The Hyperacusis Network Message Board - Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010

SSA rules for hearing impairments

DanMalcore — Thur, 03 Jun 2010 11:53:47 GMT

Although this has no application to hyperacusis patients, the Social Security Administration just informed our network that they published final rules for hearing impairments in the Federal Register on June 2, 2010. They will use these final rules to evaluate hearing impairments in both adults and children who apply for, or receive, Social Security disability benefits or Supplemental Security Income payments based on disability.

These rules will be effective on August 2, 2010, and will remain effective for 5 years, unless we revise and reissue them sooner or extend the effective date. The electronic version of these final rules is available in the Federal Register.

This is the link to see the final rules:

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-13094.pdf

Dan

Forum: Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010

Soft Sound Sensitivity Syndrome

overandout — Thur, 03 Jun 2010 10:52:09 GMT

I have always thought I was crazy for being so super sensitive to peoples eting, breathing, nail biting or any mouth sound, and some other sounds like when my mum knits. It dose my head in. I usualy manage to control my behavior, and if I do anything I usually walk out of the room. But on a rear ocation I get realy angry and yell at people for making the sounds they are making. (it was wors when I was a teenager, but now I'm mor rational and know it is my problem, and not everyone elses.)

I developed a few habits when people eat around me, one is that I know it's better if I eat as well. I always have chewing gum with me, I hate it when others chew chewing gums but when I do it, I manage to block out some soft sounds from others. When I'm watching movies with friends I often put a finger in the ear closed to the person eating, sometimes I have it in both ears if there is a subtitle. (the funny thing is that they don't seem to notice that I do this), I always have music on trains and buses.

Yesterday I got angry at someone that did not want to close there mouth when he ate, so I walked of, saying that I thought his eating was disgusting (he is one of the worst eaters I know of, the sounds is so extreme, I don't know how he manages to make so much more noise than anyone else, and everyone else make a lot of noise, but him... I hope for your sake that you don't ever find yourself in a restaurant or something where he is. He is a lovely person, but my god can he make some noise). Anyway I felt bad after this, because he has a bit of problems eating, and here I am saying he eats in a disgusting way. That is why I started to search the Internet to see if there where anything similar out there. And I came across an article that was like reading about me. It freeked me out a bit. But it did me good. I'm 25 now, and I have been like this since I was about 5. I remember yelling at my little brother when I was 7 telling him to shut his mouth when he chewed, he was 2 at the time..

If anyone has any advice please let me know. If there is any treatment that is worth trying out, I will be more than willing to check it out. I would like to enjoy a day at the cinema, or watch a movie with my mum or friends without thinking about the horrible sounds they make.

Forum: Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010

I have trouble talking on the phone.

SkaMasta097 — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 02:36:06 GMT

Hi all,

I have trouble talking on my cell phone, especially for extended periods. Often times, it makes my ears ring louder and causes a setback, and that's with the volume all the way down to the lowest possible level. Some people just have loud voices, high pitched voices, or are in noisy areas when they call. I ask them to move to a quiet(er) environment, and I hold the phone away from my ear when it gets too loud, and I can often still hear them. I have used my decibel reader to measure the volume of the receiver, and it fluctuated between 70-96 dB, on the lowest setting. I don't know how accurate that is in relation to what the ear actually hears, since the microphone was right up the receiver and my ears are usually not. If 96 dB is accurate, no wonder so many H sufferers have a difficulty with phone conversations. With other people's phones, I turn them all the way down if I have to use it, and sometimes even then, I can hear clearly with the phone a foot away from my ear.

Does anyone else have this problem, or do they just make phones loud these days? I am not going to even get started on those loud, tinny mp3 ringtones people have in public that you can hear from 20 feet away.

Forum: Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010

new here, some ?s

iasthai — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:23:46 GMT

got h 13 months ago. it got really bad 3 months ago.

i've noticed my ears thump when people talk to me or when i'm listening to an audiobook. this has been going on for a couple of weeks. anyone know anything about this?

also i have been using pink noise for the past three months but it is not helping the h. i do have sound generators that i used to wear; however, now after wearing them for a couple of hours they increase my various t sounds.

i'm trying to find a way to actively increase my sound tolerance without increasing the t. but i'm not sure how. i have been staying calm and accepting the noises and for the most part trying not to become annoyed, angered, or worried. theres got to be a way...

