Curing Hyperacusis?

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I'm getting decidedly fed up with my hyperacusis (sound sensitivity); it causes pain, irritation and anxiety every day, and the problem has since been exacerbated because I recently started a new job where there are a lot of sudden unexpected loud sounds (people throwing heavy boxes around, etc.) and it's come close to causing meltdowns at work, and is drawing unwanted attention. My coworkers talk about it all the time: "Sorry, I'll be careful, don't want to scare her," "No sudden noises, you're going to kill StarTrekker," "I guess you must have super sensitive ears, huh?" and it's becoming annoying and embarrassing. My inquiry for all of you is this: have any of you ever visited an audiologist to have the problem of hyperacusis addressed? Is there a treatment for it, and if so, what does it entail? I live in the US if that makes a difference. I really just want it to stop, and have considered attempting to kill off some of the cilia in my ear canals via exposure to excessive noise, but it's a desperate attempt, and I am aware, probably not a wise one.

Some places do train hearing and adresses hyper acusis too. Look for it specifically.
Hyper acusis can occur with damage or weakened hearing, but it is hardly your problem. DON`T KILL OFF CILIA. The problem is likely to become ten times worse...plus you get yourself a real handicap.
Some use white noise, but that won´t help you. In your case it´s the wiring.

I would advice you to buy earprotection for hunters! I know a hunter, who has them.
They cost, perhaps, 150-200 dollars, but they´re worth it!
It allows you to hear the slightest muffle in the leaves and they immidiately cut off by impulse noise, and that is, what you are being subjected to.
I may be back with a link for you.
Wear your protection and ignore remarks.
My employer felt provoked and got a little nasty about my use of eargear. He felt, that I exaggerated, when I used it during work with the smallest clip pistol, but I insisted and felt better.

I've done sound therapy for this, which was effective. It involves exposure to constant low level white noise, starting off very low and gradually increasing. It trains the ear to be less sensitive. The audiologist warned against wearing earplugs for hyperacusis because they will make your hearing more sensitive because of lack of exposure to sound.

I use double ear protection, I cannot hear much around me after, but it helps.

The ear protection for hunters isn´t plugs. It is an ear cover.
If I were at StarTrekkers workplace, I´d surely use it.

An audiologist diagnosed me with hyperacusis. He didn't say anything about there being treatments for it -- he just made some recommendations for accomodations to help cope with it (custom made musician's earplugs to filter really bothersome frequencies in day to day life, FM system for lectures if I ever went back to school).

My old OT wanted to do auditory integration with me, and did try it a couple of times, but I could not handle it.



Yeah that's a risky idea. You could wind up with tinnitus if you do that -- at least with hyperacusis if there's no sound, there's nothing to bother you. If you deliberately damage your hearing and wind up with really bad tinnitus there is no escape from the ringing in your ears.

It's a good idea, and I did recently buy some heavy-duty construction earmuffs that do well at cutting out a lot of sound. Unfortunately my job is in retail (Walmart bakery) and I don't think my employers would be appreciative of my wearing gigantic earmuffs while at work. They don't even know I have autism: I haven't told them because they might find an excuse "unrelated to my disability" to get rid of me since retail is effectively scab work and it's all too easy to find replacement workers.

I do have intermittent tinnitus: it's not constant, but every so often I get a high pitched ringing in one ear or the other; it's rarely both at once, that's probably something else I should have looked at, but it has yet to become a real problem.

So have I. I´ve had it since late childhood and sometimes, in periods of heightened anxiety, a direct howling noise, that scared the hell out of me.
It doesn´t have to become worse. It is a "comorbid" to Aspergers, I have been told. Senses going crazy once in a while.
I thought, you worked in some storage-thing. It is more difficult in retail, I admit.
Maybe you should go for training instead. Don´t-don´t-don´t try overloading! It will make matters worse.

I use earplugs when things are too loud. Massage for some reason helps but given the cost......I did try earplugs and a whirlpool. So if there is a whirlpool in the pool area (I remember you're a student at a large university so guessing it's available) the calming stimulation helps. Sometimes rubbing feet and hands helps.

There's always noise. Sometimes it's more distressing than others. At one point coworkers tried to avoid startling me and it seemed like genuine concern, but made it worse. I think their worry about it made me feel more uneasy and tolerating sensory experiences is helped by feeling at ease. Nothing helped until they stopped worrying about it and just acted calmly. And finding calm in Walmart will be tough, I would just have to tolerate it until I could find another job.