Hypersensitive Hearing
 

Who else deals with this crazy symptom from time to time?

This has happened to me several times in the past and thankfully lasts a few hours to a couple days. Since getting hit with ON again, it's been happening off and on.

The most annoying is hearing my DH's hard drive in his computer...from two rooms away. And no, it's not going out like I thought it was, he said it's not making any more noise than usual.

Hearing a neighbor's squeaking outside door who lives half way down the street is another irritant, along with a neighbor's phone ringing. Since it's the middle of a deep freeze here, I'm relatively sure they don't have their windows open.

But I must say the most fun I've had is yesterday when one of my supervisors had a personal call and closed his door...and I could hear his side of the conversation perfectly. THAT'S a new one. Usually I can hear voices but they're muffled. I could hear the person's voice he was talking to on the cell, but their voice was muffled. Hmm, better luck next time! :eek:

Anyone else care to share their experiences? :smirk:

Me too, Cher! It's pretty consistent with mine, I can hear the darnedest things and it's really distracting. I find that certain frequencies drive me nuts, like I'm part dog or something. High G can make me crazy if it's repeated too often in a song or a jingle. I literally have to change the channel.

HEY MSCHEROKEE, can you hear me way down in the SW? j/k lol

I actually have the opposite problem. In fact I didn't even know I was having hearing problems until my last round of steroids. After that everything has been normal. But the first couple of weeks with my "new ears" was torture. I've gotten used to it now.

What you are going through must be torture as well. Although, I can't completely relate I can certainly imagine what it is like. I am glad there are others who can relate and share their experiences with you.

I will try to type softly for you. LOL

Yeah! Some noises just stand out as particularly annoying.

I had a friend who could hear security systems around jewelry displays.

My hearing isn't "hyper", just "sensitive."

I wanted to throttle the guy behind me in church who was clipping his nails! (Doesn't bother me when I do it though.)

Don't repeatedly click your pen around me, please. Or hawk and spit.

I cover my ears when someone gets out of my car and "slams" (not really) the door.

But its alright if you wanna crack your knuckles, cause I do that too! :wink:

I'm not alone! LOL

Hey tkrik, I think I hear some mumbling. :winky:

AMN, yes, certain frequencies drive me nuts. LOL at the part dog. Now I know how my dogs feel. Poor little ones!

Do you also hear buzzing noises that everyone else is oblivious to? Not too long ago at work I would hear this intermittent buzzing noise and complained about it to co-workers who of course heard nothing. Never one to give up, I kept searching for the noise. Ended up it was a bad flourescent light. Called in an electrician and she (yes, SHE :D) immediately found the source - it wasn't just a bulb. She found toasted wires. We had an electrical short in the wire that in theory could've burned the place down!

Hey Twinkletoes, good thing you don't work where I do. We have a couple who just love to click those pens and make all kinds of obnoxious noises. I fantasize about coming over the desk at them every once in a while. Thank goodness for self control! But now I feel safer cracking my knuckles here. LOL

YEP! I do! I've heard bad bulbs all the way across our mega store here! It's maddening. I loved it when I was able to go into the woods though, I could here and identify almost any "silent" critter from many yards.

It's also really annoying to me when I can hear those booming car stereos from the other side of an expressway. The buzz just gnaws at me.:mad:

my hearing is superhuman now,so my gf tels me,i thought i was going crazy.
i can hear people on the phone from 3 rooms away,the caller....:confused:

Me too! I hear so many things that I should not be able to hear. I will say "I hear a car door slamming in the driveway." the DH thinks I lost my mind. then the doorbell rings! he thinks I am bewitched. I can clearly hear what others are saying in a restaurant, and I can hear the dogs barking from many houses away, and YET, there are some things likeTV that I have to turn up! like certain frequencies bug me or I just cant tune into them. wild! :rolleyes:

yeppers,I can hear the tv in the living room when I asked my kids to turn it down,they say it is mom. I go to check it,and its way down.but I can hear every word very clear.
when my hearing gets like this,I go in a whirrelwind. I put my hands over my ears,and want to scream. Talk about sensory overload.
I cant go into walmart without freaking out.
If there is noises that is too loud to me,my ears ring 10 times worse. I cant handle to much noise.

*cracks knuckles before typing*

A couple of years ago I lay/lie/laid? down in bed and could faintly hear an engine running. Took me awhile, but I finally saw a car down the alley (we live behind Main St.) I called the cops and they told me it was a guy who was too drunk to drive home. It was freezing cold, so he had his car running for the heater!

Good for you, MSCherokee. They should pay you extra for your Superman ears!

