To those who recovered... have you had dental work done? Is it a death sentence? I mean will it come back full on hyperacusis aftwr dental work? Am i doomed ? Im terrified i would rather lose my teeth than go through dental work,im traumatized.
I would like to know if my eardrum could be the cause of my hearing loss. I had lost 100% of my hearing, and over the past six months, I have recovered about 30%, but only at certain frequencies. I still feel like my ear is blocked or full, and it keeps popping.
First pic - Earing loss tinnitus, second just littl tinnitus but no earingloss
nearly 3 years with severe tinnitus, hyperacusis and noxacusis, 8 months homeless with my mom, living with my aunt who really doesn't like me and believes i am faking my conditions, my mom is trying to get a job, i am trying to find a remote job, but their house is loud, up until now they gave me a bedroom but forced me to go look for jobs because i don't (can't) pay rent, yet they take the money i earn from art commissions, they have kids who are loud, they play music, they are loud too, the day before yesterday my aunt told my mom and i to leave, we went to my other aunt's house for a couple days, we were trying to see which of her friends would let us go with them until we found an apartment, told her i would try to apply for disability, section 8, whatever, then i texted my mom words of encouragement, my mom's other phone was with my aunt, she read the messages, now i'm afraid she knows about the gofundme i did to raise money for our apartment, which has only $2800 on it, they have an apartment ready next week but now we're here again because my aunt told us to come back but also said i no longer have the room, i have to be in the living room where they are, because she's doing other things with the room, neither my mom or my dad in mexico can help me find a place to go, nor do I have money to pay rent if i find a quiet place to go, because the gofundme isn't connected to my bank yet, this situation does not look survivable, i'm already in pain, my tinnitus is already really loud, with new tones, i do not know what to do.
Hello fellow sufferers, long story short my parents does not believe this condition is real and think it is all mental illness .
They are tired of me having home .
That's why gonna join some some course and deciding to live at college campus .
Does anyone with this hell condition attend regular classes ?
What protection do you use and how do you manage?
I don't mean to insult myself. I don't have a bad opinion of myself. But the truth is; hyperacusis made me a loser. By loser, I mean a person who loses out on everything in life.
I got severe hyperacusis and noxacusis when I was 26. I used to have hopes, dreams, and passions. I lived and breathed for jazz music. I wanted to travel. I had my whole life ahead of me.
But now that I'm almost 33 I finally have to accept that I'm a loser. Not a lame person; but a loser. A person who lost out on every experience of life. I'll never travel again. I'll never have a wife and kids. I'm simply sustaining my life, at the bare minimum of eating and sleeping, until I can't anymore.
If I ever get dental problems? Lord knows what I'm gonna do, because I can't go to a dentist.
For all my brothers and sisters out there going through this; I feel you. I have no reason to live anymore, I'm just going through the motions.
I hope you all have better days ahead. I don't even think about the future anymore. My dreams have been shattered and I'm just existing until I don't anymore.
Bless you all
I’ve had tinnitus and hyperacusis for about two months now following acoustic trauma, I’m still living in the hopes that it will resolve. I didn’t have any measurable hearing loss. I’ve noticed some improvement since onset but due to go abroad in September. Does anyone have any advice as to whether I should get some custom moulded earplugs, use noise cancelling headphones or just go without as I’ve seen some comments regarding trapping vibrations with earplugs and headphones potentially making tinnitus worse both temporarily and permanently!?!
Which would appreciate the advice
Thank you
Hello. I was curious about if anyone else had these shocks that hit from the top of the spine to the bottom of the skull every time someone makes a really loud noise? It's gotten to the point of it hurting constantly, and giving me high anxiety to where I just want to isolate myself from the world. Any thoughts?
My tinnitus sounds just like brown noise, but it doesn't cure my hyperacusis.
I have pain h / nox for almost 5 months .
I use peltor X3A for going outside in traffic .
The thing is my ears are fine on 1st day of going out, no pain .
But next day or any day withinn 1 month if I go out after that I have pain almost immediately being in traffic for all day even after coming back .
