[Red Lion]

Indeed, find out what's wrong with us.

Even loud, grindy music makes me feel a little sick if it's really shrill.

[uncledaddy]

Certain sounds and tones will upset me, like the loud, sort of high voice people tend to talk in...

[Red Lion]

Roo, it's always a disoriented and nauseous feeling. Like it throws me physically off balance to hear something that's too loud or too screechy. Always the high pitched sounds similar to alarms and grinding metal. Occasionally it might be a person speaking if they have a higher pitched voice and they're talking into a microphone and there's that residual echo type thing going on or the sound seems to linger. Loud cat noises to a smaller degree make me feel slightly like my ears are ringing.

[uncledaddy]

I don't have that problem. It's things that are less screechy. Like, I can't be around my family talking for long because they have just the right sound and volume to bug me. And the sounds of people eating or whatever, or a group of people clapping somewhat softly.. I can't stand it.

[Red Lion]

Those things don't do more than annoy me, the eating only bothers me if it's the only sound in the room and your family members are loud and have high voices so they are borderline puke inducing but not carried on for long or consistently enough to really affect me.

I also sometimes have that same nauseous/disoriented feeling with music that is really repetitious if it carries on to long. It's something that I have to watch out for when I listen to techno and electronic music, which I generally like but will make me start to feel kind of like I have vertigo if it goes on for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time. I don't know if it's just sensitivity to certain frequencies or what but I notice after I listen to a band like Terminal Choice or E-Nomine sometimes my ears will ring and if I listen to their longer stuff or back to back songs I'll feel dizzy.

[uncledaddy]

You are definitely weird. o_o

Those lightly poppy/smacky sounds make me angry and enough of it will make me kind of ill. Not dizzy or nauseous, but more like my insides are scrunching up and I feel anxious.

[Red Lion]

It's definitely a physical response for me and not an emotional one, how much I like the music has no influence whatsoever it's just that anything on the grind/screech-ish sound level makes my ears ring and my head hurt, it's almost exactly the same as my reaction to heights, that feeling of being really off balance. I can be enjoying the music and then suddenly just feel like my whole biorhythm has been knocked out of sync. With really screechy grindy songs the effect is instantaneous.

I don't know if that's so weird, I don't like those sounds much either, they don't make me angry or upset but they will get on my nerves. At worst I find those things mildy annoying to intolerable depending on the situation and how I'm feeling that day, I think my least favorite annoyance noise is when someone makes that sound where they make a "Pop" by sucking their lips in and releasing them. Once or twice won't bother me but repeating the noise consistently is just obnoxious enough that I want to yell at the person to knock it off before I come over there and smack them.

[uncledaddy]

But it's not even like "annoying". It is a physical thing in a way, but with a weird tie to emotional/mental response. The wikipedia thing covered it pretty exactly, I think...

o no I like making that noise.

[Red Lion]

And when you do it while I'm trying to concentrate on something I want to punch you.

It's my "AAAAAAAHHHH," drinking noise equivalent.

Is it this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misophonia

If so then that is not what I have, I have something else that has no connection to an emotional/mental response things that bother me don't make me feel sick and vice versa. I think it might be something wrong with my inner ear.

[uncledaddy]

Pfft.

And yes, that describes it pretty well, I think.

[Red Lion]

Vestibular hyperacusis is a mix-up between the brain and the sense of hearing. Instead of perceiving sounds as too loud or too high, the brain perceives them as movement sensations. A high note from a singer might trigger a feeling of falling, spinning, or floating (When halfway to sleeping many people have vestibular hyperacousis, when suddenly roused they feel as if they are falling). It is different from cochlear hyperacusis in that many people with vestibular hyperacusis can handle normal sounds just fine, but certain pitches and sounds that have higher than 85 decibels may trigger these sensations. People who have vestibular hyperacusis rarely have tinnitus co-morbidly, while as many as 86% of all CH sufferers have tinnitus.

That's more like what I have.

[uncledaddy]

Indeeed. Off to the doctor we go..

[Red Lion]

....although if that is my problem, which I suspect is the case.

Because little is known about vestibular hyperacusis, there are few if any effective treatments available. Magnesium supplements have been reported to help in laboratory mice because they calm the nervous system, but most therapies that specifically target VH involve vestibular therapy, as with any vestibular disorder. An occupational therapist usually performs this type of therapy.

[uncledaddy]

Well, still better than nothing.

[Red Lion]

symptoms of vestibular hyperacusis are generally linked to balance and feelings of moving. Someone suffering from vestibular hyperacusis may feel dizzy, sick to their stomach, or confused when in the presence of loud noises. Fatigue, anxiety, confusion, and even loss of consciousness are also common. Headaches, feelings of pressure in the ear or clutching for something to hold onto in a noisy environment is not unusual.

Those are my symptoms to the letter.

And I don't know if it's bad enough that I'd want to pay to get it treated.

[uncledaddy]

Yech. >:s How pleasant.