What is hyperacusis?
Hyperacusis is hypersensitivity to normal levels of sound, or a reduced tolerance to sounds in general. People with hyperacusis often find normal environmental sounds uncomfortably loud or even painful. This can vary in severity and may significantly impact a person’s quality of life, making them feel anxious or stressed in noisy environments.
How to treat hyperacusis?
Hyperacusis is treated differently depending on its severity and the extent of changes to the inner ear. Some people with reduced sound sensitivity may only need compression, or the lowering of loud sounds to a comfortable level, with digital technology in a prescription hearing device, while others may need more support, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to change their thoughts and behaviors around sounds in their daily enviornments.
Do I have hyperacusis?
If you are unsure if you have hyperacusis, and Audiologist can perform loudness discomfort levels under headphones to determine if you experience this symptom or not. Loudness discomfort levels may not be routinely checked during a hearing test unless loudness sensitivity is mentioned as a possibly symptom the patient is experiencing. Below is a Hyperacusis Impact Survey to determine if your symptoms are clinically significant or not. The higher the score, the more distressing the hyperacusis typically is for a patient.
Is hyperacusis a neurological disorder?
Hyperacusis is not a neurological disorder but it is typically associated with an audiological disorder, such as hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing in the ears).
Is hyperacusis dangerous?
Hyperacusis is not dangerous, other than it being potentially debilitating if a person can not tolerate being in public or with other people due to the severity of the symptoms. Due to the potential impact on a person’s quality of life, hyperacusis should not be ignored so that it does not become debilitating for the person experiencing it.
What are the symptoms of hyperacusis?
Symptoms of hyperacusis would be avoiding certain people, places, or events because of fear of feeling uncomfortable or even pain when in normal levels of sound. People with hyperacusis often overuse hearing protection in an attempt to deal with this feeling; however, overuse of earplugs will only heighten the over-sensitivity and make the symptoms progressively worse over time. Hyperacusis symptoms consist of avoiding everyday sounds, such as wearing earplugs when in normal loudness levels (i.e., a grocery store). Others show hyperacusis symptoms by completely avoiding certain places, people, or events due to feeling too uncomfortable (or even pain) when others are not bothered by the same sounds or levels of sound(s).
Many of our patients have questions about hyperacusis, and we have tried to answer the most common ones in this list, but perhaps we didn’t answer your question. If you have any additional questions about hyperacusis, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team of audiologists and healthcare professionals. For more information or to discuss these hyperacusis faqs further, don’t hesitate to contact Sound Relief Tinnitus & Hearing Center today.