Does anyone have problem like that ?
which kind of protection I should take if I have to go out for like 3 days straight.
hey guys,
just really wanted to open a discussion for my specific set of symptoms since I feel very alone in this right now. looking both for advice and just to vent a little bit.
about 6 months ago, I had a bad fall at work and got a concussion. id experienced a concussion a couple years prior, so was familiar with the symptoms, but this time they lasted a lot longer. the whole situation was paired with a lack of support (living in the city and paying rent on my own) and a really toxic work environment. I ended up having to pay out of my own pocket to see a neurologist (got CT and MRI brain scans showing nothing) and an audiologist (also nothing physically wrong). I was also seeing a chiropractor at the time who helped me with whiplash injuries, as well as a psychologist for mental support. the main symptoms were between brain fog which lasted over a month after the injury (treated with amitriptyline) and weird hearing issues.
once most of the concussion symptoms died down, my ears started playing up. it started with sound becoming really muffled, sometimes fading in and out from one side to the other. I would get pretty loud ringing in the ears as well, but this didn't last as long. it eventually reached a point where sound became unbearably loud. at the time I lived next to a VERY busy road, but I had lived in that place for a few years so generally was used to it. this time though, the sound would physically hurt my ears. it got to a point where I had to wear ear plugs to bed, which in turn caused an ear infection (awesome).
but when I say pain, I mean an ache that radiates to my throat as well. I have a history of clenching my jaw with stress, so some say it could be related, but it's way different to that - that's usually tension in the joint that radiates to my upper body/head. when I look in the mirror, I can see my throat is red, and I can also feel it in my inner ear. it definitely worsens with sound exposure, and I think it is often very delayed. Ive also been getting this weird form of tinnitus that feels/sounds like thumping in each ear that comes out of no where and is very uncomfortable.
told this to my neurologist at a $200 appointment, and she basically just shrugged. when I finally got referred to an audiologist, he concluded my ears were physically fine, and that it was probably hyperacusis and would get better over time. if I was still concerned, the next step would be an ENT. but at the time (a few months ago) I was tired of spending money only for doctors to just tell me nothing was there/there was no solution. so instead I moved back in with my parents and tried to change up my life in order to move on from my stressful situation.
while I am less stressed now, the pain in my ears/throat is still there. its been 6 months since my injury. my ability to tolerate sound depends on the day. Ive seen sources that say it could be a nervous system response (researched acoustic shock and tensor tympani), and that avoiding sounds will make it worse. I do notice that thinking about it does make it a bit worse, but even when I'm not, the ache is still there. Ive always had slightly sensitive hearing, but used to love going to concerts, clubs, etc. but since then it's been hard for me to go out and even interact with people/go to work because everything just feels so over stimulating. I still do it because I know I need to, but I still come home with this pain in my ears.
if you've gotten through all this, all I really want to know from you guys is whether:
a.) you have ever experienced something like this before
b.) this sounds like a case of typical hyperacusis or something different
c.) whether it's worth seeing an ENT and what kind of treatment they would offer me.
really need the validation as my previous employer essentially gaslighted me and my doctor's seemingly had no idea what they were dealing with 🥲
thank you so much.
Hi everyone,
I went to a rock concert in late July (without plugs....) and got T/H which has turned into pain hyperacusis (nox) unfortunately in the middle of last week. Typical acoustic trauma, I believe. I come in search of advice from the sub as to how to best "recover" if possible.
I'd like to note that I believe that I had loudness H immediately after the concert along with T and didn't recognize it until it later turned into nox. I took 1 week of prednisone/trazodone which gave me some ETD/ear fullness but ultimately I believe not protecting ears well enough in the weeks after the acoustic trauma did me in.
My nox has been fairly severe from the start (8/4/26), I noticed facial nerve pain and jaw pain with headaches. Strangely, I haven't felt the intense burning ear pain others have mentioned with nox... I didn't know what was truly happening until I had an awful day at work/home where everything set off immense pain. Major setback...
Since last week, I have spent tons of time with double-pro on in quiet spaces and have noticed my LDL level rebounding a little bit. I would estimate it to be between 35-45 db right now.
Questions for the community:
As I noticed loudness H before taking the steroids, I'm assuming the nox is from the acoustic trauma even though it set in about 3 weeks post concert?
What can I do in the coming weeks/months to protect my hearing to try to reintegrate to real life? (currently mostly housebound)
Should I visit an ENT/Audiologist? (It appears that most in this sub would say no?)
When should I begin to desensitize my ears to sounds? Or do I need to protect for x amount of weeks/months before doing so? The majority of sounds are eliciting some type of pain response (although seems to be improving with more time spent in quiet spaces)
Thank you all for your time. This has been the most stressful and debilitating thing I've faced in my life (M24) - I hope I can recover
Hey all
I'd like to make it short. I have had moderate hyperacusis for years. Now that would be manageable if I didn't get a permanent worsening of my tinnitus each time I have a setback. I have encountered periods of instability where my hyperacusis went down to severe and I accumulated loads of worsenings. Fortunately I managed to stabilize again (usually with loads of silence and some luck). I seem currently at the start of another such period, and my tinnitus and situation have become so hard to endure at this point that I am willing to start experimenting with whatever medicine I can get hold off. I don't have a choice anymore.
