Imagine tending to your day’s activities, such as home duties, work or even school, and you experience excruciating pain in your ears resulting from the normal sounds in your environment.
This is what it is like for that people who experience hyperacusis. Granted, there can be mild and moderate forms of hyperacusis, but generally individuals with this condition experience sounds as if they are intrusively loud.
A Collapsed Sound Tolerance
People who have hyperacusis are said to have a “collapsed sound tolerance.” In other words, the sounds they now hear were at once normal, but now the person has an oversensitivity to sounds, even low conversation-level noises. In fact, some people with hyperacusis report that even their own voices are too loud for their ears. While the typical–and natural–approach is to adjust the level or pitch of your own voice, you can also strain your voice or become hoarse doing so.
In addition to the collapsed sound tolerance that individuals with hyperacusis experience, ringing in the ears–or tinnitus–is also common and can go hand-in-hand with the alterations in sound tolerance. However, it is also true that the conditions can be completely separate: someone with hyperacusis might not experience tinnitus at the same time and, of course, hyperacusis is definitely not always associated with tinnitus.
Phonophobia vs Misophonia vs Recruitment
There are actually several types of altered sound tolerances that you can experience. The term “misophonia” refers to the general aversion to and dislike of sound which someone who has hyperacusis experiences. On the other hand, phonophobia and recruitment are two other altered sound tolerance conditions that can also apply to different people, but mean something different from the misophonia that hyperacusis-afflicted people experience.
Phonophobia refers to when an individual experiences sensitivity to a particular sound, such as nails-on-a-chalkboard or loud sounds at a concert. Recruitment is a general condition that often afflicts individuals with general hearing loss; with this condition, sounds go from too low to too high very quickly, another differentiation from misophonia.
Causes of Hyperacusis
Several factors can come into play when figuring out what caused your particular hyperacusis condition as the reasons are as varied as they are complicated. Since there are very few medical conditions that list “hyperacusis” as a side effect or symptom of the condition, it is generally thought and accepted that hyperacusis is, in and of itself, a condition of all its own.
A few medical conditions that do associate with hyperacusis, however, include Lyme disease, Bell’s palsy, migraines and post-head injury syndromes. Hyperacusis can also result from having a specific type of major ear surgery.
With accompanying problems and side effects like tinnitus, though, hyperacusis as its own condition can be caused by several things. First, sudden exposure to loud noises can trigger hyperacusis in some individuals. For others, the problem may onset because of a traumatic or negative life event.
Other issues that may influence whether you develop hyperacusis or not include depression or anxiety. Depression and anxiety can trigger altered central auditory sensitivities. As you can see, the underlying causes of hyperacusis can be varied, and one single factor may be difficult to pinpoint.
Who Suffers from Hyperacusis?
Both men and women suffer from hyperacusis as the condition is associated with an increase in sensitivity in the central auditory system where sounds get processed. Though not enough research has been done on the issue, studies from Sweden indicate that as many as nine percent of the population suffers from mild to severe cases of hyperacusis at any given time.
However, this report conflicts with the general opinion of many professionals working in the field whose estimates contend that only approximately two percent of the population suffer from hyperacusis. In children, there is actually even less statistical information because a general hypersensitivity to sound is often linked to Autism Spectrum Disorders anyway, confounding the research on hyperacusis as a condition alone.
Hyperacusis Treatments
Because hyperacusis affects so little of the population, many doctors are not well-versed in its causes or treatments. Getting help immediately from a family physician or general practitioner is crucial as he or she can be the one to make the referral to an audiological physician or ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist.
The physician will generally take a detailed history of when you first started experiencing hyperacusis, any associated symptoms (e.g. tinnitus) or illnesses that you have, and a timeline of the onset and worsening of the condition. Once the doctor examines your ears, you will most likely also receive one or more hearing tests, such as an audiogram or loudness discomfort test.
By examining your specific hyperacusis condition, the doctor can make a diagnosis. If the diagnosis is a specific medical condition, you may be given specific medications or treatment options. If the hyperacusis stands alone, however, there are several treatment options you may receive or to which you may avail yourself. For example, you may receive a form of counseling or therapy that individuals with tinnitus also undergo.
During these sessions, the professional may administer sound therapy or retraining therapy, which involves techniques that gently reintroduce sound into the person’s life. Cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT, may also be recommended by the specialist, depending on your specific case of hyperacusis. Both techniques have been shown to treat hyperacusis successfully.
All in all, hyperacusis is a serious condition that is not just characterized by tinnitus and a general discomfort of sounds in your life. Individuals with hyperacusis often go out of their way to avoid sounds because of the pain they experience. Though hyperacusis can cause frustration, anger and interfere with virtually all aspects of your life, including work and home life, the condition can be treated once you see a professional.