Pink noise seems to be the de facto treatment for Hyperacusis, so as someone whose H recently went from 'moderate' to 'strong' I have been looking into it. However, there's a number of things about it I don't understand, I'm hoping perhaps someone here knows a bit more.
1) What's the effectiveness of pink noise sound therapy? I see several users here who suffer from severe H so I guess it doesn't work for everyone? What kind of reduction in discomfort/pain could one expect if the treatment works? I understand it's a slow process in any case, 12-18 months I think I read somewhere?
2) How does pink noise help, exactly? As I understand it Hyperacusis is a condition where the 'volume gain' in the brain gets turned up so that everything sounds much louder than it really is. How does pink noise reverse this effect? I understand that pink noise is a sound with specific frequency - intensity characteristic, but how does listening to that retrain the brain? Or is there nothing really special about pink noise except that it closely resembles the kinds of sounds people will hear in daily life, and rather the important thing is just to keep listening to sound and not try to isolate onself, and listening to pink noise is just a structured way of doing that?
3) How do I use pink noise? I listen to it on my computer's speakers (no way I'm putting headphones on my ears anymore) and I turn it down so that it's barely audible. Yet after I listen to it for some time it still seems to make my ear hurt. According to hyperacusis.net one should listen to pink noise for 2 to 8 hours every day but I don't think I can do that at the moment. Maybe it's too early after my setback and I should give my ear some more rest first? Or is it important to start this as quickly as possible and should I just ignore the pain in this case? (The sound really is soft and doesn't 'feel' loud to me either. I don't understand at all how it can make my ear hurt.)
I understand these are pretty specific questions but I assume a lot of people in this subforum have tried pink noise so I'm hoping someone may have some insights. (Although I see surprisingly few threads about pink noise, not sure why that is..)
1) What's the effectiveness of pink noise sound therapy? I see several users here who suffer from severe H so I guess it doesn't work for everyone? What kind of reduction in discomfort/pain could one expect if the treatment works? I understand it's a slow process in any case, 12-18 months I think I read somewhere?
2) How does pink noise help, exactly? As I understand it Hyperacusis is a condition where the 'volume gain' in the brain gets turned up so that everything sounds much louder than it really is. How does pink noise reverse this effect? I understand that pink noise is a sound with specific frequency - intensity characteristic, but how does listening to that retrain the brain? Or is there nothing really special about pink noise except that it closely resembles the kinds of sounds people will hear in daily life, and rather the important thing is just to keep listening to sound and not try to isolate onself, and listening to pink noise is just a structured way of doing that?
3) How do I use pink noise? I listen to it on my computer's speakers (no way I'm putting headphones on my ears anymore) and I turn it down so that it's barely audible. Yet after I listen to it for some time it still seems to make my ear hurt. According to hyperacusis.net one should listen to pink noise for 2 to 8 hours every day but I don't think I can do that at the moment. Maybe it's too early after my setback and I should give my ear some more rest first? Or is it important to start this as quickly as possible and should I just ignore the pain in this case? (The sound really is soft and doesn't 'feel' loud to me either. I don't understand at all how it can make my ear hurt.)
I understand these are pretty specific questions but I assume a lot of people in this subforum have tried pink noise so I'm hoping someone may have some insights. (Although I see surprisingly few threads about pink noise, not sure why that is..)
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