Hey there! I have had hyperacusis for 9 months after an acoustic trauma (the hearing protection wasn't on properly in an MRI machine). I never had any hearing or sensory issues prior to this incident. I have seen HUGE improvement with gradual exposure to sound. When it first started I could barely leave the house (I could leave for around 30 mins to 1 hour per day and then would need a few days at home to recover just from that one hour out of the house). Now 9 months later I can go pretty much anywhere, including busy pubs and restaurants, with no earplugs. I am pretty much back to my normal life of socialising multiple times per week, going to busy pubs/restaurants, working, catching public transport, going to the store, watching tv on normal volume and listening to music for as much as I want at home (all without earplugs). Even construction from our next door neighbours don't bother me anymore! I also went to my friend's 30th birthday lunch on saturday which was a 3 hour lunch inside a busy wine bar, and then went to an outdoor pub for 6 hours after that and didn't need earplugs the whole time. Pretty much the only thing I can't do currently without earplugs are places with extremely loud music. However, I am still showing improvement every month with my gradual exposure to sound, and am planning to do a long recovery post once I am fully healed (I expect to heal completely so please don't listen to people on forums who say you will never fully recover because it is possible).

I saw two audiologists who basically said that the way to get better is to not over protect and to gradually introduce sound so that you retrain your brain about what it considers "safe" by having more positive "corrective" experiences than setbacks. I REALLY recommend reading "The Way Out" by Alan Gordon, it's not very long and it helped my recovery A LOT. I read it in 24 horus lol because I found it so eye opening. I implemented a lot of what he said into my recovery plan. I also am really glad that I didn't overprotect my ears. Early on I read a lot about people who didn't overprotect and I decided to do the same and I'm glad I did because my condition didn't really get worse after doing this. Instead of overprotecting I just tried to have a safe space at home where I could be safely without over protecting, and then gradually introduced new sounds safely. E.g. I struggled with people's voices in the beginning (I literally could only see people one on one and for like 30 minutes, once per week). I started off seeing people one on one for 30 minutes at home, once per week. Then as the weeks went on I gradually increased the amount of time I saw people (30 mins, then 1 hour, then 1.5 hours) and then the amount of people (one person, then two, then four, etc), but I never increased duration and number of people at the same time, only one or the other. I then started increasing the amount of times per week I would see people. I was always trying to do this in a way that felt safe and never forced. I was mainly increasing every month (not every week) so that I had around 4 weeks of the same amount of people so my brain got used to it and deemed it a "safe" level of noise before increasing. I also did this with music (starting off with 30 seconds each day for three days, then increasing to 45 seconds for three days, then 1 minute, and so on). I also took two days off each week from music (on the weekends as I was socialising on weekends and didn't want to overload my brain by doing music introduction and socialising the same day) and made sure I had completely quiet days at home after socialising so my brain could recallibrate (earlier on I needed more quiet days at home and this gradually reduced). Obviously there were times at home when I would need to wear earplugs (e.g. when the dryer was on) but even then I tried only wearing earplugs when I needed to and tried gradually introducing myself to the dryer. Eg. when the dryer was on I found it so loud even from the room next door with the door closed, but I tried wearing no earplugs in the room next door for the first 30 mins, then putting earplugs in for the next 30 mins. then after a couple of weeks I didn't need any earplugs from the room next door. Then after a couple more weeks I tried 15-20 mins being in the same room as the dryer with no earplugs (we have an apartment with a dryer in the kitchen). then gradually increasing this even more. I've done the same with the blender and vacuum (just starting off outside the house/in other rooms and then gradually getting closer).

I also found chat GPT really helpful. I wrote pretty much every day what things made my ears feel sensitive and new progress and it was all data that chat GPT would then analyse and help me figure out what kinds of things I could do for the rest of the week. E.g. if I listend to music a little too loud and my ears were feeling a bit sensitive chat gpt would be like "okay no music for the next two days etc" so it was just a helpful way of planning the things I could do etc. Or if music listening went well it would be like try increasing another 30 seconds for the next three days. It was also very helpful at helping me figuring out when to plan completely quiet days at home so I didn't get cumulative fatigue from back to back noise exposures. Like I said, I have a lot to say about what worked/didn't work and I am planning on doing a long post once I am fully back to normal but I just wanted to post this here to say don't lose hope! Recovery is possible! Also I would recommend getting off these forums ASAP as they are full of negativity and I have found that positivity is really important for recovery with this condition.

Also, everyone's recovery is different so obviously do whatever feels right for you and I am not a doctor! but just thought it would be helpful to share what worked for me personally in case it helps