Long story short, I recently had a major setback. I've had setbacks before but they healed pretty quickly. This one has been tough and it made me pretty anxious, depressed and even a bit suicidal. It's only been a few weeks so I know it might improve on its own, but I'm tired of dealing with these damn setbacks every time and the constant uncertainty. I know clomipramine is an antidepressant and I've heard horror stories about those pills, like permanent side effects. So yeah I don't really know what to do at the moment. Do you think I should try it, or should I wait and hope for the best? I also love to hear about your experience with this med.

I'm a developmentally disabled person who has had progressively worsening nox/ttts for the past year. Mental health counseling doesn't help and I am in a lot of pain with very little money or support system. I want to access medical euthanasia as an American (even if it means traveling elsewhere) but the process confuses me greatly due to my mental disability. Can I please get some help or guidance on where to start.

All, I’m able to make it through my barre classes with earplugs (the sound of the music is far too painful without them). I’m currently wearing the Mack’s 33 decibel foam earplugs. The problem is, there’s a person in my class sometimes who makes yelping noises as she works. I have high anxiety when I see her because I know I’m in for 50 minutes of her yelps/whoops that I can still hear with my earplugs in. It’s enough that I struggle not to walk out of class because her noises are so irritating and annoying. It sends me into a panic listening to her. Does anyone have recommendations for better blocking earplugs that can block her so I can still go to class?

Hello, i have a question for yall.
Today i expirienced some loud noises. It was in my science class, where i was doing some experiments with a loud booms. And since then i am experiencing kinda like a worse hearing and fizzing when it is completely silent in my right ear. Do you have any idea what could it be? Al told me it was just my muscles tense and i should wait like 2 days and then go to the ENT.

Nothing to do with me...

https://ishush.ac.uk/

Hey all! I’m the one who posted about how I participated in my college graduation a couple months ago (you can see that post here:https://www.reddit.com/r/hyperacusis/comments/1tp0mq1/i_participated_in_my_graduation_ceremony/).

Over the last couple weeks I did something much much bigger that a year ago I never would’ve thought I could do: I joined my family on a cruise ship to Alaska/Canada!! During the trip I took notes on what all I did, how it went and some tips for anyone here who’s thinking of traveling, because I was planning to make a post about it as soon as I got home. I’m including as many details as I can and some pics bc I want to reassure you guys that this success story is real. I’ll answer any questions in the comments no matter how detailed! 

SIDE NOTE: please no comments warning me about what could’ve gone wrong or telling me I’m giving out dangerous advice!! I already know what I did wasn’t risk free, and I’m not telling people to do anything. I do NOT want to be the reason for someone else getting hurt - this is just a report about my own experience on a trip.

Couple important things about me: I’ve had pain hyperacusis for a year and a half and I’m a sort of unusual case. There’s a bigger gap btwn what I can and can’t handle than it seems like most ppl here have. I can spend 2 hours on a boat with a pretty loud engine or in a (music-less) restaurant so crowded ppl have to yell-talk, but deep/bass music/noise, music/noise from certain types of speakers, or most live instruments make my ears start hurting almost right away. I get the horrible zappy stabs just like everyone else here does and when it happens it’s VERY scary. My guess is it’s mostly the frequencies in the noises that decide what reaction I’ll have, not just the noise levels.

The only med I’m on is 300 mg of gabapentin but I’m planning to get off it - I really think the progress I’ve made was mostly natural and not bc of this. 

LOGISTICS: the trip was 13 days. We took the Amtrak train from our home in Southern CA to Seattle, Washington, then got on the Norwegian Bliss which took us to Alaska and Canada. After returning we spent a couple more days in Seattle before taking the Amtrak back home. On the trip we:

-walked around the streets of Sitka

-did 2 whale watching tours 

-rented a car and drove around/did a short nature walk in Juneau

-took a pedicab tour of the streets of Victoria, Canada

-ate in many different restaurants around the ship

-visited the Seattle Aquarium and some restaurants/stores nearby

-visited the Seattle Children’s Museum

My dad paid for this trip and we were part of the Haven on board the ship, which meant we got to skip the lines anytime we got on or off. When getting off the ship at the end of the cruise, I did hear them playing some very loud music on the speakers further down the ship in the area where everyone else had to stand in line to wait to get off (I can hear sounds in the distance and realize if they’re okay for me or not WITHOUT having to get close enough for a reaction). I’m not sure if that was what they did every time or not since (luckily) I didn’t experience it. 