Forum: Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010

Interesting article on reducing Tinnitus

Chewbacca — Sun, 30 May 2010 18:43:32 GMT

I would like to share this interesting article from the HEARING LOSS HELP e-Zine Volume 5, Number 3, May 30, 2010

Topic: Reduce Your Tinnitus by Listening to Your Favorite (Notched) Music
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

You may subscribe to this e-zine at http://www.hearinglosshelp.com/articles.htm

copy-pasted below is NOT the entire article but just the relevant part ......
-------------------------------------------
Researchers feel that tinnitus is "associated with a relative
excitatory-inhibitory cortical neural network dysbalance, at the
expense of the inhibitory system." Say what? In plain English,
what this means is that when everything is functioning properly,
some auditory neurons in our brains may get too excited and
"talk" out of turn so to speak. When they do this, the surrounding
neurons tell them to "shut up". This maintains order in the
auditory cortex.

However, when too many begin to talk out of turn and not enough
tell them to "shut up", things get a bit wild and the result is tinnitus.
If this situation is allowed to continue, it becomes the new norm
and you end up with constant tinnitus.

Furthermore, if you have a hearing loss, some neurons in your
auditory cortex are deprived of normal sound signals. Since
neurons are not happy doing nothing, they "rewire" themselves
so that they are no longer excited by the frequencies they were
originally tuned to. Instead, they tune in to the frequency of their
neighboring neurons. When a bunch of them do this, the resulting
synchronized spontaneous neural activity apparently results in
what we call tinnitus.

The good news is that previous research has shown that this
"rowdy" behavior can be modified by behavioral training. The way
the researchers did this in this study was to eliminate sounds at
the frequency of the person's tinnitus.

It appears that notched-music therapy may prove to be an
enjoyable, low-cost and casual (relaxed) treatment for reducing
tinnitus a significant amount.
......
.... consists of listening to your favorite music for about 2
hours a day for a year. How hard can that be when one of the
benefits is reducing the volume of your tinnitus?
In order for this to work, there are two conditions you must meet.
First, your tinnitus must be a tonal kind of tinnitus that stays at a
constant frequency. Second, the music you listen to must be
digitally modified to take out the frequency of your tinnitus--hence
the term "notched music"--as you have a notch where there is no
sound at your tinnitus frequency.
(The way the researchers created this "notch" was to filter out a
whole octave of sound centered around the frequency of the
person's tinnitus.)
Then, you just listen to your music for about 2 hours a day for the
next year. By the end of 6 months, you'll notice that the volume of
your tinnitus is dropping significantly.
After 12 months, the people in this study found their tinnitus had
dropped in volume by about 28%, and their annoyance at their
tinnitus had dropped around 22%. In contrast, those in the
placebo group (who listened to their favorite music without the
notch) actually had their tinnitus increase about 9% and their
annoyance at their tinnitus increase about 7%. (There was no
indication as to what kind of music people listened to, nor at what
volume.)
The reason this notched music therapy appears to work is that
our brains are "plastic". That means they can adapt and change
their responses over time. Apparently our brains are more
amenable to changing based on listening to sounds we like rather
than to ones we dislike--hence the need to choose music you
particularly like.

Forum: Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010

Loud Garbage Trucks

SkaMasta097 — Thur, 27 May 2010 23:44:38 GMT

The other morning at 6 am, a garbage truck passed by the street nearest my apartment bedroom window as usual. This time however, it seemed louder than before. in addition to the hydraulic engine noises and the usual banging of the dumpster, there was even more loud banging. It felt like being in an MRI without earplugs and it seeming to never end, although it was only about 5 minutes or so.

I was too exhausted to escape the noise, and I didn't want to put earplugs in, so I just covered my ears with my pillow. I don't know how loud it was, but I just hope I wasn't exposed to too much noise. A setback shortly followed, with an increased ringing in my right ear (the good one) and an increase of jaw pain that typically follows setbacks (I must have some kind of TMJ disorder).

Anyone else have problems with garbage trucks in the morning?

Forum: Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010

Anyone notice anything different about the board?

aQuieterBreeze — Thur, 27 May 2010 22:36:58 GMT

Hi,
I wonder if the gremlins are at it again? Just tried to edit a post and it came up very different - than in the past. NO preview, or spell check - on the new edit feature either.
Very strange - I really liked it the way it was.
Can we have it back? Please.

Does anyone else notice anything different? Are you allowed to edit the way we used to be able to? Or is it just me?

Hope everyone is doing well!
P.S. It did it again too....as i tried to edit this post, it says something like "loading" and pops up with the edit box, with fewer features.
And the box is tiny too. It really needs a preview button.

Forum: Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010

Dental Drilling

mgc — Thur, 27 May 2010 16:17:04 GMT

I have H & T. Currently, I am using Simplicity sound generators to treat the H first.

I am looking for positive experiences regarding major dental drilling. I know that Jack Vernon recommends so many seconds on and so many seconds off. So here are my questions:

Is it ok to use sound generators during dental drilling?

I believe that ear plugs are not to be used for dental work, is it ok to use Zem db31 headset or Bose quiet 15 headset (noise canceling)?

