Hyperacusis Is Not Always Permanent: After 6 Months of CBT and TRT, I'm Back to My Noisy Job

[sjtinguy]

Hello hyperacusis people,

I just want you to know that hyperacusis is not always permanent and no actual physical permanent damage has been done. The pain is caused by muscles and tendons which are sore but once they get a chance to relax, the pain and other sensations can go away.

I suffered through years of hyperacusis with pain and other other odd ear sensations. My reactive tinnitus would react to almost everything. Now, I have zero pain and only the occasional odd sensation, which I know is just temporary and nothing to worry about. My reactive tinnitus is also almost gone. I still have tinnitus but it is so much more level and doesn't go up and down every time an ant so much as farts.

6 months ago I discovered a doctor who can treat hyperacusis through Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (which is primarily achieved through listening to white noise) and in conjunction with a therapist utilizing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, I have made massive improvements. I used to live as a hermit wearing 32 dB NRR Peltors for close to 20 hours a day. Now I can walk on busy city streets while only wearing minimal musicians earplugs, and I am continuing to improve, with the end goal to be able to live normally and only protect my ears when it is appropriate, i.e. sound levels are actually damaging and not just frightening.

Critically, as much as they provide comfort, you must recognize that wearing hearing protection when sound levels are not dangerous is only priming your brain to increase hyperacusis. Your auditory system will just keep cranking up the gain as you reduce the volume of input, and you will teach your subconscious brain that sounds are dangerous. You end up training your fight or flight response to be activated by sounds, which causes anxiety and stress, and keeps you in a state of feeling constantly on edge. Your brain identifying sounds as dangerous causes you to pay more attention to them and thus they will seem louder. With hearing protection, you get into this negative feedback cycle where everything sounds louder, and thus you will want to protect more. The deeper you get into protection, the longer it takes to pull yourself back out. I am still not all the way out.

I know the cost of therapy is often something to consider. I have now returned to work and have already earned back much of what I spent on therapy. It was absolutely worth every penny. Even if I didn't return to work, the gains in terms of quality of life are truly priceless.

I know this forum is full of people who are in the depths of the worst hell. I was there myself less than a year ago. My life is so much different now. I have a life. If you are in the depths of hyperacusis hermit life, I want you to know that things might not be as permanent and dire as they seem. It is not a death sentence. Your life is not over, it is just on pause. It is waiting for you on the other side.

I know many audiologists don't know jack about hyperacusis, but keep looking until you find one who does. Please, you owe it to yourself.

 

[eagerUser]

I am so happy for your achievements.

I wonder:

I was living my life when it all started, one random morning I woke up with tinnitus and hyperacusis. I'd had an active social life, I would go out, have fun, of course in noise-wise safe places. I was OK with sudden sharp sounds. I can't understand how reintroducing these noises to my auditory system works! Why should I reintroduce them when I was totally OK with them before! According to this theory, it's something like Alzheimer's, you forget sounds and you have to remember them again!

I know it works for many people but I can't understand why.

Anyway, I am having CBT sessions with an audiologist.

 

[Brian Newman]

You sound like you work for Jastreboff, lol. I'm glad it helped you but hyperacusis is usually from hearing damage, sometimes it's in the brain, other times in the inner or middle ear. You're very lucky TRT worked for you because it doesn't seem to work for many of us. If only it was as simple as playing $6,000 sound generators in our ears. If somebody gets into a negative feedback loop from sounds, and gets better from more sound, their cases were usually not severe. TRT for noxacusis is a big fat no, it does not help ear neuralgia/ neuropathy. TRT has helped some with loudness hyperacusis but you need to distinguish the difference and not clump the two together. Because for many it's more than being afraid of sound.

It doesn't matter how I feel about sound. Certain frequencies cause me severe lingering nerve pain and expensive headphones doesn't fix it. If my case was as mild as me being afraid of noise, I would not be at home in my room in pain 24/7. The problem with people who get better from TRT, "no offense," were definitely not severe. Those people definitely do overthink hyperacusis and scare themselves from sound because they read horror stories like mine, feel super mild discomfort in their ears, and then convince themselves they must avoid noise forever. They try TRT and see "improvement." In reality, they just recovered with time or all they had to do was slowly expose to noise and realize they are not that bad. Then they think oh, TRT is the cure, it works for all; hyperacusis is in your head! It's not real! It's a mental condition!

Not the case, sorry.

I absolutely hate negativity and hate myself for being negative in a positive post but it is kinda insulting when people like me, who have tried everything, who truly have horrid cases that only get worse, and then people who are "severe" and cured by playing pink noise in their ears come on and preach how TRT is a lifesaver, and it's all a brain condition. It minimizes our suffering entirely which is why hyperacusis is taken as a complete joke by everyone because they think it's as easy as playing pink noise in your ears.

