototubaritis and some tinnitus. After that I don't take pills or go to ENT. (I had low tinnitus on right and moderate hyperacusis on both with distortion on right at some frequencies)

Now I have a low hyperacusis on left by mornings and some distortion on right with some frequencies, I can go out to street, sing a little, play guitar and talk at normal voice volume.

Here are my observations and everyday habits and cares that has helped myself improving at 70% from 100%.

-Be patient
-Retraining ears, avoid silence (what works for me is going out to street, playing guitar again and listen music everyday, no headphones).
-Go out of street without earplugs, just put on when loud situations are near (subway noise, car horns next you, people shouting, babies crying), force yourself to live without them in a month you will see the difference.
-Don't expose yourself to pubs, clubs, bars or to loud situations where you are going to stay or talk (this wont be forever, maybe a year but a year is nothing!). There are a lot of places apart from pubs to get fun with friends.
-Make a lot of physical activities (swim, run, walk on nature), running helps a hell lot!
-Eat healthy and drink a lot of water (drinking water helps a lot too!)
-Stop smoking (get anxiety for this the first month but you learn to control it)
-Learn something new (for example I'm learning the basics of managing a company and I'm learning gardening hahaha).
-Get a spiritual help (any religion or people who could give you moral help).
-Talk to best friends and family, explain about your situation, they will help you for sure.
-Listen to your favorite music at middle volume and with speakers (don't use headphones)
-Try to sing again, first maybe a word or a chorus of your favorite songs.
-Make everyday exercises to retrain the eustachian tube, chew gum, avoid dentist for a while.
-Avoid headphones.
-Make cellphone callings with speaker.
-Make long walks in the morning or afternoon to learn again the city sounds.
-If you are depressed talk to somebody or a friend, don't listen music that make you sad or read stories that make you sad.
-Ginkgo helps but I prefer don't take it.
-Be positive! If you don't help yourself, who will do??
-Keep your objectives always present, don't let yourself on vacuum, have faith on what you want to do...!
-Let your body heal by itself, it will take some time but it will do it.

-My favorite music at low or middle volume to fight against hyperacusis and tinnitus and depression or anxiety: Van Halen any disc, evangelic music at nights, paco de lucia flamenco, Pantera (to go out street with attitude) hahahaha

There is a hard fight against you and only you, please don't let depression win this battle, be strong and keep improving, this is my observations on myself, the first month I had bad days but now I have only bad hours, means that I'm improving!... thanks for reading my list

 

[Sen]

I do several of the things you've listed in addition to a handful of my own things, like 24/7 pink noise. I've seen improvement over the years (and in particular this year), but not nearly enough to return to a normal life.

This October I'll have had H for 5 years.

 

[Juan]

In my opinion, this one is dangerous advice: "-Go out of street without earplugs, just put on when loud situations are near (subway noise, car horns next you, people shouting, babies crying), force yourself to live without them in a month you will see the difference."

Some of the noises you quote, like car horns, are very loud by any standard, and anyone with hyperacusis has to be very careful to be around them. Earplugs or earmuffs are of no use if they are not placed properly and before impulse noise happens.

 

[Lex]

Avoiding silence and going out on the street with no ear protection made my H worse. I forced myself for a few months. My loudness-only H became pain-and-loudness H as a result. Before, sounds seem louder but not painful. Now, they're louder painful. I improved but I still haven't returned to baseline.

But I agree with the other tips.

 

[Sen]

@Lex, can you describe your pain?

 

[Lex]

@Sen

Currently, sharp and stabbing pain inside my ears. This is intermittent, and usually happens randomly. So I can be sitting in silence and still get it. An episode lasts for several minutes. On bad days, I have several episodes. Sometimes, the pain spreads out so my temples, cheeks and neck are aching too. I cry whenever this happens because I'm afraid of getting trigeminal neuralgia (aka suicide disease).

There's also that raw, bruised feeling, or sunburned feeling deep inside my ears. I get this often at the end of the day, like my ears got so tired. Every now and then I get maddening itchiness as well.

Sometimes I get weird sensations like hot or cold along my outer earlobes. A feeling of wetness too in spite of having dry ears.

I have trouble with vibrations, especially from motors. I can feel the vibrations throughout my body when vehicles pass by, even when I'm near a window on the 32nd floor. When it gets bad, I feel like throwing up.

When I first got pain H, I also had dizzying zaps of pain behind my eyes or nose, I really couldn't tell. Those were really difficult to bear and I'm grateful they're gone now.

 

[SilverSpiral]

@Sen

Currently, sharp and stabbing pain inside my ears. This is intermittent, and usually happens randomly. So I can be sitting in silence and still get it. An episode lasts for several minutes. On bad days, I have several episodes. Sometimes, the pain spreads out so my temples, cheeks and neck are aching too. I cry whenever this happens because I'm afraid of getting trigeminal neuralgia (aka suicide disease).

There's also that raw, bruised feeling, or sunburned feeling deep inside my ears. I get this often at the end of the day, like my ears got so tired. Every now and then I get maddening itchiness as well.

