There is no good age for developing hyperacusis with pain, and there are common challenges faced among all people with this condition. The main ones being chronic pain from everyday noises, not being believed about being in physical pain, and not being able to participate in activities or events due to the noise. Children with pain hyperacusis have to deal with all of these things, to the same extent and sometimes even more so than adults, while also having additional struggles with their hyperacusis as a result of their age and development. This post does not claim to give a complete list and description of all of the challenges faced by children with hyperacusis, as each child will have a different life and experience. Rather it covers the broad category of struggles a child with pain hyperacusis is likely to have growing up, based on my own experiences growing up with this condition and my conversations with others who had hyperacusis as children.
Developmental Level
It’s well known that children react to illnesses and pain differently than adults do, because their bodies and brains are not yet fully developed. A child’s reaction to physical pain depends very much on their age, gender, and other cultural and environmental factors. A young child who breaks their arm for example may curl up into a ball, start crying or even throw a tantrum. Just as the reactions to acute pain from a common injury may be different in children, the same is true in terms of their reaction to chronic pain caused from hyperacusis and noise. Depending on the age of the child, 0-5, the child may not even have the language skills to explain that they are in pain. Even older children can tell you that they are in pain, usually aged 7+, often still don’t have the knowledge of being able to articulate in detail about the type of pain sensation and other specifics. The problems for people with pain hyperacusis having there pain understood and believe are: the lack of research on the mechanisms behind noise induced pain leads to the belief that the pain is psychogenic, the lack of awareness of the existence of the condition in the medical community due to its rarity, lack of communication between researchers and clinicians, and the common myth most patient can be cured with desentization. Combine these problems with the children’s reaction to the pain hyperacusis, which may involve anything from: crying, covering there ears, running away, curling up into a ball, tensing their muscles, becoming anxious before noise, doctors and the adults around them frequently wrongly assume they are in emotional distress from noise.
Lack of Control Over There Care Plan
In the United States, and most countries in the world children under the age of majority do not have the ability or right to accept or refuse medical or therapeutic treatments. This responsibility lies with their parents or guardian, which if they have loving ones is “usually” not a major problem. However for children with hyperacusis, or any type of rare under researched, misunderstood, or chronic pain condition this presents a major risk of accidental harm to the child. As mentioned earlier many doctors, due to the lack of communication of research findings between scientists and clinicians, many doctors still treat hyperacusis with gradual sound exposure and behavioral therapy. Whereas an adult has the ability to refuse or reject this treatments, or stop them if they cause great pain and make there condition worse, a child has no choice but to be forcibly subjected to them. Doctors will often assure parents/guardians that the child is not in severe physical pain, and that their condition and pain will improve over time. Well meaning parents/guardians wanting to help their child will often implant these treatments, even if they are told by the child that it is making their pain worse. New research is starting to reveal at least two, possibly three different pathological mechanisms behind pain hyperacusis, as well as the concept of setbacks, temporary or permanent increases in pain levels and sound tolerance after being exposed to noise above their sound threshold. This means that children forced to undergo desentization can and do experience severe lingering pTo learn more about this read the following medical research articles:
School
Education is a very important part of a child’s development and largely linked to their future success. In the United States and many parts of the developed world education through a certain age is compulsory. Although some of these countries have special education laws, many of them are not set up to provide the needed level of quiet for students with pain hyperacusis. Even in special education programs for students with disabilities the daily noises of: people talking and laughing, bells ringing, noise from other classrooms and the hallways, intercom system, videos, music, and more mean that children with severe pain hyperacusis experience constant physical pain not only while at school but lingering pain and setbacks for up to weeks afterwards. Unfortunately due to the misinformed belief by many physicians that hyperacusis pain is psychogenic and that being in the school environment will help desensitize them, often the school system treats these children as though they have an emotional disturbance rather than a severe medical condition and providing them with 1:1 instruction in a specialized quiet environment. This means that students with pain hyperacusis are either forced to endure intense physical pain and worsening of there hyperacusis in order to get their education, their parents are “forced” to homeschool them, or they end up having to drop out of school.
Hyperacusis Awareness: Sound Sensitivity Treatment 