Again, I'm glad it worked for you but that's not the case for most. Additionally, if someone was to get better from sound therapy, they don't need to spend $6,000 on Jastreboff headphones when they can literally use a fan, or a speaker, and play the same pitch from it, and slowly increase the volume over time.

There is no research behind sound therapy for hyperacusis at all. No clinical trials, no actual proof TRT helps hyperacusis. Only study they did was on healthy ears of a bunch of collage students that got more sensitive to sound by 5 dB by wearing earplugs, but afterwards it went back to normal. Jastreboff claims he did trials, and there's edgebreaking science behind it, but there's really not. The only person who can actually claim he had successful results from a trial is Dr. Silverstein. Even though I think he's arrogant, he did actual clinical trials on hyperacusis patients by packing the middle ear with skin and it actually dampens vibrations helping hyperacusis people. He's the real deal and told me himself TRT is a scam. Every doctor I've seen and asked about TRT have said it's a scam, which I found pretty interesting. They all said sound therapy can help some but admitted TRT does not fix hearing damage. The top neurotologists in the country told me sound therapy does not fix hearing damage. It can help mask the tinnitus for some people, but they said it's old science not backed up by actual evidence. Once again I hate to be a jerk, but this is reality.

EDIT:

And by the way, you made a post In January completely gaslighting everyone with this condition. You said you started 6 months ago, but 6 months ago you were claiming an audiologist cured you and told you not to be afraid of sound. Now that you're not afraid, you're cured! Lol.

 

[stacey]

I am totally with @Brian Newman on this. Hyperacusis is from hearing damage or middle ear damage, no way in hell is this going to get fixed with CBT and TRT. Sound therapy is a joke, it'll only worsen someone. Even when I was mild, I never even gave consideration to TRT when it was advised by doctors and audiologists. That and MRIs were a NO for me. I knew both were lethal for hyperacusis.

Honestly for hyperacusis, only hearing protection, silence and time can help just a bit.

Sorry but TRT needs to be stopped in the hyperacusis community. It needs to be admitted that it isn't effective, and is harmful.

 

[Michael Leigh]

I just want you to know that hyperacusis is not always permanent and no actual physical permanent damage has been done. The pain is caused by muscles and tendons which are sore but once they get a chance to relax, the pain and other sensations can go away.

I know many audiologists don't know jack about hyperacusis, but keep looking until you find one who does. Please, you owe it to yourself

I am very pleased that you have had success using sound therapy with TRT to treat your hyperacusis @sjtinguy. You are not a newbie to tinnitus and hyperacusis, so I hope your experience and advice gives some inspiration to people affected by these conditions, to seek treatment. It is what I have advised in many of my posts.

Well done and I hope you continue to improve.

Michael

Anyway, I am having CBT sessions with an audiologist.

I hope you find the counselling with your audiologist helpful @eagerUser. Sound therapy is important too.

 

[eagerUser]

Honestly for hyperacusis, only hearing protection, silence and time can help just a bit.

I wouldn't say that. While silence works for some, exposure to safe sounds works for others. I have never improved from silence. Rather going out and doing ordinary things like shopping or something like walking down the street seems to be a better option.

I don't want to know if I have hyperacusis or not as people will definitely tell me I do not have hyperacusis if I can go out. I just feel pain and fullness from random noises.

But again I cannot understand how sound therapy works scientifically because I was living my life before! It might be like a broken ankle where you have to start walking little by little after you have recovered, otherwise you will never be able to walk again!

Anyway, I am not against silence therapy because it is helping some.

 

[Brian Newman]

I wouldn't say that. While silence works for some, exposure to safe sounds works for others. I have never improved from silence. Rather going out and doing ordinary things like shopping or something like walking down the street seems to be a better option.

I don't want to know if I have hyperacusis or not as people will definitely tell me I do not have hyperacusis if I can go out. I just feel pain and fullness from random noises.

But again I cannot understand how sound therapy works scientifically because I was living my life before! It might be like a broken ankle where you have to start walking little by little after you have recovered, otherwise you will never be able to walk again!

Anyway, I am not against silence therapy because it is helping some.

The thing is that we don't deny your experience, we know gradual sound exposure works for some.

We get angry and upset when people who are TRT advocates say it's all in your brain, positive thinking helps, silence makes it worse, and minimizes our suffering, treating it as a complete joke.

@Michael Leigh does it too, so we all get angry at him. If those fools came on and said this worked for me, it's worth a try, we wouldn't be commenting. But they come on and say all cases can be cured by sound therapy and positive mindset, gaslighting everyone it doesn't work for. They make it seem like it's our fault we're not getting better, when it's that our cases just don't get better from sound exposure. When someone claims a case like mine, that's so bad that most people could never handle it, can be cured from more sound exposure and positive thinking, it's just ridiculous and makes me so angry. Many others as well.

