Exam: They’ll look for structural issues in your ear that may relate to your hyperacusis.Medical history: A healthcare provider will consider any risk factors, like behavioral health issues (including anxiety or depression), exposure to loud sounds or damage to your hearing.You may need to see an ear, nose and throat specialist and/or an audiologist to help identify the problem. Getting diagnosed can be difficult because not all healthcare providers are familiar with hyperacusis. Some people develop hyperacusis symptoms following surgery or as a reaction to a medication. Temporomandibular joint syndrome (TMJ).Superior Canal Dehiscence Syndrome (SCDS).Nearly half of the people diagnosed with hyperacusis also have a behavioral health condition, like anxiety.Ĭonditions associated with hyperacusis include: Hyperacusis often accompanies conditions like tinnitus (up to 86% of people) and Williams syndrome (as many as 90% of people). Sudden exposure to loud noise: Some people with hyperacusis develop it after hearing a sudden, loud noise, like a gunshot or fireworks.Long-term exposure to loud noises: Hyperacusis is more common in people exposed to loud music for long periods, like rock musicians, or who work in loud settings, like construction workers.Instead, it’s associated with multiple possible contributing factors and conditions. Still, there isn’t a single cause that explains all cases of hyperacusis. Many conditions associated with hyperacusis (Bell’s palsy, Ramsay Hunt syndrome and Lyme disease) involve facial nerve damage. The facial nerve controls the stapedius muscle, which regulates sound intensity in your ear. Another theory is that damage to the facial nerve causes hyperacusis. Your auditory nerve carries sound signals from your inner ear to your brain so you can hear.

It’s possible that damage to parts of your auditory nerve causes hyperacusis. With hyperacusis, your brain perceives sounds as loud regardless of their frequency - or whether the sound falls in the low range (like thunder rumbling), medium range (like human speech) or high range (like a siren or whistle). It’s likely that the structures in your brain that control how you perceive stimulation make sounds seem louder. Researchers are still trying to understand what causes hyperacusis. Symptoms may intensify if you feel stressed or tired or if you anticipate having to interact in spaces that you fear will be unpleasantly loud. The constant experience of feeling overwhelmed with intense, unpleasant sounds can lead to: These symptoms can negatively impact your mental health and social life.

A feeling of fullness or pressure in your ears (similar to being in an airplane, before your ears “pop”).

The loudness may be mildly annoying or so intense that it causes you to struggle with your balance or experience seizures. With hyperacusis, you may experience sounds other people consider normal as uncomfortable, unbearably loud, painful or even frightening. Researchers are still learning about hyperacusis, including how many people have it. Also, there isn’t a single, widely accepted way to screen for or measure hyperacusis. People with hyperacusis describe their symptoms differently based on their unique experiences. It’s hard to know for sure how common it is, though. Researchers estimate that 3.2% to 17.1% of children and adolescents have hyperacusis, while the range for adults is from 8% to 15.2%. There’s still a lot that doctors don’t know about hyperacusis, including how common it is. Still, not all cases of hyperacusis involve tinnitus or hearing loss. Hyperacusis often accompanies tinnitus, a condition often associated with hearing loss that involves ringing, whistling, clicking or roaring sounds in your ears. Some people with hyperacusis avoid social situations to reduce the risk of experiencing intense loudness. Hyperacusis can impact your social life, too. The experience can take a toll on your mental health, causing you to feel irritable and anxious.

Someone turning the pages of a book or newspaper.

Household electrical appliances running.

Some examples of common sounds in everyday life that may feel intolerable to someone with hyperacusis include: In contrast, people with hyperacusis experience sound in general with the volume turned too high. People with normal hearing experience a range of sounds with varying degrees of loudness. It’s also described as decreased sound tolerance, or DST.

Hyperacusis is a rare hearing disorder where sounds others perceive as normal seem uncomfortably - and often unbearably - loud.

Auditory sensitivity