Sometimes I get weird sensations like hot or cold along my outer earlobes. A feeling of wetness too in spite of having dry ears.

I have trouble with vibrations, especially from motors. I can feel the vibrations throughout my body when vehicles pass by, even when I'm near a window on the 32nd floor. When it gets bad, I feel like throwing up.

When I first got pain H, I also had dizzying zaps of pain behind my eyes or nose, I really couldn't tell. Those were really difficult to bear and I'm grateful they're gone now.

Wow this is severe, I live on third story on what I think is the second largest street in my city, it is a wood framed apartment and the building sways/vibrates when a semi truck drives by but thats just from the weight, not noise, the road noise doesn't bother my h, but it does show up my distortions, and the unmaskable elements of my constant tones...I can only imagine what it would be like for you. Oddly enough in my apartment, the traffic is actually quietest on the lower floor, it's like it resonates upwards... could this be the case even in buildings as high as yours? I have heard of people moving to the bottom floor because it is quietest traffic wise, or moving to top floor because it is quiet in that you have no neighbours above you.

 

[Lex]

@SilverSpiral

Funny you mentioned how it's quiet on the lower floors, because I have no problems with vibration from traffic when I'm walking down the street beside them. I have earplugs because honks hurt me, but with the exception of loud motorcycles and large trucks, I'm generally okay with passing vehicles. But as soon as I'm a few floors up, I feel them. I don't understand the mechanism behind this and it's causing me grief.

I live on the 32nd floor. I chose it because on that floor, I can still hear honks but they're faint enough not to bother me. It's only very recently that I started feeling the vibrations that high up. But since the flat I live in is a small studio, there's really no other room I can go to if I want to escape the vibrations. I already moved my bed away from the window but it isn't enough. I can only hope this symptom improves or disappears as some of my other symptoms have.

 

[Mike Allman]

@Lex every body is different, please don't think the worst be patience, for me there has been a long process of good habits and learning from my mistakes, I can really tell you that running or walking in nature 1 hour 3 days by week helps me a lot and is a slow process of re adaptation of training/resting ears on street, be careful with the strong noises near your ear your ears will get tired quickly,... make the valsalva technique and others recommended by your doctor if you are diagnosed with eustachian disfunction and avoid negative comments.

I'm a musician but I'm forcing myself to rest my ears almost 1 year, I'm on my first 3 months of no live loud music (only practicing and listening music on home) and my ears are better. let's convert the bad into good. today I have an amazing day, please write me if you need help, I'll answer asap.

 

[Damien Cavanagh]

This is all good. But it's H (I think) that is making music distorted / unenjoyable for me.
So I don't listen to my favourite stuff any more. I listen to stuff I've never heard before so that I can't compare it with how it used to sound. The exception is classical music because the distortion doesn't sound so bad.
I've noticed an improvement in my H over last few weeks. I've done 5 HBOT sessions which may have helped.

 

[Fally]

I did the whole avoid silence and go out on the street with no earplugs because my ENT and Therapist told me to. My tinnitus got worse because of it and has never gone back to baseline and that was only from a small exposure. Rather just take the silence and wear the earplugs outside.

 

[Juan]

This is all good. But it's H (I think) that is making music distorted / unenjoyable for me.
So I don't listen to my favourite stuff any more. I listen to stuff I've never heard before so that I can't compare it with how it used to sound. The exception is classical music because the distortion doesn't sound so bad.
I've noticed an improvement in my H over last few weeks. I've done 5 HBOT sessions which may have helped.

I regret not having listened to more classical music before my hearing started to get worse. There is no way one can appreciate Mozart in the same way with hearing loss in high frequencies, even if it is a mild hearing loss.

 

[Marko Nakovski]

I have had hyperacusis for 2 months. In the first 2 weeks it was very very bad. After that I improved a little bit but I'm still having difficult time to live normal life. I have bad days and good days. The difference isn't that much but still it means a lot to me.

I notice this with just one simple test. When I call the elevator and when it comes to your floor the alert is with that sound diiing. Also when I go inside the same sound occurs when I'm down on another floor but this time not so loud. If my ears hurt even inside the elevator I know my situation is worse than usually. If the pain is present only outside I know I'm feeling just a little bit better (from outside that sound alert is a little bit louder). And if I don't have pain nowhere near the elevator I know I'm in the best mood.

My primary concern are the sharp sounds with high frequency and people talking. I mean sure every loud sound is causing me pain but some sounds like washing machine, air conditioner working, even hair dryer and similar are okay to me but high frequency sounds like elevator (ding, ding), voice (especially women's), and similar like these are painful to me ... Even when I change the temperature on my air conditioner that sharp sound is causing me pain.

@Mike Allman what is the cause of your hyperacusis? Is it noise induced or something else?

 

[Contrast]

Loud traffic, babies crying, and noisy subways are much more dangerous then headphones on safe volumes.
this has flawed logic.

Not saying hyperacusis sufferers should use headphones