It's totally cool if that stuff works for you and you have the right to say what works for you. But those guys are implying it works for everyone and they obviously couldn't be more wrong. If they were more humble, there wouldn't be any more bickering.

 

[stacey]

I wouldn't say that. While silence works for some, exposure to safe sounds works for others. I have never improved from silence. Rather going out and doing ordinary things like shopping or something like walking down the street seems to be a better option.

I don't want to know if I have hyperacusis or not as people will definitely tell me I do not have hyperacusis if I can go out. I just feel pain and fullness from random noises.

But again I cannot understand how sound therapy works scientifically because I was living my life before! It might be like a broken ankle where you have to start walking little by little after you have recovered, otherwise you will never be able to walk again!

Anyway, I am not against silence therapy because it is helping some.

From the sound of it you do not have hyperacusis! You may have something else, like misophonia, or something that exposure to noise is helpful for because you're just scared of noise, but it has nothing to do with direct damage like hyperacusis does.

Hyperacusis and noxacusis are no joke, trust me, you would know you have it and you sure as hell wouldn't want to expose to noise in any capacity.

 

[eagerUser]

The thing is that we don't deny your experience, we know gradual sound exposure works for some.

We get angry and upset when people who are TRT advocates say it's all in your brain, positive thinking helps, silence makes it worse, and minimizes our suffering, treating it as a complete joke.

@Michael Leigh does it too, so we all get angry at him. If those fools came on and said this worked for me, it's worth a try, we wouldn't be commenting. But they come on and say all cases can be cured by sound therapy and positive mindset, gaslighting everyone it doesn't work for. They make it seem like it's our fault we're not getting better, when it's that our cases just don't get better from sound exposure. When someone claims a case like mine, that's so bad that most people could never handle it, can be cured from more sound exposure and positive thinking, it's just ridiculous and makes me so angry. Many others as well.

It's totally cool if that stuff works for you and you have the right to say what works for you. But those guys are implying it works for everyone and they obviously couldn't be more wrong. If they were more humble, there wouldn't be any more bickering.

I totally respect you and anyone suffering from this shit. I never wanted to minimize your suffering and say you won't get better because you don't want to! Who doesn't?

I do believe that you are generous and kind to warn people not to fuck their auditory system more by exposing to noxious sounds.

We don't know who gets better in silence, who gets worse from it! For example, I tried silence for a couple of months and it made me worse.

I always said that silence works for some and exposure works for the rest. Each person has to try both in a safe way to see which one works.

I do wish I could do something to help you Brian and minimize your suffering. I pray that Dr. Shore's device is what you need to get back to your cheerful life.

We are here to help each other dude, not to fight. If people out there do not understand us, we should.

From the sound of it you do not have hyperacusis! You may have something else, like misophonia, or something that exposure to noise is helpful for because you're just scared of noise, but it has nothing to do with direct damage like hyperacusis does.

Hyperacusis and noxacusis are no joke, trust me, you would know you have it and you sure as hell wouldn't want to expose to noise in any capacity.

Please don't minimize my suffering. I don't know what it is, I just want to be like my younger self without this shit.

I don't know if it's hyperacusis, phonophobia, misophonia or whatever. I am not only scared of noise but I do also have physical reactions to noise!

It is really heartwarming to see you believe I don't have hyperacusis but after all, it doesn't improve my symptoms.

 

[Michael Leigh]

Hyperacusis and noxacusis are no joke, trust me, you would know you have it and you sure as hell wouldn't want to expose to noise in any capacity.

I once had very severe hyperacusis and noxacusis. I have explained the treatment for these conditions in many of my posts. Briefly, it requires sound therapy in the form of sound enrichment, which is totally different from listening to noise, when it's done correctly. Ideally, in severe circumstances, one should be under the care of an audiologist.

The idea of being in silence that some people have is totally wrong. If one follows this trend, their symptoms are unlikely to improve and may even get worse with the passing of time.

Michael

 

[eagerUser]

I hope you find the counselling with your audiologist helpful @eagerUser. Sound therapy is important too.

Thanks so much Michael. To be honest, I can't be positive about it as I can't see any meaning in someone telling me noise is not dangerous. But I am trying my best to get better. I do hope it helps me. Of course a part of it is exposing myself to daily noises in and outside of the house without hearing protection. I started using public transportation after 5 years but I do feel depressed when I get into a bus because I always think what if I get worse!

 

[Michael Leigh]

Thanks so much Michael. To be honest, I can't be positive about it as I can't see any meaning in someone telling me noise is not dangerous.

Please print and read my posts on hyperacusis and TRT @eagerUser. Remember, the healing process starts in the mind. Therefore, it's important that you start to incorporate positivity into your life by taking up a new hobby or interest. I am not saying this is easy so just take things slowly.

