Member-only story
There is not enough research being done on this illness. I am biased. I am an experiencer. In short, hyperacusis is a brain-perception distortion of auditory stimuli. I perceive sound louder than they are. It is attached to anxiety. As anxiety goes up, the perceived volume goes up. My condition has improved since it was diagnosed in 2012 at the Callier Hearing Clinic in Dallas. Just prior to the diagnosis, there was hell. I wonder, how many people suffering from depression may have this- and it just goes unnoticed because it doesn’t have the numbers behind to be considered a thing.
So, here is how it played out. I worked at the airlines for 24 years. I have hearing loss. I believe it was due to working at the airlines. The disability doctor working for the airline said, ‘Duh, of course it because you worked at the airlines,” but wouldn’t say that officially to be comped.
The thing is I did not believe I had hearing loss prior to the hearing exam at the Collier Hearing Clinic. I thought my hearing was improving over time. This doesn’t happen. There is a natural decline in hearing as we age. Because I was increasingly bothered by noise, I erroneously assumed my hearing was improving. I have met others that believed this, too, and they actually shared many of the symptomsI experienced- but there was no convincing them that this just wasn’t true. People I met that are at this stage are not willing to get their hearing test because they already experience the fact that there hearing is more acute their peers. Prior to…