Are there any recommendations for dentists who use quiet drills? I live in Central New Jersey. What is a quiet drill? ( I know that there are air abrasion techniques, but I believe that they are only for small cavities.)

How can I go about finding a dentist who uses a quiet drill?

I welcome any other helpful suggestions.

Forum: Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010

Misophonia

Zemora — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:54:06 GMT

I have a very rare but very terrible condition called Misophonia. To most people, this means 'The hatred of sound'. They can't stand simple everyday sounds such as people eating, breathing, biting their nails, coughing or sneezing, lip smacking, or repetable sounds such as a pencil knocking continuously against a table. Some people also can't stand some types of music, some rap music that has the same beat over and over again in various sound frequencies.
Unfortunatly, not much research has been done on this condition. Its so rare and so few people have it that not many people have done tests on it, or found any type of medication that could help. There are some therapies that can help, one of the main and most effective therapies is audiotherapy. Here, you can become imune to the sounds that you loathe. Most people that don't have any help at all find other ways to deal with misophonia - they will put earplugs in their ears, listen to music on an i-pod, or even go out the room altogether. In some more serious cases, it will effect the persons life so that they avoid people and places, for fear of hearing the sounds. When they hear these sounds, it can make them furious, even violent, start to cry, or trigger intense anxiety and panic attacks. This isn't a mental problem, these people arne't crazy, but it has something to do with the nerve system, and that the mind is interpriting the sounds wrongly, so that even normal sounds that everybody makes can seem harmful to the subconcous mind. Strangly enough, when the people make these sounds themselves, it doens't bother them. Knowing that the sound bothered them when other people do it can also make them anxious, thinking that other people will find them disgusting and annoying when they make the sounds - although..this isn't normally the case.

In my case, i can't stand the sound of breathing the most. Eating, coughing, other body language things such as lipsmacking and biting the nails also get to me, but none as much as breathing and load breathing. Often, i don't sleep a night without waking up in fury to the sound of somebody else breathing. I can't sleep around friends houses or have anybody stay in my room. When i was a child and shared a room with my sister, i would get so angry with her (even though it wasn't her fault) that i would throw things at her, shout at her, sometimes even become violent, to the point where i'm begging her to stop load breathing, to just be quiet! I recognise now that you can't do this with people. They can't stop breathing, and breathing loadly isn't able to be controlled easily. For years i've gone thinking that it was an odd quirk, that nobody else had it nor understood it, even though it was driving my life round the bend. I couldn't sleep in the same bed with my boyfriend. Each night i'd wake up and moan at him, try to get him to wake up so that he could be talking abut something whilst i fell asleep and then i wouldn't have to hear him load breathing or snoring. I'd listen to music, or even go and sleep in the lounge most nights.
Enough of this, i decided to look it up on google 'annoyed by the sound of breathing' and found that somebody else had written an article saying the same things as me. Then i found a site explaining about misophonia, and looked it up on wikipedia. Watched a vidio on youtube by a user called singularityrush - the video: Hating Sound (parts one and two) - You may want to look this up, its good! After seeing the video and the comments below, i saw that i wasn't alone in this.

That is when i decided to write this post. Please comment, i'd love to hear about your experiences and what you think about the condition, or what might help! Thank you so much.

Zemora x

Forum: Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010

Going To Specialty Clinic

bartony — Tue, 25 May 2010 14:42:53 GMT

Push has come to shove re: my neurological problems. I am going to have to be seen at Scott & White, a specialty clinic/hospital located in Central Texas.

Everything is worsening. The facial spasms and stapedial spasms. I spoke with the lady by phone at S&W this a.m. after my 2nd morning of being wakened by ear thumps and being unable to go back to sleep due to those.

After telling her all my problems, she said it could take a main Dr. overseeing several others (ear, neuro, etc.) to get all this figured out and dealt with.
I spoke with my Dr. office and they will be working on the referral.

I cry, I weep to know I don't have my Barb now, to be with me in all of this. She was by my side in the past in everything I went through, and me with her.

All the twitches and ear problems could be from one central cause or not. That will be for the doctors at S&W to work on. The two neuromuscular specialists are tops in their field according to the lady and she has been with them at seminars. They will be cuts above the one I saw at Dallas last fall.

Push has come to shove, and I am officially fed up and finally doing what should've been done years ago.

It will do no good, but please, no lectures about this all being in my head. I know! That is exactly where our neurological system is headquartered, in our brain.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers for me in the coming weeks.