I am wondering if anyone has tried Ebselen already (by importing it from China). So far I've seen one report from u/Dents1993, who said he didn't see an improvement. I wonder if anyone else has personal experience with Ebselen that he or she could share?
Big thanks in advance for any information you can provide.
My right forever causes me pain from one bad choice at a loud rock concert 7 years ago. My hearing in this was muffled for about 3 months at the time. I’ve worn earplugs basically everywhere since then, but the need has increased. I need them at work, at musical theatre rehearsal (which is so embarrassing needing to wear it during vocal and dance rehearsals hoping it stays hidden under my hair because I’m afraid no one will understand). I wear them to the movies, sometimes in any social gathering. I wonder if that has made my sensitivity worse. I’ve gone to the doctor for a hearing test twice and they say I have no hearing loss. I even got an mri scan of the ear to be sure it’s not a slow growing tumor. Will this ever get better? I hate wearing earplugs when I don’t necessarily need to (social events, show rehearsals) it’s a battle between wanting to avoid damage and pain and wanting to be able to hear the people around me and be present. I need my hearing to do the things I love. This sucks.
I think I have some form of sensitive hearing. I physically cannot stand being in the same room as someone whose breathing I can hear. I hate when someone is snoring, itching, scratching, chewing, scraping etc. All those specific kind of noises always make me feel either angry, irritated, annoyed, overwhelmed and sometimes upset.
I've struggled with this my whole life. When I was a child, me and my sister shared a bed, and I often struggled to sleep because of her snoring (it was light snoring aswell). I would kick her in her sleep, until the point my parents just got us separate beds. Even then I could still hear her snore, and always went to sleep with my fingers in my ears.
Even now, in school, hearing little sounds like this just make me cry. I sit next to a few students in some subjects who breathe a bit loud, and the moment I hear it, I just burst out crying and feel like ripping my hair out. I have to ask the teacher to use the toilet to calm myself down, but dealing with that for a whole hour is not something I can do. Its genuinely gotten to the point where its affecting my learning, since I can never focus on the lesson, and my focus is only on the breathing.
At home aswell, my dad chews his food with his mouth open (unfortunately), and he chews rather loud. I can't tell him to stop chewing so loud or anything like that, so I try to sit as far away from him as possible, but even then I can still hear it. Sometimes I tear up hearing it, and sometimes I just completely lose my appetite. My mum also itches her feet a lot (😭😭) and because her skin is incredibly dry the sound is insane and its the worst sound ever, alongside how loud she snores AND breathes. I sometimes ask if she can try to breathe a bit quieter or not scratch her feet, but she gets super angry and screams at me, which I do think is understandable. Everytime I bring up this problem I have, she shouts at me and tells me that I'm either a psycho, or that I'm possessed by a jinn. I've also tried to explain how I dont choose to get irritated by these sounds, nor do I want to, and that its affecting my everyday life, but she doesn't even listen then.
I've tried researching some of this kind of stuff. I see things saying it could symptoms of autism, adhd, misophonia or quite a few things, but I dont personally think I have that. Unless theres something that's specifically regarding hearing, then I don't know.
I would really appreciate if someone could give their opinion on this, and whether it needs proper looking into or its just me being me. Thanks ✌️🙂↕️
I hope that this is the first and last post you read on any forum about any one of these conditions. I can tell you from personal experience that endless research/reading does more harm than good. Everything you need to succeed is already within you.
Rest assured that what you're experiencing now is a gift in ugly wrapping. That truth can only be understood in time, so be patient.
Some context first:
I used to listen to loud music on my headphones for many years. I now have partial hearing loss in my left ear. I am a male in my late 20s. I was formally diagnosed with all 3 conditions by an ear surgeon, several ENTs, and several audiologists.
Long story short, because telling the origin story is not why I'm here:
Today is August 12th, 2026.
On May 19th, 2025, I recall all of my symptoms manifesting rather quickly over the course of a few days. It's all a bit of a blur because of how traumatic it all was. First, it was loud, high-pitched ringing in the left ear, then the right. This was, naturally, followed by panic. Then, the sound of the faucet became like that of a waterfall or raging river. There is no way to describe the horror one feels in a moment like that.