Things like that don't seem to bother DH, which is why I was the one who insisted he check out the constant sound of water running even though everything was turned off. Turns out we had a pinhole leak in an outside water line. There was a big ole muddy mess on the north side of the house.

I've had tinnitus (ringing in the ears) since I can remember. (oldest memory of it goes back to when I was about 3 or 4yrs old)

It normally doesnt bother me, but sometimes I can hear an electrical humming in my ears. I wonder if it's coincidental that there are some high tension powerlines that are just on the other side of the street that run the length of my neighborhood. If I stand below the power lines, I can hear almost the same exact humming noise coming from them.

Some noises do bother me. My parents seem to both be going deaf. (they constantly say "What?" when we're talking, and they have the tv so loud that I just want to curl up in a fetal ball and cover my ears.

They get mad at me when I ask them to constantly turn the freaking tv down.

Oh, and some frequencies bother me. My mom, for some reason known only to her, is constantly humming this off tune hum. My mom's sister hums the same tune, but thankfully she can actually sing, but it's the same tune my mom does. I think they learned it from their music teacher (same teacher that taught Faith Hill...wonder if she hums the same tuen)

That hum my mom does drives me insane. I wish she had singing talent like my aunt, because then maybe it wouldnt drive me nuts and make me want to scream. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard. Like getting feedback thru a phone or a microphone. It's not the hum itself that bugs me, because I've forced myself to sit and try to analyze why the hum bugs me. It's, I guess, the frequency that my mom hums at.

What sucks, is that it's apparently an unconcious habit she has, so just asking her to not hum doesnt work for long. She'll be back to humming within a minute or five after asking her to stop. She doesnt realize she's doing it.

Me...... I do! Loud noises actually cause me pain in the ear drums these days. Loud music, TV up too loud, noisy cars, that sort of thing. If a door slams, I get a sudden sharp earache. Not nice! :Sigh:

Like the others, I can hear tnings not usually audible, but so far I've not over-heard anything beneficial to me, ...... which is sad! :Sob:

MSCHEROKEE,

Spiderman got his abilities from a spider biting him. You've gotten super hearing from MS. Remember the bionic woman? You're like the bionic woman!

I know what you mean tho. I hear high pitched buzzing and I don't know if it's in my ears or somewhere else. I did find the source one time and it was something in the house. Of course DH doesn't hear any of it.

For some reason men have a reduced sense of smell and hearing. Or at least my DH does.

Sometimes I try and play soothing jazz music to drown out the other stuff. Sia and Norah Jones are much better to listen to than a buzzing noise.

I get overwhelmed by noise, especially when I am tired, but I never considered that I was actually hearing it louder then others do.:confused:

I often do hear things that others don't though . . . so maybe that's why it overwhelms me so. Interesting.

Cherie

I have to have some sort of background noise going on when I'm sleeping. I leave the tv on, or I have my computer playing an audio book or something. Otherwise, the tinnitus gets so loud it keeps me awake.

Wow, this is probably the weirdest symptom. LOL I don't have tinnitus but do know some people who have it and they say it's sometimes difficult to hear a conversation because of all the ringing and buzzing in their ears. Must be the frequencies.

I also get overwhelmed by noise, moreso when I'm tired. Like right now as I'm trying to wake up and DH is sitting next to me playing some video game trailer extremely loud. :Head-Spin: Makes me want to go pull the plug on the speakers!

There was an article in our local paper about TV advertisements and how they're using different pitches and frequencies to catch our attention. Wish I could find that info again because it had a link to a website where you could test how many frequencies you could hear. I could hear lots more than my DH, especially the higher frequencies.

Guess we're all Bionic Women and Six Million Dollar Men...and yes, I'm telling my age. :D

for those with late night spouses, you should get head phones for them. I told my hubby that if he wants on the puter past 10 when I go to get rested, and try to get into a zone for sleep, that I would love it, if he would wear head phones. I have a pair laying out and handy for those late night trips to finish his work, or do on line bills.

I too get over whelmed by noise. I find music in places like stores, or MD offices not only to be obnoxious, but too loud! So, with the bright lights, the high volume and the old ladies who drown themselves in colonge I just wont go into stores during peak hours. not me! I am gonna stay home till the slower times. :o

I hate people who marinate themselves in perfumes and colognes. Most of them are people who've worn that particular...stench...for so long that they've burned out their nostrils and cant smell it anymore, so they pour more on until they can smell it again.

Which means once they walk into a room I'm in, I'm flat on the floor, trying to breathe, or stumbing blindly out the door to get to fresh air (impossible because they dragged their odor thru the hallway and it'll take days to get the smell out of the carpet and furniture.

