Hyperacute Hearing WAS: Has anyone heard of Tinnitus Retraining Therapy?

[Guest guest]

wrote: " I have what's called "hyperacute hearing" which is different from Tinnitus. According to the Hyperacusis Network (www.hyperacusis.net) "the key words with hyperacute hearing are sound sensitive to specific frequencies heard at loud levels." Tinnitus also known as hyperacusis is "a difficult time tolerating any noise. TRT helps with both conditions. I had AIT which didn't help me, didn't hurt me, but HN says that AIT may actually be harmful to those with hyperacute hearing."

I was just reading up on this TRT and it would appear that the therapy has more to do with the emotional response to sound rather than the mechanics of hearing and of sound problems.

www.tinnitusforumula.com] This is the basis of TRT, training the brain to habituate tinnitus sounds and classifying them to represent a neutral, insignificant signal. To achieve this it is necessary to fulfill two basic conditions:

1. Removal of the negative association attached to tinnitus perception.2. Preservation of tinnitus detection, but not necessarily perception, during treatment.

Signals that induce fear or indicate danger cannot and should not be habituated. We must not habituate sounds that provide warning signals. The decreased negative association of tinnitus is achieved through directive counseling. The patient is taught the basic function of the auditory system and the brain relative to tinnitus. Decreasing the reaction of the autonomic nervous system is a primary goal of the therapy [end quote].

If your therapist is treating you with TRT, it's because your therapist thinks your hearing problem is all in your head. Is this the sort of therapist that is going to be effective in helping you with your audio sensitivities? I highly doubt it, .

You have stated that TRT helps with difficulties tolerating noise but I do not see how that is possible if the root problem has nothing whatsoever to do with emotions and negative emotional associations.

That the website I visited appears to be promoting 'quakery' as a cure for tinnitus does not bode well for their support of the TRT you are currently undertaking.

RavenCo-Administrator

[Guest guest]

from my very limited classes. hyperacusis may be described this way;

The hearing mechanism is tuned to precieve sound in an exaggerated

way. the basilar membrane is like a series of thousands of tuning

forks,(sterocilia) each responding to a different frequency. these

vibrations travel with the balance mechanisms signals.(the auditory

canal) The brain processes the analog to digital signal and the brain

processes the information through neural fibers. Many of us has some

sensitivity(neural function being involved as well as efferent and

afferent signals from the aparatus to the brain.) Balance is the only

sense directly wired to the medulla but hearing travels the same

pathway in the CN 7,8. this is a guess but if somehow sound was read

directly by the medulla this could account for a pain response as the

balance receptors interact with all sensation. i think one could look

up the auditory canal, crainal nerves 7 and 8. The cochlea as well as

the vestibular system. in addition the occisicular chain increases the

effects of sound through mechanical energy (middle ear bones)

sound is a wave too

vibrations like our good and bad days