Suicide prevention needs to be handled differently in patients with Hyperacusis

I wanted to talk about the connection hyperacusis pain suicide/suicidal thoughts. The severe chronic pain that people with hyperacusis experience is almost impossible to escape from, as it is triggered by normal everyday noises.

High levels of constant chronic pain over an extended period of time, by themselves can cause people to feel suicidal. In addition to the pain those with hyperacusis are misunderstood and not believed about their pain by the medical community and often treated with desentization and behavioral therapy.

The poor understanding and lack of research about pain hyperacusis from the medical community means that a person’s friends/family/community often treat them like their pain is “all in the head”, and try to encourage sound exposure.

The combination of severe chronic noise induced pain, and not being understood or believed my the medical field or there communities, can often lead to people with severe hyperacusis feeling/attempting suicide/suicidal thoughts.

Unfortunately when those with severe pain hyperacusis are suicidal, medical professionals and their community further believe that hyperacusis itself is an emotional problem.

This means that the person is further encouraged or even subjected to desentization and behavioral therapy, causing increased pain and long term worsening of their hyperacusis. It is a terrible cycle that many people with hyperacusis are helplessly caught in with: of severe noise induced pain, people not believing them and thinking its “in their heads, being treated with desentization and behavioral therapy, and feeling suicidal.

To make things even worse, if a medical or mental health professional thinks a person is “a danger to themselves” they have them hospitalized. Don’t get me wrong, something definitely needs to be done to keep the person safe, but sending a person with severe pain hyperacusis for inpatient physiatric care will result in there physical and mental health becoming drastically worse.

This is because physiatric hospitals are extremely loud places, and the staff there will treat there hyperacusis like a physiological conditon and not make any noise accommodations, leading to unbearable physical pain, long term worsening of there hyperacusis, and ultimately them feeling/attempting more suicide/suicidal.

I know this from personal experience. I was suicidal from age 11-14 due to being in such severe constant pain from noise, and people not treating my pain like a physiological condition and forcing sound exposure on me.

When I was 11 years old, I had had hyperacusis with pain for about 5 years at the time, I attempted suicide to try to prevent being in more pain, (my doctors and parents had been planning and talking about doing gradual exposure and behavioral therapy involving sound I had had very painful experiences with this in the past, and I thought I would rather die then go through that again) I ended up at a psychiatric hospital, and non of the doctors believed me about my Hyperacusis.

They did not Believe that I got physical pain from Sound, and they thought that it was purely a behavioral problem and that I was just being manipulative. They didn’t make any noise accommodations for me during my stay, and I was forced to participate in activities all day with kids who were constantly screaming and banging. I was also exposed to loud music, movies, guitars, vacuum cleaners and much more, despite altering staff that I was in extreme pain.

The two weeks there was the most painful experience of my life so far, my head felt like someone had broken the bones in my skull and my ears felt like they were on fire. I was not allowed to even go in my bedroom to lay down during the day, barely got any sleep at night due to the noise and pain, and had to where hearing protection 24/7 because I didn’t have a quiet place to go. ( The extreme pain only made me feel more suicidal.) The doctors tried to convince my parents that I was not in any physical pain and it was just a behavioral problem. I was discharged with a behavioral plan which involved taking me off of Home & Hospital instruction and attending school, being near the refrigerator at home, and not going in my soundproof room or closet for quiet and rest.

One of the sad things that I have learned as I become an advocate for hyperacusis, is that suicide and suicidal feelings among those with severe pain hyperacusis are not uncommon. Often just like with my case, these patients are only further harmed by the suicide intervention/mental health help, because they only further the two main reasons the person likely felt suicidal in the first place, physical pain and disbelief.

The way to intervene and help a person with severe pain hyperacusis that feels suicidal is to provide them with a pain free environment to meet there specific noise tolerance, help them get the daily life modifications/services they need to avoid noise, acknowledge that they are the expert in their body, and believe and be empathetic when they tell you about there pain/symptoms.