It is common to feel pain when exposed to certain sounds if you have hyperacusis. Hyperacusis is a term that is used to describe intolerance to certain everyday sounds that causes significant distress and impairment in social, occupational, recreational, and other day-to-day activities. The sounds may be perceived as uncomfortably loud, unpleasant, frightening, or painful. Hyperacusis usually affects both ears but my recent research which was published in the International Journal of Audiology shown that about 13% of patients may experience hyperacusis in only one ear (unilateral). See the summary of my research on unilateral hyperacusis here: https://tinnitustherapy.org.uk/unilateral-hyperacusis/ On average in patients who receive hyperacusis-focused cognitive therapy, the impact of hyperacusis on their life is significantly reduced from 50% to 30%. Once the impact of hyperacusis on patients life is minimised, the improvement in the actual sensitivity to sound will follow. For details of the research on hyperacusis-focused cognitive therapy see my recent paper via https://www.dovepress.com/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-for-alleviating-the-distress-caused-by-ti-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-PRBM.