Best of luck,
Michael

 

[Brian Newman]

I totally respect you and anyone suffering from this shit. I never wanted to minimize your suffering and say you won't get better because you don't want to! Who doesn't?

I do believe that you are generous and kind to warn people not to fuck their auditory system more by exposing to noxious sounds.

We don't know who gets better in silence, who gets worse from it! For example, I tried silence for a couple of months and it made me worse.

I always said that silence works for some and exposure works for the rest. Each person has to try both in a safe way to see which one works.

I do wish I could do something to help you Brian and minimize your suffering. I pray that Dr. Shore's device is what you need to get back to your cheerful life.

Thanks for the kind words. I hope something helps the rest of us; we really need it.

You're really humble and I respect your opinions.

 

[BrysonKingMe]

@Michael Leigh, you never had noxacusis. You were never homebound for years like Brian is.

You are honestly a really weird dude who can never admit that they're wrong even when you have been blatantly called out several times. Very sad.

You can redeem yourself right now by answering this question: why did sound therapy not work for Brian or hundreds of other people who have been homebound for years from this?

Did they not use sound therapy correctly? Or is it not an effective treatment for everybody?

Inb4 you wish me well good day ignore list.

 

[sjtinguy]

I am totally with @Brian Newman on this. Hyperacusis is from hearing damage or middle ear damage, no way in hell is this going to get fixed with CBT and TRT. Sound therapy is a joke, it'll only worsen someone. Even when I was mild, I never even gave consideration to TRT when it was advised by doctors and audiologists. That and MRIs were a NO for me. I knew both were lethal for hyperacusis.

Honestly for hyperacusis, only hearing protection, silence and time can help just a bit.

Sorry but TRT needs to be stopped in the hyperacusis community. It needs to be admitted that it isn't effective, and is harmful.

People like you are toxic to this community and keep people in hell. You should feel bad.

Other people on this forum, stop listening to these aholes and listen to someone who actually is living through a recovery. These guys know NOTHING about what they are talking about. This forum is full of people who could get better but the toxic ones want to drag everybody else down to their level.

I absolutely hate negativity and hate myself for being negative in a positive post but it is kinda insulting when people like me, who have tried everything, who truly have horrid cases that only get worse, and then people who are "severe" and cured by playing pink noise in their ears come on and preach how TRT is a lifesaver, and it's all a brain condition. It minimizes our suffering entirely which is why hyperacusis is taken as a complete joke by everyone because they think it's as easy as playing pink noise in your ears.

Yeah bud, you are minimizing my suffering as if you know what the hell I've gone thru.

You're also minimizing my recovery experience and arguing against it.

It's not a personal attack on you that I'm getting better and that I'm sharing how I got better. I want other people to get better too. Your post just seems like you want to be mad and argue. Go be mad somewhere else, I'm trying to help people. You toxic people are part of the reason that my recovery took so long. Stop spreading your toxicity on this forum because you are not helping anybody.

You were never homebound for years like Brian is.

Well I was, and now I'm not. I hope the same for everyone else here. If you want to argue about it, go somewhere else.

Thanks so much Michael. To be honest, I can't be positive about it as I can't see any meaning in someone telling me noise is not dangerous. But I am trying my best to get better. I do hope it helps me. Of course a part of it is exposing myself to daily noises in and outside of the house without hearing protection. I started using public transportation after 5 years but I do feel depressed when I get into a bus because I always think what if I get worse!

It sounds like you are doing all the right things and keeping yourself exposed to normal level sounds. It is a tough balance with trusting "safe" sounds while still being wary of "unsafe" sounds. My audiologist emphasizes that even if a sound is loud, it's often not unsafe if only for a short amount of time. And critically it's important to view "safe" sounds as actually not only safe but beneficial.

When I first started the white noise therapy (which is literally just an iPad playing rain sounds, no expensive generators or anything), I played the sound at a barely audible level. Now I'm up to like 50-60 dB. This makes it so much easier to be in other environments where the noise level is there or lower, because I'm used to being around that level noise all the time. I now feel like low level noise is actually beneficial instead of seeming dangerous. When I'm in quiet environments, where before I loved the silence, now I'm like, hmm maybe I'll turn on the radio or a fan or something to cover up the tinnitus instead.

Talk to your audiologist, they may still say wearing light hearing protection in public transportation could be appropriate. I know on trains the noises can exceed 80 dB, though not for long periods of time. For now, I'd still be wearing at least one layer of hearing protection inside most public transport. But a year ago I would never have been able to even get near a bus or train.

A big part of going to therapy is learning how to retrain your subconscious brain so that you don't associate noise with negativity. It's not an easy process and takes time and effort. The specific techniques that effectively achieve this are different for everyone and that's what you work with your therapist on.