One time, I went to my neuro, and the lady who was in there just before me apparently bathed in White Diamonds or some other horrible caustic chemical. The room reeked of it. I mentioned to my neuro that I have some sort of chemical allergy because perfumes and cleaning chemicals make me ill.

He said that he has the same problem, and has asked the woman to refrain from stinking herself up when she visits. She refuses to listen to him. If I were her doctor, I'd fire her as a patient, or at least pawn her off on some other doctor.

The only perfume I could stand when I was younger, and I dont know why it's the only one, is Chanel's Coco (I can sort of stand Chanel No 5, but not for long) Now I cant stand any perfumes.

I just googled Chanel perfumes, and I think I know why I cant stand the Coco scent any more. In 1998, they switched from using Civet oil (oil from a gland in Civet cats) to using a synthetic version of civet oil. That may explain why I cant stand Coco any more. It's synthetic now. (they switched to synthetic because PETA pushed them to do it)

I can stand bright lights, lots of (non-perfumed) people, and most loud noises a lot better than I can deal with perfumed people.

*sprays whole can of cheap bathroom spray*

There! That oughta get rid of any synthetic civets lurking in here. :D

*gasping*

*trying to reach phone to call 911*

*more gasping*

*breathless screaming* (phone battery dead)

*more gasping*

*cough*

*crawling to the door*

*gasp*

"hypersensitive Hearing"
 

Hi! I'm both sorry and happy to learn that there seem to be many of us with "HYPERSENSITIVE HEARING".

My AC is running right now (yes it's 90 today in Texas), I wish there was a volume control on it.

I went to an Astros game Saturday in Houston with DH and friends. The sounds were blasting from every where, 35,000 people. I pulled my earplugs out and muted it by atleast 50%. I keep them with me all the time.

Cannot sleep w/o ear plugs, have gotten in trouble at a job in the past for wearing them. Avoid malls, huge crowds. Go to movies, restaurants, etc in "off" hours.

What all have "ya'll" found that helps??

My hearing was tested because I was going on a cruise and get violently sea sick. Have you ever been fully tested for your hearing? They put me in a room, ran warm and cold water in my ears to test my inner ear making me read things aloud. I had my husband with me. I got so violently ill, I was throwing up and yelling to my husband to make the Tech stop. Good news reluctantly the Dr. gave me an RX for the "patch". It felt like I had a margarita in me the entire week of the cruise but I had a blast.

Glad to find this forum, sad that we have this problem. I too cannot stand be near power lines, if there is a power box anywhere near I'll hear it. No one can talk on the cell phone in my house, it's just too loud.

Yes, yes!! My hearing is very hyper-sensitive. I can even hear things that aren't even there!! :eek: I'm always turning the TV down and really prefer to not have any background noise.

Sometimes when I'm in the car I think I hear a siren but there isn't one.

All I need now is x-ray vision!! :p

I never related it to MS, but sometimes mine is bad. It is particularly bad when fatigue hits and all I wanna do is sleep. I seem to hear every little thing... and of course a headache brings out the sensitive hearing. I don't really think I have it otherwise.

My hearing is pretty much normal, but there are certain sounds that bother me, such as using a scrub brush on certain textures. I also have periods of time (hours, days) when I have a hollow, echoing sound. Drives me nuts. During those times, I can't stand to talk on the phone. Well, I can talk, I just don't like to listen! :D

Like B2Y, I have normal hearing but there are times when certain frequencies bother me (high frequencies).

Jewelbaby - Welcome to NT! I am glad you found us and am glad you had a great time on your cruise.

Hi there Jewelbaby. I see this is your first post so I wanted to welcome to NeuroTalk.

As you've found us here in the MS Forums, I'll take it as granted that you also have concerns in the same department.

You'll meet some wonderful here at the site Jewellbaby, so welcome again. It's good to have you with us.

I can relate to all of you; I as born with hypersensitive hearing. My child Emily, is atopic. She is one of the few with true hypersensitive skin. She use to itch every second of every day. We believe she has learned to tune out some of this.

My As a kid, I found it kind of fun to hear better than others. I came from the country, so a lot of things were not there to bother me. My earliest memory of this was when we walked into a jewerly store. To date that has been the worse of all. We left asap, as I could hear their alarm in my ears and it was killing me with pain. College was not fun with the dorm noise and all. I use to get up at 3am and study till 7am. That was the only time it was quite enough.

As an adult, I lost some of the sensitivy. In spots I could hear the electricty,.. I had a tv that I always heard the background noise of it running - even with vol high. Don't buy a Zenith - unless u test it 1st.