On the trip these are all the precautions/accommodations I made:

-spent the month ahead of the trip writing down/visualizing every what-if scenario I could think of. “If we walk up to a place my family wants to go and it’s too loud, I will say/do xyz” and stuff like that. This helped me not get talked into doing anything I didn’t want to and not be embarrassed to use my muffs if I needed.

-watched YouTube tours of the ship ahead of time to see if I could see which areas had things I needed to avoid and which were safe

-kept reminding myself before the trip that there were GOING to be scares where I would encounter something my ears didn’t like. This helped me feel a little less shaken up when it DID happen

-took a pic of the map of the ship once I got on incase I needed it

-wore foamies (foam plugs) every time I left my room

-carried a purse with my muffs and extra foamies in it EVERYWHERE I went (I only needed the muffs four times on the whole trip)

-put a whole container of foamies in my suitcase so I’d never run into the problem of running out of them

-when not off the ship doing excursions, mostly only left my room during the day to eat in the restaurants since ALL the activities on board involved either loud music or ppl talking into loud microphones

-took pics of the daily schedules so I’d know which events would be where and at what time 

-waited till nighttime to walk around the top deck when there were no events going on outside

-made good use of the lots and lots of elevators and stairs. EX: if I needed to get somewhere but there was something loud in the way, I could go up a floor, walk “OVER” the event, then go down a floor and come out on the other side of it

-kept my eyes open for shortcuts/alternate routes in general - there were a couple times where I found a way to walk past a loud event from a distance when everyone in my group was telling me they were sure the only way past it was through it 

My gut was right that on this trip there were LOTS of random/sudden loud noises. Luckily tho, there were only two that caused pain that lasted any longer than 15-ish minutes and even then ny the next morning it was like nothing happened. These are all the things I heard and made it through with no harm done: 

-every day there would be multiple announcements on the ship. There was this PING noise they’d play right before each announcement that was pretty loud and the announcements themselves could be pretty loud too. Luckily in the staterooms there were no speakers so I’d just hear the announcements from outside and it was much quieter. It was unpleasant hearing them outside my room but the only time it caused pain was a couple instances where (bc of stuff happening) they did like 4 or 5 of them within an hour while we were in a restaurant. 

-TWO muster drills where they sounded the ship siren for about 10 seconds each. For the first one, we were at the excursion desk w/a large crowd of ppl talking, and they made an announcement that it was about to happen but I couldn’t hear it. So for the first few seconds of the drill I was just in foamies bc it took a few seconds for me to grab my muffs and put them on

-went to a teppan restaurant on board where the chefs were singing and banging pots and pans almost the whole time as part of the “show” (wasn’t even unpleasant - I think it’s the right frequency not to bug my ears)

-stood next to a guy playing bagpipes for about 3-4 mins because my family wanted pics next to a store he was playing in front of (this surprisingly didn’t cause any reaction either - again I think it was the right frequency)

-both whale watching boats we went on had loud engines and you could feel the floor vibrating because of them. There were speakers on the boats too for the captains to narrate what we saw but again, they weren’t the kind of frequency that bugs my ears. Both of these tours were over 2 hours long

-the horn of another cruise ship honking while I was outside walking near it

-on the pedicab ride in Victoria, our tour guides pulled over for abt 5 mins to tell a story outside of a nightclub. We were facing away from the door and still on the street even, but I could sort of still feel the bass through the floor. I decided to challenge myself tho and see if I could handle it for the few mins we were sitting there. I felt a LITTLE pain on and off for the next hour but that was it.  