I am very pleased that you have had success using sound therapy with TRT to treat your hyperacusis @sjtinguy. You are not a newbie to tinnitus and hyperacusis, so I hope your experience and advice gives some inspiration to people affected by these conditions, to seek treatment. It is what I have advised in many of my posts.

Thanks Michael. There were many times I would read your posts about your recovery and I would tell myself "oh, he must not have had it like I do. I'll never recover. He doesn't know what he's talking about."

Well I'm happy to say I was wrong. I'm sure plenty of people think the same thing about me, that I didn't have it bad, even though I literally wished to be deaf, for a year I almost never left the house except to go to the grocery store (where I would wear double protection), and wore at minimum 32 dB NRR earmuffs for 20+ hours a day. I couldn't even stand the sound of a crinkly cellophane bag, washing dishes, cooking food, the list of silly little things I couldn't do is endless.

I can't believe how much things have changed. It's not an easy process to retrain your brain but gaining your life back is so worth it.

 

[Eleanor89]

I totally respect everyone who is suffering from hyperacusis and tinnitus. Having had tinnitus for nearly thirty years, and hyperacusis for the past two years, I can truly say that I have improved greatly using TRT combined with a great deal of patience.

I have loudness hyperacusis and many times over the years it has brought me to my knees.

As I truly did not understand what was happening to me following my major surgery in 2021, @Michael Leigh, @MindOverMatter and @Marin amongst others have helped me so much and I am so grateful for their knowledge, guidance and experience on hyperacusis.

Like @ZFire, I could not stand water from the tap, the kettle sound, even talking and crockery, the sound of the air etc.

The volume of the world had increased... it was horrendous. I was in a dark place.

There are no words as to why some suffer more than others and I have no answers.

However, sound therapy has helped me immensely, but the process has been slow and gradual. Oasis sounds machines, in-ear sound generators, filtered professional earplugs etc. have all helped. I also had counseling as well as TRT.

I'm not 100 percent, but I'm now working online, I've moved house, I drive and I can go to the supermarket etc.

I never dreamed that I would be doing this two years ago, but I am.

I'm so grateful to all who have helped me. Thank you so much xx

 

[ErikaS]

I do not have loudness hyperacusis or noxacusis so I am not even going to speak on those and I will just continue to hope and pray that SOMETHING comes through for those who suffer with that awful shit.

I do however have the reactive/sound sensitive tinnitus that reacts to how you say "an ant farting". I literally shift my body in bed and just the sound of me moving changes my tinnitus. Anyway, I never overprotected. Never sat in silence for days or months. I actually never wore any ear protection my home unless a mid to louder noise was present, and I drove and went to the grocery store once a week, drove to therapies, and went to very small gatherings around the holidays with very little to no ear protection. And my reactivity never improved. 9 months in and it still has not improved. Actually it got worse when I thought I was stable enough for a trip away with ear protection.

So when a TRT specialist told me reactivity would be treated with sound generators, my response was, "But I let sound in, I listened to my baseboard heating system every day and night for 5 months that is a constant sound, and that didn't change anything".

So I always find it very interesting for those who said reactivity went away once they exposed their ears to more and more sound from being totally over protected, but mine didn't budge and just got worse when I never overprotected? And it's not like I was just living life normally, I am still not working and spend 98% of my days at home in low ambient sounds, soooo yeah I would love to know where I went wrong and how the heck sound therapy would make ANY difference or improvement for me (I don't think it would).

Very happy for you though, I would literally pay thousands of dollars to whatever person or thing would take away my reactivity.

 

[BrysonKingMe]

Hello @BrysonKingMe. I totally respect everyone who is suffering from hyperacusis and tinnitus. Having had tinnitus for nearly thirty years, and hyperacusis for the past two years, I can truly say that I have improved greatly using TRT combined with a great deal of patience.

I have loudness hyperacusis and many times over the years it has brought me to my knees.

As I truly did not understand what was happening to me following my major surgery 2021, @Michael Leigh, @MindOverMatter and @Marin amongst others have helped me so much and I am so grateful for their knowledge, guidance and experience on hyperacusis.

Like @ZFire, I could not stand water from the tap, the kettle sound, even talking and crockery, the sound of the air etc.

The volume of the world had increased... it was horrendous. I was in a dark place.

There are no words as to why some suffer more than others and I have no answers.

However, sound therapy has helped me immensely, but the process has been slow and gradual. Oasis sounds machines, in-ear sound generators, filtered professional earplugs etc. have all helped. I also had counseling as well as TRT.

I'm not 100 percent, but I'm now working online, I've moved house, I drive and I can go to the supermarket etc.

I never dreamed that I would be doing this two years ago, but I am.

I'm so grateful to all who have helped me. Thank you so much xx

Hi,

I completely understand that it did help you, and I am sure that it did actually help you if you are saying so.

