How this works

Why this exists

Hyperacusis and noxacusis are under-recognised. People living with sound sensitivity are often invisible to doctors, researchers, the media and even to each other. This project exists to make the scale of the problem visible — through real, anonymous data.

What we collect

Each submission includes: country (no city or address), age range, gender, when symptoms started (month and year), condition type, severity, suspected cause, whether onset was sudden or gradual, daily life impact (work or study, homebound status, social life), whether ear protection is needed and in which contexts, symptoms, setback duration, doctors seen, treatments tried, and an optional anonymous story. We never collect names, emails, IP addresses or any other identifying information.

Following up over time

When you submit, you receive a private 6-character code. You can return any time and use it to log how your hyperacusis is doing — better, worse, or unchanged. The code is the only link between your submissions; we never know who you are. This is what makes the recovery and progression charts possible.

What it is — and isn't

• Anonymous and self-reported.
• Aggregated before being shown publicly.
• Not a medical diagnosis.
• Not a proof of exact worldwide prevalence — but a growing window into it.
• A living dataset — it grows and updates as more people contribute.

For clinicians

Doctors, audiologists and researchers can submit anonymised case data on behalf of patients. There is a checkbox in the submission form for this. If you'd like to collaborate on research, please get in touch.