Now with MS all the sensitivy is coming back. I'm not happy about it at all. I hate music now, I can hear any tv, vcr, ref, computer running on mute or just turned on. I do not even need to be in the room. I hear some lights (mainly ultra) - the list goes on. So far I can manage it.

This is me to a T! Sharp, loud noises are so painful like being stabbed in the ear drum.

Screaming children. I get the earache from kids screaming...and not just a normal reaction, I'll have to get up and leave, and plug my ears as I'm leaving. The parents sometimes give me nasty looks.

I was in a restaurant a few months back. (the kind of place you have to get dressed up to eat at) Already had an earache because of a cold, and the darling little kids at the table next to us were screaming. (have they never heard of "inside voices"???)

Everytime one of them would scream/bark/throw a fork while screaming, it would startle me. Even if I can see the kid and can tell they're about to let loose, the scream is loud enough that I'll startle, or I'll have to cover my ears and start to curl up into a fetal ball. I cant help it.

Well, I guess the mother saw me startle a couple of times and then put my hands over my ears to try to hold my brain inside because the screaming was setting off a migraine.

She suddenly started to grab children, and told them they were leaving because **I** was being rude. (umm...I wasnt the one screaming, and I was trying to ignore it)

After she left in a huff, screaming kids and embarassed husband behind her, a few people a couple of tables over said "dang, about time she left..." or something like that, and a ton of people in the restaurant started to giggle. Our waitress said that she didnt think I was rude, just reacting to the screaming like I was in pain. She was actually about to send the manager over to ask them to be quiet or leave when the lady took care of the problem for her.

I wasnt trying to be rude, I just wanted to keep my head from exploding and having brains go everywhere. I cant help it if I'm sensitive enough to loud voices that I'm starting to carry earplugs with me when I'm in places with screaming children...the library...when did it become ok to allow small children and teenagers to run like wild dogs thru the library? I always got "shhh-ed" by the librarian if I even just whispered when I was a kid.

Wow Erin, that woman sounds like a real...um...winner. LOL I love how some parents feel that everyone else should experience their kids attitudes. Apparently the parents are so immune to the noise that they can block it out but for the rest of us - wow. I would probably win mean Mommy of the Year award because if my child decided to act up in a restaurant and I just simply could not get him or her to calm down and behave, I'd tell the waitress to box up the food, we're outta here. No sense making everyone else's lives miserable.

That's the worst thing about the nice weather we're having. First thing DH does is open all the windows like he just did. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with it but the neighbors behind us have the loudest, noisiest, whiniest bunch of BRATS that I've ever heard. The one has already whined, screamed and cried to the top of her lungs within the last five minutes. We're not talking toddlers here, these kids mostly range in age from 8-15. As I've told my husband numerous times, these kids are the best form of birth control. LOL

I can certainly relate to this! I don't understand why we have to be inundated with background music everywhere and it is always so loud.

I used to enjoy the silence of a doctor's office. I could have sat and read magazines all afternoon. It was quiet, no distractions.... Unless I was waiting to have a root canal, I found it to be relaxing.

Now, they all have bad background music or worse yet, a blaring tv. And to me the volume is ear-splitting. It is the same in the grocery stores. I just try to get in and out of there as quickly as possible.

But worse than the sensitivity to the volume issue is the inability to determine where the sound is coming from. I can hear fine but I cannot tell where the sound is coming from.

It doesn't matter if it is a bird tweeting, a person talking, someone calling me, a mower running.....I don't know which direction the sound is coming from.

This is especially bothersome when I am driving and I hear a siren. I have no idea where the emergency vehicle is until I see the flashing lights!

This symptom bothers me more than the volume sensitivity. It can actually be frightening at times.

Too noisy and making me crazy!!!
 

I thought I was just about the only one on the planet with this problem!!!
Even if it isn't the Fourth of July noises, or certain noises can make me so irritable, even hostile! Right now I am near tears due to the constant noise and there aren't even any fireworks yet!

I have scrounged up a couple of earplugs that help but I am almost beside myself from the hummming, buzzing, etc.

I am looking up the nutritional possibilties right now. At least I am not alone with this!!:eek:

Right there with you on the sensitive hearing thing, and it seems to be getting to be more intense with the passing of time. I love silence.

Trying to understand one person who is speaking while there are others speaking, when there is music playing or any other background noise going on is nearly impossible for me.

Engine (lawn mowers, generators, pumps etc) and close by traffic noise gets my 'anger motor' running, which is odd because normally I'm not prone to anger. Why do some people need to rev or roar their engines as they go along in their cars?

The binging and bonging at checkouts are right up there with the announcements and music played in stores. How do the clerks stand it hour after hour?