But when Michael says that all Brian or anybody else with severe hyperacusis has to do is try sound therapy and they will be cured, like he says in so many of his posts, it is gaslighting and undermining with they are going through to the 100th degree.

I'm pretty sure Brian would like to not be homebound. Michael needs to stop using the word cure and fix his language. He comes across as arrogant and demeaning when he says things like that. It is pathetic for a grown man to belittle someone's situation like he constantly does.

Well I was, and now I'm not. I hope the same for everyone else here. If you want to argue about it, go somewhere else.

Nothing I said was directed at you.

 

[Brian Newman]

Yeah bud, you are minimizing my suffering as if you know what the hell I've gone thru.

You're also minimizing my recovery experience and arguing against it.

It's not a personal attack on you that I'm getting better and that I'm sharing how I got better. I want other people to get better too. Your post just seems like you want to be mad and argue. Go be mad somewhere else, I'm trying to help people. You toxic people are part of the reason that my recovery took so long. Stop spreading your toxicity on this forum because you are not helping anybody.

No, absolutely not. You're arrogant and it's all in your reptile brain that hyperacusis can be cured with TRT, $6,000 sound generators and CBT. You sound exactly like @Michael Leigh and a TRT salesperson. If only you had said "this worked for me, you should try it!" But you didn't, you said it's basically not real lol. Talking about minimizing sufferers, you sound like someone selling snake oil. You said hyperacusis can destroy your life "if you let it." Get outta here with that crap. How can you not let severe, chronic, 24/7 neuralgia pain ruin your life? You can't even function. You literally stated it's all in your brain, recommended positivity and exposing to sound, saying that it's not that bad. Well, newsflash: if you had it bad, you wouldn't be minimizing it in your posts. If yours went away from exposing to sound and just doing TRT, then you definitely didn't have it bad. You seem close-minded like Jastreboff himself; you have the idea if it doesn't work for us, it's our fault because we're negative and don't believe. Either it works or it doesn't. If you got misophonia or some moderate cases of loudness hyperacusis, then yeah, exposing to sound helps. Sound therapy did not work for the majority of us and there's no science behind it. If I damage my ears from noise, let's fix it with more noise? Yeah bro, no.

Then you said there is no damage involved in hyperacusis. Ummmmm, hello?! You get hyperacusis along with tinnitus from hearing damage.

You have the right the post what worked for you but don't be posting false information and minimizing other sufferers. Telling us our ears aren't damaged, oh Lord, you think a 180 dB airbag that permanently gave me louder tinnitus and catastrophic noxacusis didn't cause any damage? And the feeling of deep knives being shoved in my ear with twisting sharp razor wire being pulled through? Sorry to break it to you but in my case it's nerve damage and more sound makes it way worse. Coming on and telling every person it's in their brain and protecting from sound is dumb!

Of course I'm here to argue with you! People with stories like yours ruined my life! People like you who have mild loudness hyperacusis mixed up with noxacusis. I worked with Ben Thompson, one of your golden gods of TRT. My ears got ruined and my nerve pain became permanent. How can you not avoid sounds when they leave you in horrible lingering pain for days? It's not like I had a little discomfort and went ooooo, I'm strong, I'm a big boy! I can convince myself my ears are fine and I'm going to be OK!

I was struggling horribly when I first got tinnitus and loudness hyperacusis 8 years ago. Guess how I got better? It wasn't anywhere near as bad as I have it now. I had to avoid loud noise for over a year, let my ears rest as much as possible. My tinnitus and hyperacusis spiked to everything for a while and it was difficult going to places. I didn't get better from TRT, not protecting my ears, or convincing myself there's no damage. I finally had one good day. Then another. And then another. I finally started improving not by being a TRT worshipper, but by resting and doing my best to focus on other things and distract myself because I wasn't severe and could still work, go to class, and go to the gym and do most things outdoors.

If you're going to keep posting all this, don't sound the way you're sounding, and none of us will bother you. You notice how the other guys who agree with you have similar posts about sound helping them but they don't gaslight people it doesn't work for. They are humble. They say this works for me, not that it works for all. They don't say your ears aren't damaged, it's all in your brain etc. We don't comment or bother them at all.

I do not have loudness hyperacusis or noxacusis so I am not even going to speak on those and I will just continue to hope and pray that SOMETHING comes through for those who suffer with that awful shit.

I do however have the reactive/sound sensitive tinnitus that reacts to how you say "an ant farting". I literally shift my body in bed and just the sound of me moving changes my tinnitus. Anyway, I never overprotected. Never sat in silence for days or months. I actually never wore any ear protection my home unless a mid to louder noise was present, and I drove and went to the grocery store once a week, drove to therapies, and went to very small gatherings around the holidays with very little to no ear protection. And my reactivity never improved. 9 months in and it still has not improved. Actually it got worse when I thought I was stable enough for a trip away with ear protection.