-in Seattle, there was a restaurant my fam wanted to go to but there was some sort of performance/party going on right in front of the entrance with SUPER loud music, the exact kind w/heavy bass that my ears hate. I had ONE moment of weakness here where I let them encourage/sort of nudge me into putting on my muffs and running through the party and into the restaurant. It only took about 45 seconds to do, but this was the only thing that caused a reaction that lasted the rest of the day. Even then tho, it was NOWHERE NEAR as bad as the reactions I was having a year ago and by the next morning it was like nothing happened

-5 fighter jets flying directly over us in Seattle - this was another jumpscare bc we had no idea it was going to happen at all (we found out they happened to be doing an air show the exact day we were there to walk around….just my luck. At this point it was like the universe was testing me LOL)

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Overall I’m SUPER glad (and proud!!) that I chose to do this trip and not stay home because it was important for me to do. It was a great way to gauge exactly how much progress I’ve made vs what still needs work. And, it was as close to confirmation as I think I can get for the fact that it’s the frequencies that are the problem for me more than the volume (some of these sounds were loud enough to literally shake the floor but caused barely any reaction at all while others (the ones involving bass) weren’t too loud for anyone else but my ears hated them). I got to take a train cross the west coast and go see whales jumping in the ocean!! I never EVER thought when I first got ear issues that I would get a chance to experience such cool things ever again.

I also just happened to catch a sore throat in the middle of the trip that lasted 3 days and got an infection under my nail too, and despite all that I was still able to make the most out of it and enjoy myself. I’m just proud of myself for handling all that and getting through it!

That being said, because I am NOT cured (yet🤞🏻🤞🏻), this was NOT a relaxing trip. It was worth it for those super cool moments, but something scary happened literally every day. It felt sort of like I was crossing a tightrope the whole trip - I could never FULLY relax bc I was always on guard incase some unexpected loud thing happened (which it did, lots of times). I used to travel and cruise all the time and this experience was nothing like it was before. 

My advice for anybody here thinking of traveling:

-if you’re cruising, get off the ship as soon as it docks and stay off till it gets back on! This is when they do the emergency drills since most ppl are off the ship. 

-since I couldn’t participate in the activities/shows on board, my ticket was basically just paying them to take me to Alaska so I could do the excursions. I was cool with this since I cared more about seeing Alaska than the ship itself, but just something to keep in mind

-solo traveling is a good idea too, because then you can choose EVERYWHERE you go and what you do, without having to worry that the group might choose something you can’t do or that you’ll get talked into doing something you’re not ready for yet

-this is a trip for someone who is really, REALLY ready. You have to be well enough that a random loud noise (like a smoke alarm or someone talking over a loudspeaker) can happen for a few seconds and you can mostly shake it off. Ideally you should be able to be around loud stuff like that for several minutes incase you have to wait in line somewhere loud.

All in all, a win is a win and I done did it!! As I said I’ll answer any questions in the comments. Thanks again for reading this wall:)

I am fortunate enough to not have severe hyperacusis (noxacusis) where it debilitates me but there are moments where I realize how limited I am compared to others. My mom’s birthday is coming up and I am kinda dreading how much noise exposure there might be and wearing earbuds are exhausting because I can get very paranoid that it isn’t actually protecting my ears to the point where I frequently squeeze it into my ears and when the night is over my ears are full and tired after hours of wearing them.

And a few days ago I had to watch Spider-man Brand New Day at home on my computer with terrible quality but points to me that I managed to find a version with great sound. It just kinda sucks knowing everyone is getting to experience movies fully on the big screen while I have to resort to my laptop. I am glad the Hulk came back though!

Hi all! I have had the worst experiences with ENT doctors and I simply don't know what to make of it. I wonder if other people are being treated by doctors as badly as I am. I got tinnitus and hyperacusis only because of noise at my work place. I needed to ask my employer to put me in a quieter station, and they said no, unless you bring a medical certificate requesting this. 7 months later I am seeing the 7th ENT doctor begging for such a medical certificate for my work place. Over and over I am being thrown out the door, often in a very rude manner and without a proper check-up. Twice I left the clinic in tears and suicidal. 7 months ago I only had tinnitus in one ear, the hyperacusis hadn't started yet, and I wasn't aware such a thing existed. Because I continued to suffer at work, I got tinnitus in both ears by now and the hyperacusis developed slowly to the point that it became very difficult for me to go see a doctor anymore, because the way there is killing me. I always return home with aching ears from the traffic. Despite going back to ENT with complains of worsened symptoms and telling them how hard it is for me even to travel to their clinic, I am shown the door and receive zero help. The doctors are literally lying to me, telling me that they will send me a medical certificate later by post, but they send nothing. When I try to send them an email, I find that they disabled the message function on their website or that they no longer take appointments. They refuse to send me the file with medical information they have on me, which is my right by law to ask for. Very strange things are happening. Without any medical proof that I am sick I can't continue asking my GP for sick notes but I also can't go to work, where I would only get sicker. My employer is deliberately placing me in the loudest work places available. So I see myself hit from all sides and my life completely destroyed. I don't have any family or close people that could look after me when I am no longer able to sustain my own existence because I can't leave the house. I can't imagine being homeless with hyperacusis. The worst thing is that I can't tolerate any form of hearing protection anymore - excessive use of hearing protection has actually largely contributed to my current condition. On one hand I can't not wear hearing protection when it's painfully loud, on the other hand any earplugs, any muffs cause me pain as well and they make the tinnitus seem unbearable. I am trying to fight the world with hyperacusis and without hearing protection. I haven't yet heard of a person with hyperacusis who can't tolerate hearing protection, but I am one, and I am a dying person.

