![]() Some instances, I use a sound machine with noises that are calming for me or even wear head phones (I use Bose sound sport wireless headphones) to help eliminate some sounds but aren’t completely noise cancelling. What does help with sound sensitivity is improving coping skills and the ability to remain regulated. So, as I said before, ear tapping does help reduce being sensitive over time or in the moment but it isn’t a permanent fix. Unfortunately, there isn’t much research on hyperacusis. Now, I’m not saying to go chew in someone’s ear until they tolerate it, but providing the vibration to the ear can provide that stimulus to decrease the sensitivity. Essentially, overtime the stimulation helps to decrease the sensitivity. After a week or so, you don’t notice the train as often, and after a month, they just become another background noise. How exactly does this work? Think about this scenario: you move into a new house and there are train tracks near it and you hear the train every day. That stimulation helps to decrease the hyper sensitivity over time. It is a way to provide a manual vibration to the inner ear to stimulate it. So, what do I do now? I take 10 deep breaths, try and remove myself or the source of the sound (which is not always possible to do), or I try something called ear tapping.Įar tapping is something one of my fellow OTs taught me and I use it every so often, more so when a sound is starting to bother me and I can’t remove myself from it. I used to cover my ears, get mad, yell, and lash out. Aside from chewing, there are other sounds that make my body feel tense and anger flair up, and this is typical when someone is hyper-sensitive. What I have learned over my years as an occupational therapist that specializes in sensory integration is how to cope when sounds become overwhelming to me and what to do to make myself feel better. If I’m calm and regulated, the sounds don’t bother me quite as much. If I’m more moody, anxious, or upset about something then the sensitivity to sound is amplified. I will say, I rarely get that intense anger feeling any more but when I do, it all depends on what my state of regulation is. This prompted my parents to “assign” seats at the dinner table and mine was located on the very opposite end of the table from my dad because, to this day, I can’t sit next to him when eating. ![]() When I was younger, I would get angry whenever my dad was close to me when he was eating. My biggest trigger is hearing others chew or make specific noises with their mouth when talking. ![]() I’m talking very loud and very intense whistles in addition to sounds that kids make with their mouths because they either are trying to cover up a sound they don’t like or really like the sounds that is coming out of their mouth. As a pediatric OT, I experience a lot of different sounds throughout my day. I have something called auditory sensitivity (hyperacusis) where my body is very responsive to certain sounds. ![]() That feeling you get when hearing a sound like that is a response to something your ears don’t like. Have you ever experienced a sound that just makes your spine shiver? Something like nails on a chalk board possibly.
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