Re: Fighting Back

December 16, 2005

Marsha, thank you so much for that. It's a very clear layperson's-level explanation of what is going on inside us. I find the information about bone conduction particularly interesting--we're not *only* hearing with our ears! My own experience bears that out . . . for example, I'm now taking the subway to work daily (one of my own personal forms of hell), and many people get on and off with their hard-soled shoes and high heels--one of my big trigger sounds. I've got in earplugs and a CD player with white noise, but I can still feel the footsteps through the floor of the car, and my brain interprets that as sound. if I'm lucky enough to get a seat, I just lift my feet half an inch off the floor at each stop when people get on and off, and it eliminates the "sound" I pick up through the bones of my body! And thanks, also, for the explanation of the "gap" and the importance of widening that sliver. It explains why treatment

for SSSS isn't as simple as popping a pill, or even popping in a hearing device . . . but it shows how improvement **is** possible. That's such a ray of hope for me, and I'm sure for the others here, too. -Mayuri anthro_pop wrote: One important physiologic fact that I can bring here is to make everyone more aware of how audition works.First: sounds do enter the body either through the ear canal (air) or via vibrating bones (bone) conduction. Ear plugs (any kind) can only block out about 30 dB of noise, even if your ears were filled with cement, because above 30 dB of sound, we begin to see trasnmission via bone conduction, esp. low fq sounds (rumbles as in the car or from machines or wiring)Second: sounds and signals pass directly

into the cochlea where small fiber topped cells are stimulated which send electrical impulses along a nerve, right into the brainstem area (back of your head, above your neck). Both ears catch slightly different signals, in timing and pitch, and when combined in the brainstem area, tell us complex data such as where the sound is coming from.....signals are mixed up, organized, combined, and sent upwards toward the middle brain.Third: in the oldest part of the brain, which sits in or on top of the brainstem area, many important survival function for the body are located: heart beat, breathing, digestion, appetite, waking, sleeping, sex drive, autonomous functions that we are not aware of like hormone regulation, and much more. In this oldest part of our brain, we also find the infamous fight-flight responder, it is so deep, so instinctive, we do not cognate on it, we do not make an inventory and

decide to do such and such, we simple react! This last sentence can really help us understand WHY we have such visceral quick responses to particular stimuli, it is really tied into our basic desire and need to survive, you can tie it or imagine it into the need to be so quick when the baby cried because something was about to eat her! Or us! Or in these days, car honks and we scramble!In individuals who suffer from Selective Sound Sensitivity, this lower portion of our neural anatomy is very active and very much on red alert for particular sounds, and the reactions are so strong and often unexplainable or unsupportable using logic, nonetheless, they happen BEFORE thought clicks in, much of the time.This is where I begin to use some aspect of cognition to force a tiny sliver of a doorstop between the signal and the reaction....why some weeks ago I begin to ask about, is there a gap? Is there a tiny

sliver of second PRIOR to the reactive phase of the syndrome? Can we insert, in adults, a thinking moment, a mantra, a thread, a point of light................to begin break that glued together sequence of signal-reaction...........and then, I realized sound therapy could also help widen those two polar points in this syndrome.Ok. I think I will copy this and make a file out of it, so I can refer to it.Thank you for joining my site. I read the posts and hope that we make sense, together.Marsha , M.S., CCC-A, FAAADirector Oregon Tinnitus & Hyperacusis Treatment Clinic

December 16, 2005

>> In individuals who suffer from Selective Sound Sensitivity, this

> lower portion of our neural anatomy is very active and very much

on

> red alert for particular sounds, and the reactions are so strong

and

> often unexplainable or unsupportable using logic, nonetheless,

they

> happen BEFORE thought clicks in, much of the time.

>

Marsha,

Thank you so much for this explanation. So why is it that the exact

same noises bother nearly all of us? Something in our evolution

about always being on the alert for the presence of another living

person who we didn't want to have around?

> This is where I begin to use some aspect of cognition to force a

tiny

> sliver of a doorstop between the signal and the reaction....why

some

> weeks ago I begin to ask about, is there a gap? Is there a tiny

> sliver of second PRIOR to the reactive phase of the syndrome? Can

we

> insert, in adults, a thinking moment, a mantra, a thread, a point

of

> light................to begin break that glued together sequence

of

> signal-reaction...........and then, I realized sound therapy could

> also help widen those two polar points in this syndrome.

>

How far have you been able to take this?

Jess

December 16, 2005

> Marsha,

>

> Thank you so much for this explanation. So why is it that the exact

> same noises bother nearly all of us? Something in our evolution

> about always being on the alert for the presence of another living

> person who we didn't want to have around?>

-----I have a feeling that this particular over-activation of the

primitive part of the brain IS tied into particular sounds and there

may be a very logical reason as to why the sounds of mouth noises drive

so many people out of themselves: I wonder about the many implications

of the process of ingestion and the many ancient fears about being

eaten by animals or predators, but of course it is not just those

sounds, they occupy the middle of the bell curve. There is something

about those sounds, though, that not only 'bothers' my patients,

it 'sickens' them. In a very strong physiologic sense, many patients

complain of nausea or revulsion, an abdonminal reaction, a very deep

viscerally based reaction as well as the unbearable visual images that

arise from these exposures or anticipated exposures.

Like the woman who wrote about watching with horror as a tongue moves

around a mouth, dislodging food (how many of you reacted just now? come

on, tell me!)

How far have you been able to take this?

>

> Jess

>

Pretty far. I have already over 100 patients in treatment with sound

devices and they are doing well as a group, not cured, never cured, I

would say, but buffered, protected, counseled, supported, better not

worse.

I would imagine that at some point I would like to do a combined

pharmaceutical/sound therapy program with some willing adults to see if

we can find an even better solution to calm down the brain chemistry of

the targeted cortical areas.

Big ideas, small time!

Thank you for asking, Jess.

None of you are alone, or strange, or shamed, this is indeed a small

unusual case of sound sensitivity that needs to have the light of

compassion and knowledge shed on it.

Warmly,

Marsha , M.S., CCC-A, FAAA

Clinical Audiologist and Sound Sleuth

: )

December 16, 2005