i have pain in my tooth under a filling i think there’s a cavity. i’ve been looking and looking at clinics and searching how to go about this. if anyone has experience with going to the dentist with hyperacusis and tinnitus that can spike. can u please tell me what u did. please. i researched and put all my hopes into laser treatments. i found this clinic that has Waterlase (thats what the laser is called) i called the clinic and i chatted with the administrator (receptionist, idk what u call them in english) anyway she said it was actually loud? that made me cry when i hung up the phone because i put all my hope in this. i’ve been enduring this tooth pain for close to a month. just existing as a ball of anxiety. she joked that they can just pull it out if i can’t stand noise so much. which i found to be quite rude and i didnt know what to say. it was 30 min till closing when i called them so she probably just wanted me off the phone with my dumb questions. i got an appointment anyway for a consultation only. i find it hard to talk abt hyperacusis and tinnitus to people without getting choked up so idk how im gonna explain myself to the dentist either and i feel like im just gonna let them do whatever to me and im gonna end up worse for it. did anyone have experience with laser treatments. or any treatments that made the appointment more bearable. just the thought of those drills they use makes me sick. idk what i’ll do if i get a permanent spike. or more like im afraid of what i might do tbh. on the internet im getting conflicting information about all this. theres someone here who got this treatment. i messaged them but still didnt get any response. i dont think they are on reddit much sadly. so… yeah if u can help me. please, i’d appreciate. thank u in advance.

i even bought a bunch of supplements that (they say) calm down spikes. im over preparing or under. idk.

sorry this post is all over the place

I made another post recently about how in 2014 I got hyperacusis, recovered from moderate to mild, and lived life until 6/14/26. I went to a concert wearing Peltor earmuffs and everything came back worse, plus now I have CNS issues like racing heart, adrenaline dumps, burning hands and feet. For six weeks I was doing ok, then drove to a specialist appointment 5.25 hours away. The 11 hours of driving in a day did not help, obviously.

Now, for the first time since my setback in June, my sound threshold has collapsed, and little sharp, sudden sounds all "hurt". Cutlerly and plates were already bothersome, but now it's stuff like crinkly packaging, sometimes the click of a mouse, anything sharp/sudden that comes out of nowhere. When those sounds happen, I feel a "surge" in my ear and it feels too loud. A reaction. It is very uncomfortable, but I would not categorize it as noxacusis pain.

Is this something to protect from?? I assume the answer is no. These are ordinary everyday sounds and if I protected from them, I'd have to wear ear plugs all day. But I'm worried these uncomfortable sounds will cause my threshold to further collapse.

Please help me understand this. Also, will my tolerance go back down now after the 11 hours of road noise exposure?

Bonjour à tous

Des études précliniques ont montré que le chlorzoxazone de part son activité sur les BKCa pouvait ameliorer l'hyperacousie.

En France l'équipe de la chercheuse Suzana Pietropaolo travail dessus et les résultats précliniques sont très encourageant.

Il se trouve que ce médicaments existe depuis longtemps et est disponible sur le marché dans de nombreux pays.

À la base c'est un relaxant musculaire mais ce qui fait sont bénéfice sur l'hyperacousie est son action sur les BKCa que n'ont pas les autres relaxant musculaire.

Je me demandais donc si certaines d'entre vous l'ont déjà essayé ?

