{"id":5664,"date":"2018-01-17T19:34:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T00:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/?p=5664"},"modified":"2022-01-24T12:03:33","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T17:03:33","slug":"hyperacusis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/?p=5664","title":{"rendered":"Hyperacusis"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my trauma therapists told me that my extreme sensitivity to noise, called hyperacusis, is one of the symptoms of PTSD.\u00a0 At one period in my life, before I got on anti-depressant medication, I suffered badly from the noise of small planes<\/a> taking off from the Franconia airport. \u00a0During the 13 years that I suffered from this, I had to leave the house on days when the planes were flying.\u00a0 I had to take everything with me: books, tea, food, and go to someplace where I couldn\u2019t hear the planes.\u00a0 Thank goodness I had friends who were willing to provide sanctuary for me.<\/p>\n

During this time we got a new refrigerator, and I heard it go on, and run, and run, and run and run and run and finally go off. \u00a0The normal buffering capacity of the normal brain when a noise goes on and on was not working for me. \u00a0One day I heard what sounded like a chainsaw, and my heart reacted with shock, and then I saw that it was a fly buzzing at the window. \u00a0That was when I realized how sensitive my hearing had gotten.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been pretty much OK for a long time.\u00a0 I still have a bad time with the noise of lawnmowers.\u00a0 But since I moved to a new place, I am noticing all kinds of new noises.\u00a0 Eventually, I hope, I will stop hearing them. \u00a0I\u2019m hearing different refrigerator noises from the ones in my house that I am used to. \u00a0I seem to keep noticing a particular noise that sounds like an elevator, but there is no elevator near me, and it goes off after only a short time.\u00a0 I finally tracked it down to my refrigerator.<\/p>\n

From my journal, December 2017:<\/p>\n

I\u2019m feeling pretty bummed out right now.\u00a0 I think yesterday\u2019s experience of a lot of noise overhead was very discouraging.\u00a0 At least my response to noise is not triggered terror or depression.\u00a0 But I can\u2019t not hear it. yet.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting that if I know what the sound is it\u2019s not so bad.\u00a0 I guess that makes sense in terms of trauma.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t know what the noise is, it could be a threat.\u00a0 I remind myself that I did finally stop hearing the airplanes.<\/p>\n

Noise from my upstairs neighbor: last night there was a sound, a loud \u201ccrack!\u201d that sounds to me like a board, 2\u201dx 8\u201dx 12\u201d, stood on its end and then knocked over.\u00a0 It happened twice last night when I was trying to get to sleep.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been hearing it for several days and even looked to see if Mocha knocked over something.\u00a0 Thinking about it, I realize it\u2019s only been happening in the last week, since my upstairs neighbor came back from Christmas visiting.\u00a0 It happens on a fairly regular basis, so it\u2019s not something being knocked over.\u00a0 I wish I could let go of the need to find out what it is.\u00a0 Which is partly scientific curiosity, but it\u2019s also fueled by the reptilian brainstem\u2019s need to know if it\u2019s dangerous or not.\u00a0 Fortunately, my nervous system doesn\u2019t get triggered into fight\/flight any more, I\u2019m momentarily startled, but then calm right down.\u00a0 Thank god.\u00a0 There have been times in my life when such a thing would have triggered a long bout of what I used to call \u201cshocked heart.\u201d\u00a0 I remember when that would happen if I even saw a sign for an airport during the worst of the airplane phobia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Several weeks have gone by and I am hearing a great number of odd noises which I am pretty sure are the heating system. \u00a0I’ve gotten interested in the great variety of the sounds. \u00a0Even the one that sounded like a board being knocked over has mutated and is most likely the heating system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my trauma therapists told me that my extreme sensitivity to noise, called hyperacusis, is one of the symptoms of PTSD.\u00a0 At one period in my life, before I got on anti-depressant medication, I suffered badly from the noise … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trauma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}