When I stay at my father's place, I usually take my camper, park it in his driveway and stay in that because his house literally hums with all the appliances that go on and off day and night. On top of that they have a Westminster style clock that chimes every 15 minutes, which they say they don't really hear anymore.

I can't even stand TV. I haven't owned one for years and politely leave if I'm at someone's place and it gets turned on.

Glad that I live in a fairly quiet neighbourhood but there is a park 100 ft away where they hold concerts and events in the summer. Some band is down there playing now and I may as well have a stereo playing in my living room. Willy the dog agrees with me on this. He's camped out under the coffee table.

Canadians are pretty tame when it comes to fireworks. Yahoo! They are highly regulated where I live and one needs a special licence to purchase them and set them off.

Wishing you the sweet sound of silence.

With love, Erika

During the summer we seem to attract a host of ATV riders to our street. We are a dead end wooded street and it leads to a dirt road that leads to the lake, and a dirt trail that runs behind our house. We find folks from states away show up on our street to TEACH their young family how to ride one. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?! The noise makes me crazy! Zipppp....Zoooom....brrrr....its ILLEGAL to ride an ATV on the street unless its street legal and then its supposed to be kept to the trails, not the roads. DH went out to slow a few down and they flipped him off. Do we really need to spend each summer weekend chasing off folks that jump up and down our road, have children with no helmets, zip thru our yard ruining our grass or flowers, and then they flip you off and keep going! By the time you call the cops it takes hours for them to get to you. By then they are gone.

Screaming kids! STFU! Please, if your children are being fussy, over tired, rude, rambunctious or just plain old over active GET THEM AWAY FROM ME! I want to bang their little heads together. I want to slap the parents and say HEY! Go get your brats!

my worst enemy...a bouncing basketball. thump thump thump for hours! followed by the screaming of teens who are now surrounding the dang thing. GO AWAY! Years ago I paid a friend in town (when I lived in florida) to drag it off. He showed up at 2am and took it. It was set up under the street light which was right next to my bedroom window. BANG BANG BANG! He took it to the boys club parking lot and dropped it off. I felt guilty for a while, but once the quiet set it at midnight and I could sleep again. I got over it. LAter on I found out those boys had stolen it from the boys club to start with ! so, returning it there was a good thing. I wont tell you that later on I had that light busted out so it wasnt like a landing strip in my room, even with black out curtains.

QUIET! just be quiet! why must folks be on the cell phone all day everyday? what do they all have to talk about? in the bathroom, the check out line, the bank, the MD, the concerts, the park, the gym, and so on. SHUT UP! no one actually gets time to just sit and think anymore.

Oh thanks Dejibo. I thought that I was just being a crank. Maybe I am...but I do practice patience and when that doesn't work, I hide.

With love, Erika

Noise Sensitivity & buzz/humming ear
 

This is first post, please bare with me.
***Will give you great insight and understanding concerning both.
American Tinnitus Assocition
HYPERACUSIS is sensitivity to noise.
TINNITUS is the noise you hear from your ear.
You can also google search both these conditions. I have had both since 2006.
In my case they are disabling. Please read info on these conditions, many side effects from both. One being lack of focus and cognitive problems. I am so sorry can not communicate well, but will be glad to answer anyone's questions if I can help.

Good Luck!

You're not alone
 

Every so often it hits me too. And like you, I thought it was just me. Some things that work for me: Turn off an appliance that buzzes to get a few minutes quiet, and headphones for falling asleep.:Wave-Hello:

Next time my family mentions my hearing problems I can let them know this is normal for MS. I wish I wasn't normal. I have most everything that was mentioned here plus one more.
I live in Alaska and 10 seconds before I feel an earthquake, I hear it. Kind of low rumble.

I don't have sensitive hearing but little noises bother me like eating or the sound of silverware clinking or heavy breathing. Is there a name for that. I have had it since I was a little girl. Snoring drives me crazy but my pet snoring doesn't bother me. Only humans.

The greatest irritatant for me is children squealing. Today's kids are the most obnoxious generation ever born. I feel a need to avoid most public establishments because they refuse to kick out other customers whose children squeal or otherwise act disruptive.

I feel like I'll have to be a shut-in for a lifetime because nobody cares that the world is overpopulated. They just keep on having more & more squealing spawn. Now, unlike other cases of shut-ins I've read about elsewhere on PsychCentral, I will still go to the grocery store myself every week, Target every month, & work if I ever find another job. But look...I have developed a strong aversion against the childed majority for their lack of consideration.

I don't go to clubs or bars because communication is impossible with everyone shouting over everyone else & I would be the only person there that knows a conversational amount of American Sign Language.