Noise Sensitivity Can Be Difficult to Diagnose and Even Harder to Treat

Noise sensitivity is a problem that often lacks diagnosis — it’s almost as if some doctors just aren’t listening. But the tendency to be irritated by persistent, ongoing noise affects all kinds of people — and it’s more than just a passing annoyance.

“[Noise sensitivity] has definite deleterious effects on health,” James Henry, a retired auditory researcher who worked for 35 years at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Portland, Oregon, told Discover.

The disorder, which isn’t well understood by the general medical community, can cause stress, heart problems, and neurological problems, among other things.

“Definitely there’s a lack of awareness in the medical community about noise sensitivity,” Henry said.

Henry first became interested in hearing problems for two reasons. Henry played guitar in a loud cover band for years when he was younger, then worked as a carpenter for a time, where power tool noise further damaged his hearing. He ended up with tinnitus — the perception of sounds like ringing or buzzing that don’t actually exist. His daughter was also born deaf.

He began studying audiology and ended up focusing on tinnitus, the condition he developed himself. “I caused all these problems in my 20s,” Henry told Discover.

What Is Noise Sensitivity?

Henry says that many doctors do not understand hearing problems, and they often misclassify the symptoms. In a book he wrote on the topic, he divides sound hypersensitivity into five different disorders. There are two types of hyperacusis: loudness hyperacusis, when someone perceives usually normal sounds as unbearably loud, and pain hyperacusis, when sounds actually cause ear pain.

The other three types are more emotional than physical. Misophonia often starts in childhood and describes the condition in which people respond emotionally to certain sounds — usually those made by others’ mouths and noses.

“It can affect them all their life unless they get proper treatment for it,” Henry told Discover. Phonophobia occurs when people have an extreme fear that sound will be too loud or even painful.

Finally, according to his classification, noise sensitivity occurs when sound irritates and annoys someone.

Since these conditions are understudied, not all doctors even agree on their classification or differences. Some researchers lump misophonia and noise sensitivity together, whereas others sometimes use the term hyperacusis as an umbrella term for all sound hypersensitivity disorders.

“Really, very few ear specialists distinguish noise sensitivity from hyperacusis,” Henry said.

What Causes Noise Sensitivity?

It’s unclear exactly what causes noise sensitivity as a specific disorder. Traumatic brain injuries can prompt noise sensitivity and related disorders like hyperacusis, according to a 2012 study in Neuropsychological Rehabilitation.

It can also be linked to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), per the American Medical Association. In these cases, certain sounds related to past trauma can trigger noise sensitivity. Noise sensitivity may also occur more in people with other mental conditions like schizophrenia and autism.

It’s also possible that genetics plays some role in a person’s susceptibility to different hypersensitivity disorders. Misophonia, Henry said, often starts in childhood. And noise sensitivity, while potentially triggered by brain injury or PTSD, can be more likely to occur in some types of people than others, he added, but more research is needed to improve our understanding of these disorders.

What Problems Can Noise Sensitivity Cause?

Since noise sensitivity is an emotional reaction, many of the problems it causes start in the brain. Some people will try to manage the problem by avoiding sound as much as possible, a route that can affect quality of life.

Research from Noise and Health has shown that impacts from other types of irritating sound, such as airplane noise, can disturb sleep. And even if you get sleep, it may not be as restful if you have a noise sensitivity disorder, according to a study in Springer Nature Link.

Noise sensitivity can also cause chronic stress, which can lead to several downstream effects on the body, Henry told Discover. These could include everything from heart problems to increased blood pressure and neurological problems.

Can Noise Sensitivity Be Treated?

People with noise sensitivity can take some basic steps to reduce noise in their home, such as adding insulation, using white-noise machines, installing carpets, and using curtains. But finding the right doctors who understand the differences among noise hypersensitivity disorders is critical for relief.

Henry recommended seeing an audiologist to develop individualized sound therapy and psychologists who already understand how to treat misophonia and can adapt their counseling to address noise sensitivity.

“It’s too bad that so few medical people know what these disorders are and how they might be different from one another,” he told Discover, adding that knowledge of these disorders is improving “a little, but not much,” since he began studying them.

But since noise sensitivity is primarily an emotional reaction to noise, treatment in part relies on psychological therapy. Henry said that treating underlying anxiety, PTSD, and other linked causes can help with the noise sensitivity disorder.

Otherwise, he mentions treatments such as mindfulness therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy, which involve patients identifying and challenging unhealthy thoughts and behavior patterns. Or acceptance and commitment therapy, which helps patients accept uncomfortable thoughts. In all cases, the treatment will need to focus on the individual problem each patient faces.

“There are many methods of treatment involving counseling, but no one method can be held out as superior to all the others,” Henry concluded.

This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.

Read More: The Noise and Pollution of a City Could Impact Your Mental Health

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