Where in the Ear Is Your Pain Felt?

[East]

Was just wondering what part of the ear most people experience pain from their hyperacusis/TTTS. Is it deep in the ear canal? I feel like mine is in the outer cartilage part of my ear... Mostly burning feeling with some aching.

Thanks.

 

[serendipity1996]

Thankfully my setback seems to be improving so now I'm just battling some reactive tinnitus and fullness but I occasionally get minor pain that feels like a needle pricking my ear - I feel it on the outer part of my ear in the cartilage. It doesn't really feel like a deep inner ear sensation for me.

 

[serendipity1996]

To elaborate on my post, I experienced a burning/cooling sensation that seemed to emanate from the inner ear when my setback was at its worst a few weeks ago. It felt like someone had poured warm liquid into my ears. I wouldn't even describe it as acutely 'painful' and it only seemed to come about as a delayed reaction to noise exposure but it was definitely very uncomfortable and distracting. I also experienced mild pins and needles and tingling in my cheekbones and forehead which seems like it may be referred pain.

My setback seems to be improving but it's still a slow process and my ears still don't feel 'right'. I'm not getting the burning/cooling and intense fullness thank god but I'm still left with sensitivity after noise exposure - my ears tend to feel a bit 'warm' and inflamed but this no longer escalates to the burning/fullness of a few weeks ago. I also think I might be suffering from TTTS - my ears constantly feel 'tight' around noise almost like a coil that is about to spring. I wonder if the middle ear muscles are over-reacting and tensing in this case. Incidentally, I took magnesium one night a few days ago and it could just be coincidental but it seemed to help. I've read some interesting descriptions of hyperacusis on this forum such as people saying it feels like a filter has been removed and your ear is 'open'. Mine definitely feels like that at the moment.

For now, I'm just trying to play it safe and using earplugs when I go out - I don't plan on doing this long-term but I think it's important to listen to your body when in the midst of a setback. Above all, I'm trying not to rush things.

 

[East]

To elaborate on my post, I experienced a burning/cooling sensation that seemed to emanate from the inner ear when my setback was at its worst a few weeks ago. It felt like someone had poured warm liquid into my ears. I wouldn't even describe it as acutely 'painful' and it only seemed to come about as a delayed reaction to noise exposure but it was definitely very uncomfortable and distracting. I also experienced mild pins and needles and tingling in my cheekbones and forehead which seems like it may be referred pain.

My setback seems to be improving but it's still a slow process and my ears still don't feel 'right'. I'm not getting the burning/cooling and intense fullness thank god but I'm still left with sensitivity after noise exposure - my ears tend to feel a bit 'warm' and inflamed but this no longer escalates to the burning/fullness of a few weeks ago. I also think I might be suffering from TTTS - my ears constantly feel 'tight' around noise almost like a coil that is about to spring. I wonder if the middle ear muscles are over-reacting and tensing in this case. Incidentally, I took magnesium one night a few days ago and it could just be coincidental but it seemed to help. I've read some interesting descriptions of hyperacusis on this forum such as people saying it feels like a filter has been removed and your ear is 'open'. Mine definitely feels like that at the moment.

For now, I'm just trying to play it safe and using earplugs when I go out - I don't plan on doing this long-term but I think it's important to listen to your body when in the midst of a setback. Above all, I'm trying not to rush things.

Hey serendipity, thanks for your reply. Our symptoms sounds very similar.

I too had the tight feeling in my ear, but that seems to have gotten better this past week or so. How would you describe your fullness feeling?? Like you couldn't hear out of the ear? My ears were burning pretty bad last night, but luckily it went away after sleeping. I don't really get the setback everyone talks about....Or at least mine don't last as long? My ear pain seems to go away within an hour or so after moving to a quiet/stress free place. How long do your setbacks last??

 

[Christopher805]

I also have occasional ear pain/soreness. I am not certain if it's deep in the ear. It seems to occur when my ears have been overloaded with everyday sounds. It does not last long. Sometime my ear feel warm and itch. I have no idea what hat means.

 

[Mister Muso]

I feel like mine is in the outer cartilage part of my ear... Mostly burning feeling with some aching.

Thanks.

It can be anywhere from there, to apparently just inside the eardrum for me.

 

[Sash]

To elaborate on my post, I experienced a burning/cooling sensation that seemed to emanate from the inner ear when my setback was at its worst a few weeks ago. It felt like someone had poured warm liquid into my ears. I wouldn't even describe it as acutely 'painful' and it only seemed to come about as a delayed reaction to noise exposure but it was definitely very uncomfortable and distracting. I also experienced mild pins and needles and tingling in my cheekbones and forehead which seems like it may be referred pain.

My setback seems to be improving but it's still a slow process and my ears still don't feel 'right'. I'm not getting the burning/cooling and intense fullness thank god but I'm still left with sensitivity after noise exposure - my ears tend to feel a bit 'warm' and inflamed but this no longer escalates to the burning/fullness of a few weeks ago. I also think I might be suffering from TTTS - my ears constantly feel 'tight' around noise almost like a coil that is about to spring. I wonder if the middle ear muscles are over-reacting and tensing in this case. Incidentally, I took magnesium one night a few days ago and it could just be coincidental but it seemed to help. I've read some interesting descriptions of hyperacusis on this forum such as people saying it feels like a filter has been removed and your ear is 'open'. Mine definitely feels like that at the moment.

For now, I'm just trying to play it safe and using earplugs when I go out - I don't plan on doing this long-term but I think it's important to listen to your body when in the midst of a setback. Above all, I'm trying not to rush things.