Everything became unbearably loud, and I couldn't tolerate anything beyond 30 decibels. I felt as though I could hear the electricity humming in the walls and the metallic bearings of the desk fan screeching as it whirled. Then I started to notice changes in the way I was generally perceiving sounds. Some sounds would bring about a fluttering or repetitive thumping in my ears. I can only describe it as the beating of a helicopter's wings. I developed bruxism due to the stress of it all, which led to TMJ.
I was an MSc student at the time. I was working on my thesis, so I was already very stressed (STEM degree). Needless to say, I collapsed into a black hole of depression and panic (clinically diagnosed). The depression was tolerable relative to the panic. Panic is, by far and away, the worst of mental states.
For about 6 weeks, I slept about 2 hours a night and got no work done. My days comprised recurring panic attacks, an unyielding sense of impending doom, and spells of dissociation. I had experienced transient suicidal ideation in my life before, but it came to the point where I was actively planning how and where I would take my own life. This was something I've never done before.
They prescribed antidepressants. I refused to take them because I believed that it was tantamount to deferring payment on a debt. I thought that if I was going to get through this, I was going to get through this now, not when I tapered off SSRIs. I knew that if the SSRIs worked, I would never want to get off if there was even a 1% chance of returning to that miserable state. To this day, I have never taken antidepressants. Though this reasoning may or may not be flawed, I believe this was the correct decision for me, as I'm in a better place now than I've ever been in my entire life, and I don't have to deal with tapering off SSRIs. This is a decision you have to make for yourself.
I am writing this post now because, in the thick of my anguish, I vowed (to a god I do not believe in) that I would help another escape if I myself managed to escape. If even one person attains the insight I am trying to communicate here, then I consider that vow fulfilled.
If you are a more "scientific" personality like myself (I am a STEM PhD student), please withhold judgment until you've internalized what I'm saying. Recognize that what I'm about to say is closely related to Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), which has a solid evidentiary basis. If you have tried MBCT and it has not worked for you, what I have to say may still be helpful.
About 6 weeks into what I can only characterize as the Ninth Circle of Hell, I had an insight during zazen meditation. Specifically, shikantaza (which I took up in an attempt to end my suffering). It was a particularly good session, and I managed to enter a mental state known to us in the West as "flow" or "equanimity", but goes by various names in other traditions and cultures (e.g., Mushin, Samadhi, Luminous Mind, etc).
The liberating insight was this: that something in my brain is, by itself, "checking." It is constantly "checking" for ringing, loud noises to brace for, fluttering, and other symptoms, and then forwarding them to my conscious mind. And this unconscious "checking" was happening without my conscious interference.
My entire conscious mind was still, and I could see so clearly that this unconscious "body-mind" was checking by itself and that I had no control over it.
In that moment I realized that there is, in a very loose sense, a sort of division between what can be represented as a "lower mind" that is primitive, unconscious, and survivalistic, and a conscious "higher mind" that is capable of quietly gazing upon and becoming aware of what this lower-mind "module" is doing.
^(NOTE: this is a simplifying abstraction, as the nervous system is a highly interconnected and dynamic superstructure that cannot neatly be separated into distinct modules, but it is) ^(a useful abstraction) ^(nonetheless.)
I also realized that this "checking" was happening because my body had convinced itself that the ringing, loud noises, fluttering, etc. were dangerous: they imperiled my survival in some meaningful way. This "lower-mind", largely responsible for ensuring I can continue to propagate my genetic material, was amplifying these symptoms, in a sense, to get the attention of the conscious mind so that the conscious mind could do something about these imminent threats to my survival.
Everything in that moment clicked... I immediately recalled dozens of times when I gave the symptoms undue conscious attention, and they got worse. It all became so clear: whenever I gave the symptoms conscious attention, it reinforced this unconscious belief that they were dangerous to my survival or important in some way. And so, the cycle of suffering would continue (and strengthen). I also recalled dozens of times when I sorta' just "gave up" paying attention... I stopped thinking about the symptoms (good or bad), and the symptoms subsided for a little while. It was like riding a wave of suffering and brief reprieve.
Now, why are these conditions the best thing that ever happened to me?
After I had this realization about 6 weeks in, everything changed. I stopped looking at my symptoms as being something in my conscious control. I surrendered, as they're not in my control. I wrote in my journal (another thing I tried to do to help alleviate the suffering):
"What logic is there in attending to a set of internal stimuli that are not under your conscious control?
And when you don't attend to them, they self-resolve pretty fast. So, again, if something self-resolves optimally when you leave it alone, gets worse when you don't leave it alone, and you have no control over it anyway, why the hell are you paying attention to it?
