This blog documents my personal experiences living with Hyperacusis. It will also include stories and experiences from other Hyperacusis sufferers.
Critical Warning: What You Need to Know About Hyperacusis Treatment
If you or someone you know is experiencing severe sound sensitivity, you need to know that mainstream internet search results often promote outdated, dangerous advice. Standard websites frequently advocate for “Gradual Sound Exposure,” “Sound Therapy” or “Desensitization.” While this may help with mild loudness intolerance, it can cause severe, long term worsening of symptoms for those with pain hyperacusis (noxacusis).
Please read and consider these essential, peer-reviewed research articles and expert interviews that explain the neurological reality of hyperacusis pain:
Understanding the Gap in Care: Read this breakdown of hyperacusis treatment in which researcher Dr. Kelly Jahn discusses the lack of knowledge most audiologists have about the difference between sound sensitivity versus pain hyperacusis. She says that “Only a few knew it involved pain, and some said it’s a mental health condition.”
A Shift in Audiology: Review this direct perspective from a leading audiologist on what I have learned from my hyperacusis patients regarding the harm caused by sound exposure therapy for those with pain hyperacusis. She says “I now know it’s wrong to tell pain hyperacusis patients to stop wearing earplugs or earmuffs or to initiate sound therapy.”
The Scientific Evidence: Dive into the clinical data published in this Hearing Journal article which details the findings of several hyperacusis surveys.
Treatments for Hyperacusis Pain: Read this research study published in The Journal of Pain that talks about the lack of understanding that these patients face from healthcare providers. The paper states “Individuals with pain hyperacusis often present with a relatively severe clinical phenotype, wherein they report frequent “setbacks” (i.e., symptom exacerbations in response to trigger sounds) and reduced benefit from behavioral interventions (e.g., sound therapy). Despite the severity of pain hyperacusis, healthcare professionals do not widely recognize the pain hyperacusis phenotype.”
Help for children with sound sensitivity. When loud noises cause pain and distress, it may be hyperacusis. This new medical journal article explains sound sensitivity treatment, why sound therapy, and desensitization, can make it worse, and what therapy actually helps kids who are sensitive to noise.
There are three main disability laws in the United States. ADA: which applies to all places and requires that they make accommodations for people with disabilities IDEA: which applies to K-12 public schools and requires that they create special education placements and IEP plans for students with disabilities Section 504: which applies to K-12 schools,…
As someone who is visually impaired in addition to having hyperacusis, having accessibility features on my device is very important. Things like invert colors, large text, bold text, voice control, speak screen, etc are very important for me and other visually impaired people. There are accessibility features for people who are deaf or have hearing…
People with disabilities and long term health challenges often require financial assistance to pay for different types of equipment, home modifications, and other expenses that enable them to have a good quality of life. Those with visual impairment often need magnification devices, screen readers, braille displays, high prescription glasses, etc. People who have mobility disabilities…
Under the heavens is the multiple-verse under the multiverse is layers layers of expanding bubbles that grow larger and larger the space between them a gap that cannot be bridges in any way known to humankind, under the expanding space is and foreign energy source that is controlled by Him the maker of all, the…
Many of you know the significant struggles that I faced growing up with severe hyperacusis. The doctors did not believe that I experienced physical pain from sounds, and implemented various desentization plans that increased my pain levels. My family was given inaccurate information by doctors and therapists, that hyperacusis was a psychological condition, and thus…
This isn’t her world she has always know it, it would come whenever she bathed as long as she can remember the tail, it would come whenever she bathed Beautiful pink sprinkling scales but for the cost of so much pain, doctor after doctor Laboratory life, every sound sending knives and hammers attacking her head,…
As some of you may know, I am visually impaired. With my visual impairment I had adults in the visually impaired community who advocated for the things that I needed, I always had a teacher of the visually impaired and the assistive technology that I needed. My visual impairment was never treated as a psychological…
I am 1 in 50,000 who gets stabbed in the ears from a fork hitting a plate, Throbbing lingering migraines from the sound of the refrigerator, the girl whom for a decade fought her way through a pitch black, dark, they were everywhere coming from all sides all the time, the attacks, arrows specifically targeting…
Hyperacusis Awareness: Sound Sensitivity Treatment 