Yes its seems warm/burning sensation with the warm liquid is common with hyperacusis sufferers. I too feel like the filter has been removed and ear is open. Everything is much louder including traffic I suppose the outer hairs act like a filter of sound and notices I have lost quite a few hair as its ended in my ear wax which is worrying.

Ears still feel sensitive and weak and get tired listening to normal sounds. I am trying to expose my ears more (perhaps out of laziness as cannot be bother to use ear plugs). All forms of exercise seems to make H worse but it takes around a day to feel the impact.

I think you are doing the right thing about being patient and not worrying about it too much. I only worry as there are things I want to do but can't At least its improving for you which is a good sign and chances of hyperacusis improving is greater than tinnitus.

 

[TheDanishGirl]

Deep within the ear canal.

 

[serendipity1996]

Hey serendipity, thanks for your reply. Our symptoms sounds very similar.

I too had the tight feeling in my ear, but that seems to have gotten better this past week or so. How would you describe your fullness feeling?? Like you couldn't hear out of the ear? My ears were burning pretty bad last night, but luckily it went away after sleeping. I don't really get the setback everyone talks about....Or at least mine don't last as long? My ear pain seems to go away within an hour or so after moving to a quiet/stress free place. How long do your setbacks last??

I wouldn't say that the fullness affected my hearing or made it muffled but it felt like I had a blockage in my ear or water stuck there.

I'm currently experiencing my longest setback yet - it basically started at the beginning of December and then I misjudged and further worsened at the start of January. I do feel things have started to take on an upward trajectory over the past few weeks - 2/3 weeks ago even just going out to run errands gave me prolonged burning/cooling and pressure. Since then, the symptoms have calmed down somewhat and don't escalate to the intense burning/cooling pain etc but I'm by no means out of the woods yet.

I've been able to manage going outside with discrete musicians' earplugs and regain a sense of normalcy but my ears still feel quite 'sensitive' - like today, my ears feel kinda warm for no reason - this isn't even painful just quite distracting and annoying and feels like a constant 'reminder' of the fragility of my ears. Overall things are improving but it's difficult to deal with the day-to-day fluctuations. I've actually got a job interview on Wednesday which is good news and might distract me but I'm finding it so hard to contain my worry about my ears.

I'm just trying to listen to my body and play it safe, taking it day by day.

 

[East]

I read somewhere on this forum that most hyperacusis cases recover.... is this even accurate

 

[PeteJ]

Pain in the ear canal but also particularly below the ear. I don't know what it is.

 

[Orions Pain]

Sometimes I get weird aches deep in my ear canal.
Lately my ear has had both cooling/burning sensations but this feels like it's right at the opening of the ear. It's not painful, just kind of uncomfortable.

Whenever my coworkers are speaking close to me my ears don't like it. It's hard to describe but it almost makes me flinch?

I also experience what I believe to be TTTS. The two *bad* episodes have followed days where I was exposed to a lot of "moderate" noise. For the last 4 days I've had it almost daily, but it comes on every 10 seconds or so and will just do a thump thump. Feels like a hiccup in my ear.

I've given up headphones. I don't go to loud places and I work in a quiet office yet I feel like what I believe to be hyperacusis is just getting worse and worse weekly.

 

[aimlesshiker]

I too experience occasional, brief (1-2 seconds long) pain in either ear. Usually a few times a day but never at the same time, so far. I've had noise-induced tinnitus for a couple months now. A week or two after noticing tinnitus I was prescribed prednisone for a week, and then I noticed the ear pain, and it hasn't stopped since. First it was the right ear, and I'd get those little instantaneous pain stabs, then my left ear also started ringing/having pains. If I had to guess I'd say it's right around the eardrum area. It's a physical sensation, too, almost as if it's twitching/cramping. But it's SO brief, and while I'm not too worried about it, I haven't seen anything else like this on the internet.

Is this intermittent pain just part of tinnitus? It's not hyperacusis because it'll happen even in silence. I'm only just now (again, 2 months in) noticing that I do indeed having hearing loss in my left ear even after the ENT said my hearing was fine. I keep habituating but then a new symptom starts

Oh, I forgot to mention, last night I noticed the area around my ear felt mildly numb. Just barely. Like my earlobe and cheek area, nothing else.

 

[Aaron91]

I have had five different kind of sensations with this condition, including three different kinds of pain:

1) What I call pain "type 1", or what I believe others call "loudness" hyperacusis. This is the pain I feel when a noise is above a particular decibel threshold or of a particular frequency. It's very hard to describe, but it's slightly different from pain "type 2" that I describe below. I think this sensation is what people mean when they describe "loudness" hyperacusis, but I have never liked this term because I would say it is more than just sound feeling abnormally loud. It is outright painful, albeit only for the time the sound is occuring. It feels like it occurs inside the ear (behind the ear drum).

2) What I call pain "type 2", or what I believe others call "noxacusis". This is literally like a headache or stomach ache in the ear. Almost like someone has stabbed me in the ear with a knife. This happens a lot less often than pain "type 1" and sometimes occurs even in the absence of sound, but it is different from pain "type 1" in that its length does not seem to be determined by how long a sound lasts. This also feels like it occurs inside the ear (behind the ear drum).

3) What I call pain "type 3" pain - delayed facial/ear/jaw pain that many of us believe is a type of trigeminal neuralgia. This often follows "type 1" pain.

4) Burning sensation in the ear. Thankfully I've only ever experienced this once, but it was very unpleasant. It felt more as if this was in the middle/outer part of the ear.

5) Twitching, almost like a butterfly in the ear. I believe this is what's called TTTS. I had this very badly in the first couple of months but it has calmed down significantly since then. It seems to be brought on more by things that cause me stress and anxiety (which of course includes sound) than anything else.

This condition is such an enigma.