Shut up, be quiet, leave it alone, and carry on with indifference."
I stopped trying to "shut the gate" on thoughts, feelings, and symptoms altogether. I stopped trying to chase them out of my head. I stopped trying to monitor them or prevent them from arising in the first place. I gave up all the little "tips and tricks" that would work for a while and then stop working.
I stopped thinking about my symptoms, either in a positive/optimistic way or in a negative/pessimistic way. I just stopped entertaining all thoughts about them altogether. If a thought arose, good or bad, I'd let it come and go. That's not my thought. That's none of my business.
I stopped trying to run away from symptoms and thoughts or repress them. I stopped complaining about them. I stopped feeling sorry for myself. I just accepted them as being totally outside of my control, and radically so.
Every time a symptom surfaced (such as ringing, fluttering, pain/annoyance from a "loud" sound, a panic/fear-inducing thought such as "is this forever?", or "is that truck outside about to make a really loud sound?", or "isn't that sound annoying?", or "isn't that sound painful", or ''what if you have another flare-up right now?"), I would very simply let them come and go. My response was just formless inactivity: no suppression or explaining things away with more thoughts. It was effortless.
It requires no effort to do nothing at all, and I now realize that's all I ever needed to do.
Over time, the symptoms became frail and thin because I had deprived them of the attention that they need to sustain themselves. My flare-ups became increasingly short-lived, less frequent, and less intense. Eventually, I was back to normal. I hear my tinnitus ring a few times a day, if at all, but it's low, lasts a second, and doesn't bother me at all. I barely even notice it. I barely hear the fluttering anymore. When I do, it's like the tinnitus: not distracting and quick to vanish. I can tolerate all sounds again and rarely ever experience my hyperacusis symptoms, but I am careful not to expose my ears to anything above 85 decibels to protect my hearing. My noise tolerance is completely normal again.
I had just said that I was back to normal. No, actually. My mental state was better than ever before, and it would not have been possible for me without these conditions. Don't ask how long it took, because that's the exact style of thinking that perpetuates your symptoms. I wrote in my journal (many times):
"If this is just for today, then so be it. If this is forever, then so be it."
The "higher" conscious mind is like the clear, blue sky. The clouds are symptoms, thoughts, feelings, etc. Clouds come and go across the sky, and the sky doesn't shut them out nor hurry them along. The sky is just the sky. It's just there, and the clouds pass on by. And the pure sky remains the pure sky, imperturbable and still.
I now refer to everything emanating from the "lower body-mind" as a "body object": feelings of lust, attachment, desire for pleasure, wrath, greed, envy, pride, doubt, fear/panic, sloth/torpor, ringing, fluttering, etc. I have no control over them. Thus, they don't belong to me; they are none of my business. They just come and go, and I don't interfere with them or entertain them whatsoever. This is a way of being, so I call it the Way.
The benefits that have accrued to me as a result of this practice (or "Way") of being cannot easily be communicated. I will list the first 10 that come to mind to the best of my ability:
And so much more that you can only understand when you experience it yourself.
The only thing that I am truly certain about in all of life is that tinnitus, hyperacusis, and TTTS are the best things that ever happened to me.
They spurred an insight that has fundamentally changed me as a human being and that I can never let go even if I tried, and tinnitus/hyperacusis/TTTS are just footnotes in this narrative arc.
In fact, if a magical genie offered to remove all of these ear conditions from my body in a single instant, I would immediately decline. Because every time a symptom arises, it is an opportunity for me to practice this great Way.
Good luck to you on your journey, and congratulations on your hidden blessing (whether you see it or not).
-U
Hi everyone, I'm reaching out to this community because I’m extremely worried about my husband and I really don't know what else to do to help him. He has been dealing with severe, onset tinnitus and hyperacusis for the past 4 months. To make matters more overwhelming, we just had our baby 2 months ago. He is constantly crying, asking God for help, and saying he can't do this alone. I am genuinely terrified of the dark thoughts he might be having right now.I’m doing my best to support him with positive talk, listening, and taking care of our newborn, but it’s getting so difficult that I’m developing severe anxiety myself. We’ve been seeing doctors constantly for the last two months. He is currently trying Lenire, using white noise machines, and keeping the air conditioning running, but nothing seems to give him relief yet.For those who have been in this dark place with severe tinnitus and hyperacusis:
What actually helped you get through the worst of the emotional breakdown during the first few months?
What actually helped you get through the worst of the emotional breakdown during the first few months?
Any success or habituation stories for severe cases would mean the world to us right now.
Thank you so much for reading and for any advice or hope you can share.