MY HEALTH EXPERIENCE:You lose your ability to tolerate variance in volume
I MOVED FROM Dublin to London in 2004, but I found it difficult adjusting to life in a new city, probably because at the same time as the move my ear problems were at their worst. My hyperacusis problem began for me before I moved. It’s a condition that makes you lose your ability to tolerate even fairly minor variances in volume. I started to notice it when I was watching certain television programmes, or when I was close to certain high pitch sounds such as an espresso machine, or car brakes or plates slapping together.
Like all musicians, I worried occasionally that I overdid it, noise-wise, and to be honest I had been exposing myself to loud noises, which is, as I later discovered, one of the causes of hyperacusis. I’d also not been using proper ear protection.
The thing about hyperacusis is that once you start experiencing it, there is a curious psychological aspect that takes over in that you develop a fear or paranoia of sound. This makes it worse, because you’re actively avoiding the sound that will cause you discomfort. So if I got on a train, I would go as far as I could away from a loudspeaker. It got to the point where I started wearing earplugs in everyday situations, although I subsequently found that was the worst thing you could do.
When I was still living in Ireland I went to a GP. I was told I had a small perforation in my eardrum, and I was put on antibiotics. After that course finished I went back and was told that the perforation had gone and that everything was fine, yet the problem still persisted. I went back to the GP, and I tried various things but they weren’t getting me anywhere.
Eventually, I was referred to a consultant, who gave me a lot of hearing tests and subsequently told me my hearing was fine. At this point, I thought I was going mad, because I still had the problem – I’d been to my GP countless times, and I went to the consultant again, who gave me more hearing tests. The problem wasn’t that I couldn’t hear, though, it was that I was hearing everything too loudly.
Shortly after this I moved to London, went to a GP there and was referred to a NHS consultant, but there was a bit of a wait to see this person, so I went private. This particular consultant prescribed a very strong anti-anxiety drug, but I decided not to take it, and eventually the NHS appointment came around. That was when things started to get better; they diagnosed the problem, they told me the practical things to do – like not wearing earplugs in everyday situations – and sent me on a hearing therapy course. I was initially sceptical of this, but it was more about reassurance. I was told that hyperacusis was treatable, that my ears weren’t permanently damaged.
I had a couple of sessions and very soon my hearing started getting better. I can’t say I really understand the science of it, but it seems that once you have hyperacusis a large amount of how badly you experience it, and how long it lasts, is down to your approach, and how much you react to it. I had developed quite a phobia about it, but at the same time it was very real physical pain, and not at all imagined.
Now I’m more or less fine. I still feel a bit nervous about loud sound, so I’d never do things like be at a rehearsal where there is a drum kit without wearing proper musicians’ earplugs. I’m also more conscious of the power of sound and the damage it can do.
Compared to hyperacusis, my synaesthesia condition is more fun. Since I was a kid I had always associated days of the week or numbers or letters or certain songs with particular colours or personalities. I would think that Wednesday was yellow, Friday was dark green, Saturday and Sunday were white. I would think certain numbers were either male or female, and if you wanted me to tell you about their personalities I could. I had never thought anything of this, but one day in or around 2005 my girlfriend was reading an article about synaesthesia, saying how weird it was, and I just asked her doesn’t everyone have that?
Are there any drawbacks? As a songwriter I enjoy making my songs sound colourful, if that doesn’t seem too fanciful. I would tend to throw too much into a track, in terms of instrumentation. It’s a temptation, and if I didn’t have synaesthesia I reckon my music would, in a weird way, sound bigger. There’s a strange thing that goes on with music – I have found when producing music that the more instruments you leave out, the bigger the music can be. Was I diagnosed with synaes-thesia? No, I had always reckoned it was normal, which for me it is.
HYPERACUSIS AND SYNAESTHESIA EXPLAINED
Hyperacusis is defined as an inability to tolerate everyday sounds. Often, the most disturbing or painful sounds can be abrupt high-pitched noises such as alarms, screeching brakes and children's screams. Sometimes, hyperacusis can be so severe that people begin to avoid any public or social setting in an attempt to protect their ears from any sounds.
Although severe hyperacusis is rare, a lesser form of hyperacusis affects musicians, making it difficult for them to play in the loud environment of a band or orchestra. The reasons may be genetic, the result of stress and ill health, or by abnormal response in the tensor tympani and stapedius muscles, which function in the normal acoustic reflex response that protects the inner ear from loud sounds.
Synaesthesia occurs when two or more of the five senses that are normally experienced separately are involuntarily and automatically joined together. Some synaesthetes (as they are called) experience colours when they hear or read words; others may experience tastes, smells, shapes or touches in almost any combination.
People are generally born with it and research has shown that it is hereditary. Synaesthesia is not considered to be harmful in any way – indeed, the vast majority of synaesthetes could not imagine life any other way.
Lady Gasoline
, by Chris Singleton and the Distractions, was released last month. See chrissingletonmusic.com
In conversation with
Tony Clayton-Lea