Forum: Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010

Pink Noise Advice

Kendall85 — Mon, 24 May 2010 11:51:00 GMT

Hi Everyone,

I have recently developed tinnitus due to noise exposure (loud concert). The Tinnitus does seem quite quite mild compared to what other people seem to be suffering. However, i have a few issues with high frequency noise, for example i find car brakes, door hinges, car keys, etc quite annoying. I also find some female speech with 's' in it quite unpleasant, especially when over a a digital radio or digital TV. I do not think i suffer with Hyperacusis as generally 'normal' noise is not bothersome to me, it is the high frequency 'squeeling' noise that i have problems with. I am finding it difficult to consult with a Tinnitus/Hyperacusis clinic in the UK, as this is not provided in my area by the National Health Service. However, while i try to get treatment/advice from a properly qualified person, would the use of the pink noise CD be useful in trying to treat my condition.

Many Thanks

K85

Forum: Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010

Please Help..

Tanya — Sat, 22 May 2010 14:37:53 GMT

I am new to this message board. My dad is 67 year old and is suffering from noise sensitivity for the past 2 years. He cannot bear loud noises and cannot talk more than 5 mins on phone as it hearts him badly. We visited multiple doctors and they diagnosed as depression and currently treating for the same. Its been 2 years since he went out to any restaurant or social gathering or any place outside the house. Most of the time he spents his time lying down on bed as the depression medicine makes him drowsy. If he goes for doctor's visit, it takes almost one week to recover.

He cannot bear bright light as it causes pain in his eyes.

From past one year he has balance problem and started physiotherapy. Can you please help me in bringing his life back to normal.

Tanya

Forum: Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010

Hyperacusis Survey

hyperacusisresearch — Thur, 20 May 2010 17:51:42 GMT

Just found out about one of the most significant Hyperacusis survey's to be sponsored by a major U.S. University. Please participate so more accurate knowledge will be learned to define the symptoms and frequency of Hyperacusis issues.
http://survey.uiowa.edu/wsb.dll/127/iowahyperacusis.htm

Forum: Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010

Successful spanish H treatment protocol

david — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:17:34 GMT

This article has been talked about on this site in the past, but I don't believe the full text was ever posted. I'm also not sure anyone has tried it to date here.
I'm on week 5 of the protocol and am noticing improvements.
I've attached the research study as 5 jpg's.

In short, 34/34 subjects with varying degress of hyperacusis made it back to LDL's of 100db after 9 weeks of following this protocol 30 minutes a day. It was not a double blind study, but the article seems to be from a meritorious Spanish scientific journal.

An overview of the protocol (VERY similar to the music protocol Robb has described and more or less consistent with the TRT program):

1. You'll need a recording of water nature sounds (waterfall, stream, etc.). I'm using one of a waterfall in glacier national park. It has a good range of frequencies for me personally.
2. You'll also need a decibel meter.
3. Sit about 5 feet away from your speakers (make a set-up you can repeat everyday). The study was done with speakers, not headphones.
4. Play your recording and turn the volume up to the point you start to feel discomfort.
5. Note the decibel level (e.g. 60 dB).
6. Lower the volume 20 dB (your meter would now read 40db for example).
7. Listen for 30 minutes everyday while doing another task while sitting there (reading, writing, etc.).
8. If at anytime there is discomfort, lower the volume 5 dB's and stay there for a week.
9. Each week you move in increments of 5 dBs. Increase every 2 weeks, then decrease a week. This is really well illustrated on my 3rd attachment. They use numbers to represent jumps of 5 dBs.
10. For the example I give (initial discomfort at 60 dB), this would be your protocol:
week 1: 40 db
week 2: 45 db
week 3: 50 db
week 4: 45 db
week 5: 50 db
week 6: 55 db
week 7: 50 db
week 8: 55 db
week 9: 60 db

You could keep going if your target LDL hasn't been met at that point.

I'm actually moving every 5 days instead of every week (along with wearing my WNGs all day).

I'm planning on following this protocol for another month or so and then get my LDL's tested again. I'll post my results.

Forum: Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010

Meniere's and Hyperacusis

egarber — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:40:21 GMT

Is there anyone who has Meniere's and Hyperacusis? That is my diagnosis. I would like to compare with someone to see what their treatment is. I am allergic to Sulfa. The doctors keep putting me on a diuretics that have a sulfa component and I keep getting reactions. Do I really need a diuretic? Can I exist without taking one? I am on a low sodium diet, which means I can't eat much. Not even Mayonnaise or Lemon or Pepper. I have to learn to cook all over again. The Hyperacusis seems to be better than it was. I have a message into the doctors to see what other treatment they have for the Hyperacusis part. They showed me equipment that looked like an IPOD with ear phones. I am guessing that was nuemonics or something like that. Is that good for Hyperacusis with Meniere's? It is very expensive. Any information would be great. Is the TNT a good therapy for Meniere's related Hyperacusis?

Elayne

Forum: Old Messages: March 2009 - June 2010