So when a TRT specialist told me reactivity would be treated with sound generators, my response was, "But I let sound in, I listened to my baseboard heating system every day and night for 5 months that is a constant sound, and that didn't change anything".

So I always find it very interesting for those who said reactivity went away once they exposed their ears to more and more sound from being totally over protected, but mine didn't budge and just got worse when I never overprotected? And it's not like I was just living life normally, I am still not working and spend 98% of my days at home in low ambient sounds, soooo yeah I would love to know where I went wrong and how the heck sound therapy would make ANY difference or improvement for me (I don't think it would).

Very happy for you though, I would literally pay thousands of dollars to whatever person or thing would take away my reactivity.

That's how my reactive tinnitus was too when I got it a long time ago. More sound was not the answer! It took years of avoiding loud noise and minimizing setbacks for it to calm down. I'm sure others aren't so lucky, I was very lucky the first time when I recovered by a good amount. Thanks for your input in all this. It seems the majority of people with hearing damage seem to do better with low-level noise and avoiding setbacks and trigger noises. And not doing TRT.

 

[stacey]

People like you are toxic to this community and keep people in hell. You should feel bad.

Other people on this forum, stop listening to these aholes and listen to someone who actually is living through a recovery. These guys know NOTHING about what they are a talking about. This forum is full of people who could get better but the toxic ones want to drag everybody else down to their level.

@sjtinguy, first off, excuse tf out of me, but you're the toxic one! You should feel terrible with your false testimony on TRT. Your tone literally said everything about who you are. Like how dare you. Gross.

Everyone, if you want to listen to this fake hypocrite liar, then go ahead, he was already called out. Take false advice.

 

[sjtinguy]

You're arrogant and it's all in your reptile brain that hyperacusis can be cured with TRT, $6,000 sound generators and CBT.

Well I haven't spent $6000 on sound generators, which is just the first of many the examples of how you don't know what you are talking about and just want to argue.

Instead filling this thread with misinformation and toxicity, you can start your own thread. But in here you're not welcome. You are a toxic presence in this thread and I request you go away immediately.

Nothing I said was directed at you.

Well what I said was directed at you. If you want to fight with people who have recovered, go away. It's not welcome in this thread.

So I always find it very interesting for those who said reactivity went away once they exposed their ears to more and more sound from being totally over protected, but mine didn't budge and just got worse when I never overprotected? And it's not like I was just living life normally, I am still not working and spend 98% of my days at home in low ambient sounds, soooo yeah I would love to know where I went wrong and how the heck sound therapy would make ANY difference or improvement for me (I don't think it would).

Very happy for you though, I would literally pay thousands of dollars to whatever person or thing would take away my reactivity.

I read your post but one thing I did not see in your recovery attempt was the addition of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The sound therapy is important but you also have to address the cognitive side. Once we've trained our brain to notice sounds, it is a long process to desensitize. The sound therapy is just one part. As long as your subconscious brain continues to identify sounds as a danger, the sounds will occupy more of your thoughts and seem louder. Identifying the sounds as dangers is also what leads to the reactivity with the tinnitus.

 

[Brian Newman]

Well I haven't spent $6000 on sound generators, which is just the first of many the examples of how you don't know what you are talking about and just want to argue.

Instead filling this thread with misinformation and toxicity, you can start your own thread. But in here you're not welcome. You are a toxic presence in this thread and I request you go away immediately.

Oh yeah, I'm soooo toxic. LMAO, funny when people post things that can actually help. I'm pretty supportive. Go post this garbage elsewhere with all the other positive thinking mild sufferers.

 

[BrysonKingMe]

Well what I said was directed at you. If you want to fight with people who have recovered, go away. It's not welcome in this thread.

Then what you said makes no sense, you took something I said to Michael, that he was never homebound for years, and then applied it to yourself for some reason.

Yeah and you're not going to tell me what or what not to say, so you can give that up right now.

 

[ErikaS]

I read your post but one thing I did not see in your recovery attempt was the addition of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The sound therapy is important but you also have to address the cognitive side. Once we've trained our brain to notice sounds, it is a long process to desensitize. The sound therapy is just one part. As long as your subconscious brain continues to identify sounds as a danger, the sounds will occupy more of your thoughts and seem louder. Identifying the sounds as dangers is also what leads to the reactivity with the tinnitus.

Where I can agree with you to an extent is to say that our limbic system can become impaired and basically stuck when something like a sound trauma or SSHL happens and tinnitus, hyperacusis, etc. set in. That is our protective mechanism, our fight or flight, so I do believe that can absolutely play a part in many people's situations and keep the brain in a more "stuck" place.