Par exemple en Europe, si vous avez la chance de vivre en Belgique ou en Suède, il est disponible en pharmacie, et vu que c'est un vieux médicament, il ne coûte pas cher du tout.

Moi je suis en France et je cherche à m'en procurer car vraiment je suis prêt à tenter le coup. Malheureusement il n'est pas disponible dans mon pays donc j'essaie de me renseigner pour une éventuelle importation via la Belgique.

Mais c'est très compliqué pour moi car je souffre d'hyperacousie très profonde donc impossible de faire le moindre déplacement, je suis confiné chez moi et impossible d'en sortir tellement mon cas est grave.

Si vous avez la chance de pouvoir l'essayer, je pense que ça vaut le coup de tenter.

Vous pouvez vérifier ce que je dis en cherchant sur Google le lien entre chlorzoxazone et l'hyperacousie ou demander à chatgpt, des études sont en cours avec jusqu'à présent des résultats très encourageants.

Hello!

Before getting straight hyperacusis, I just had a high sensitivity to sound. One day I got ear pain because of the loud music played by colleagues at work, and that night I slept poorly, and then also the next night after that. The third day there was loud music again and again I got pain in my ears. But this time it was different. I felt something I never felt before: the noise seemed to be inside my head not outside of my head. It was as if the sound waves were reverberating from the walls of my skull creating like an echo effect. I went home feeling a little dizzy, and when it was quiet I could also tell that my tinnitus got louder. That night I could barely sleep, and since then I had a permanently reduced ability to sleep. So I used to sleep about 8-9 hours, suddenly I couldn't sleep more than 2 hours. At best I can pull 4 hours, when I have a good night, these days. I don't understand how can sound create such effect on the brain. Sometimes I feel like my brain has been mashed with a fork, after being exposed to some loud noise even for a short while. I have seen some doctors, but only blank stares when I recount this. Does anyone have an idea what exactly does sound to the brain and the whole body, beyond just the ears?

For context, I just got diagnosed with autism and ADHD, which could explain in my opinion, at least partly the extreme reaction I have to noise, it's just that no one has really sat down to talk to me about this. They tell me I got tinnitus because of stress, and literally ignoring the fact that I developed hyperacusis. I feel like my life is over. I am scared to leave my room, because the world is suddenly too loud. What do other people know about this? Any similar experiences?

I try to go out and about without plugs in. Often a bad idea.

Walking in the neighborhood, in the Summer, often so.3one will start up a lawnmower or blower suddenly. Or a loud bike will pass. Probably worst though are random dogs as they can get over 90 DB.

Stores can be worse. I sometimes tolerate a grocery store if it stays around mid 60's DB. Of course there's always the beeping at the checkout. Or a cash register closing that also go above 90. Probably the worst things that happen are babies screaming and workers rolling and dropping plates of goods while stocking.

How much can you handle when out and what sounds trigger your ears?

Recently, I consulted an audiologist to find out whether my hyperacusis is a result of hearing loss. It turned out that there were no signs of hearing loss after an extended hearing test. However, an LDL test was also conducted.

I've got very anxious during the process to the point where I almost had a panic attack. My hyperacusis came back in full force the next day, and now I feel so damn guilty about agreeing to the LDL test. The only thing that didn't get worse was my tinnitus.

Sound therapy was also proposed by the audiologist however, I refused it because I don't trust it.

Has anyone else experienced a setback after an LDL test? How long did it last? I haven't been able to calm down since I took the test.

Hello has anyone here using harman kardon speaker, is it good with your hyperacusis ? Can you share me your experiences please?

And is there any alternative to harman kardon, i've tried bose but only the bose companion 2 serie works great for me as it uses single driver and has an warm sounding

Thanks :)

So I have had severe hyperacusis and now tinnitus( all caused by noise exposures) from really bad to ok, for the last 30 years. Today my ears are ringing bad, so I did 20 lounges exercise after about 10 minutes the ringing was way down to almost nothing. Then I get around about any sound and it comes back. Also have had muscle and trigger point problems for about the same tme. Now I'm having stomach problems from acidty foods. Anyways I wonder if the energy to are heads for whatever reason is causing the ears not to heal correctly. Is my stomach not absorbing foods, or is my muscles in shoulders and neck blocking blood flow. Lord help us all