Great example is @Marin's recovery. However, she had a trifecta of findings that helped her, and the first two things that did were remedies and a specific diet that objectively helped calm her severe hyperacusis and noxacusis and control her severe histamine reactions. After finding objective relief from the actual physical pain from the nerve damage and ongoing inflammation, she dove into DNRS and committed to daily practice to reset her limbic system and help her get out of a fight or flight and be able to retrain her brain for tolerance of sound. So I hear all of that, but I think what the main point is that she didn't just do the DNRS, and she herself said she isn't sure if she would have even been able to do DNRS if she hadn't gotten the relief and increased tolerance she did from the remedies and diet change. So she first found things to give her physical relief, which gave her increased tolerance for DNRS practice. That physical, objective relief that she found BEFORE addressing the mental aspect is what many of us absolutely need. I myself went through the whole DNRS course recently and plan to start practice, but I need to find something to help the ongoing inflammation that fuels my reactivity before I practice it daily. Because it's real inflammation, it's real damage, and unfortunately not all cases can just address these situations the mental aspect way. Wish we could!

 

[Michael Leigh]

As I truly did not understand what was happening to me following my major surgery in 2021, @Michael Leigh, @MindOverMatter and @Marin amongst others have helped me so much and I am so grateful for their knowledge, guidance and experience on hyperacusis.

Thank you for your kind words @Eleanor89. You have made a lot of progress in two years and I am very pleased for you. It is nice to know you got help from other members of this forum.

Thanks Michael. There were many times I would read your posts about your recovery and I would tell myself "oh, he must not have had it like I do. I'll never recover. He doesn't know what he's talking about."

Thank you for your kind words @sjtinguy. Like @Eleanor89, you have made a lot of progress. I am pleased you both have given others that maybe having a difficult time coping with tinnitus and hyperacusis, that it's possible they can improve with treatment and one's future doesn't necessarily have to be one of impending doom and gloom.

I am not one to blow my own trumpet but in this instance I want to say, I do know what I am talking about when it comes to noise-induced tinnitus and hyperacusis, with or without pain. If I didn't, I don't think I would have been able to write my posts and counsel people affected by these conditions. I also want to express, as I have done many times that we are all different and therefore the advice I give is not absolute. Some people have very severe noise-induced tinnitus with or without pain hyperacusis. Treatment for these people can be especially difficult and challenging.

Michael

 

[Jupiterman]

@sjtinguy, do you think there is ever a situation when a severe case would benefit from overprotection/silence for a period of time?

 

[ShaunR]

@sjtinguy, thank you for coming on and sharing your success story. The replies you got are why I generally don't bother posting anymore. God forbid you dare say that hyperacusis and noxacusis is anything but hearing damage or that maybe silence isn't the best treatment. Like you, these same people kept me in a dark place much longer than I needed to be there.

Again thank you for your positive post. This forum needs more people like you.

Shaun

 

[BrysonKingMe]

@sjtinguy, thank you for coming on and sharing your success story. The replies you got are why I generally don't bother posting anymore. God forbid you dare say that hyperacusis and noxacusis is anything but hearing damage or that maybe silence isn't the best treatment. Like you, these same people kept me in a dark place much longer than I needed to be there.

Again thank you for your positive post. This forum needs more people like you.

Shaun

Shaun,

It seems people do get better, I'm glad you both did and I expect to in time.

But answer this -- what is Brian or others homebound for years doing wrong? Should he push past the pain, which he's already tried and get worse? Just like tinnitus, hyperacusis is a spectrum. It goes from pain from loud noise to pain in silence.

I understand Brian's frustration at stories like these -- I'm not mad that someone got better, I am mad that they are putting a blanket statement saying "everyone can get better, they're just not trying hard enough".

@sjtinguy got better, that's awesome, I have no doubt that TRT helped him. But there are cases MUCH more severe than his, and for him to say "it's the mindset holding you back", or "you didn't TRT hard enough" is just insulting.

You are both missing the point here and I don't know how else to explain it. I can draw you a picture if you think that would help.

 

[Isaac Ramsay]

It doesn't matter what health condition you're in yourself, or indeed your opinions on how to treat the said condition.

If you reply to someone's health success story basically sh*tting all over their achievement in getting over it, you're not being the good person.

 

[ShaunR]

Oh yeah, I'm soooo toxic. LMAO, funny when people post things that can actually help. I'm pretty supportive. Go post this garbage elsewhere with all the other positive thinking mild sufferers.

So posts like the above are acceptable?

Who is @Brian Newman or anyone else to say those who got better were mild?

And please quote where @sjtinguy, or myself, said that 'Everyone can get better'. Personally I've neve made such a statement.

All I've ever said is that hyperacusis is a very personal disease. And we all deal with it differently. However, negativity helps no on. I for one would have loved to have seen more positivity when I was in my darkest days. I'd much rather have had false hope than no hope at all.

Shaun